do you know something official about posting another site link into my website. For example, I'd like to make a top 10 sites and I'll post 10 great sites. Can anyone sue me for this?

I'd like to know if you know something official, a w3c policy... I don't know. It must be something like "general sites privacy policy"...

edit // ahh.. sorry for posting here but I didn't find an appropriate gategory

Basically you can link to whatever you like whenever you like. Links are what makes the WWW go around.

Anybody that complains you are linking to their pages, obviously doesn't understand what the Internet is all about!

I need something official [a quote from w3c or some stuff like that] because some things can become serious

Best of luck in your search.

I just thought I'd throw this in for your consideration:

IF you have to give legal permission for other sites to link to yours;
how and why do search engines exist?
how and why do directories exist? (not all directories ask for or accept "recommendations")

The Internet is a world of taciturn approval. If the site owner does NOT want third parties to link to their site, THEY have to take measures to prevent it.

On the web you can link to whoever you want.

However if you operate a porn or illegal site they may not like it.

sites will be filtered but the problem is about opinions: peter [user!] gives a comment about google: "I hate google" and give it a 2 [the mark and the comment are his property]. Google will appear in a bad image and: can someone judge me for this?..
ME = administrator

I'll have a disclaimer but, can it escape me from prison or else?

Prison for giving your users the freedom to express their opinion? That's what the internet is all about. If the laws of your country forbid you to have a website that allows users of the site to give their opinion, it's time to think twice about starting a site at all.

it's not about my country... it's about a general law

And the prison was an exaggerated fact but I just don't need official problems [some problems will be, I'm sure of that]. There are standards... links are posted by rules, you cannot just post a link wherever you like... or, maybe you can I don't know

The problem is I don't know who can I ask... a lawyer cannot tell me nothing about this, that's sure but, who can tell me?.. I'll try to ask w3c with a mail but... I'm not waiting for an answer. If I'll get something I'll tell you

cheers and 10x for time and help!

If you want to link to another site, then ASK THE SITE OWNER before you do it if you're concerned about any legality or stepping on someone's toes.

what does w3c have to do with anything? They don't have any legal authority.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

If you want to link to another site, then ASK THE SITE OWNER before you do it if you're concerned about any legality or stepping on someone's toes.

Then we can ignore them as if it's just another link exchange ruse

Originally Posted by vectorialpx

sites will be filtered but the problem is about opinions: peter [user!] gives a comment about google: "I hate google" and give it a 2 [the mark and the comment are his property]. Google will appear in a bad image and: can someone judge me for this?..
ME = administrator

I'll have a disclaimer but, can it escape me from prison or else?

If Google had the power to penalise everyone who wrote "I hate Google" they would have to employ about half of the population of the globe in dealing with the paperwork. There is even a website called ihategoogle.org - I just googled "I hate google" and that's what google gave me as no.1, and there are nearly 32 million results.... Think about it. Why are they going to bother you? Expressing an opinion is not illegal, whatever it is.

I think all you need to do is protect yourself against any claims of libel (i.e. lying about stuff) by putting a disclaimer on the site that any opinions expressed belong to their owners and are not endorsed by the site. I am no lawyer, but I'd guess the normal libel laws apply to websites like they do to the press. You can quote other people lying, but don't lie yourself!

In the US, site owners cannot be held legally responsible for content placed on their site by their users.

In the US, site owners cannot be held legally responsible for content placed on their site by their users.

Which is why 99% of sites you see have some sort of disclaimer saying that all content is user submitted.

even if the owner is the only user

Originally Posted by LadynRed

If you want to link to another site, then ASK THE SITE OWNER before you do it if you're concerned about any legality or stepping on someone's toes.

I cannot do that... because users will add sites and I cannot check if a site is owned by a user or not

Google is just another big deal... not else. I could say Yahoo! or Microsoft.

My problem is that I dream at a site with more than 1 mil users per month and with a lot of influence... there is the problem.

Originally Posted by magicvw

If Google had the power to penalise everyone who wrote "I hate Google"

So, I'm not talking specially about G... it was just an example.

I still think there is a legal stuff with linking but I don't know what and who to ask
10x a lot for your time!

Well do let us know if you find out something. I would guess that it's no different to what you can put in print i.e. you are allowed to give a personal opinion or review, you're allowed to mention companies by name, but you can't lie about them - i think that's basically it.

There are thousands of sites that are either like directories with lists of links, or like review sites with opinions about other sites. They don't get into legal trouble.

In my own case, a Thai(?) university has copied an entire page from my website - I guess that's not so legal as it's my work so I have a copyright claim. Personally I'm pleased though as the page is mainly links back to my site, so it's good for me. They didn't ask my permission or make any contact with me! They stripped out the css and images, but they are my words, so I guess they belong to me?!

check it out:
http://www.rmuti.org/Grade_5_Content...sic_Theory.htm

and my site

http://www.mymusictheory.com/grade5/...-contents.html

I used to have stacks of free pdf worksheets on my site till I discovered that a US university had included them in the reading list for its undergraduates. I was quite flattered, but again they didn't ask, and being pdf's I didn't benefit from any backlinks either. So I took them all down and left new pdfs in their place with a message to the students to visit my website for the information they needed Now I still have pdfs but they are locked away and only available via a deposit in my paypal account

You are NOT going to find something that says it is "legal" or "illegal" to link to other sites.
Such a thing simply does NOT exist.

Look around you!
Forums have links to anybody and everybody that users want to ask about, it may or may not be their site.
Sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, would simply NOT exist if you needed explicit permission to link.
The ODP (DMOZ) has been linking to sites their editors want to for years, rather than the junk that gets submitted.
All the untold hundreds of "directories" that simply republish the ODP RDF they have not been given explicit permission by every site they link to.

The Internet simply would NOT exist in the size and shape it is now if explicit permissions were needed.

Originally Posted by Redmanthatcould

Cool thread, Paul. Every day I look at my stats, the only thing I really care about are referring sites...when I see a new referrer, I get excited

Originally Posted by Jessemn

Booya! I'm glad to see soLinkable listed on there. That makes me happy
...

The best part about making it, is that people copy paste it to all sorts of forums. I've found odd links coming in from all over the web because of this one. I love it!

Take note how some site owners react when they find a link THEY HAVE NOT ASKED FOR or "authorised"