The legalities of linking?

[Sliight]

The theme behind my website, and why I expect people to use it is for helpful information. A portion of which will be information from other sites, or direct links.

I'd like to know if anyone knows how the legalities work for each of these questions.

1. Can I post a link to a website page from a site other than my own. Example. "how to survive the worst pc disasters" -> Links to PC world site. (I will be asking for permission from everyone I can, however some may take eons, or just not respond)

2. Can I take the content, and place it within my page. I would make references to all sites I gained content from. If the article was good enough and didn't leave anything out, I'd go verbatim. I do however expect to try and create my own articles using information from multiple sources.

3. I have a "usefull links" and plan to have a "fun stuff" page. These will all be direct links to the site, opening a new page. I will of course request permission to link, but if I don't get it...

I realize this isn't exactly coding stuff, but it does have to do with websites. I appreciate any feedback anyone has, or if you can direct me to a site which may explain this better?

Thank you!

[djr33]

Somewhat complex.

1. You can link to anything you want, unless it is illegal, etc., in which case it is a gray area. Still, it's not exactly illegal to link to something unless it is your own content and you control that. Generally, it's acceptable to link to a page that links to illegal content. ....or something like that.
This becomes an issue when you have something like a forum and people start posting links to copyrighted downloads such as music.

No one will be able to sue you for linking to their page.

2. Taking content and using it is a different story, though. If you have permission, you could even sell their content. But if you don't, you can't even use it on your site. Quoting a reasonable (small) amount to show what something is would probably be ok, but it would need to be a description of what it is, not any content on your page. If the quote interests someone and they go to the next page, that's probably ok. But if it is enough by itself and they don't go to the next page, then you just stole content.

3. Again, you can link to whatever you want. People will almost always appreciate this.
The only exception would be if you were to describe them in a bad way ("here's an example of a terrible site"), or if your site is offensive/illegal/etc, in which case they might not like that.


If you are just linking to a page, that's fine. "Here's a good search engine-- use google." would be fine.
However, if you try to make it seem as if it is your own content, that's not ok. This would be true with iframes. If you created your own searching site and displayed the content of google results in an iframe, then that would be abusing their site.

I hope this helps.

If you have more specific questions, we might be able to give a more specific answer. Copyright is very strange and vague.

[Sliight]

That definitely helps. It gives me a good direction on what I need to do. Nearly all of the information I plan to post within a page I am already familiar with. I will just use websites to give me extra ideas on what people may be interested in, then do my best to develop my best original description on how to remedy the issue.

Knowing I can link to sites without much issue is good too... I'll likely e-mail them and request permission anyways whenever I can.

I appreciate the help, thank you.

[chechu]

I'd just place all the links you want. If they open in a new window, don't even ask permission.
If you copy content from another site, just refere to them, as in "source: The Journal". That's what I'd do. Everyone knows that whatever you place on the internet can be copied or linked to, so...

[djr33]

But actually copying content is wrong. There must be some limits. It can be copied, but you can pursue someone legally if they do copy and use your content.

If you're going to use content from another site as your own (even with citing, as that won't be especially noticable) you should definitely ask permission.

[jscheuer1]

The main consideration when using other's content is:

Are you creating a harm to them by doing so?

If you are, you open yourself to civil and criminal prosecution.

However, it really just isn't all that great of an idea to copy other's work. If you have no original material, why bother?

Creating a repository of links to useful information that pertains to a topic or topics is another thing. That is actually a creative act in itself. Generally no one will mind if you link to them for this purpose, and if they do, they most likely will just send you a note asking that the link be removed. So, make sure that there is an easy way for folks to contact you if they wish that their link be removed, and have a notice stating that you welcome such contact if someone wants a link to their site removed.

[Veronica]

A caution if you do link deep within a website (ie to other than the home page) is that url's can and often do change. So make sure your links are current.

Also, many sites have content that anyone can access for only the first week after posted, and then the page becomes part of an archive for which you need a subscription. So keep checking on that too.