A deep link is a hyperlink to a page on a web site other than its homepage.
In the complaint to letsrun.com, a lawyer for Rodale Press, publisher of Runner’s World, wrote that:
“The hyperlink, when clicked on, produced a verbatim copy of an interview with Peter Snell originally published on runnersworld.com. That interview, reproduced in its entirety, was stripped of all Rodale ads and navigational information and aids.”
LetsRun.com argues that it did not reproduce the interview with the New Zealand athlete and accordingly did not strip the article of any ads – it merely linked direct to the ad-free, printer-friendly version available on runnersworld.com.
The case is the latest in a series of disputes over deep links. A few weeks ago, a Dallas-based media group told the operator of a small web site to stop linking to internal pages of the on-line edition of one of its newspapers, again citing copyright infringement.