Links & Law - Information about legal aspects of search engines, linking and framing

Hyperlink & Search Engine Law News  Decisions & Court Documents Worldwide Legal Resources (Hyperlink & Search Engine Law Articles) Linking Law Cases Search Engine Law Publications by Dr. Stephan Ott Technical    Background

Framing/ Inline-Linking: Copyright and trademark law infringement?

 

 

Total News - METEO-data - Starbucks Coffee Company v. Backwash.com - Amnesty International v. amnesty-tunesia.org - Futuredontics v. Applied Anagramic - Yahoo.de v. Austro.net - Dilbert - Kelly v. Arriba Soft - Haymarket v. Burmah Castrol - DerPoet.de - Journal Gazette/The News-Sentinel v. Ft-Wayne.com - Yahoo v. vlbg.at - Perfect 10 v. Google

Also see:

 

 

Total News

Several newspapers and periodicals, including CNN, Dow Jones, Reuters, Time Inc., Times Mirror, and The Washington Post filed suit in the Southern District of New York against Total News, Inc. (97 Civ. 1190 (S.D.N.Y., filed Feb. 2, 1997)), alleging copyright and trademark infringement by framing their news stories. The conflict was finally settled on the basis that Total News may continue deep linking to the articles, but ceases framing.

  • May 1998, Spaulding, Michelle, Framing, Linking and Packaging: Who Deserves What?  
  • December 20, 1997: Stone, Martha, News sites go after framers, ZDNet: "Online news publishers are mad as hell about framing and certain linking by some news index sites, and they're not going to take it anymore."
  • June 11, 1997: Kirsner, Scott: TotalNews Pokes a Stick at Big Media Again, Wired:
    "Just days after settling a lawsuit with several media giants, TotalNews is once again flirting with the same framing technology that spurred accusations of copyright and trademark infringement."
  • February 25, 1997: Biggs, Brook Shelby, Newspapers Struggle with Online Archives, Wired: "What if the information on the other end of that link doesn't want to be found, or wants to be found, but only at a price? Those questions are at the heart of a debate now raging among the newly wired denizens of the newspaper industry."
  • February 24, 1997: Mitchel, Dan, Para-Site Draws Ire, Suit from News Giants, Wired:
    "Several major news organizations have sued TotalNews, a so-called "para-site" that links to news stories on other Web sites."

Complaint

Stipulation And Order Of Settlement And Dismissal

 

METEO-data  / Hot Maps

The Austrian company Meteodata, which is producing weather charts, started billing webmastes for unsolicited links to their website. 

April 2003 Update: Meteodata filed a petition for bankruptcy. This comes as a reaction to a verdict from the OGH that held that framing the website with the weather charts produced by Meteodata, is not illegal. Some webmasters, who had already paid for links, demanded their money back, while other webmasters, who thus far have not complied with the demand, were strenghtened in their view that the company has no legal basis for its claim.

October 2003 Update: Meteo-data demanded that people pay for links to their website. In one case they sued for framing their weather-charts. They lost. That does not keep others from trying again. As reported before, Hot Maps also send letters to people who linked to their site, demanding they pay a fee. Hot maps obtained interim injunctions against some website operators. In one case the defendant produced firm pieces of evidence that the Hot-maps website contained the statement that links to the website concerned in this lawsuit were free of charge. The court hearing before Hamburg regional court was lifted on application of Hot Maps. Hot Maps will not make further claims in this case. 

  • August 29, 2003: Deep-Links Verfahren abgesagt, intern.de:
    "Nach Angaben des Anwalts hat der Kläger, die Hot Maps GmbH, an "zahlreiche Betreiber von Homepages Abmahnungen" verschickt und teilweise auch Einstweilige Verfügungen erwirkt."
  • August 29, 2003: Rückzug des Klägers im Prozess um Deep Links, webwork-magazine:
    "Wer Links auf die Unterseiten des Stadtplan-Dienstes Hot Maps setzt, muss mit einer Abmahnung wegen Urheberrechtsverletzung seitens des Unternehmens rechnen."
  • April 4, 2003: Umstrittener "Linkverrechner" Meteo-data ist bankrott, Heise:
    "Der vor allem durch seine umstrittene Copyright-Politik bekannt gewordene Online-Wetterdienst Meteo-data hat am Donnerstag Konkurs angemeldet."
  • April 3, 2003: Meteodata meldet Konkurs an, Futurezone:
    "Der oberösterreichische Wetterinformationsdienstleister Meteodata hat am Donnerstag den Konkursantrag gestellt."
  • February 24, 2003: Copyright-Vermerk ermöglicht fremde Inhalte auf Website, diepresse.at:
    "Öffnet der Oberste Gerichtshof dem Content-Diebstahl Tür und Tor, oder erleichtert er im Interesse von Anbietern und Nutzern bloß die Benützung des WWW? Diese Frage stellt sich nach einer Entscheidung des Höchstgerichts, mit der Internet-Anbietern gestattet wird, fremde Leistungen unter bestimmten Bedingungen auf der eigenen Homepage darzubieten." 
  • February 23, 2003: Weblinks - Meteodata verliert wichtiges OGH Verfahren, derStandard.at:
    "Der Wetterinformationsdienstleister Meteodata hat ein möglicherweise entscheidendes Verfahren vor dem OGH verloren."
  • February 20, 2003: OGH Österreich entschied über Frame-Links, Heise:
    "In Österreich hat der Oberste Gerichtshof (OGH) einen mit Spannung erwarteten Beschluss zum Recht auf Web-Verweise (Links) gefällt." 
  • February 20, 2003: Meteodata spricht von "Fehlurteil" und will vor den EuGH, pressetext.at:
    "Meteodata will den Fall um die Einbindung von Wetterkarten in Frames der Website der oberösterreichischen Baufirma Bernegger Bau http://www.bernegger.at vor den Europäischen Gerichtshof bringen."
  • February 20, 2003: Meteodata verliert wichtiges OGH-Verfahren um Weblinks, pressetext.at:
    "Der Wetterinformationsdienstleister Meteodata http://www.meteodata.at hat ein möglicherweise entscheidendes Verfahren vor dem OGH verloren."
  • February 20, 2003: "Link-Abkassierer" will vor den EuGH, futureZone:
    "Der Antrag auf Einstweilige Verfügung, die oberösterreichische Baufirma Bernegger Bau dürfe in ihre Website keine Wetterkarten von Meteodata.at mittels Frame einbinden, wurde in letzter Instanz zurückgewiesen."
  • September 25, 2002: Von Links und Web Cams, intern.de
  • August 30, 2002: Arge Daten versus Meteodata, derStandard.at:
    "Die Firma Meteodata schickt an Website-Betreiber, die auf ihrer Seite einen Link auf die Wetterkarten von Metedata gesetzt haben, laut ARGE Daten - "nicht nur eine Unterlassungsauffoderung, sondern auch eine Honorarforderung mit teilweise absurden Beträgen und Begründungen"."
  • July 9, 2002: Erste Klagen von Meteodata, Internet Ombudsman:
     "Richterspruch soll endgültig Klarheit über die Zulässigkeit von Links auf fremde Websites schaffen."
  • July 4, 2002: Internet-Ombudsmann reitet gegen Meteodata - "Geschäftsprinzip Einschüchterung", futureZone:
     "Die Copyright-Klagen des oberösterreichischen Wettersite-Betreibers Meteodata wegen unautorisierter Links haben zu einer scharfen Reaktion des Internet-Ombudsmannes geführt."
  • July 4, 2002: Millionenklagen wegen Website-Links, derStandard.at:
    "Das oberösterreichische Unternehmen Meteodata, Betreiber der Wetter-Site Meteodata.com, hat mehrere Website-Betreiber in Österreich, Deutschland und der Schweiz geklagt, weil sie auf ihrern Websites Links auf Wetterkarten von Meteodata gelegt haben." 
  • March 5, 2002: Österreich, Posse um Links, Netzzeitung.de:
    "Das weiß doch jedes Kind: Das Internet wird von Verknüpfungen, so genannten Hyperlinks, zusammengehalten. Wer die setzte, machte sich bislang um Gebühren keine Sorgen. Bis zu diesem Streitfall in der Alpenrepublik jedenfalls."
  • March 4, 2002: Abkassieren für Hyperlinks, futureZone:
    "Summen bis zu 100.000 Euro wurden von kleinen Firmen gefordert, die illegal Inhalte von Meteodata übernommen hatten."
  • March 1, 2002: Fiutak, Martin, Abmahnwelle: 10.000 Euro für einen Link, ZDNet:
    "Österreichische Site: "Die Zeiten sind vorbei, in denen einfach hin und her gelinkt wurde, wie man will"
  • February 28, 2002: Klage, Kulanz und Hyperlinks, futureZone

Allgemeine Geschäfts- und Nutzungsbedingungen von Meteo-data

Die Geschichte von METEO-Data with screenshots and correspondence

Meteo Data vs. e-Steyr.com - die Chronologie  

 

If you receive a message, demanding you pay for links, I recommend you  take a look at http://www.abmahnungswelle.de or Forum B-L-R (both sources are in German):

Bei-Link-Rechnung

If you are looking for more information about the Meteodata case, here are two more resources: Forum B-L-R and Stockhammer.

 

 

Also see the Decisions Section: August 29, 2002 and June 28, 2002 

 

Starbucks Coffee Company v. Backwash.com

Backwash.com stopped framing the content of Starbuck’s website after receiving the request to remove the links.

 

Amnesty International v. amnesty-tunesia.org

Amnesty International uses the framing technology to display both the Tunisian propaganda website (www.amnesty-tunisia.org) and Amnesty International's description of the human rights situation in Tunisia (www.amnesty.org/tunisia) on the screen.

 

Futuredontics v. Applied Anagramic

The plaintiff alleged that a framed link falsely tied the defendant to plaintiff's service. Injunctive relief was denied, and the denial was affirmed by the 9th Circuit on July 23, but defendant's motion to dismiss was also denied. The case was finally settled.

Also see the Decisions Section: January 30, 1998 and November 24, 1997

 

Yahoo.de v. Austro.net

Yahoo.de threatened a lawsuit in case austro.net does not stop framing Yahoo’s news articles.

 

Dilbert

In 1996 programmer Dan Wallach used inline-links to display United Media's Dilbert cartoon on his website. He received a cease-and-desist letter by the company und removed the links.  

 

 

Kelly v. Arriba Soft

A visual search engine (ditto.com, formerly known as Arriba) crawls the web to produce thumbnail images of photographs and uses them to link to the original pictures. Leslie Kelly, a professional photographer filed suit on April 6, 1999, alleging copyright infringement. A California District Court ruled that both the creating of the thumbnails and the inline-linking is justified under the fair use doctrine. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed and reversed in part the district court decision. The display of the tiny images was deemed to be legal fair use, but not the inline-linking.  

Update 8 (August 2003): 

On February 6, 2002, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that that unauthorized inline linking to images residing on the copyright owner's website violates the copright owner's right of public display. The court rejected defendant's fair use defense: Inline Linking diminishes the oppurtunities of the copyright owner to sell or licence the images on his own website. If the court's conclusion would be applied to all hyperlinks, it could seriously interfere with internet use.

In July 2003, the court found that the district court should not have reached the issue because neither party moved for summary judgment as to the full-size images." So the lower court once again has to take a look at the issue of inline linking.

 

  • July 10, 2003: Thumbnail and framing ruling revised, Out-Law.com:
    "A US federal appeals court this week revised an earlier copyright ruling over a search engine that provided miniature images in search results, known as thumbnails, and linked to the original image framed within the search engine's own site."
  • July 8, 2003: Einbettung per Inline Link erlaubt?, Intern.de:
    "Der 9. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hat sich noch einmal den Fall Arriba Soft gegen Leslie Kelly vorgenommen."
  • July 8, 2003: Thumbnails OK, says court, Business Journal:
    "An Internet search engine did not break the law when it collected and distributed thumbnail images of copyrighted photos, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled in another case involving the Internet and copyright law."
  • July 7, 2003: Olsen, Stefanie, Court backs thumbnail image linking, CNet:
    "Search engines' display of miniature images is fair use under copyright law, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, but the legality of presenting full-size renditions of visual works is yet to be determined."
  • March 15, 2002: Filler, Stephen, An Internet-Age Copyright Ruling, atnewyork.com:
    "Also, and more significantly, the Court ruled that the Web site's use of inline linking and frames to display content residing on a third party's server was a copyright infringement."
  • February 20, 2002: Sullivan, Danny, Legal Rulings On Image Search & Meta Tags, Search Engine Watch:
    "In the right circumstances, image search engines don't violate copyright and using another company's trademarks in meta tags isn't infringement, two separate court cases have found."
  • February 20, 2002: Contreras, Jorge / Steinberg, Donald, Thumbnails, Fair Use and Hyperlinks: The Ninth Circuit Breaks New Ground in Kelly v. Arriba Soft, Hale and Dorr LLP:
    "On February 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp. further expanded the scope of the "fair use" exception to include "thumbnail" reproductions of copyrighted images generated by a visual Internet search engine. In doing so, however, the court also confirmed that hyperlinking to full-sized images "framed" by the search engine was not permitted."
  • February 7, 2002: Krebs, Brian, Court Rules “Thumbnail” Images OK, Full-Sized Copies Not, Newsbytes:
    "In an important decision for the application of copyright law on the Internet, a federal appeals court has ruled that while Web sites may legally reproduce and post "thumbnail" versions of copyrighted photographs, displaying full-sized copies of the images violates artists' exclusive right to display their own works."
  • February 6, 2002: Sandburg, Brenda, Bigger Not Better With Copyrighted Web Photos, law.com:
    "Search engines can display "thumbnails," but not full-sized images of copyrighted works on their Web sites, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday."
  • April 6, 1999: Leslie A. Kelly Press Release Regarding Suit Against Arriba Soft Corporation and the Arriba Vista Search Engine

Legal Material:

For legal analysis see:

Also see the Decision Section: February 6, 2002 and December 15, 1999

 

So, thumbnails are legal in the USA, but what about the situation in Germany (Update 16, March 2004):

The German-language Google News went online in July 2003, covering about 700 news sources. Germany was the 7th country to get a country-specific Google News service, which presents information culled from many news sources. Topics are updated continuously throughout the day. There are no human editors. Google has developed an automated grouping process for Google News that pulls together related headlines and photos. And here is the legal problem: Often thumbnail images from other news sources are used to illustrate links. These thumbnails could be in contradiction to copyright law. In the USA,  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp. held that the " fair use" exception includes "thumbnail" reproductions of copyrighted images generated by a visual Internet search engine. But the legal situation is different in Germany. Under the German Copyright Law of 1965 there is no general limitation of fair use, but  a closed set of `limitations' on a copyright owners rights (e.g. the reproduction for private or scientific use is permitted). All limitations don't apply to the conversion of internet photos to "thumbnails", according to the regional court of Hamburg. This means that Google can no longer use thumbnail images without the permission of the copyright owner. The decision is on appeal.

 

Haymarket v. Burmah Castrol

UK publisher Haymarket is suing oil firm Burmah Castrol for infringement of its intellectual property rights. Haymarket websites (whatcar.com and autosport.com) are framed in a Castrol-branded border.

  • Spring 2001: Misquitta, Anthony, You’ve been framed:
    "Internet hyper-linking and framing are currently hot topics, not least because of the lack of any English case law. Having recently advised Haymarket Magazines on their well publicised (and successful) claim against Burmah Castrol for the unauthorised framing of two of their sites, we review where the law is at present."
  • March 2001: In too deep?: hypertext linking on the web, Legal 500:
    "Recent decisions in a number of cases across Europe and the US have contributed to a confusing picture on the legality of deep linking: the use of hypertext links (strings of text, usually coloured and underlined, or graphics) between websites which bypass homepages and the banner advertising that they display."
  • January 10, 2001: Leyden, John: Castrol frames car sites – publisher sues, The Register:
    "UK publisher Haymarket is suing oil firm Burmah Castrol for alleged infringement of its online intellectual property rights."

 

DerPoet.de

According to an injunction from Cologne, framing a database of poems and prose violates German copyright law, if the frameprovider adds advertisement to the original content.

  • May 17, 2002: Werbeganiertes “Framing” verletzt Urheberrechte, Heise:
    "In einem noch nicht rechtskräftigen Urteil von Anfang Mai hat das Landgericht Köln festgestellt, dass das "Entführen" tief verlinkter fremder Webseiten in Frames bei gleichzeitigem Hinzufügen von Werbe-Frames rechtswidrig ist."

  Also see the Decision Section: May 2, 2001

 

Journal Gazette/The News-Sentinel v. Ft-Wayne.com

The owners of The Journal Gazette and The News-Sentinel filed suit against the Website  Ft-Wayne.Com, because it framed its content (Journal Gazette Co. v. Midwest Internet Exchange, 98-CV0130 (D. Ind. filed May 4, 1998)). In response to the suit, the defendant discontinued the use of frames. The action is still pending before the Northern District Court of Indiana.

  • May 29, 1998: Kaplan, Carl, Lawsuit May Determine Whether Framing Is Thieving, New York Times:
    "A lawsuit pitting a pair of century-old Midwestern newspapers against three Internet companies could set the stage for an important court decision on the legality of a common Internet practice known as "framing."

   

Yahoo v. vlbg.at

 

Perfect 10 v. Google

According to a preliminary ruling in a US Federal Court thumbnail images displayed in Google Image Search breached Perfect 10 copyright. The court did not follow Google's argument that its creation and display of thumbnails is fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107. Decisive arguments:

  • ... If third-party websites that contain infringing copies of P10 photographs are also AdSense partners, Google will serve advertisements on those sites and split the revenue generated from users who click on the Google-served advertisements...Google has a strong incentive to link to as many third-party websites as possible—including those that host AdSense advertisements. (does not seem very convincing to me...)

  • ...In early 2005 P10 entered into a licensing agreement with Fonestarz Media Limited for the sale and distribution of P10 reduced-size images for download to and use on cell phones. Google’s use of thumbnails does supersede this use of P10’s images, because mobile users can download and save the thumbnails displayed by Google Image Search onto their phones (very convincing, but the argument is limited to this case, so Google's picture search as such is not in jepardy)

US District Court Judge Howard Matz also held that Google was not responsible if surfers clicked on thumbnails that directed them to full size porno images hosted on third party websites, taken without permission from the official Perfect 10 site. This is big news: The court held that Google is not secondarily liable under the doctrines of contributory or vicarious infringement for linking to infringing content! Bringing visitors to the linked-to-websites is not enough to establish material contribution. So in theory, Google could stop removing websites with infringinging content from their search results. Google no longer depends on the safe harbour provision (17 U.S.C. § 512 (d)).

Howard Matz ordered Google and Perfect 10 to develop a preliminary injunction that reflects both factors. The order could effectively bar Google from featuring thumbnail pictures. So no surprise: Google said that it plans to appeal the injunction!

PDF-document of the decision 

 

Google v. Perfect 10: Appeals Court decision

Last year, a U.S. District Court in California preliminarily enjoined Google from creating and publicly displaying thumbnail versions of Perfect 10’s images, Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc., 416 F. Supp. 2d 828 (C.D. Cal. 2006), but did not enjoin Google from linking to third-party websites that display infringing full-size versions of Perfect 10’s images (see Update 38). Perfect 10 and Google both appealed the district court’s order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned that decision and sent the case back down to the District Court for further proceedings.

Key Findings:

  • The owner of a computer that does not store and serve the electronic information to a user is not displaying that information, even if such owner in-line links to or frames the electronic information. So inline-linking to full-size images constitutes no direct infringement.

  • Perfect 10 has succeeded in showing it would prevail in its prima facie case that Google’s thumbnail images infringe Perfect 10’s display rights, but failed to show a likelihood that it will prevail against Google’s fair use defense. The court concluded that the transformative nature of Google’s use is more significant than any incidental superseding use or the minor commercial aspects of Google’s search engine and website: "The district court reasoned that persons who can obtain Perfect 10 images free of charge from Google are less likely to pay for a download, and the availability of Google’s thumbnail images would harm Perfect 10’s market for cell phone downloads. Id. As we discussed above, the district court did not make a finding that Google users have downloaded thumbnail images for cell phone use. This potential harm to Perfect 10’s market remains hypothetical." So the Ninth Circuit disagreed that the display of a thumbnail constitutes copyright infringement.

  • A search engine operator can be held contributorily liable if it has actual knowledge that specific infringing material is available using its system,  and can take simple measures to prevent further damage to copyrighted works, yet continues to provide access to infringing works.

Also see:

Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., CV-05-04753-AHM (9th Cir. May 16, 2007)

 

 

Linking Cases

There have been a lot of lawsuits concerning linking, framing and search engine issues in the last years. In this section you'll find short introductions into the different cases and links to news articles about it. 

An overview over featured cases can be found here!
 

Latest News - Update 71

Legal trouble for YouTube in Germany

Germany: Employer may google job applicant

EU: Consultation on the E-Commerce-Directive

WIPO Paper on tradmarks and the internet

The ECJ and the AdWords Cases

 

 

Masthead/Curriculum Vitae
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