Danish Court Rules Against Web Links

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 JULY 05, 2002
 
 Newspapers Win Suit; Appeal Expected



 COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- (AP) Challenging the World Wide Web's fundamental
premise of linking,
 a Danish court ordered an Internet news service to stop linking to Web
sites of Danish
 newspapers.

 Copenhagen's lower bailiff's court ruled Friday that Newsbooster.com was in
direct competition
 with the newspapers and that the links it provided to specific news
articles damaged the value of
 the newspapers' advertisements.

 The case was 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.