Re: "Right to Link" In the News

At first glance...

On Tue, 10 Sep 2013 11:53:23 +0400, Appelquist Daniel (UK)  
<Daniel.Appelquist@telefonica.com> wrote:

> Related to the TAG's work on publishing and linking on the Web, I read  
> the following with some alarm in this morning's paper:
>
> http://nyti.ms/17Qdf8H
>
> #RightToLink is trending on Twitter in relation to this.

TwitterStorms and a newspaper article are interesting indicators of what  
people might talk about in the pub tonight, or around the coffee machine.

Aside: As I interpret the legal issues (from a sketchy account in an  
article with an apparent goal of offering some defense and comfort to a Mr  
Brown - I have done no further research) the charge isn't that he linked  
to something, but that he spread information in an act that amounted to  
identify theft on a grand scale. The prosecution argument *seems* to be  
that each of the people whose data was compromised could be considered to  
have their identity "misappropriated, with an intent to unlawfully profit  
at their expense". Whatever the facts of the case, it doesn't *seem* to  
turn on linking since if he printed the things on paper and made them  
available the same argument would apply.

To return to your direct topic:

> Wendy – the TAG made an attempt to tackle this space in order to provide
> fodder for a "friend of the court" document for cases such as this. The
> result was the following:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/publishing-linking/
>
> …which unfortunately did not go far enough (in my view) in articulating a
> connection between linking and freedom of expression.

There is a nexus here between freedom of expression, copyright, the moral  
right of an author to maintain the integrity of their work, the fair use  
rights that enable society (in the form of various types of individual) to  
benefit as the quid pro quo of granting copyright protection.

> In this case reported in the NY Times, considering the "chilling effect"
> of the legal restriction of linking, does it make sense for W3C to weigh
> in,

If I am vaguely on target that the issue in this case isn't linking but  
spreading credit card data, then I don't think W3C has a place weighing in  
- how societies treat such behaviour seems more a matter for each one to  
determine rather than a technical issue for W3C.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathie Nevile - Consultant (web standards) CTO Office, Yandex
       chaals@yandex-team.ru         Find more at http://yandex.com

Received on Tuesday, 10 September 2013 08:35:02 UTC