The end of the internet as we know it?

[I Robot]

This article in M&G is about an attack on links.

Key internet freedoms are under threat in a legal battle between online search leader Google and pornography publisher Perfect 10, a prominent internet rights foundation said on Wednesday.

At issue in the landmark case being appealed to the San Francisco circuit court of appeals is whether Google infringed on copyrights by creating links to Perfect 10 pictures copied from its website and posted elsewhere on the internet, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

"The stakes are high and everybody is out expressing an opinion," said EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Links are really the whole enchilada when it comes to the worldwide web."

A Perfect 10 court victory would stifle the sharing of website links whether it be by bloggers, search engines, online newspapers, or simply people sending e-mail to friends, von Lohmann said.

Personally, I think Perfect 10 should be making its case against the sites that published the pics in contravention of copyright - not Google who merely provide the links.

But then - Google has real money where as the private hackers probably don't.

[Dave A]

Hmmm. Just trying to figure out how the internet could work without links and search engines.

Perfect 10 - by the looks of things an internet company - may be chasing the money, but they're doing it by attacking the very thing that makes the internet (and their business) workable in the first place - links.

An exceptional case of short term thinking.