Linking to URLs on the web (was Useful Training pages...)

[Melissa Silvestre]

I'm not sure I understand this:

At 10:28 AM 4/18/96 -0700, you wrote:
>RE: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/edfirst/appcamp/graphics/grabweb.html from
>mfbrown at utk.edu--
>
>You are absolutely correct and I better post this to all four listservs to
>be on the safe side.  I once listed a URL from a research group at UCLA on
>a resource page and got back quite a nasty note from them for using their
>URL as a link without asking.  I try to  notify links now and  do a Web
>Credits section.  Graphics should, as you say, be included.  We aim for
>generic clip art whenever possible.

Are you saying that you just pointed to them and they complained?!
But that's what URLs are for! That's like the author of a book insisting
on being notified everytime anyone includes a citation to his/her book
in their bibliography.
Now, linking directly to graphics so that they are inline images
in your own document is a much more gray area, copyright-wise, but it's
absurd to think we have to ask permission to link to someone's html page!

Did I completely misunderstand, or is there actually a serious school
of thought out there that thinks that URLs themselves are copyright-protected?

-----------
Melissa Silvestre  silvest at umslvma.umsl.edu  
http://www.umsl.edu/~silvest/index.html (314) 516-6473  USDA Zone 5
Univ of Missouri-St. Louis, Thomas Jefferson Library - Reference 
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