Is linking to content really under threat?
The CEO of Newsnow speaks out for the right to link to news articles in this video that is part of the rights2link campaign. In December 2009 the company had to pull a number of links from their website after a complaint from the Newspaper licensing agency (NLA). The continuing calls from big newspaper organisations to protect their content has driven Newsnow to start this campaign. They fear that publishers will not just want to make their content difficult to access without paying but will in fact move to make linking to content a breach of copyright.
Newsnow claims that links are essential elements of our experience on the web, comparable to signposts. Not being allowed to link to content would severely damage the access to objective information and would put publishers in charge of what we see or don’t see.
“Not being allowed to content would severely damage the access to objective information and would put publishers in charge of what we see or not see.”
Duh! That’s how the print media works now – nothing new The big newspapers and news magazines need that control to implement their liberal agendas.