Re: pop-ups: blame the criminal not the weapon

> given that if someone clicks on a 'listen' radio link, they expect 
> radio to play.
> the possible options are:in a frame, a pop-up, pop-under or an option 
> to open in a new window

I expect the radio to play as sound, not in a visual concept, like a
window.   As it is a separate channel of information, for primarily
sighted users, that seems perfectly reasonable behaviour to me.  You
have to resolve the problem of interaction with embed type elements
in any case other than the same window synchronous case, which you
omitted, presumably because the radio channel was for background
noise, not the primary content.

I'd therefore say the correct answer is "none of the above".

> Frames are not great because they impinge on the rights of the 
> originating station(unless...).

In many cases, the only options that wouldn't be considered (regardless
of the true legal position) and infringement, when using internet 
radio channels would be a link to the home page opened synchronously,
or in a window, at least as large as the original, and on top of it.

In a lot of cases, linking to the audio channel without the
immediately containing HTML page, would be considered a serious
infringement.

These are consequences of the audio being a vehicle to attract people
to the visual media carrying advertising content.

I would suggest that in almost every case, you ought to negotiate
specific permissions to link to audio content.  That permission might
be conditional on steps being taken to make your site unattractive to
people with spending power (somewhat like talking books for the blind use
a non-standard tape format).

The original web philosophy would have been that audio content was as
much a primary resource as HTML content and therefore a legitimate target
for a link from anywhere (provided there was no misrepresentation, but
commercialisation means that most audio content is only intended to be
accessed in the context of a particular site.

(There are some interesting questions about digital rights management,
privacy, access control, etc.,  lurking here.)

Received on Monday, 3 March 2003 02:56:01 UTC