What are the legal issues arising from linking?
Linking is a vital mechanism on the web which creates a means by which the user can find and gain access to content. Depending upon the types of linking, there are varying rights issues which might arise: Simple linking: this is where the user is taken to the home page of a site. It is generally accepted that this raises no copyright issues (if a reproduction is made it is made by the person who clicks on the link) and has been described as being ‘analogous to using a library’s card index to get a reference to particular items, albeit faster and more efficiently’. There is a tentative argument that linking could be said to be a ‘communication to the public’ under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 and therefore an infringement. However, this argument is untested in court, and even if found reasonable, would be likely to be met with the counter argument that the owner of the copyright in the linked-to work had giving an implied licence for the act of linking. However, linking to
