This is something I've thought about before and my brain decided to get back onto it today. Is deep linking in and of itself a violation of someone's copyright? To clarify the discussion, I'm going to throw out an assumption:

Deliberately trying to pass off someone else's content as your own (even if you are linking to it and not posting it on your own site) is a violation of copyright law in my opinion. That said...

<soapbox>
How can linking to a non-home page of a web site, when clearly identified as being someone else's site, be a violation of copyright law? Isn't copyright law only there to essentially protect a covered work from being copied? By linking to a publicly published page on the internet, you are only referring someone to the publisher's web site, not copying a protected work.

One interesting aspect I have thought of about this issue is that if deep linking without permission is illegal, then Google, AltaVista, HotBot, Lycos, etc. are potentially liable for Billions of dollars in damages and fines.
</soapbox>

I could go on about this for pages (and I think I will use this to re-start my long stagnant web log), but I'll pass it on to others for comment.

What do you think? Should deep-linking be legal? If deep-linking without permission were ever ruled to be a violation of copyright law, would the web still be able to function (at least in present form)?

-monster.