1. IS FRAMING ANOTHER SITE LEGAL?

Framing is a technology that allows the viewers of one web site to view material from another web site within a frame, without leaving the "framing" site. Framing changes the way the viewer experience the "framed" site, because the frame on the framing site covers up part of the content (usually the banner advertisements) on the framed site. International court cases have held that framing, depending on the facts of each case, may lead to the following forms of liability for the owner of the framing site:
* Copyright infringement;
* Passing-off
* Unfair competition; and
* Unfair advertising.

2. LINKING AND THE LAW - TO LINK OR NOT TO LINK?

Links or hyperlinks are points in web pages through which Internet users may branch to other pages or other web sites when they click on these points. The links can be embedded in the text (usually in the form of an underlined word or words, and usually referred to as "text hyperlinks") or could take the form of a graphic link (usually referred to as "graphic hyperlinks").

There are three different for of hyperlinks:

*	In links that link to other pages on the same web site;
*	Out links that link to the home page of another web site; and
*	Deep links that link to pages beyond the home page of another site and therefor also pass the advertising on such a home page.

International court cases have held that linking, depending on the facts of each case, may lead to the following forms of liability for the web site owner from which the link originated.
* Copyright infringement;
* Passing-off;
* Unfair competition; and
* Breach of contract (if the "terms and conditions" of the target site prohibited linking).

3. META TAGS - WHAT ARE THEY?

Metatags are HTML code used to describe the contents of a web site. Search engines retrieve results for Internet users by looking for metatags, keywords in domain names and actual text on web pages. The more often a term appears in the metatags for a site, the more likely it is that the web page will be found in a search for that term. International court cases have held that the use of another's trademark as a metatag leads to trademark infringement.

4. CRAWLERS AND SPIDERS - THE LEGAL ASPECTS

Web crawling or web spidering is a technology that allows users to search many web sites at once. International court cases have held that crawling or spidering can lead to liability for the person or company employing such technology:

*	In Register.com v Verio, Inc the judge ruled that a Vario cannot use software robots to crawl Register.com's computer system for mass marketing purposes.
*	In mySimon.com v Priceman the defendant used spider technology to crawl mySimon.comn's site and placed the search results on their own site. This resulted in copyright infringement and passing off.
*	In eBay v Bidder's Edge the judge enjoined Bidder's Edge from using spider technology that allowed users to search for merchandise across many auction sites because the spider generated between 80 000 - 100 000 requests to the eBay site, slowing it down considerably. Bidder's Edge was also liable for trespassing on the eBay site.
*	In Pollstar v Gigmania the defendant used a spider to gather concert listings from the Pollstar site and the judge allowed proceedings to continue on the grounds of unfair competition, common law misappropriation and breach of the licence agreement on the Pollstar site.

Reinhardt Buys is a partner at Buys Incorporated, a law firm specialising in internet, media and intellectual property law. Click here to visit their site.

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