Someone has set up a link to my web site without my permission. What can I do?

The first question would be, why do you care? Does the link cast you or your site or your organization in a bad light? Does it lead to a situation where someone else is taking credit for your work? For these or other reasons, you may have a legitimate gripe. Before you spend money on lawyers, though, try resolving the problem by direct communciation. Send an email or a paper letter explaining what you want done. Then if you must, consider retaining counsel, preferably counsel who are familiar with the Internet as well as with intellectual property.

If the link is an IMG (image) reference, consider changing the URL of your image, and put some nuisance image in the place of the original URL for the image. That should discourage people from using your image without your permission.

But generally unless there is some special reason to the contrary, you should be pleased if someone sets up a regular (non-framed HREF) link to your web site.

See also…

Intellectual Property and Internet Law