Assessing Linking Liability

The NY Times has a Story
on the latest linking lawsuits making their way through the
courts here in the US.

\”

According to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District, in Manhattan, a link can be
bad or good. It mainly turns on whether the linker\’s intent
is laudable or not.\”

The NY Times has a Story
on the latest linking lawsuits making their way through the
courts here in the US.

\”

According to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District, in Manhattan, a link can be
bad or good. It mainly turns on whether the linker\’s intent
is laudable or not.\”
More from The Times

Mark Lemley, an intellectual
property expert who teaches at the University of California
at Berkeley\’s law school, said another problem with Judge
Kaplan\’s legal standard on linking is that it is intrusive.
It subjects \”a whole bunch of people to potential liability
and inquiries about why they did this thing,\” he said. He
added that the ruling will encourage intellectual property
owners to file more cases against linkers and issue \”cease
and desist\” letters demanding that links be removed.

Other experts, however, applauded Judge Kaplan\’s linking
analysis. Bruce Keller, a New York lawyer who specializes in
intellectual property law and who has represented The New
York Times in legal disputes, said that Judge Kaplan \”did
what he could to create a workable safety valve.\”

\”If you are a First Amendment purist it may leave you a
little uncomfortable but the First Amendment does not
condone clear violations of intellectual property rights,\”
he said.