Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? WI
We have a sports website. We have been putting links to sports broadcasts on our site. They are high school sports broadcasts from radio stations. Does any one know if this is legal? We do not change the links in any way and do not state that they come from our company. We give the radio stations credit for the streams and state that the audio is property of the radio station. The radio stations do not charge anyone to listen. We received a email from one of the radio stations that told us to take the links off our site or they would take legal action. Can they do this? Is there a way around this so we can keep the links on our site?
Answer:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? WI
We have a sports website. We have been putting links to sports broadcasts on our site. They are high school sports broadcasts from radio stations. Does any one know if this is legal? We do not change the links in any way and do not state that they come from our company. We give the radio stations credit for the streams and state that the audio is property of the radio station. The radio stations do not charge anyone to listen. We received a email from one of the radio stations that told us to take the links off our site or they would take legal action. Can they do this? Is there a way around this so we can keep the links on our site? I assume you are linking directly to the stream, and not to the page where someone can get the stream, correct?
The law is somewhat unsettled here, generally linking is legal, but "deep linking" directly to source materials is still fuzzy, there have been court cases going both ways. In any event, the practical question remains -- legal or not, are you willing to fight with the radio station over this? Is it worth hiring a lawyer to determine whether or not what you are doing is legal? That's the real question you need to ask yourself.