Re: US court-case resolved against "Right to link"

On 1/23/15 6:31 AM, Harry Halpin wrote:
>> There are many aspects of a "right to link". People in human rights often say "your right to swing your fists around ends at my nose" - but in fact it ends somewhere in the murky area before it gets there, typically (legal systems vary greatly and both explicitly provide and effectively permit all kinds of exceptions) about the point where "a reasonable person would be afraid you're going to hit them".
>> >
>> >All of which is to say, the sort of careful analysis that the TAG does for technical issues is necessary when responding to questions of law, too - although there are lots of differences in the details, the approaches used, and the methods for acting on the results…
> In particular, I think the right to link should be defended
> *regardless*  of the content linked to, even if the content would by
> itself be deemed illegal, since definitions of illegality vary across
> borders quite considerably and change over time. Having the technical
> architecture of the Web dependent on these often ill-conceived laws
> seems backwards, as it may be better to have the technical community
> explain to lawmakers why these laws should be reformed to match the
> existing web architecture.
>

Harry,

Yes! In regards to "Having the technical architecture of the Web 
dependent on these often ill-conceived laws seems backwards, as it may 
be better to have the technical community explain to lawmakers why these 
laws should be reformed to match the existing web architecture. "

How is the right-to-link any different from the everyday right-to-mention ?

The global mechanism for mentioning is a name. On the Web, hyperlinks 
(in the form of HTTP URIs) are names.

Names Identify, and the act of identification includes interpretation 
(manifests as resolution to content on the Web).

-- 
Regards,

Kingsley Idehen 
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
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