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I'm not saying newspapers should be granted any specific protection beyond other websites. I think any website should be allowed to ask someone not to link to t
by ig1 16y ago
I'm not saying newspapers should be granted any specific protection beyond other websites. I think any website should be allowed to ask someone not to link to them.
The URL protocol allows hotlinking just as much as it allows normal linking. What the protocol does and doesn't allow doesn't define the ethics or the situation.
I'm sure all the companies that want to control inbound links would love to have an inbound link based rights management system. However sites they want to block just use various redirect tricks to cover up the referer.
- carbocation 16y agoProviding a link to a website about X is the ethical equivalent of telling your friend where they can learn about X.
- ig1 16y agoYou missed the critical conditional of "when the owner's asked you not to do it". A closer comparison might be passing information onto a friend, when the person who told you the information in the first place asked you not to pass it on.
- carbocation 16y agoNo, I said what I meant. The ethics of the situation may indeed be driven by the conditionals, but the isomorphism is valid across all conditionals that you might apply. Thus, you can imagine some situations in which linking (or telling a friend) is unethical, just as you can imagine others in which it's not.