Discussion: Is Redirecting Copyright Infringement?

[SniperRyan]

So I just got an interesting C&D... long story short: I had set an old domain to redirect to some lady's site and she decided to threaten me and my registrar with a lawsuit (hah).

Making everyone's life easier, I just changed the redirect and shot her an email kindly asking her to shut up.

The question is: is redirecting an infringement of copyright?

All I could really find on the subject is something about crackho.com and Sarah Palin Sarah Palin is no crack ho – and redirecting could imply otherwise - TECH.BLORGE.com (not quite the same) and some story about a newspaper saying you can't link to their stories without permission.

It seems to me this could become an issue for the tech-savvy vs. the mouth-breathers in the near future. Your average moron might not understand that crackho.com showing the same thing as the Alaskan government site does not mean that crackho.com is claiming it as theirs.

In my view, the receiving site gets the traffic, the work is never actually reproduced except for the user caching the page, which would happen anyway.

Anyone out there had legal experiences on a similar subject? Has anyone found precedent to suggest one thing or another?

 

[arcarc]

should've redirected the site to show her how to make easy monies online than trying to make money by going through with a lawsuit. i'm not a lawyer but i did stay at a holiday inn.

 

[aeisn]

Did the C&D have anything to do with copyright infringement? Seems like if it actually was copyright infringement they would have sent a DMCA takedown.

I would have redirected it to makemonies, and sent her an email telling her you switched it and to click the link to confirm.

 

[SniperRyan]

should've redirected the site to show her how to make easy monies online

I would have redirected it to makemonies, and sent her an email telling her you switched it and to click the link to confirm

It crossed my mind, for sure. However, when dealing with the bat-shit crazy I feel like it's just better to give them what they think they want and let them move on to their next "crusade." She tagged her website with her personal email addy and has her sites all interlinked. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.

Besides, I'd rather look like I complied with her wishes if she does somehow manage to con some lawyer into pursuing this. I don't need her wasting more of my time. She wasted enough of it having me log in and change the redirect.

 

[Bombastic]

Why would someone be opposed to you sending them traffic? Aside from being mentally ill?