In article <9474gd$4ar$1@inn.qnx.com>,
Bill at Sierra Design <BC@SierraDesign.com> wrote:
This ought to generate some interesting discussion.
I would like to reference copy righted material in a web page. I.E. To
place a link in my web page to someone else’s web page that is copy righted.
Is that considered an infringement of copy right?
What if I want to include the copy righted page in a frame on my page so the
user does not even have to click on it. Is that an infringement of copy
right.
IANAL
Believe it or not, that is being decided in the courts right now. In most
cases, one would consider it to be reasonable (i.e. lawful/non-infringing),
but issues arise depending on the context. After all the Web is all
about hyper-linking.
Example: Let’s assume that I wanted to show the world exactly where my
office is. I could find it with MapQuest or some other internet mapping
page and print the URL in my page. Then the person could actually see not
just where I am but also how to get to my office.
This is commonly done and wouldn’t infringe.
In my opinion if it’s put on the web it’s almost fair game. But of course
I’m no lawyer. I’m not going to clain that this is my property, and I’m not
looking to sell it. I’m only providing the reference for a convienence.
That’s the attitude that causes problems. If it’s copyrighted, it’s
copyrighted. All rights are reserved to the author.
The normal issues that have arisen are those of “deep linking” and “framing”.
They have come up in several cases to date, including a well publicised one
between MSN and Ticketmaster and – believe it or not – a law firm
specializing in intellectual property law.
With deep linking, someone posts a link to a page well inside an information
site that bypasses advertising or promotional material that the
copyright holder wants you to see. That was the first issue with
Ticketmaster.
With framing, an information providing site has its own frames presenting
its topics, advertising, etc. and provides links to another site, which,
if selected, present the new page inside the content frame – which
is framed by the original site’s material. Dot-coms are particularly
offended by deep links to their site that are framed. The issue here
is whether the “framing” creates a derivative work of the copyrighted
material without the consent of the copyright holder.
In short, stay away from offensive deep linking or from framing and you
generally won’t infringe. Of the two, the courts are probably more
likely to consider framing to be infringement.
Sorry you asked? 
Steve Furr email: furr@qnx.com
QNX Software Systems, Ltd.