We all know the term: 'peer to peer (P2P) networks' from filesharing with software like KaZaA and Gnucleus making use of this technology. But P2P can be used for more then file sharing. A Danish website that was forced by the Bailiff's Court of Copenhagen to stop deep linking to newspaper articles on three Danish newspapers' Internet sites has now developed new P2P software that makes deeplinked articles available trough a P2P network.
Deeplinking can be explained as linking to a particulair page on a website. So instead linking to CNN.com, you link directly to an article on CNN. However it is more complicated then this, and some sites do allow it, and others not. The P2P should make an end to all the hassle, if the software doesn't get legally stopped that is, but we all know how hard it is to stop a P2P network when it's been released.
In the meantime, Newsbooster has launched an alternative service, which Newsbooster editor-in-chief Nicolai Lassen refers to as a "physiological moving-out of Denmark." |
"Newsbrowser" offers all the same features as Newsbooster's original Web-based service, but through a separate, downloadable program that runs on a user's own computer.
Lassen believes Newsbrowser bypasses the strictures of the EU copyright act, since the act allows people to print copies of protected information for personal use.
Lassen says any news organization that refuses to allow Newsbooster to link directly to its content will be accessible through Newsbrowser.
"Newsbooster cannot and will not accept limits on the free possibilities of the Internet," Lassen said. "We will continue to fight for a legal ruling that recognizes the difference between a referral via a link and the copying of protected information. But in the meantime, there is Newsbrowser.
More information about the case and the software can be found on Wired.com here.
Source: wired.com
