Dear Mr. Gannon,

I read on the TechDirt web site about the whole business of whether or not Mr. Masnick should have first sought your permission to link to your site from his; and I wanted to share some thinking about it with you, if you’ll permit me (and I’ll bet you’re getting all kinds of hate email over it, so I hope you don’t think this is yet another bit of that).

First, I should tell you that I find disconcerting much of what Mr. Masnick writes; and I’m generally speaking, far more supportive of IP rights than he. I don’t post much on his site, but I have several posts there which take strong issue with some of his positions (as well as several which don’t, mind you).

I’ve also been some 35 years in IT and have been on the Internet since MANY years before the Worldwide Web part of it even existed. And I’ve taken a keen interest, just generally, in IP law (albeit from a lay perspective) such that I probably know more about it than the average guy walkin’ down the street (though, of course, I’d never dare take-on someone with YOUR kind of expertise).

I’m also rather schooled in “netiquette,” just generally. I’ve been around since the very beginning of chat rooms, USENET, forums, etc.; and I participated in some of the Internet’s earliest discussions about what “netiquette” even was. And there’s no shortage, out there, of postings and other writings by me trying to take others to school over their bad netiquette.

I’ve also run some fairly large and popular web sites to which many wanted to link… the biggest and most famous of them being the LACI PETERSON web site (the family-owned and -opearated site which kept the world informed during the tragic missing person case of the pregnant Modesto, California woman who disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002, and whose body, and that of her unborn fetus, washed-up in the San Francisco Bay about three months later; and whose husband was later convicted of her murder and now sits on death row). I ask, by the way, that no one judge my web work by that site, as it is today. Whomever took it over after I left has fairly ruined it.

On every site I’ve ever run, there have always been a relatively small percentage of people who email and ask permission before they link to the site. I mention the LACI PETERSON site, though, in part, because with a site getting as many thousands of hits per minute as it was getting back then (and the number of emails that I ask you to imagine), even a so-called “small percentage” was a whole lotta’ permission requests.

I’ve never really understood it, though, because if one goes back and reads about what the creators of the Worldwide Web part of the Internet had in mind in terms of hyperlinking and how it was all supposed to work, one can see, clearly and unambiguously, (and I was around, back then, so I also remember) that unlimited hyperlinking — and not only without first securing anyone’s permssion to so do, but, even more importantly, without anyone even giving it a second thought — was the whole POINT of it all.

The very notion of asking permission to link flies in the face of why the Worldwide Web part of the Internet was conceived during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then finally brought online in 1994, in the first place. The notion of evan asking is a throwback to an earllier way of thinking about the entirely different paradigm of the printed word… only on PAPER.

Given the very nature and logistics of the web, presuming that Able should have to ask for Baker’s permission in order for Able to link to Baker’s site is counterintuitive; so much so, in fact, that I know many webmasters (especially those who run BIG sites… like, for example, the LACI PETERSON site that I ran) who get really irritated by even being asked.

“Why are you even ASKING me this,” they think to themselves. “Just do it, and stop bothering me about it. You don’t need my permission, for godsake! Geez.” That, I think, is kinda’ the point, albeit less directly, that Nina Paley makes in that to which Mr. Masnick links, above.

Believe me when I tell you that the vast majority of those on the Internet think as I’m describing… hence the reason Mr. Masnick is now making such a big deal about it, now, on his site. Er… well… maybe that, plus he admittedly doesn’t have much respect for some of your (and many other IP lawyers’) legal positions, and so he’s kinda’ pokin’ at you a little… which is understandable, you have to admit.

And, seriously, Mr. Gannon, I’m not simply agreeing with Mr. Masnic, here, as a means of taking sides or anything like that. I’m not one of his minions (which it might surprise him to learn that he even had, if he actually has any) who’s now bothering you about it as a means of also kinda’ pokin’ at you. I remind that I often don’t agree with Mr. Masnick; and would never blindly follow him — or anyone else, for that matter — and so, I assure you that what I’m writing to you, here, really from my heart; and is the way it is, to wit:

It is simply not generally considered necessary (and some even consider it an inconvenience and/or imposition) for one web site owner to ask the owner of a different web site for permission to link thereto. It is not only NOT a breach of netiquette to just go ahead and link, but the asking actually shows things down and kinda’ goofs-up very POINT of the hyperlinking nature of the Internet’s Worldwide Web.

Therefore, it’s debatable whether or not someone taking the time to email you and ask you is really being considerate. It’s actually being a little bit inconsiderate, considering how everything’s supposed to work. While it might seem like they’ve making a nice gesture, they’re actually mucking-up the works, in a way.

It’s worthy of note, too, that all the major search engines clearly get this concept, as evidenced by how they rank a given web site higher in search results based, in part, on how many OTHER web sites link to it…

…in other words, the more popular is a site, based on how many other sties link to it, the higher its search engine rankings. If a site owner wants his/her site to rank more highly in search results, then it is in his/her interest to have literally millions of other sites out there linking back to his/her site. Eventually, literally millions of sites linked-back to the LACI PETERSON site; and we calculated, one day, that if only a tiny fraction of those sites cause a linkback per hour, we’d be getting more visits in a morning than what vast majority of other web sites get in a year.

And in the case of a site with literally millions of other sites linking back to it, it would take said site’s owner literally YEARS just to read and respond to all the email link requests even if only a tiny fraction of them had the “courtesy” to ask.

Think of it this way: Imagine that you print (or XEROX) a bunch of one-page fliers of some kind… oh… say… fliers which announce some talk that you’re giving at a local law library or bookstore or something. When you printed them, you obviously expected that as many people as possible would see and read them.

Assuming that people should ask permission first before linking to your web site would be approximately equivalent to assuming that people with your flier in their hands should call and ask your permission first before showing it to someone standing next to them. It’s just silly and unnecessary. And, in fact, I’ll bet you’d be irritated with anyone who bothered you with it.

This is simply a situation where you, obviously, have not connected the flier analogy with the very nature of the Worldwide Web part of the Internet. Only if the web content were behind some kind of paywall or other construct which required that the reader have (or acquire) an account and then login in order to read said content might your permission presumption make at least a LITTLE philosophical sense, but only if the link somehow bypassed the login. However, even in THAT case, the registration and/or login process, itself, provides all the IP-related safeguards that would be necessary.

I fear that Mr. Masnick’s having called you on your IP-related opinions is what was REALLY gnawing at you (and I can understand that… his points can sometimes sting), but instead of arguing them on their merits, I fear that you deflected to what was actually a non-issue. This is a common thing, by the way, which all humans do; so no shame, there. We’ve all done it, and I’m sure we’ll all do it again. It’s just the way humans are.

Anyway, I just wanted to share these thoughts with you. From my reading of your stuff, you seem like a good enough guy, good at what he does, works really hard at it, cares very much about it, and is out there sharing his notions about it with whomever will read it…

…which is the whole reason you even HAVE a site… no? If you wanted to control who saw it, you’d have a registration/login thing going on, no? And since you don’t, are you saying that you don’t appreciate the additional visits to your site that Mr. Masnick, whether or not welcome, is sending you?

Any serious, experienced, professional web designer in the world will say that when it comes to site visits, it’s a little like the ol’ “I don’t care what they say, as long as they spell my name right” sort of thing. A visitor is a visitor, regardless whether friend or foe. The whole point of having a web page is to have visitors to read what’s on it. Period. It doesn’t matter, an experienced webmaster will tell you, from whence they came.

And a key tool in driving more visitors to a site is to have lots of others link back to it. Those are what are called “viral marketing” events; and there’s nary a webmaster on the planet who wouldn’t almost give a right arm for tons and tons of linkbacks — with not a request for permission among ’em — of the type that I suspect Mr. Masnick’s site is now giving yours.

Demanding that others first get your permission stands in the way of how all that works; and the solution, in any case, given the technology of the intended paradigm, is not to chide Mr. Masnick and his readers but, rather, to just assume that they’ll link, and so, then, to put your words behind a login/password barrier of some kind if you don’t want them read. Then, it wouldn’t matter who links to your site; and, in fact, in that circumstance, said linking without your permission would, at worst, cause more people to register on your site so they could read your words.

Again, that’s how it all works. That was the design plan, from the very beginning. It’s hyperlinking at its intended finest.

I know this is flip, and I’m just kidding of course, but if I were in your shoes, knowing how many readers Mr. Masnick has, and how many visitors to your site he’s likely now sent you, you should be pulling out your checkbook. Again, I’m just kidding… er… well… you know… sorta’.

Hope that helps! Keep-up the good work.

Peace,

Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com