[raganwald]

As I read this, he's not making links to their web pages. He's deep linking to their content and displaying it within what appears to be a custom browser. While there is plenty of debate about the propriety of deep linking and whether sites have the right to bar deep linking, displaying content within a custom browser is analogous to 'framing' content without permission, and framing content a no-no.

Creating deep links to their content would be launching Mobile Safari with their content in it.

Now, it could be that after he talks to them and they have a look at his app, they decide that yes, he's framing their content but he does so in a manner they feel is in their best interests and is compatible with their business model as they see it. In which case, they will give him written permission to do so.

[kragen]

I'm dubious about this idea that web site owners have the right to dictate which web browsers their users are permitted to use to access their site, but it's certainly more colorable than a complaint about launching Mobile Safari with their page. It could be passing off, if nothing else.

[raganwald]

I know, it's hard to draw a nice objective line in the sand. A general-purpose browser with a new UI, for example, ought to be allowed without requiring permission from anyone.

On the other hand, what if I write an iOS app just for getting answers from Wolfram|Alpha that displays the content using Webkit? I could certainly understand Wolfram arguing this kind of thing requires permission.

I'm curious about DuckDuckGo's use of Wolfram|Alpha content. There's an example of framing content and deep linking together. I assume they have permission or an army of lawyers?

[epi0Bauqu]

We have permission. They seem very reasonable once you get in touch with them.

[kragen]

There's a censored comment in response here from the original author of the post. Turn on showdead.

[nkurz]

Resurrecting:

-----------------

2 points by agiletortoise 1 hour ago | link [dead]

I expect they are. In retrospect, I should have asked first.

It something like going to a dinner party and having the host throw you out for placing your fork to the left of the plate, because they put them on the right at their house. Runs contrary to expectations.

--agiletortoise

-----------------

This doesn't look offensive to me, so I presume it's a glitch. It would be ironic if it was killed because of the signature at the end in violation of local norms. :)

[agiletortoise]

FYI, in this case, HN hung on me and it ended up double-posted, so I deleted the duplicate.

[bobds]

I see many comments like that and I'm always left wondering.

Does this happen when a user deletes their own comment? Or is it only for flagged comments?

[nyellin]

Is there any way to see the justification for killing a comment?

I trust HN's moderators, but it makes me uneasy to realize that there is a whole collection of censored comments that I didn't see until now, because I had showdead disabled.

[mcantor]

I'm curious about some threads that get killed, too--afaik it can happen due to mod intervention or when the community hits "flag" enough times, but I always wonder which one it was.

[steveklabnik]

Nope, they're just dead.

[notyourwork]

How do you turn on showdead? Does this require more karma than I have?

[steveklabnik]

There should be a setting in your profile.

I'm not sure if it requires karma.

[jcarreiro]

What is the difference between "linking" and "deep linking"? Whatever else W|A is, it is a web server and it responds to my requests by sending me web pages. Why does Wolfram get to decide for me which web browser I should use to view those pages?

[steveklabnik]

People that don't understand what the web is, why it's important, or how it works get mad when you link to

    http://www.something.com/ANYTHINGATALL

They think you should _only_ ever link to

    http://www.something.com/

If you couldn't tell by my first sentence, I find this idea repulsive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_linking

[ludwigvan]

On a slightly related note, what do you think about framing another site's contents? The original article is closer to framing in this respect, i.e. showing stuff in a UIWebView is more analogous to framing.

I am currently developing a content aggregator site, but haven't decided how to link/display original articles. Should I be putting a frame at the top (or display orignal content in an iframe?) so that users don't leave my site, or should I directly link to the original article? I have strong suspicion that doing the former would be unfair, but some sites like stumbleupon do it to improve user experience.

[steveklabnik]

I strongly, strongly dislike stuff like the old Digg bar, or the Reddit bar. I'm assuming that's what you're talking about?

    http://www.reddit.com/tb/fp3vz

If I'm looking at a page, I want the URL to be the URL of the page I'm looking at. Feels quite scummy otherwise.

That said, feel free to do it, nobody can (or should) stop you.

[Macha]

On the desktop, I couldn't agree more. On a mobile device, its a handy shortcut to the pages I will most likely visit next anyway.

[Someone]

It is similar to the difference between "citing" and "copying"/"plagiarizing": a gradual thing where the distinction is clear at extreme ends of the scale, but muddy in the middle.