________________________________________________________________________________ [vocabulary alert: if any link to some other document than a front page must be referred to as "deep-linking", then there's not so much actual "linking" on the web at all. the whole idea of regulating links ("good business practice", "consensual partnerships for extensive data sharing" etc.) seems totally bizarre, but if you are running a billion dollar auction site, even search engines must be considered as a potential threat to your e-bussines. -- probably you are not, and probably you don't spend your time hopping from portal to portal, so i think one of the questions here would be: is there any significant practice of linking at all that is neither bussiness nor art? fight for your right to link, and, not to forget: fight for your right to frame - but what is it that you link, actually? do you see (or have you ever created) any meaningful context for something like "href=www.ebay.com/..."? have you ever framed any other site at all? and have you seen any websites lately that are NOT PORTALS and NOT HOMEPAGES and NOT ART? are you running one yourself? what does it do?] Statement: Deep Linking October 15, 1999 There is a natural controversy over the practice of "deep-linking" (e.g. linking by one site into other than the front page of another). On the one hand, companies spend a huge amount of time and money building out original content for their sites, developing relationships with suppliers and partners, attracting advertisers and customers, selecting merchandise, etc. to develop a relationship with users, which can then sometimes be improperly "appropriated" by competitor sites and others that have not made this effort. On the other hand, the very nature of the web is its openness, and linking is an essential element in making the web the powerful medium for communication, commerce and discovery that it has become. This often makes the debate emotional and not deliberative. Ticketmaster Online is in favor of linking. When linking is extensive and beyond navigation pages, we think it works best when it is consensual and contractual terms and conditions are honored. We believe that most credible sites follow this practice as a matter of courtesy and good business practice. We enjoy consensual partnerships for extensive data sharing and deep-linking with many sites including leading portal sites and others. Venue sites, newspaper sites, entertainment sites, sports sites, music artist sites and many others link or deep-link to our site. The issue we and many other sites have is when deep-linking is systematic and wholesale by a direct competitor for distinctly commercial reasons and in contravention of published terms and conditions. Until now, the linking debate has not made distinctions regarding the extent of linking, commercial motivation, or the status of the linking site as competitor or ally, but these distinctions are clearly important to deciding the merits of this issue. The time is ripe for a richer discussion of when it is acceptable to deep-link and when it is not. We allege in a recently filed lawsuit that one of our direct competitors in the ticketing business has unauthorized deep-links to many or even most of our event ticketing pages. Many people have asked us why we took this action. We acted because these ticketing pages represent the relationships Ticketmaster and Ticketmaster Online have built with venues, acts, teams, promoters, and our ticket buyers over more than 20 years. We allege that this practice is coupled with "spidering" of our content (using automated search robots to capture content and information we collected or developed) and the provision of misleading and inconsistent information regarding ticket availability (e.g. indicating tickets are available only from a ticket broker when they are actually available from our service and the box office). In our opinion this kind of practice is inappropriate self-interested commercial behavior. We think this is attempting to unfairly build one business on the back of another, plain and simple. And this is not just about business. We think this practice can hurt users. In our business, for example, third party content spidering and deep- links may diminish our users' ticket buying experience. No unauthorized third party trying to capture data from our site can provide our users with the up- to-the-minute information they deserve about events we are ticketing. And inaccurate third party information about ticket availability could cause ticket buyers to pay more than necessary for their seats. To hide behind the "sanctity of the open Web" to protect commercial practices that no one would condone in any other medium is hypocrisy. We believe that far from being in the spirit of the Web, these kinds of unfair commercial practices undermine and subvert the Web medium. It makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to capture the value of their original work, it creates an environment of mis-trust, and it diminishes user experiences. This is inimical to the spirit of the Internet, not supportive of it. It is time to move the deep-linking discussion from emotional generalities to common sense distinctions that will foster both good consumer experiences and the fair conduct of business. SOURCE Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, Inc. ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org