Legal Linking Goodness

I just finished writing a rather long post at Threadwatch about the legality of linking. If you’re too lazy to read my rather encyclopedic rant, here is a two-point summary:

• A hyperlink is basically a reference. A reference, whether in your kid’s term paper or on your homepage, is (in and of itself) legal.
• Any reference, including a hyperlink, is bound by ‘normal’ laws which govern speech–e.g., you can’t slander someone, you can’t steal someone’s content, etc.

For a concise breakdown of what the average webmaster needs to know, I suggest Linking Legalities…What You Need to Know by Eric Ward.