Copyright Law and Linking
Why do I spend so much time dealing with issues of software linking? Does this topic really matter to anyone but open source zealots?
Consider the metaphor of the World Wide Web, a huge collection of individually written web pages that anyone can access and display just by linking. Those pages are individually copyrighted works, made available to all by their authors, generally for free (i.e., at zero price). Under the copyright law, you do not create a derivative work of someone's web page by linking to it, nor is it a derivative work of your web page if it links to you.
At most, such linkages create collective works. A web page, for example, that contains links to articles about open source may present those links ...
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