[humorix] Court Rules Against "Deep Citations"

[James Baughn <jbaughn@ldd.net>]

Court Rules Against "Deep Citations"
June 20, 2002

TOLEDO, OHIO -- In a stunning decision, a Federal judge
ruled that a graduate student at Northern Ohio Ivy Minor
League College violated copyright law by including a "deep
citation" in his research paper to a copyrighted magazine
article he used as a source.

"This is a victory for publishers everywhere," said Mr.
Vull Churr, lawyer representing Random Lawsuit Home, Inc. 
"No longer will readers be permitted to bypass the table of
contents -- along with the advertising -- within our
magazines. We want them to have a full and complete reading
experience. That will only happen if scholars stop
directing readers to specific page numbers and instead
encourage them to browse through the whole magazine issue
and thus appreciate the full context of the work."

The judge ruled that any "deep citation" including a page
number or chapter title must be pre-approved by the
publisher in writing.  "If you flip to a specific page in a
magazine and read the content while bypassing the
advertisements, then you are a thief," the judge wrote in
his decision, which was apparently lifted straight out of a
Random Lawsuit Home press release.

"Does anybody have airplane tickets and an entry visa for a
country that doesn't have lawyers?" the losing defendant
said.  "I simply can't believe this decision.  If Random
Home is so paranoid about 'deep citations', why don't they
use technical means to prevent the problem?  Why not simply
print several versions of each magazine issue in which the
articles appear at different, random page numbers in each
one?  That would make it impossible to link to a specific
page.  For that matter, why have page numbers at all?"

Right on cue, the USJEOEACDICL (Union of Slashdot Junkies
Expressing Outrage at Every Asinine Court Decision
Involving Copyright Laws) issued a statement expressing
outrage at this asinine court decision involving copyright
laws. Unfortunately, we cannot include their statement here
because it includes deep citations to several books about
copyright law.  Our lawyer, Mr. Noah Morals, pointed out
that the Humorix legal defense fund currently includes only
15 cents, which is not quite enough protection against the
barrage of deep linking lawsuits that would likely result.

--
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://mail.nl.linux.org/humorix/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/