Posting Hyperlinks Here

[The Old Ruminator]

I do worry about infringing copright and post a few hyperlinks here. How safe with that am I ?

Yes, posting a link can be a copyright infringement, especially if the linked content is copyrighted and was published without the copyright holder's consent. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has clarified that hyperlinking to unauthorized content can constitute copyright infringement.



Elaboration:

• Communication to the public:
  When you post a link, you are essentially communicating the content to a public, which can be considered a new public if the linked content was not originally made available to that specific audience.
  

• Financial gain:
  If the link is posted for financial gain, there's a presumption that the poster had knowledge of the copyrighted nature of the work and the lack of consent from the copyright holder.
  
  
• Knowing or should have known:
  If you know or should have known that the content was published illegally, posting the link can be an infringement.
  
  
• Exceptions:
  There are exceptions to the general rule. For instance, if the content was already freely available online with the copyright holder's consent, or if there are fair dealing exceptions, then posting the link may not be an infringement.
  
  
• Technical protection:
  If the copyright holder has taken steps to prevent linking to the content, such as using a paywall or technical protection against framing, circumventing those measures and posting a link may require express authorization from the copyright holder, according to Osborne Clarke.
  

 

[aricooperdavis]

I think you've answered your own question pretty thoroughly there. It's very case specific.

• For example if you scanned a guidebook, put the images on Dropbox, and posted a hyperlink to it you would definitely be infringing the copyright of the rights owner.
• If somebody else scanned the guidebook and you posted a hyperlink to their Dropbox then that could still be infringement, as you've identified above.
• If you don't know if a work is in the public domain then you have the "knowing or should have known" element to consider, as you've noted.

If in doubt, it's probably easiest to ask whoever manages the content that you want to link here whether or not they mind you doing that.

As a last resort you could ask a moderator for help.

 

[jh5638]

I do worry about infringing copright and post a few hyperlinks here. How safe with that am I ?

Yes, posting a link can be a copyright infringement, especially if the linked content is copyrighted and was published without the copyright holder's consent. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has clarified that hyperlinking to unauthorized content can constitute copyright infringement.



Elaboration:

• Communication to the public:
  When you post a link, you are essentially communicating the content to a public, which can be considered a new public if the linked content was not originally made available to that specific audience.
• 
  
• Financial gain:
  If the link is posted for financial gain, there's a presumption that the poster had knowledge of the copyrighted nature of the work and the lack of consent from the copyright holder.
  
  
• 
  
• Knowing or should have known:
  If you know or should have known that the content was published illegally, posting the link can be an infringement.
  
  
• 
  
• Exceptions:
  There are exceptions to the general rule. For instance, if the content was already freely available online with the copyright holder's consent, or if there are fair dealing exceptions, then posting the link may not be an infringement.
  
  
• 
  
• Technical protection:
  If the copyright holder has taken steps to prevent linking to the content, such as using a paywall or technical protection against framing, circumventing those measures and posting a link may require express authorization from the copyright holder, according to Osborne Clarke.

The relevant part of the CJEU's ruling:

“Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29 must be interpreted as meaning that, in order to establish whether the fact of posting, on a website, hyperlinks to protected works, which are freely available on another website without the consent of the copyright holder, constitutes a ‘communication to the public’ within the meaning of that provision, it is to be determined whether those links are provided without the pursuit of financial gain by a person who did not know or could not reasonably have known the illegal nature of the publication of those works on that other website or whether, on the contrary, those links are provided for such a purpose, a situation in which that knowledge must be presumed.”

Posting a hyperlink to a copyrighted work that appears on the Internet (i.e., is freely available) without the consent of the copyright owner is not an infringement of the Info Soc Directive - unless you are posting the hyperlink for financial gain and/or know that the copyrighted work you are linking to is illegally published. I.e., if the link is to legally published content on a publicly available website and you aren't financially gaining from posting it, you are OK to publish a link to it even without the consent of the owner.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Great info jh. I am in trouble as usual with such a link. At least I was legal but of course good manners are another thing. I still wish people posting here could retain the right to edit their posts. Would save me a lot of agro.

 

[paul]

The reason that posts can only be edited by their originator for a limited time is because it can create confusion in subsequent replies if the original post changes. If you want a post to be changed subsequently, you only have to click on the Report link and request a mod to change the post for you.

 

[mikem]

Well, if it was the bcra one, you failed, and someone else did it!

 

[JohnMCooper]

Probably the UBSS one

 

[Ali M]

No - not the UBSS newsletter as far as I am aware.

 

[Badlad]

Is there a specific problem you have encountered or is this for general information. I'm not sure I understand the subtleties of this post.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Is there a specific problem you have encountered or is this for general information. I'm not sure I understand the subtleties of this post.

I am purely wondering if posting any hyperlinks here can be construed as breaching copyright. Really its as simple as that without going into the ethics ( good manners ) of asking the original authors.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The reason that posts can only be edited by their originator for a limited time is because it can create confusion in subsequent replies if the original post changes. If you want a post to be changed subsequently, you only have to click on the Report link and request a mod to change the post for you.

Well OK. Other forums I use allow originator editing without limit with never a problem but if thats the way it happens here so be it.

 

[aricooperdavis]

I am purely wondering if posting any hyperlinks here can be construed as breaching copyright.

Well that's easily answered - yes, in some cases it can, as you say in your original post.

 

[mikem]

Well OK. Other forums I use allow originator editing without limit with never a problem but if thats the way it happens here so be it.

It happened before on other posts, sometimes making the reply look idiotic, hence why it was set like that.