Deep Linking Legal in Germany

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday July 20, 2003 @03:11AM from the sprechen-sie-deutsch dept.

BlueWonder writes "German news site Heise Online reports a recent decision of the Bundesgerichtshof, the highest court in Germany: Deep linking is not illegal. Newspaper company Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt had sued the news search engine Paperboy for deep linking to their articles. According to the Bundesgerichtshof, the public interest in a well-working Internet takes precedence over the commercial interests of the newspaper company, even if the advertizing of the company is bypassed. The Bundesgerichtshof has clarified that users can access any page if they know the URL, and deep linking is just a technical simplification for entering the URL manually. (Warning: links go to German sites - use the fish...)"

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Not good news for webmasters by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-20 04:02 · Score: 0, Troll

So they made it OK to steal from advertisers and webmasters in Germany.. What's next, making ad-blocking legal? Scumbags.

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