Issues from the Emergence of the World Wide Web
Issues from the emergence of the World Wide Web
The emergence of the World Wide Web as a medium has posed a number of issues that challenge our traditional interpretations of copyrights. The digital technology of the World Wide Web makes copying original materials extremely simple and convenient for all users. Whenever you inspect a page your browser downloads the files that make up that page. Downloading constitutes copying materials since digital replicas of the text, images, etc. must be transmitted over a network to your computer in order to be viewed. These copies, however, are transient--the legal term is "ephemeral," meaning that they exist only temporarily. Even so, it is very easy to save these items in a more permanent state for other uses. That’s where the notion of intellectual property rights comes in…
As you have probably noticed, a number of web pages contain external links to other pages. These links provide access to pages not stored on the referring page's local server. And, different authors usually create these linked pages. Is this legal? Do we have to gain the permission of the author to use external links on our own web pages? Such uses are generally permissible due to the principle of implied public access. The fact that an author posts his or her pages on a publicly accessible server means that anyone is free to view it. Consequently, in most cases, we can legally create links to publicly accessible pages since it does nothing more than notify readers of its whereabouts.
Authors may limit access to their own pages using various means. Pages may be protected so that only authorized users have access. However, extreme measures like these do not have to be taken. An author can either expressly prohibit links to his or her pages or object to those who have created such links. In these instances, posting external links on your own web pages would probably constitute improper use. For this reason, the safest policy is to notify or seek consent from authors when you create external links to their pages.
Unfortunately, law and legal precedent are not clear cut on all of these matters. The current laws have evolved from older technologies and could hardly be expected to anticipate the realities of future ones. The digital technology of the World Wide Web severely challenges the rules of the game for the simple reason that it...