Linking and copyright – a problem solvable by functional-technical concepts?
Taina Pihlajarinne · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2019
Linking as such is nothing new in copyright discussion – a discussion that started in the early 1990s. However, the Internet, its business models and linking activities as part of those models has undergone thorough changes. Indeed, as opposed to early discussion that concerned linking in its simple form in an undeveloped Internet, nowadays it is questionable whether linking can be discussed as a single, discrete phenomenon. Moreover, the role of a link has changed: while its immediate function is to deliver information on the location of a particular entity’s web address, in a broader perspective the claim might be made that linking is also in certain cases used as a tool for de facto content distribution.