Deep Trouble Do the links on your site lead to home pages? If not, your business could face legal risks.

Among the many gray areas of Internet law, "deeplinking" definitely demands the attention of any entrepreneurwith a Web site. Deep linking is the practice of hyperlinking to apage several jumps into another Web site rather than to thesite's home page. For example, linking directly to Dell'ssmall-business desktop page at www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/line_desktops.htminstead of Dell's home page at www.dell.com constitutes deeplinking.

It sounds harmless enough, but when surfers bypass a home page,it often means bypassing the site's paid advertisements,bringing up some hairy trespassing and copyright issues.Ticketmaster.com sued Tickets.com over its deep linking intoTicketmaster.com's site for events that Tickets.com doesn'toffer tickets for. In August 2000, a judge ruled that Tickets.comcould continue its linking practices, but left the door wide openfor Ticketmaster.com to pursue its complaints of copyrightinfringement. In short, the gray area hasn't become anyclearer.

It will take more lawsuits and judgments before the issue isresolved and guidelines are put in place. In the meantime, you cantake a few common-sense steps to protect yourself when deeplinking. For example, make it clear that links lead to separate,independent sites, so there's no confusion for the user. Theeasiest way to handle this is to post a message, e.g., "Thislink leads to so-and-so's page. You are now leaving oursite." That Tickets.com gave this sort of notice was one ofthe factors leading the judge to rule in its favor.

Ultimately, it's best to get permission in writing fromsites you link to. It's also a good idea to check linked-tosites' legal agreements. If deep linking is prohibited in thecompany's legal agreement, violations could become the basisfor a breach-of-contract lawsuit in the future.