2005-03-05 21:16:05

Eric Goldman, a Marquette Law professor who was formerly the Epinions.com general counsel, weighs in on the Google Toolbar:

From a legal standpoint, AutoLink looks questionable. The tool modifies publisher's web pages by adding hypertext links without the publisher's consent. While this modification isn't a huge change, I could still see some (many?) courts treating them as unauthorized derivative works. Honestly, it seems like a fairly routine copyright infringement.

| publishing | 2005/03/05 09:16 PM | 5 COMMENTS

Comments

I bought a rubber-stamp maker which allows me, should I wish, to create 'unauthorized derivative works' from print-outs of websites. Time to enjoin Office Depot?

# 1 | nick sweeney | 2005-03-07 05:02 PM | link

epinions? what's that?

big deal, a guy has a law degree and worked for a dismal dotcom.

seems like a fairly obvious case of idiocy, honestly.

# 2 | jerry | 2005-03-07 05:26 PM | link

I don't buy that argument. As I see it, the end user uses Google Toolbar to enhance his browser's display of the original web page, analogous to hitting Ctrl-+ to increase the displayed text size on this browser, or to running one of those text-to-voice readers which people with bad eyesight use.

# 3 | W. Kiernan | 2005-03-07 06:19 PM | link

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Goldman, who from his bio, is teaching the following subjects at Marquette Law: cyberlaw, intellectual property, copyrights, contracts, licensing and professional responsibility.

# 4 | Rogers Cadenhead | 2005-03-07 08:45 PM | link

Thank you!
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# 5 | Michelle | 2006-05-17 04:46 AM | link

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