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Linking Is Not Copyright Infringement, Boing Boing and EFF Tell Court (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The popular blog Boing Boing has asked a federal court in California to drop the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against it by Playboy. With help from the EFF, Boing Boing argues that its article linking to an archive of hundreds of centerfold playmates is clearly fair use. Or else it will be "the end of the web as we know it," the blog warns. Late last year Playboy sued the popular blog Boing Boing for publishing an article that linked to an archive of every playmate centerfold till then. "Kind of amazing to see how our standards of hotness, and the art of commercial erotic photography, have changed over time," Boing Boing's Xena Jardin commented. Playboy, instead, was amazed that infringing copies of their work were being shared in public. While Boing Boing didn't upload or store the images in question, the publisher took the case to court.
Tim Berners-Lee, creator the Word-Wide Web, settled this question over 20 years ago.
https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkMyths.html
In particular, he pointed out that it is "a serious misunderstanding" to think that "A normal link is an incitement to copy the linked document in a way which infringes copyright". But here we are, 20 years later, and people are still making the same argument. Will it never end?!??