My deep link run-in with the L.A. Times
How Deep Linking Can Sink You 10/18/02
Bret Fausett provides detailed commentary regarding deep linking in relation to the Dallas Morning News web site's attempt to restrict linking to its homepage via its terms of service. Their legal theory is that a contract of adhesion is created when you enter their site regardless of whether you read their Terms of Service, a link to which appears on their homepage. In the end, however, Mr. Fausett does not render an opinion on whether any Federal Courts will enforce such "click-read" agreements, as he calls them, and in fact indicates that he has uncovered no "deep-link" case law regarding this issue.
I have twice before discussed such agreements here and here and have indicated that federal courts in California, Louisiana and most recently New York have not enforced "browse-read" agreements (you haven't actually clicked anything in the deep link scenario to enforce the Terms of Service), but have in the past only enforced "click-wrap" agreements, as the author also contends. By only looking at the issue in the context of deep linking and not analogizing it to the recent click-wrap cases, the author has failed to uncover the most important aspect of the material that he has presented us.
Newspaper Stifles Deep Links to Articles 11/11/02
After an extended absence from the office I have just retrieved a voice mail from the Los Angeles Times requesting that I remove the link Denise Howell, of Bag and Baggage, takes a look at the Latimes.com's terms of service here. Deep Links v. Clickwrap, Continued 11/13/02
Just to clarify. It is correct, as one anonymous poster has pointed out that if I had linked to the article on the Los Angeles Times site that I would have entered into a click-wrap agreement and been bound by their terms of service, which is limited to Latimes.com. However, the article that I linked to used to be located here on Sunspot.com, the online home of the Baltimore Sun. Sunspot.com did not require me to register or submit to any such terms of service, as Denise has also correctly stated, and therefore the L.A. Times should not be able to prevent me from linking to an article on that web site.
The beneficiary of all this discussion, ultimately, I believe, will be the Los Angeles Times, who in the end will have an iron clad, deep link proof website equipped with a fully enforceable click-wrapped for the holidays terms of service agreement.
321 studios, the makers of DVD Copy Plus, who were originally the focus of this story, have now set up a petition to lobby Congress to enact H.R. 5544, the "Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2002," and H.R. 5522, the "Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002."
Update: Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act 5/10/04
A Congressional Hearing for H.R. 107, the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA), has been set for Wednesday, May 12, at 10:00 AM Eastern. ... [via]
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