Introduction

It is generally believed that, although viewing a site does involve copying material on the site to the cache (or temporary internet files folder) on one's hard drive (in order to view it), the user has an implied licence to do this. However, there is no specific legal authority on this yet, and there are different possible copyright issues arising from linking to, and framing of, websites.

The simple link

The simple link is one in which the user is taken from the site which the user is currently viewing to the homepage of another site, and the link is identified clearly as the web address of another with a statement such as: "for more information on ABC visit the site at http://www.abc.com".

As this type of link merely facilitates the navigation between the two sites, there is no copyright infringement because there is no copying involved.

Deep linking

A deep link is a link to a page on a site other than the homepage. It therefore bypasses many of the main details of the business of the site, and often will bypass the site owner's terms and conditions, privacy policy and copyright and trade mark notice and, most importantly for the site owner, any advertising on its homepage (which is often the main source of revenue for many site owners). The current legal position appears to be (based on US law only at present) that whilst deep-linking does not constitute copyright infringement in itself, where there is confusion of source (whether or not with the use of frames (see below)) or there is a likelihood of association between a framing website and a framed website, a court might find there is liability for unfair competition/passing off in those circumstances.

Framing

Framing involves a new web-page that is called up by a link and which is framed in a particular manner to give the impression that it is part of the original site, i.e. the URL and advertising remains unchanged, and the other icons, logos and writing surrounding the frame site from the initial site remain unaltered.