DeepLinking..cyberlaw article in NYT.

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Deeplinking is the only wayI know to get users from a bibliographic entry
in an OPAC to the exact intellectual content.

The "right" to forbid deeplinking (thus forcing users to extraneous
content) is a critical issue for libraries, and users and publishers and
content owners. I believe forbidding (or not actively providing support
for deep linking) nullifies thequality of content of OPAC's and defeats
one of the only reasons to continue with library structures to provide
support for access to information. i.e. library systems provide access to
the best information, which is a theme both libraries and content owners
should be consciously promoting and supporting.

In fact, I think the OPAC is theonly way to really create an alternative
to the noise of the net, and sincerely believe it's in the best interest
of content ownersand those who lease that content, or buy it, to provide
quick direct and easy links to the content that OPACS and other forms of
indexing services provide. It is how we can compete with the net, and
provide real added value to our primary constitutencies.

The alternative is the noise of the web, and in fact quality content can
and is at a serious disadvantage in most web search systems.

Anyway, here's a quote from the article in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/08/cyber/cyberlaw/06law.html By
CARL S. KAPLAN

          Is Linking Always Legal? The Experts
          Aren't Sure.

          Until the courts provide clear guidelines, the experts say,
powerful intellectual property owners like movie studios will fill the
legal vacuum with their untested assumption that deep linking is illegal.

Chuck Hamaker
UnC Charlotte.