Linking Your Web Site? Ask First

Question: Do I need permission to provide a "link" from my Web site to another Web site?

Web site links permit Web users to click their way from one Web site to another. Linking is so common on the World Wide Web that the idea that a Web site owner might need permission to link to another site was once considered absurd. In the Web culture, providing a link to another site has generally been viewed as a favor to the owner of the linked site, because being linked increases traffic to that site.

Lately, however, the increasing commercialization of the World Wide Web and the availability of new technology (such as framing technology, which permits a Web site user to view material from another Web site within a "frame" on the original site) have caused reexaminatin of the assumption that linking does not require permission. Currently, whether a Web site owner who wants to provide a link to another site must get permission from the owner of the linked site is open to debate. Linking without framing does not involve copying or displaying the linked site's pages, so it does not raise copyright infringement concerns. (Framing, though, may raise copyright issues.) However, some Web site owners may not want to be associated with your site or your products. For this reason, it's a good idea to get permission before you provide a link from your Web site to another site.