Just link it?

A hyperlink is a citation to someone else's intellectual property; therefore, linking should protect the source's integrity and make its identity clear.

By Melissa Thibault

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Related pages

• Saying "yes" instead of "no": Fair Use Guidelines make room for students and teachers to use copyrighted material in multimedia presentations.
• Fair use: Fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and "transformative" purpose such as commentary, criticism, or parody. "Fair" uses do not require permission from the copyright owner. This article explains fair use, particularly with respect to education.
• Copyright for educators: Copyright form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This article explains copyright and U.S. copyright law primarily with respect to education.

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• Learn more about copyright, education technology, fair use, and law.

Legal

Like any new medium, the Internet offers vast new opportunities — and new concerns about copyright. The World Wide Web provides information professionals with wonderful opportunities to access information from a wide variety of sources in a quick and inexpensive way, using hyperlinks.

Given the avalanche of information students may encounter in a simple Web search, the ability to define and direct them to "good" information sources is more necessary than ever, and hyperlinks make this far easier than traditional bibliographical references. But with this easy access comes increased responsibility to respect the intellectual property being linked to. The material must always be made available in a way that clearly indicates ownership, and the intent of the author must also be clear. Following a few simple guidelines to hypertext linking will ensure that the ownership and character of the material is not compromised.

As a general rule, the Web follows a doctrine of implied public access. Benedict O’Mahoney, a lawyer and the author of The Copyright Website, writes that "the Web was created on the basis of being able to attach hypertext links to any other location on the Web. Consequently, by putting yourself on the Web, you have given implied permission to others to link to your Web page, and everyone else on the Web is deemed to have given you implied permission to link to their Web pages." You can request that someone remove a link to your material, but this is a matter of "netiquette," not law. "Netiquette dictates that: Links to other Websites be removed if the linkee objects."

The American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy agrees, arguing that "in the vast majority of situations, linking is an activity that can be seen as protected under the First Amendment." Linking students to credible information is an essential role for an educator, and remains central to the school environment in this electronic information age. Using hypertext links, then, is just another way to facilitate access to resources — not fundamentally different from a Dewey Decimal or ISBN number.

Of course, there are exceptions. Opening another site in a frame — with your own banner or navigation still visible — can confuse Internet users. Although this practice is commonly used in Web design to prevent users from leaving a site, it also prevents users from easily seeing the URL of the linked page and therefore puts into question the ownership of the material. Links should open directly to the linked site, not within frames.

If you are concerned that users will have difficulty returning to your site, you may use a transition page stating, (for example) "You are now leaving the site, and to return, you may use the browser’s ‘back’ button." You may also use open links in a new browser window. This requires greater knowledge of HTML and JavaScript than a simple link. It may also cause some confusion if a user does not realize that a new browser window has opened, and suddenly the "back" button doesn’t seem to work!

Another questionable practice is "deep linking," the process in which a specific page or subsection of a Web site is linked to directly. Deep linking may confuse ownership in cases where the source of the information is not clear on every page of a Web site. In addition, deep linking may violate copyright by taking a piece of work out of context. The author may have a greater purpose or narrative that is not apparent unless the link is to the main page.

An excellent summary of these issues is provided in "Copyright Law in the Electronic Environment" by Georgia Harper. In particular, see the section titled "Incorporating Others’ Works into New Works;" the author argues that the "general consensus is that while links are not an infringement of copyright, ‘inlining’ others’ works is." Again, clear and definite ownership of the material must be indicated, and the use of frames or other methods that may distort that ownership are discouraged.

So linking is fine, provided you don’t appear to take ownership of the material you’re linking to. This is really just an extension of what you already do when you use the library or write a research paper: You can’t borrow, adapt, or reprint someone else’s material without their permission, but you can always tell other people where to find it. A hypertext link is really a kind of citation, and you can be safe and responsible by thinking of links just as you would any other kind of citation, making sure your reader knows where the material came from and who created it.