A
temporary restraining order stopped the Tanners from displaying parts of the Church
Handbook of Instructions on their website. Soon after the ruling they posted
e-mails on their Website that tell visitors where to find copies of the book
online. They didn’t link to these sites, but merely provided the URL.
International Reserve Inc., the corporation that holds the copyrights in the
book, successfully asked a court to expand the restraining order. In view of the
court the URL posting amounted to contributory copyright infringement. The case was finally
settled.
December
23, 1999: Fulton, Ben, LDS
Copyright Battle Storms Web, Salt Lake City Weekly: "First it was a religious dispute. Then it was a copyright dispute. Now, say some Internet experts, it could change the way people link from one site to another on the Web."
December
14, 1999: Lawson, Stephen, Copyright
ruling targets Web links, CNN: "A ruling this week by a federal court in Utah could represent a body blow to a key feature of the Web: linking users of one site to information on
others."
December
10, 1999: Kaplan, Carl, Copyright
Decision Threatens Freedom to Link, New York Times: "In a ruling that could undermine the freedom to create links on the Web, a federal judge in Utah has temporarily barred two critics of the Mormon Church from posting on their Web site the Internet addresses of other sites featuring pirated copies of a Mormon text."
December
10, 1999: Reaves, Jessica, Better
Be Careful Whose Links You Click..., Times.com: "A Utah judge says Internet links to copyrighted material may be a legal no-no. What happened to the free-for-all Web?"
Creating a link to another
website which offers illegal software for download, can lead to prosecution for
complicity. A Munich court ruled that the online news service Heise may publish
an article explaining anti-circumvention technology, but it may not include a
link in that article to a Web site where users may download the software.
Although no direct link was provided to download the software, the music record
industry took Heise to court with allegations of complicity for copyright
infringement and won. The court did not agree with Heise's argumentation that
their articles and the hyperlink were protected by laws for the freedom of the
press. According to the court Heise intentionally provided "assistance in the
fulfillment of unlawful acts" and is therefore liable as "an aider and abettor".
The court also did not find it relevant that readers were also able to find the
product via a search engine. Rather, it ruled that providing a link made finding
the software "much easier".
April 11, 2004: Libbenga,
Jan,
Heise ordered to remove link to Slysoft.com, The Register:
"A Munich court has ruled that German news site Heise Online was wrong to
publish a link to Slysoft.com, a company that advertises software that can
play, copy and rip protected audio CDs."
Heidrich, Jörg,
Verlinken
verboten, c't:
"Dürfen Presseorgane auch nach der Reform des Urheberrechts weiter über eine
Software berichten, die den Kopierschutz von CDs und DVDs überwindet?"
April 5, 2005,
Urteil in Sachen Musikindustrie gegen heise online, Heise:
"In dem Rechtsstreit (Az. 21 O 3220/05) von acht Unternehmen der
Musikindustrie gegen den Heise Zeitschriften Verlag liegt seit heute das
schriftliche Urteil des Landgerichts München I vor."
March 7, 2005:
Münchner Landgericht verbietet Link auf Kopiersoftware-Hersteller,
Heise:
"Einen wichtigen Teilerfolg verbuchte der Heise Zeitschriften Verlag in dem
Verfahren von acht großen Unternehmen der Musikindustrie gegen den Verlag
vor dem Landgericht München I."
A Munich court of appeal
upheld a lower court ruling, that ordered German
website Heise.de to remove a hyperlink to SlySoft's
website. SlySoft is the maker of ANYDVD, a software
product that allows cracking the copyright protection
found on most DVD-Video discs, and CloneCD, a tool that
allows backing up copy protected audio CDs.
According to the ruling, Heise is free
to report on software that can crack copy-protection mechanisms on DVDs,
but has to refrain from linking to the software vendor's homepage.
Freedom of the press does not protect Heise's right to link to the goods.
August
9, 2005:
German appeals court
outlaws links to websites offering circumvention
technology,
immateriblog.de:
"A Munich court of appeal upheld a lower court
ruling, demanding that German IT news service Heise
Online remove a link to Slysoft.com, an Antigua
based company selling software enabling users to
make copies of copy-protected CDs and DVDs. Legal
experts criticised the decision as endangering press
freedom."
July 28, 2005:
Niederlage
für Heise - und Links in Deutschland, intern.de:
"Der
Heise-Verlag unterliegt im Rechtsstreit mit der
Musikindustrie. Das OLG München bestätigt die Position der
Labels, dass ein Link auf die Firma Slysoft zu weit geht."
Update September 2005: German Heise Publishing House
will file a
constitutional complaint against a
decision
by the Higher Regional Court in Munich (first-instance District Court decision
can
be found here). The court
had ruled that creating a link to another Web site which offers illegal software
for download, can lead to prosecution for complicity. The online news service
Heise may publish an article explaining anti-circumvention technology, but it
may not include a link in that article to a Web site where users may download
the software. The court did not agree with Heise's argumentation that their
article and the hyperlink were protected by laws for the freedom of the press.
There have been a lot of
lawsuits dealing with hyperlinks to illegal content worldwide, especially to
Mp3-music files, but it will be the first time that a national Constitutional Court will rule on
a "right to link".
September 15, 2005,
Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen Link-Verbot, Heise:
"Der Heise Zeitschriften Verlag hat wie angekündigt Verfassungsbeschwerde
gegen zwei Urteile von Münchener Gerichten eingelegt."
September 1, 2005,
Heise to file constitutional complaint against hyperlink ban, Heise: "Heise Zeitschriften Verlag [Heise Publishing House] will file a constitutional
complaint against a decision by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Munich."
The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has
forced German download Web portal "The Realworld" to shut down after intense
legal pressure. The site did not host any copyrighted files, but provided ed2k
links that can be used to find content on the eD2K network. “TRW is under legal
attack and forced offline for the time being,” says the site, that specialized
in TV episodes. The operator is now appealing for donations for “legal defence”.
August 27, 2005,
Hollywood lässt eDonkey-Site "The Realworld" schließen, Heise:
"Die Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) hat beim Landgericht
Hamburg eine einstweilige Verfügung gegen das in der Schweiz gehostete
Webangebot The-Realworld.de (TRW) erwirkt."
Department store J.C. Penney and cosmetics company Elizabeth
Arden were sued by Photographer Gary Bernstein because of an unauthorized
reproduction of one of his photographs. The picture was three clicks away from
the website of the defendants. In the opinion of Los Angeles Judge Manuel Real
the links did not violate Bernstein’s copyright.
November
1998: CA
Judge Dismisses Copyright Claims Based On Linking, Software Law Bulletin: "Without comment, a California federal judge has dismissed, with prejudice, copyright infringement allegations against defendants who maintained links that eventually led to a Swedish web site where allegedly infringing photographs were
displayed."
September
25, 1998: Kaplan, Carl, Can
A Web Link Break Copyright Laws?, New York Times: "Suppose a Web site links to a site that links to another site containing illegally reproduced photographs. Can the first site be sued for illegal linking?"
September
22, 1998: Borland, John, Court
Dismisses Web Copyright Case, TechWeb: "A Los Angeles judge has dismissed a copyright lawsuit that threatened to hold websites legally responsible for links to content posted elsewhere on the Web."
In 1997
three British journalists posted the so called JET-Report on their website,
which deals with a flawed government investigation into a case of alleged
satanic ritual abuse. The journalists removed the report after Britain's high
court issued an injunction, ordering them to take the report off their site.
To stop this
government censorship, people around the globe put the report on their
websites and thus created several mirror sites. The journalists linked to these
websites. The Nottinghamshire County Council tried to stop the dissemination and
to keep the content of the report a secret. They send threatening letters to
several people, but finally dropped all legal action.
News Articles
August
18, 1997: Wieder ein Veröffentlichungsverbot
am Internet gescheitert, Juristisches Internetprojekt Saarbrücken: "Trotz
Obsiegens im einstweiligen Verfahren - am 30.6. hatte der Londoner High
Court britischen Journalisten die ungenehmigte Veröffentlichung von
JET-Report-Auszügen im Internet bei Haftandrohung verboten - gab das
Nottinghamshire County Council jetzt bekannt, dass es auf die Fortsetzung
des Verfahrens in der Hauptsache verzichten werde."
August
4, 1997: Craddock, Ashley, Nottingham
v. Net: Game, Set, Match to Net, Wired: "Thwarted by the Net, the Nottinghamshire County Council has dropped
its two-month-old attempt to quash the online publication of a report
critical of a flawed government investigation into the United Kingdom's
first case of alleged satanic ritual abuse."
August
4, 1997: Kornblum, Janet, British
relent on banned report, CNet: "Score a victory for the Internet: A local government
in England, which had been fighting to stop the distribution of a banned
government report on the Net, has withdrawn from the fight, leaving the
other side to claim victory."
August 4, 1997: Recent
Press
Releases issued by Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) about the
availability of the JET Report on the Internet and its up-to-date coverage
including mirror sites and the problems with the hyperlinks
June
13, 1997: Kornblum, Janet, Britain
pursues banned report, CNet: "British authorities trying to regain control of a
report let loose online last week are telling an American professor to take
the report--along with any links to it--off the Net."
June
3, 1997: Kornblum, Janet, U.K.
child abuse witch-hunt exposed, CNet: "David Hebditch and two other British journalists knew
they were breaking the law when they posted a banned government report
detailing a notorious ritual child abuse case on their Web site."
Criminal charges were filed against Tommy Olssen, because he
had provided links to more than 300 copyrighted songs. Sweden’s Supreme Court
dismissed the lawsuit.
June
15, 2000:
Musikverband
verliert Klage gegen MP3-Fan, tecchannel: "Das Oberste Gericht in Schweden hat in Stockholm die erste Klage der europäischen Musikindustrie wegen Verbreitung illegaler Musikkopien im Internet abgewiesen."
September
16, 1999:
Musikindustrie
verliert Prozess um MP3-Links, Heise: "Das Gericht begründete den Freispruch damit, dass der 17-Jährige niemals selbst Musik ins Netz gestellt, sondern nur Verbindungen zu anderen Links mit Musik angegeben habe."
Fake files in Peer-2-Peer networks begin to spoil the fun
of illegal downloads. In reaction to this development, direct links into
Peer-2-Peer networks are becoming more and more popular. Several websites
confirm the authenticity of files and provide directlinks, e.g. Sharereactor,
Filenexus or Bitzi. Direct links into the Gnutella network are called
"Magnet Uniform Ressource" (Magnet URI), into Kazaa sig2dat.
The sig2dat program e.g. creates startfiles and gives a
file a unique signature hash that no other file has. Thus a file hash serves as
the identifier of a file content and can be compared to a fingerprint. A user
can report the hash information to other users, thus enabling them to create
startfiles. The program also enables a user to create quicklinks. A quicklink
works and looks like any regular website link, but instead of taking a user to a
website it creates a startfile in the shared folder. When a user opens Grokster
or KaZaa, the startfile automatically shows up in the traffic section and the
download of the file starts. (For more information on the technical background
see the
FastTrackMovies
FAQ)
IFPI Germany send letters to several webmasters demanding
they remove directlinks to music files in P2P networks within 24 hours. Several
webmaster complied.
February 13, 2003:
Die
deutsche Musikindustrie geht gegen eDonkey-Seiten vor, Heise: "Die deutsche Landesgruppe der International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI) hat alle größeren deutschen eDonkey-Seiten,
die so genannte "Directlinks" auf urheberrechtlich geschützte
Musik anbieten, aufgefordert, diese innerhalb einer 24-stündigen Frist zu
entfernen."
April 17, 2001: Rötzer, Florian, Haftbar
für Inhalte auf einer verlinkten fremden Website, Telepolis:
"Der Oberste Gerichtshof in Österreich hat sich erstmals mit der Frage beschäftigt, ob der Betreiber einer Website für einen Link auf eine andere Website haftet."
Defendant,
who operates a website specialized in gossip, linked to a highly confidental
stolen document relating to a court case between Sir Elton John and his
accountants.
Warez.at, a website that redirected people to a variety
of other pirated software suppliers around the world, has
been closed down.
October
18, 2001:
Warez.at
versenkt, Heise: "Die österreichische Schatzinsel für Softwarepiraten, Warez.at, wurde von der Business Software Alliance dichtgemacht."
October
18, 2001: Blincoe, Robert,
BSA
stomps Warez.at, The Register: "The Business Software Alliance shut down 118 UK warez (pirate software) sites between January and September 2001."
The Church
of Scientology demanded that Google remove links to anti-Scientology websites
from the Google search engine, which violate their copyright. Google removed
certain specific URLs in response to the notification.
April
22, 2002: Gallagher, David,
Google
Runs Into Copyright Dispute, New York Times: "Google Web search engine finds creative response to complaint from Church of Scientology that search results for 'Scientology' included links to copyrighted church material on foreign Web site critical of church and beyond reach of United States copyright law."
March
26, 2002: Hiler, John,
Church
v. Google, round 3, Microcontent News: "Last week, Google removed Scientology critic Xenu.net from its search engine database, after Scientologists lawyers filed a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint to Google."
March
22, 2002: Hiler, John,
Church
v. Google, round 2, Microcontent News: "Since the spate of mass media coverage yesterday, Xenu.net is once again the #4 result when you search for the word "Scientology"."
March
22, 2002:
Google
Restores Church Links, Wired: "Google restored a website critical of the Church of Scientology on its search engine Thursday while free-speech advocates slammed the company for removing the site in the first
place."
March
22, 2002:
Google
hat Scientology-Kritiker wieder im Index, Heise: "Nachdem Google auf Druck der Scientology-Organisation Anfang der Woche einige Scientology-kritische Seiten aus seinem Index entfernt hatte, hat der Suchmaschinen-Betreiber zumindest die wichtigste der betroffenen Seiten, die Homepage der Operation Clambake, mittlerweile wieder in seinen Index aufgenommen."
March
21, 2002: McCullagh, Declan,
Google
Yanks Anti-Church Sites, Wired: "The Church of Scientology has managed to yank references to anti-Scientology websites from the Google search
engine."
March
21, 2002:
Google
zensiert Scientology-Kritiker, Heise: "Google hat eine Reihe von Seiten der Scientology-kritischen Sites "Operation Clambake" und ihrer Mirror-Server aus seinem Index gelöscht."
March
21, 2002: Hiler, John,
Church
v. Google, Microcontent News: "Microcontent News has learned that the Church of Scientology™ is aggressively using digital copyright laws to eliminate one of its chief online critics from the Google
database."
Deutsche Bahn sent letters to AltaVista, Yahoo and Google
asking them to remove hyperlinks to the online copies of two articles from
the German-language left-wing extremist publication, Radikal, which has been
outlawed in Germany. The articles published under the headline "A handbook
for destruction of railroad transport of all kinds" detail how to cut power
on parts of the railway system. All three search engines complied with the
request, thus avoiding a lawsuit.
April 22, 2002: Schulzki-Haddouti,
Christiane, Deutsche
Bahn setzt sich bei Suchmaschinen-Betreiber durch, Telepolis: "Die Deutsche Bahn hat die deutschen Tochtergesellschaften der Suchmaschinen Google, Altavista und Yahoo abgemahnt - mit Erfolg."
April 22, 2002:
Suchmaschinen
entfernen “radikale” Links, Heise: "Die deutschen Tochtergesellschaften der Suchmaschinen Google, Altavista und Yahoo folgen der Abmahnung der Deutschen Bahn, Links auf die Site der linksradikalen Zeitschrift Radikal aus dem Angebot zu nehmen."
April
18, 2002: Evers, Joris,
AltaVista,
Google Remove Controversial Links, PC World: "Search engines avoid legal action, agree to delete links to site offering info on sabotaging railway systems."
April
17, 2002: Naraine, Ryan,
Google
May Remove Controversial Links, Enterprise News: "Search engine firm Google said late Thursday it was negotiating a resolution of a lawsuit filed by Germany's national railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG over search results that link to allegedly illegal Web articles."
April
17, 2002: Deutsche
Bahn will Google verklagen, Golem.de: "Die Deutsche Bahn will den Suchmaschinen-Anbieter Google verklagen, da dieser eine Sabotage-Anleitung für Bahnstrecken verlinkt."
April
16, 2002: Evers, Joris,
Deutsche
Bahn to sue Google; Yahoo, AltaVista next up, Network World Fusion: "Deutsche Bahn AG, the German national railway operator, Wednesday will file suit against Google because the company's search engine provides links to a Web site that offers instructions on how to sabotage railway systems, Deutsche Bahn said
Tuesday."
April
15, 2002: Deutsche
Bahn gewinnt gegen Provider der Zeitschrift „Radikal“, Heise: "Die Deutsche Bahn AG hat den niederländischen Webhoster XS4ALL dazu gezwungen, zwei deutschsprachige Anleitungen zur Sabotage des Eisenbahnbetriebs vom Netz zu nehmen."
Indymedia website contained links to mirror sites of Radikal which have
popped up all over the Web. Deutsche Bahn demanded the removal of the links on
April 23, 2002.
Indymedia.nl refused and Deutsche Bahn sued. A dutch judge ordered Indymedia NL to remove links pointing to the mirrors of Radikal sites from a page
on their website. What makes the decision especially noteworthy is the fact,
that all links were surface links. None of the links was pointing to the
offending articles directly!
July
2, 2002: Cullen, Drew, Indymedia.nl
loses anarchist hyperlinks case, The Register: "In April this year, Deutsche Bahn sued Google over links to a German anarchist website which showed how to sabotage a
railway."
Deutsche
Bahn vs. Indymedia: Where is the internet without indirect links?,
Indymedia.nl: "Deutsche Bahn, the German rail company, won a court case against Indymedia.nl, ordering Indymedia.nl to remove all direct and indirect links to two pages that contain information considered unlawful in the Netherlands."
April 25, 2002:
Indymedia
NL entfernt Seite mit Links nach Radikal NICHT!, Indymedia.nl: "Am Dienstag den 23 April 2002 is das Newsmedium Indymedia.nl mittels eines Briefes van den Rechtsanwaelten der Deutschen Bahn aufgefordert eine Internetseite zu entfernen. Die bewusste Seite enthaelt eine anzahl Links zu Mirrors der schon seit Jahren nicht mehr existierenden deutschen Zeitschrift Radikal."
After a request from Lucasfilm Ltd. at least two fan sites
stopped linking stolen storyboard images from the film "Star Wars:
Episode II."
October
2, 2000: Sieberg, Daniel, Lucasfilm
orders links to new „Star Wars“ images removed, CNN:
"Striking back in an effort to stop copyright infringement, Lucasfilm Ltd. has ordered at least two fan sites to stop linking to fiercely guarded storyboard images from the upcoming film "Star Wars: Episode II."
The hack of Cyber Patrol,
a blocking software
offered by Mattel, was done by two persons with a
program they called “cphack.” Cphack was designed to reveal the list of
blocked sites that Mattel didn’t want to disclose to the public. Matell first
sued the hackers from distributing Cphack over their website. After getting an
injunction, Mattel went after mirror sites that posted Cphack and anyone who
downloaded it or linked to it.
March
29, 2000: McCullagh, Declan,
Mattel
Ruling Confuses Hackers, Wired: "A federal judge's vague ruling in a case over a program that reveals Cyberpatrol's secret blacklist has left the Net's hacking community thoroughly
confused."
March
28, 2000: McCullagh, Declan,
Mattel
Can Go After Mirrors, Wired: "A federal judge in Boston has invited Mattel to start contempt of court proceedings to shut down mirror sites in a suit over its Cyberpatrol filtering software."
March
28, 2000: Rötzer, Florian,
Überraschende
Wende, Telepolis: "Cyberpatrol-Hacker stimmen einer Einigung mit Mattel zu und übertragen das Copyright an ihrem Programm zur Umgehung der Verschlüsselung an das Unternehmen."
March
27, 2000: McCullagh, Declan,
Mattel
Stays on the Offensive, Wired: "Upping the stakes in a battle over a utility that reveals Cyberpatrol's list of off-limits websites, Mattel threatened mirror sites with contempt charges during a court hearing Monday afternoon."
March
21, 2000: Stenger, Richard:
Cyber
Patrol decoding brawl gets ugly and international, CNN: "A legal dispute between a U.S. toymaker that produces a popular Internet pornography filter and two programmers that decoded the software could heat up into a messy international brawl."
March
19, 2000: Rötzer, Florian,
Cyberpatrol-Hack:
Einstweilige Verfügung eines amerikanischen Richters, Telepolis: "Das Verbot, das Umgehungsprogramm zu verbreiten, betrifft alle
Mirror-Websites; der schwedische Provider von einem der Beklagten hat die Seite mit dem Programm bereits vom Netz genommen."
March
17, 2000: McCullagh, Declan,
CyberPatrol
Hackers Lose Round, Wired: "U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington granted Mattel -- the toy giant that also sells CyberPatrol -- its request on Friday for an injunction against two programmers who created the "cphack"
utility."
March 16, 2000: McCullagh, Declan,
Mattel
Sues Over Blocking Hack, Wired: "Toy-maker Mattel has sued two programmers who revealed how to circumvent its CyberPatrol blocking software."
The
Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent several cease-and-desist lettes to
MP3Board.com, a search engine that provides hyperlinks to MP3 music files
available for download over the Internet, alleging that the links would infringe
their copyright. MP3Board filed a preemptive
lawsuit on June 2, 2000 in federal district court in San Jose to get a decision
on whether providing hyperlinks constitutes copyright infringement or not.
MP3Board also asked for redress for the RIAA's role in temporarily shutting down
the MP3Board Website. A short time later, the RIAA also filed suit in federal
district court in New York.
News Articles:
March
20, 2001:
MP3-Suchmaschine
verlangt Schadensersatz von Plattenindustrie, Heise: "Die MP3-Suchmaschine MP3Board hat mit einer Schadenersatzklage gegen die Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) eine weitere juristische Hürde übersprungen."
October
17, 2000: Borland, John
MP3Board
case moves to New York, News.com: "While file-trading paragon Napster waits in court and rival Scour seeks bankruptcy protection, another potentially landmark online music case is moving toward
resolution."
July
26, 2000: King, Brad:
MP3Board
Offers to Sever Links, Wired: "Music portal MP3Board is trying to appease the RIAA with technology that enables copyright owners to destroy links on its site to music files thought to be pirated."
July
18, 2000: Borland, John,
MP3Board
countersues RIAA, calls MP3 links legal, News.com: "MP3Board today filed its own claim against the Recording Industry Association of America, asking for redress for the RIAA's role in "temporarily shutting down the MP3Board Web site" because it links to copyrighted songs on other Web
sites."
June
26, 2000: King, Brad,
RIAA:
No Hyperlinking Allowed, Wired: "On Friday, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a suit against content-aggregation site MP3Board.com. The copyright infringement suit filed in federal district court in New York claims that the website knowingly gathers, indexes, and organizes links to sites where illegal files are offered for download."
June
6, 2000: Mariano, Gwendolyn,
MP3
firm in music-linking dispute with record industry, News.com: "A little-known Internet search company has fired a legal shot over the bow of the recording industry to preserve its ability to guide Web surfers to online music files, legal and illegal."
June
5, 2000: King, Brad,
MP3
Site Sues RIAA Over Linking, Wired: "The recording industry got a bit of a shock on Monday when a digital music search site filed a lawsuit asking the judge to stop the Recording Industry Association of America from attempting to shut its website down."
According to
a Dutch court ruling links to a website that infringes someone’s copyright are
also an infringement. The decision stems from a lawsuit Scientology filed
against the journalist Karin Spaink, who posted materials written by Scientology
founder L. Ron Hubbard on her Website.
October
2003 Update:
The
Court of Appeal in The Hague, Netherlands, denied the Scientologists’ latest
appeal in an online copyright dispute that dates back to 1995. The court also
overturned two previous rulings by the Amsterdam District Court of March 1996
and June 1999 that held that if a provider was made aware of illegal
publishing of copyrighted materials by their subscribers, or hyperlinks to
illegal or copyrighted information, it should take action and remove the website
or links.
Xs4all believes that "a hyperlink is merely a road
marker on the Internet, and can never be unlawful." Although not all
European courts will consent with that statement and the statement is in
contradiction to the law in some European countries, Xs4all won an important
copyright case, that significantly narrows the ability of copyright claims
against ISPs in the Netherlands based on "illegal" hyperlinks.
September 9, 2003:
Hines,
Matt, Hyperlinks
remain legal after Scientology defeat, ZDNet UK: "The Church of Scientology has lost a courtroom battle to compel a
Dutch writer and her Internet service provider to remove postings from a Web
site, in a ruling that keeps hyperlinks to copyrighted material legal."
September 8, 2003:
Libbenga,
Jan, Scientologists
loses copyright case, The Register: "The Court of Appeal in The Hague last week rejected all of the Church
of Scientology's claims its action against the Dutch ISP Xs4all, writer
Karin Spaink and ten other internet providers for publishing copyrighted
material on the web."
September 8, 2003:
Veröffentlichung
von Scientology-Dokumenten bleibt legal, Heise: "Die niederländische Journalistin Karin
Spaink hat im jahrlangen juristischen Kampf gegen die Scientology-Organisation
erneut einen Sieg errungen."
June
9, 1999:
Goodin, Dan, Scientologists’
copyright suit shapes Net liability, CNet: "Linking to a site that contains material that infringes someone's copyright also is an infringement, a Dutch court ruled today, according to the Church of Scientology, the plaintiff in the case."
On
May 2, 2000, Slashdot posted an article describing Microsoft's extensions to the
Kerberos standard. Several Slashdot users posted hyperlinks to Microsoft's
Kerberos specifications. Microsoft sent Slashdot a letter claiming copyright
violation and loss of trade secrets, and requested to remove posts containing
links. Slashdot refused to remove the posts. Microsoft
should not suppress free speech in the public Web forum.
June 1, 2000: Gunn, Angela,
A
nudge and a link, Seattle Weekly: "A few months back during the cphack fracas, the American Civil Liberties Union asked the judge in that case whether injunctions on that Net-filter workaround extended to third-party sites that linked to the information rather than hosting it on their own servers."
May
12, 2000: Kermath, Annie,
Microsoft
picks fight with Slashdot, The Register: "Despite Microsoft's request to Slashdot owner and ISP Andover.net to remove postings containing technical details of its proprietary extensions to Kerberos, the open source authentication standard, they're still up there."
May
11, 2000: McCullagh, Declan,
Call
it Slash-and-Burn.org, Wired: "Thursday just wasn't a good day for geek-culture destination Slashdot."
FPI
sued Norwegian company FAST Search over the use of its MP3 search engine and
database. Fast's software offers links to more than half a million MP3-based
copyrighted songs. FAST MP3 Search finally resolved the conflict with RIAA and IFPI in June
1999.
March
25, 1999: Medosch, Armin,
Musikindustrie
weiter auf Feldzug gegen MP3, Telepolis: "Klage gegen FAST, die Softwarefirma, die das MP3-Suchwerkzeug für Lycos programmiert."
March
24, 1999: Robertson, Chiyo,
Lycos
may face lawsuit over MP3, ZDNet: "The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) on Wednesday sued Norwegian company FAST Search & Transfer ASA over the use of its MP3 search engine and database, which it has licensed to portal giant Lycos."
March
24, 1999: MP3
Search Engine Under Fire, Wired: "The global recording industry opened fire Wednesday on Internet music piracy, launching proceedings against a Norwegian partner of US search engine Lycos."
02.02.1999:
RIAA
Rains on Lycos' MP3 Party, Wired: "Lycos will work with the Recording Industry Association of America to ensure the company's new MP3 search engine does not link to illegal sites, the Associated Press reported Tuesday."
Kantel’s website contained a link to an illegal copy of
Martin Walser’s latest book “Tod eines Kritikers”. The Suhrkamp Verlag
send him a cease-and-desist-letter.
June
21, 2002: Walser-Roman:
Ärger im Netz, Netzzeitung.de: "Nachdem «Tod eines Kritikers» im Web aufgetaucht war, hat der Suhrkamp-Verlag Homepage-Betreiber, die die Raubkopie verlinkten, abmahnen lassen."
June
20, 2002: Suhrkamp
zieht Abmahnung wegen Link auf Walser-Roman zurück, Heise: "Der Suhrkamp-Verlag hat seine Abmahnung gegen den Betreiber des Weblogs Schockwellenreiter.de wegen Veröffentlichung eines Links auf die im Internet kursierende illegale Kopie des neuen Romans von Martin Walser zurückgezogen."
June
16, 2002: Suhrkamp
mahnt Weblog wegen Walser-Roman ab, Heise: "Der Betreiber des Weblogs "Schockwellenreiter" soll 1200 Euro Abmahnkosten dafür zahlen, dass er einen Link auf eine der vielen im Internet kursierenden Online-Versionen des Martin-Walser-Romans "Tod eines Kritikers" gesetzt hat."
June 14, 2002: Hammerschmitt, Marcus,
La
règle du jeu, Telepolis: "Künstliche Erregung in Frankfurt: Nachdem man etlichen Journalisten per Email den Volltext von Martin Walsers "Tod eines Kritikers" zukommen ließ, wundert man sich nun über die Verbreitung des Machwerks im Internet."
The University of
California at San Diego ordered a student organization called the Chè
Cafè Collective to delete hyperlinks to the official site of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), an alleged terrorist
organization. After receiving several letters, the University agreed with the
signers of the letters that links are a First Amendment right.
October 8, 2002: McCullagh, Declan, University
backs down on link ban, CNet:
"On Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors and nine other groups wrote a letter asking UCSD to abandon its threats of disciplinary action against the Che Cafe Collective, a move that the school had claimed was necessary because of the USA Patriot Act. The cafe had linked to a site supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist group."
September 28,
2002: Asaravala, Amit, College
Questioning Site's Link, Wired:
"Officials at the University of California at San Diego are reconsidering a recent decision that would have forced a student activist group to remove from its website a link to a guerilla group accused of being a terrorist organization."
September 26,
2002: McCullagh, Declan, University
bans "illegal" links, ZDNet:
"The University of California at San Diego has ordered a student organization to delete hyperlinks to an alleged terrorist Web site, citing the recently enacted USA Patriot Act."
Section
512 of the DMCA protects online service providers e.g. search engines from
liability for information posted or transmitted by subscribers if they quickly
remove or disable access to material identified in the copyright holder's
complaint. You will find many cease and desist letters adressed to Google on the
Chilling Effects
Website.
According
to a report
from Harvards Univerity's Berkman Center, Google also deleted more than 100
controversial sites from its French and German listings. Banned are e.g.
anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi websites and a fundamentalist Christian site that is
adamantly opposed to abortion. The removed sites still appear after a search on
the Google.com site.
October
25, 2002: Rötzer, Florian, Die
Welt ist keineswegs alles, was Google auflistet, Telepolis:
"Nach einem Bericht des Berkman Center an der Harvard-Universität wurden bei google.de und google.fr
mehr als 100 Websites bei den Suchresultatenen nicht aufgeführt, die bei google.com aber nicht zensiert werden."
October
25, 2002: Schwartz, John, Study
Tallies Sites Blocked by Google, New York Times:
"Study by Ben Edelman and Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, finds that Google, popular Internet search engine, has excluded more than 100 Web sites from French and German versions of its index under pressure from those nations' governments."
October
23, 2002: McCullagh, Declan, Google
excluding controversial sites, CNet:
"Absent from Google's French and German listings are Web sites that are anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi or related to white supremacy, according to a new report from Harvard University's Berkman Center."
The DMCA used against Google by
Sherman Networks (aka Kazaa) ordered it to remove references to 15 websites that
contain information related to Kazaa Lite, an unauthorized copy of Kazaa with
the pop-up ads removed. Google has complied, but has linked to the notice
.at the bottom of the violation-related search result
page. "In response to a complaint we received under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, we have removed 14 results from this page," the statement
said. "If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint for these removed
results." Removed sites include www.kazaagold.com, www.kazaalite.tk, and
www.kaaza.com.
Notices were also filed against
Slyck, Zeropaid and several other websites.
September
3, 2003: KaZaA,
DMCA gegen Google, KaZaA Lite, futureZone:
"US-Copyrightgesetz DMCA zwingt Google, Links auf KaZaA Lite zu unterdrücken."
September
2, 2003: Lyman, Jay, Google
Pulls P2P Links Over Kazaa Copyright Claims, TechNewsWorld:
"In a bizarre twist to the file-sharing fight in which the Recording
Industry Association of America is using copyright law to pursue file
traders, search engine Google pulled links to sites hawking unofficial Kazaa
alternatives after the popular file-swapping service made its own
copyright-infringement claims."
September
2, 2003: McCullagh, Declan, Google
pulls links to Kazaa imitator, News.com:
"In response to a legal threat that invoked the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Google has removed from its index eight
sites that distribute a hacked version of file-swapping service Kazaa."
September
2, 2003: Kazaa
vs. Lite: Google in der Schusslinie, Heise:
"Wer in der Web-Suchmaschine Google "Kazaa Lite" eingibt,
bekommt nach wie vor mehrere hunderttausend Ergebnisse angezeigt. Am Ende
der Seite findet sich allerdings ein Hinweis, dass Ergebnisse aus der Seite
herausgefiltert worden seien."
France's Internet Rights Forum (Le forum des
droits sur l’internet or FDI) has published recommendations on the
responsibilities of sites that create hyperlinks to "illicit content".
Recommendation
report: Hyperlinks: Legal Status, foruminternet.org:
"A
principle must be stated:
the establishment of a link is free. This
principle is justified by the nature and the very functioning of the
Internet. However, in our society, a freedom is not absolute and a
proper balance between constraints and freedom must be achieved."
MyWeb Inc.com settled a lawsuit brought against it in China by the IFPI.
The IFPI lawsuit had been filed in the People's Court of Beijing in December
1999, claiming MyWeb’s site enabled Internet users to download the sound
recordings of IFPI members through hyperlinks and search engines.
Internet
settlement in China leads to joint IFPI/My Web copyright campaign, IFPI: "China's leading TV portal, MyWeb Inc.com [AMEX: MWB], together with the IFPI, representing the international recording industry, today launched a joint campaign to uphold copyright laws and fight music piracy on the Internet in China."
March
27, 2000: Fridman, Sherman,
My
Web Inc.com Settles Copyright Lawsuit, Computeruser: "The suit complained that MyWeb had set up Web pages on its China-based Web portal that enabled Internet users to download the sound recordings of IFPI members, in MP3 format through hyperlinks and search
engines."
German
opposition party CDU has been sued by Sony/ATV Music Publishing because of its
use of the song “Aserejè“ by Spanish group Las Ketchup in its political
campaigns. A link on their website leads to a MP3-file which features the song
with new German
lyrics. The song ridicules the government.
October
24, 2002: Patalong, Frank, Böse,
böse CDU!, Spiegel Online
Linking Cases
There have been a
lot of lawsuits concerning
linking, framing and search
engine issues in the last years.
In this section you'll find
short introductions into the
different cases and links to
news articles about it.
