The Internet has introduced new twists to copyright legal questions. Companies are finding out that copyright laws exist in cyberspace. What is the relationship of copyright law to the Internet? Copyright mainly affects the operation and use of web sites.

Most people have sufficient working knowledge of copyright law to realize that the unauthorized copying of someone else's copyrighted materials is a legal no-no. But your copyright legal red flags should be raised if you plan to do the following:

• display copyrighted materials on your web site;
• make copyrighted materials available through your web site;
• reproduce or frame part or all of the content of another web site on your web site; or
• link to another web site from your web site.

Displaying

The content of web sites-if original or new-is protected by copyright law just like books, plays, software programs, and CDs. As with other copyrighted materials, you should avoid reproducing the content of another web site on your web site, or with very limited exception, even part of a web site, without the written authorization of the web site owner.

One of my clients had the idea of creating a web site with a comprehensive directory of a particular type of service providers. He planned to summarize parts of the web sites of various providers and post these summaries on his web site. His laudable goal was to give consumers a one-stop information site. However, his plan to reproduce significant parts of copyrighted web sites would have violated copyright law. He needed to get the permission of each web site owner before summarizing and displaying the content from the web sites.

Copyright law prohibits you from displaying or electronically reproducing copyrighted materials on your web site without the permission of the copyright owner. A Utah company, Utah Lighthouse Ministries, displayed a copy of a copyrighted manual, the Church Handbook of Instructions, on its web site. The owner of the manual objected to this and sued Utah Lighthouse Ministries for copyright infringement.

A court found two types of copyright law violations: displaying the manual and enabling visitors to electronically reproduce copies of the manual. The court ordered Utah Lighthouse Ministries to cease and desist its unlawful practices.

Providing Leads

Utah Lighthouse Ministries dropped the manual from its web site. Ever the helpful company, Utah Lighthouse Ministries informed visitors to its web site of other web sites where the manual could be downloaded. The Handbook owner didn't like this any better and returned to court arguing copyright infringement of a different type. The court agreed. It found Utah Lighthouse Ministries new practice of informing others where to go to get an unauthorized copy of the copyrighted manual was also a violation of copyright law.

The fact that Utah Lighthouse Ministries did not benefit financially from posting the other web sites was irrelevant to the outcome of the case. No matter how altruistic or well intentioned, Utah Lighthouse Ministries was encouraging visitors to its web site to violate the copyright law.

Framing

In addition, copyright law can prohibit framing another's web site. Framing is the practice of placing an electronic border or frame around the web site content of another or repackaging the another's web site content.

A California court looked at the web sites of two companies, Applied Anagramics and Futuredontics. Applied Anagramics placed its frame around several web pages that it reproduced from the Futuredontics web site. Applied Anagramics then displayed the framed pages on its web site. Futuredontics brought a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement. A court agreed that reproducing and displaying the Futuredontics pages in the Applied Anagramics frame violated Futuredontics' copyright in its web content.

Linking

Linking, another possible infringement of copyright law, is very common. Generally, hyperlinking to the home page of another company's web site does not violate copyright law. Still, given the potential that it could do so, it is a good idea to get written authorization before linking to any part of another's web site.

Of greater concern than linking to the home page of a copyrighted web site is the practice of deep linking-connecting to the internal web pages of a web site.

Microsoft deep-linked and found itself violating copyright law. Microsoft linked its web site to the interior web pages of the Ticketmaster web site. Visitors to Microsoft's web site could link from there to the internal ticket-ordering pages of the Ticketmaster site. Ticketmaster, maintaining that this deep link violated its copyright in the content of its web site, brought suit for copyright infringement. Ultimately, the case was settled out of court with Microsoft agreeing to terminate its deep link.

Copyright laws apply in cyberspace. No one should operate a web site, link to a web site, or use materials from another web site without first understanding the copyright implications. Think before you link, frame, or reproduce copyrighted works on your web site.