Fundamental premise of the World Wide Web is challenged

Nicolai Lassen considers linking such a fundamental element of the World Wide Web that he sees nothing wrong with creating a service around linking to news articles at more than 3,000 other sites.

Danish publishers, however, equate such linking with stealing -- and have gone to court to stop it.

The case, scheduled for hearings in Copenhagen later this month, is among the latest to challenge the Web's basic premise of encouraging the free flow of information through linking.

Requiring permission before linking could jeopardize online journals, search engines and other sites that link -- which is to say, just about every site on the Internet.

If the Web's creators hadn't wanted linking, "they would have called it the World Wide Straight Line," said Avi Adelman, a Web site operator involved in a dispute over linking to The Dallas Morning News.

Most of the court cases and legal threats have been over a form of hypertext-connecting called deep-linking, by which you simply connect users to a specific page rather than a site's home page.

'A loss of control'

Such disputes reflect "a frustration certain people have with a loss of control" once they post something, said Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa.

Lassen's Newsbooster service tries to make news stories easier to find by presenting links to items with keywords of a user's choosing. It's much like a search engine, except Newsbooster charges a subscription fee and lets users choose to automatically receive links by e-mail.

"From the home page down to the actual story you want to read can be a very, very long way," said Lassen, Newsbooster's editor-in-chief. "By using a technology such as Newsbooster, you save a lot of time."

The Danish Newspaper Publishers' Association believes Newsbooster should either shut down or negotiate payments.

"We consider it unfair to base your business upon the works of others," said Ebbe Dal, the group's managing director.

Not that opponents of deep-linking always object to it.

Dal thinks its OK for a newspaper to offer a deep link or two accompanying an article, or for search engines to help users navigate.

Belo Corp. likewise prohibits deep-linking to its sites, including the Morning News. But one of its newspapers, the Providence Journal, maintains an online journal that deep links to other sites.

Interferes with ads

Reasons for opposing linking vary.

In a federal lawsuit, Homestore.com Inc. complains that Bargain Network, by deep linking to Homestore's real estate listings, interferes with its opportunities to sell advertising.

Others, like the Council of Better Business Bureaus, worry that a link can imply endorsement, even if it reaches nothing more than a page with tips. The organization has persuaded thousands of sites to remove links to its Web pages, citing trademark claims.