Ford vs. 2600 Judge Upholds Right To Link

AnimeFreak writes: "According to this 2600 article, 2600 has won the right to link to Ford's website after Ford sued them for doing so. Ford had asserted that hyperlinking to their website or referring to it in DNS records constituted a variety of trademark violations. Judge Cleland rejected Ford's twisted interpretation of the trademark act, which claimed that by disparaging Ford's mark and preventing it from 'fully exploiting the value of its mark,'" 2600 was in violation of trademark law by redirecting a possibly offensive domain to Ford's site. We've mentioned this before, and it's nice to see a ruling in favor of linking. Thanks to Phalse Phace, here's a link to the 11-page decision.

Comments

Data Protection?

[TonyJohn]

For those of us in the UK:

I just thought about how this related to the Data Protection Act (1998 iirc). If someone were to create a link to an individual's website, and write: Here is a link (nb. this link does not work) to Joe Bloggs' website, does that link constitute personal data? After all, a link is like saying Here is Joe Bloggs' address: ..., and an address (so long as there is a name associated with it) is personal data.

If a link is personal data, does that mean that to link to Joe Bloggs' website you must either be registered with the Data Protection People or have Joe Bloggs' permission? In fact, wouldn't it be worse than that because you would have to make a reasonable effort to ensure that the personal data was secure (placing it on the internet is nothing like secure).

Any thoughts? Can we all go out and start sueing our friends?

TJ

PS. Appologies to our US friends. The DPA governs how people may use data about other people in the UK. It gives citizens the right to know what data someone holds on them (yes, even the security services), the right for that data to be accurate, and a number of rights governing how that data is used. Crucially, it often means that someone must have your permission before they can store data on you. This applies to paper and electronic data. Don't try to read the Act - it's boring.