Deep Links

Ordinary readers (those who aren’t professional news hounds, online writers, or bloggers-with-purpose) may be unaware of the “deep links” battle raging among low and high profile electronic news purveyors. You can bone up on this controversy with Mark Glaser’s roundup posted on the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. It’s no wonder the arguments have been difficult to follow. They fly in opposite directions simultaneously. It’s all about major news sites managers’ reluctance to provide links to “outside” resources or to allow outsiders to link into their stories, even to see the material without a paid subscription.

They used to disclaim responsibility for what viewers might find (or not) following links to others’ material and tightened holds on their own stories well beyond copyright requirements. Along came bloggers, daring the nonexistent “Link Police” to arrest them for revealing to the world what they’d paid to read (or swiped from another blog). News will be no more controlled than Internet use will be taxed. From “Deep Throat” to “Deep Links”, what goes around goes around the world in this millennium.