Adding a hyperlink

Hi. As webmaster for a local astronomy club, I'm always looking to add good
links to our site. Ran across this nice link showing viewing conditions for
the cont. U.S.:

http://www.intellicast.com/Partners/...kyWatch/d1_00/

Being a nice person, I emailed intellicast asking permission to use this
link. I get back a form email with a price catalog attached. Now the link
is nice, but it's not worth $15-20/month.

I've seen a couple of club web sites with this link. Do they pay for it? I
thought you paid for a service to get rid of the advertising. Or is there
someone human I should email to ask permission? Any advice is
appreciated...Dennis

Dennis Allen:

Hi. As webmaster for a local astronomy club, I'm always looking to add good
links to our site. Ran across this nice link showing viewing conditions for
the cont. U.S.:

http://www.intellicast.com/Partners/...kyWatch/d1_00/

Being a nice person, I emailed intellicast asking permission to use this
link. I get back a form email with a price catalog attached. Now the link
is nice, but it's not worth $15-20/month.

I've seen a couple of club web sites with this link. Do they pay for it? I
thought you paid for a service to get rid of the advertising. Or is there
someone human I should email to ask permission? Any advice is
appreciated...Dennis

An examination of the Intellicast site reveals that they offer "Weather
Content Syndication Services." Judging from the URL that you posted, is
it possible that the cited page is one that some other entity
(EarthSky? SkyWatch?) has licensed in return for a fee for their own
use? If so, there would be restrictions on linking to that page.

On the other hand, there may be a misunderstanding here if the cited
page is simply part of the Intellicast web site. An entity may charge
for certain uses of the information that they post on the WWW, but they
may not charge for simple linking. Entities that do not permit linking
to web pages employ technical means (such as a continually changing
URL) to force one to reach the desired page via another page of the
entity's choice.

Link to the page if you wish, but have it open in a new window (a
href="http://www.intellicast.com/Partners/HTML/EarthSky/SkyWatch/d1_00/"
target="_blank"). Make it clear in the wording of your link that the
linked page is not part of your site. And stop being such a nice
person!

I don't think the page is all that great, by the way -- wouldn't give
it space on my sites -- but that's purely personal.

Perhaps the best known legal case on linking is _Universal City
Studios, Inc. v. Eric Corley a/k/a "Emmanuel Goldstein"_, in which
Corley/Goldstein offered a link to a computer program the sole purpose
of which was to defeat the decryption of commercial DVD's and enable
the theft of copyrighted works. The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals
applied the provisions of the DMCA to uphold a permanent injunction
preventing Corley/Goldstein from posting a computer program (DeCSS) for
decrypting a DVD access code (CSS) on a website *and from knowingly
linking to other websites containing the program.* Corley/Goldstein had
many eminent and learned defenders among civil libertarians (and I am a
civil libertarian); nonetheless, his sole purpose was to facilitate the
theft of copyrighted artistic material that cost $millions to produce.
No sympathy from me.

Moving slightly off-topic: I'm a webmaster and owner of a copyrighted
commercial community web site (perryopolis.com). I want people to link
to my site. A couple of years ago, however, a certain business included
some of my pages within puke frames /puke on its web site without
attribution, making it appear as if those pages were part of the
business's web site. A simple letter reminding them that putting one's
name on another's copyrighted material and representing that material
as one's own is a no-no quickly brought a stop to the practice.

Now I've recently found that the Perryopolis (Pa.) Police Department
has taken a copyrighted photograph that I made (and that I edited
extensively in Photoshop) from my site and placed it on the main page
of their "Copyright... All Rights Reserved" site -- and to make matters
worse, they have put it there in a highly distorted and degraded form.
I invite you to look at the photo at the top left of
http://www.perryopolispolice.com/ and then to look at the *original*
photo that I made at the top of
http://www.perryopolis.com/downtown.shtml. Time to write another
letter. Jeez! (Never mind that some drunk knocked the clock down after
I took the photo.)

Davoud
What a tangled Web we have woven!

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

"Davoud" wrote in message
...

An examination of the Intellicast site reveals that they offer "Weather
Content Syndication Services." Judging from the URL that you posted, is
it possible that the cited page is one that some other entity
(EarthSky? SkyWatch?) has licensed in return for a fee for their own
use? If so, there would be restrictions on linking to that page.

On the other hand, there may be a misunderstanding here if the cited
page is simply part of the Intellicast web site. An entity may charge
for certain uses of the information that they post on the WWW, but they
may not charge for simple linking. Entities that do not permit linking
to web pages employ technical means (such as a continually changing
URL) to force one to reach the desired page via another page of the
entity's choice.

Link to the page if you wish, but have it open in a new window (a
href="http://www.intellicast.com/Partners/HTML/EarthSky/SkyWatch/d1_00/"
target="_blank"). Make it clear in the wording of your link that the
linked page is not part of your site. And stop being such a nice
person!

No, unless I can a reply to contradicts that automated email I won't add the
link. I was hoping someone from another club site had a better intellicast
contact. As for being a nice person, sorry, can't help it...Dennis

"Davoud" wrote in message news:130420040901576485%
/
Now I've recently found that the Perryopolis (Pa.) Police Department
has taken a copyrighted photograph that I made (and that I edited
extensively in Photoshop) from my site and placed it on the main page
of their "Copyright... All Rights Reserved" site -- and to make matters
worse, they have put it there in a highly distorted and degraded form.
I invite you to look at the photo at the top left of
http://www.perryopolispolice.com/ and then to look at the *original*
photo that I made at the top of
http://www.perryopolis.com/downtown.shtml. Time to write another
letter. Jeez! (Never mind that some drunk knocked the clock down
after I took the photo.)

Couldn't see it on the home page, but I found it on the index5.html page.
OMG! The Police should be setting an example - oh the hypocracy!
Incidentally, in your letter, perhaps you could tell them that resizing
full-size images within the visitor's browser is not the best use of
bandwidth -- a common mistake for M$ Frontpage users. And the
picture of the officer on the Recruitment page looks very approachable
and caring; I want to sign-up immediately! ;-)