Dear Andrea,

You really must be cautious when linking to other sites. It sounds like you have a lot of ideas for your new company, however, I want to warn you that when linking you must be careful. It is completely legal as long as you do it correctly. It is a great idea to link to already established sites to create knowledge that you are out there. When creating your own website linking can be very beneficial for your company. It can increase advertisement, which consequently increase sales and production. Letting people know that you exist as a company is the first and foremost part in creating a company that will succeed. However, it is important to follow the right procedures. If you fail to follow the specified guidelines it can be grounds to be sued, and that would hurt your company even more than not having the increased advertisement of linking to other company’s site.

Linking is often seen as you navigate the Internet. It is legal as long as the company has knowledge that you are doing it and you follow the guidelines that they set fourth. When you do not follow the company’s policy then it becomes an illegal act and the company can sue. That is what happened in the case of Bidder’s Edge and Ebay. They caused their site to run slower and have periods where the site would not work at all. This resulted in the Ebay’s loss of money and consequently customers. When Bidder’s Edge was linking off of Ebay’s site they did it without the proper measurements. Because of failed negotiations they did not have Ebay’s permission. So to get around it they created a proxy server, which is not the legal way to link to someone else’s site. This is what Bidder’s Edge did differently than the other companies. Ebay is willing to let other server’s link to their site, but they must have proper negotiations and follow their guidelines.

Essentially by creating this proxy site Bidder’s Edge trespassed on personal property. Trespassing is defined as, “occurs whenever one person injures another person’s personal property or interferes with that person’s enjoyment of his or her personal property.” (Cheeseman) Primarily trespassing occurs on someone else’s land, vehicle, or house. However, it still can be trespassing if you do it on the Internet. This is trespassing because they did not have