Deep Linking Legal in Germany 142
BlueWonder writes "German news site Heise Online reports a recent decision of the Bundesgerichtshof, the highest court in Germany: Deep linking is not illegal.
Newspaper company Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt had sued the news search engine Paperboy for deep linking to their articles. According to the Bundesgerichtshof, the public interest in a well-working Internet takes precedence over the commercial interests of the newspaper company, even if the advertizing of the company is bypassed.
The Bundesgerichtshof has clarified that users can access any page if they know the URL, and deep linking is just a technical simplification for entering the URL manually. (Warning: links go to German sites - use the fish...)"
Some interesting and similiar cases: (Score:5, Informative)
Deep linking illegal under EU law, By Andy McCue, Computing [26-01-2001] [vnunet.com]
Danish Court Rules Deep Linking Illegal [slashdot.org]
Some examples of companies who forbid deep linking [spiffle.com] (the last link is full of stupid examples, some websites which would get a great benefit for their popularity from deep linking
An english link (Score:4, Informative)
I saw the notice at Links&Law.com [linksandlaw.com].
Re:One noteworthy point not mentioned in the /. st (Score:1, Informative)
That could be as simple as using the referrer= tag
Agreed on the general "use technical methods before the law" approach though.
Highest Court (Score:2, Informative)