Senate boldly advances to 2005 with updated Web linking rules

Via ARS Technica

By Julian Sanchez | Published: September 25, 2008 – 10:44AM CT

At long last, John McCain and Barack Obama can pantomime lightsaber duels or get their Numa Numa on like any other red-blooded American. In a move that a spokesperson for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) called “a major step into the future,” the Senate Rules and Administration Committee has deigned to permit links to third-party sites like YouTube and Flickr from Senators’ official pages.

Roll Call reports that the change was made last week, ending the oft-ignored ban, but preserving general rules against using official resources for either commercial or partisan political purposes. The details will presumably need working out as, for instance, an embedded YouTube video will typically display a list of “related” videos after it ends, over which members of Congress would have little control.

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EFF: claim that consent needed for linking is “preposterous”

Via ARS Technica

By Nate Anderson | Published: September 23, 2008 – 06:20AM CT

Large Chicago law firm Jones Day is suing a tiny Internet startup called BlockShopper over the use of the humble hyperlink. But BlockShopper has picked up a pair of allies in the form of the EFF and Public Citizen, and the two groups jointly filed an amici curiae brief with the court that points out the obvious: “linking is what web sites do—that is, after all, why it is called the ‘World Wide Web‘.”

BlockShopper’s transgression, such as it is, appears to be the posting of public information. The site shows which partners, lawyers, philanthropists, and executives have purchased properties in specific city neighborhoods, and it incurred Jones Day’s legal wrath after showing the new purchases of two Jones Day lawyers. The company sued on trademark grounds, claiming that the use of its name and web link on the site were illegal.

Last Friday, two public interest groups have stepped up to the plate and weighed in on the case because of its implications for the Web. The BlockShopper case has “potentially significant implications for other online speakers,” says their filing, which is putting it mildly.

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Federal lawsuits take on the humble hyperlink

Via ARS Technica

By Nate Anderson | Published: September 18, 2008 – 05:34AM CT

R.E.M. once sang about “the end of the world as we know it,” but Michael Stipe & Co. never suspected that the brat-loving, cheese-eating, grain-growing Midwest might be the source of the world-ending scourge. But a pair of recent federal court cases coming from Wisconsin and Illinois have threatened to turn the most primitive functionality of the web—the hyperlink—into an “ask permission before linking” system.

Perhaps the full lyric should run, “It’s the end of the web as we know it, and I feel fine,” except that it’s hard to feel to great about the end of the web.

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