Is it legal to point a domain to someone else's ip (website)?
The question is pretty straightforward: Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip (website)?
The domain owner is not actually copying the content, but just opening the website in his or her own domain.
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains
united-states copyright online
New contributor
add a comment |
The question is pretty straightforward: Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip (website)?
The domain owner is not actually copying the content, but just opening the website in his or her own domain.
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains
united-states copyright online
New contributor
1
What country would this be in? It might matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
If you could get it to work (the server will probably reject the hostname that it doesn't know) you might run into trademark laws, or if you did it with the intent to deceive, you may run into law around that, or if the domain name is disparaging, you may run into libel laws. There are plenty possible other laws you might run into. The question you should ask yourself is, why would you want to do this?
– Erwin Bolwidt
5 mins ago
add a comment |
The question is pretty straightforward: Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip (website)?
The domain owner is not actually copying the content, but just opening the website in his or her own domain.
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains
united-states copyright online
New contributor
The question is pretty straightforward: Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip (website)?
The domain owner is not actually copying the content, but just opening the website in his or her own domain.
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains
united-states copyright online
united-states copyright online
New contributor
New contributor
edited 5 hours ago
David Siegel
10.9k1944
10.9k1944
New contributor
asked 5 hours ago
Faminha102Faminha102
1111
1111
New contributor
New contributor
1
What country would this be in? It might matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
If you could get it to work (the server will probably reject the hostname that it doesn't know) you might run into trademark laws, or if you did it with the intent to deceive, you may run into law around that, or if the domain name is disparaging, you may run into libel laws. There are plenty possible other laws you might run into. The question you should ask yourself is, why would you want to do this?
– Erwin Bolwidt
5 mins ago
add a comment |
1
What country would this be in? It might matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
If you could get it to work (the server will probably reject the hostname that it doesn't know) you might run into trademark laws, or if you did it with the intent to deceive, you may run into law around that, or if the domain name is disparaging, you may run into libel laws. There are plenty possible other laws you might run into. The question you should ask yourself is, why would you want to do this?
– Erwin Bolwidt
5 mins ago
1
1
What country would this be in? It might matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
What country would this be in? It might matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
If you could get it to work (the server will probably reject the hostname that it doesn't know) you might run into trademark laws, or if you did it with the intent to deceive, you may run into law around that, or if the domain name is disparaging, you may run into libel laws. There are plenty possible other laws you might run into. The question you should ask yourself is, why would you want to do this?
– Erwin Bolwidt
5 mins ago
If you could get it to work (the server will probably reject the hostname that it doesn't know) you might run into trademark laws, or if you did it with the intent to deceive, you may run into law around that, or if the domain name is disparaging, you may run into libel laws. There are plenty possible other laws you might run into. The question you should ask yourself is, why would you want to do this?
– Erwin Bolwidt
5 mins ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
Yes
One could certainly put up a site whose only content was a link to another domain. And I can't find any law which this would violate.
If the link is a "deep link", and if it bypasses a log-in page, while the other site is so designed that all access is intended to go through the login, i believe (but cannot at the moment verify) that the owner of the other site could claim that this violates their copyright. In any case it is not a good idea.But a link to an appropriate page should have no problem, nor should pointing your domain at an appropriate entry page.
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domainexample.com
to display the content oflaw.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would beexample.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
add a comment |
It doesn't work that way. Simply pointing a domain at a server IP won't do what you think, for any number of reasons, i.e., load balancing, proxies, CDNs, shared IPs, the way the webserver is configured, etc. You may be able to display a simple home page on a server with a single IP. But simply pointing the domain isn't going to rewrite the source code of the site and magically make it appear to be your domain.
You could "scrape" the site and download all content and convert the URLs to your own domain, but that requires your own server, and is typically not legal, depending on the TOS of the site you scrape; see the earlier LE question Terms and condition for web scraping
What you are probably thinking of is an iframe: HTML iframe tag. You can use an iframe to display the content of another site in a window on your own hosted domain on your own server.
But the legality of iframing a site depends on the TOS of the site you frame and appears to be in legal flux; earlier LE question Can you be accused of hotlinking/copyright violation if you use an iframe?
Many sites forbid the use of iframes as they see it - case law or not - as copyright infringement. And servers can be configured to block iframing by other hosts.
Try using an iframe for law.stackexchange.com; you'll see the error Load denied by X-Frame-Options
, because Stack Exchange forbids iframing their sites, though iframing appears to not be mentioned in Stack Exchange's TOS language.
1
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "617"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Faminha102 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flaw.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f37591%2fis-it-legal-to-point-a-domain-to-someone-elses-ip-website%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Yes
One could certainly put up a site whose only content was a link to another domain. And I can't find any law which this would violate.
If the link is a "deep link", and if it bypasses a log-in page, while the other site is so designed that all access is intended to go through the login, i believe (but cannot at the moment verify) that the owner of the other site could claim that this violates their copyright. In any case it is not a good idea.But a link to an appropriate page should have no problem, nor should pointing your domain at an appropriate entry page.
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domainexample.com
to display the content oflaw.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would beexample.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
add a comment |
Yes
One could certainly put up a site whose only content was a link to another domain. And I can't find any law which this would violate.
If the link is a "deep link", and if it bypasses a log-in page, while the other site is so designed that all access is intended to go through the login, i believe (but cannot at the moment verify) that the owner of the other site could claim that this violates their copyright. In any case it is not a good idea.But a link to an appropriate page should have no problem, nor should pointing your domain at an appropriate entry page.
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domainexample.com
to display the content oflaw.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would beexample.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
add a comment |
Yes
One could certainly put up a site whose only content was a link to another domain. And I can't find any law which this would violate.
If the link is a "deep link", and if it bypasses a log-in page, while the other site is so designed that all access is intended to go through the login, i believe (but cannot at the moment verify) that the owner of the other site could claim that this violates their copyright. In any case it is not a good idea.But a link to an appropriate page should have no problem, nor should pointing your domain at an appropriate entry page.
Yes
One could certainly put up a site whose only content was a link to another domain. And I can't find any law which this would violate.
If the link is a "deep link", and if it bypasses a log-in page, while the other site is so designed that all access is intended to go through the login, i believe (but cannot at the moment verify) that the owner of the other site could claim that this violates their copyright. In any case it is not a good idea.But a link to an appropriate page should have no problem, nor should pointing your domain at an appropriate entry page.
answered 5 hours ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
10.9k1944
10.9k1944
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domainexample.com
to display the content oflaw.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would beexample.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
add a comment |
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domainexample.com
to display the content oflaw.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would beexample.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
What if the website opens in my domain?
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
By "opens in your domain" you mean that the displayed URL starts with your domain? I don't see why that would matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domain
example.com
to display the content of law.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would be example.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.– Faminha102
5 hours ago
Yes, exactly... as an example, let's say that I configure my domain
example.com
to display the content of law.stackexchange.com
website, so you would be able to see everything that you see right now, but the URL would be example.com
. I wouldn't change the content, or ad ads, or anything else.– Faminha102
5 hours ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
This answer doesn't seem to me to address the question at all, which is "Is it legal to point a domain on the web to someone else's ip?"; there's nothing in it about linking, and "deep linking" certainly wouldn't even be possible, let alone part of the question.
– Michael Homer
22 mins ago
add a comment |
It doesn't work that way. Simply pointing a domain at a server IP won't do what you think, for any number of reasons, i.e., load balancing, proxies, CDNs, shared IPs, the way the webserver is configured, etc. You may be able to display a simple home page on a server with a single IP. But simply pointing the domain isn't going to rewrite the source code of the site and magically make it appear to be your domain.
You could "scrape" the site and download all content and convert the URLs to your own domain, but that requires your own server, and is typically not legal, depending on the TOS of the site you scrape; see the earlier LE question Terms and condition for web scraping
What you are probably thinking of is an iframe: HTML iframe tag. You can use an iframe to display the content of another site in a window on your own hosted domain on your own server.
But the legality of iframing a site depends on the TOS of the site you frame and appears to be in legal flux; earlier LE question Can you be accused of hotlinking/copyright violation if you use an iframe?
Many sites forbid the use of iframes as they see it - case law or not - as copyright infringement. And servers can be configured to block iframing by other hosts.
Try using an iframe for law.stackexchange.com; you'll see the error Load denied by X-Frame-Options
, because Stack Exchange forbids iframing their sites, though iframing appears to not be mentioned in Stack Exchange's TOS language.
1
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
add a comment |
It doesn't work that way. Simply pointing a domain at a server IP won't do what you think, for any number of reasons, i.e., load balancing, proxies, CDNs, shared IPs, the way the webserver is configured, etc. You may be able to display a simple home page on a server with a single IP. But simply pointing the domain isn't going to rewrite the source code of the site and magically make it appear to be your domain.
You could "scrape" the site and download all content and convert the URLs to your own domain, but that requires your own server, and is typically not legal, depending on the TOS of the site you scrape; see the earlier LE question Terms and condition for web scraping
What you are probably thinking of is an iframe: HTML iframe tag. You can use an iframe to display the content of another site in a window on your own hosted domain on your own server.
But the legality of iframing a site depends on the TOS of the site you frame and appears to be in legal flux; earlier LE question Can you be accused of hotlinking/copyright violation if you use an iframe?
Many sites forbid the use of iframes as they see it - case law or not - as copyright infringement. And servers can be configured to block iframing by other hosts.
Try using an iframe for law.stackexchange.com; you'll see the error Load denied by X-Frame-Options
, because Stack Exchange forbids iframing their sites, though iframing appears to not be mentioned in Stack Exchange's TOS language.
1
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
add a comment |
It doesn't work that way. Simply pointing a domain at a server IP won't do what you think, for any number of reasons, i.e., load balancing, proxies, CDNs, shared IPs, the way the webserver is configured, etc. You may be able to display a simple home page on a server with a single IP. But simply pointing the domain isn't going to rewrite the source code of the site and magically make it appear to be your domain.
You could "scrape" the site and download all content and convert the URLs to your own domain, but that requires your own server, and is typically not legal, depending on the TOS of the site you scrape; see the earlier LE question Terms and condition for web scraping
What you are probably thinking of is an iframe: HTML iframe tag. You can use an iframe to display the content of another site in a window on your own hosted domain on your own server.
But the legality of iframing a site depends on the TOS of the site you frame and appears to be in legal flux; earlier LE question Can you be accused of hotlinking/copyright violation if you use an iframe?
Many sites forbid the use of iframes as they see it - case law or not - as copyright infringement. And servers can be configured to block iframing by other hosts.
Try using an iframe for law.stackexchange.com; you'll see the error Load denied by X-Frame-Options
, because Stack Exchange forbids iframing their sites, though iframing appears to not be mentioned in Stack Exchange's TOS language.
It doesn't work that way. Simply pointing a domain at a server IP won't do what you think, for any number of reasons, i.e., load balancing, proxies, CDNs, shared IPs, the way the webserver is configured, etc. You may be able to display a simple home page on a server with a single IP. But simply pointing the domain isn't going to rewrite the source code of the site and magically make it appear to be your domain.
You could "scrape" the site and download all content and convert the URLs to your own domain, but that requires your own server, and is typically not legal, depending on the TOS of the site you scrape; see the earlier LE question Terms and condition for web scraping
What you are probably thinking of is an iframe: HTML iframe tag. You can use an iframe to display the content of another site in a window on your own hosted domain on your own server.
But the legality of iframing a site depends on the TOS of the site you frame and appears to be in legal flux; earlier LE question Can you be accused of hotlinking/copyright violation if you use an iframe?
Many sites forbid the use of iframes as they see it - case law or not - as copyright infringement. And servers can be configured to block iframing by other hosts.
Try using an iframe for law.stackexchange.com; you'll see the error Load denied by X-Frame-Options
, because Stack Exchange forbids iframing their sites, though iframing appears to not be mentioned in Stack Exchange's TOS language.
edited 1 hour ago
answered 2 hours ago
BlueDogRanchBlueDogRanch
10.2k21837
10.2k21837
1
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
add a comment |
1
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
1
1
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
This does not answer the question at all. The technical side of things is irrelevant, let alone that some not big sites hosted in old-school way still do work by opening their IP in web browser.
– Greendrake
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
Read my answer. Do the terms "legality", "TOS", etc., appear? If you can't understand the technical issues, you won't understand the legal issues that pertain.
– BlueDogRanch
2 hours ago
add a comment |
Faminha102 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Faminha102 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Faminha102 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Faminha102 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Law Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flaw.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f37591%2fis-it-legal-to-point-a-domain-to-someone-elses-ip-website%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
What country would this be in? It might matter.
– David Siegel
5 hours ago
The resolution happens in the USA and the domain was bought at Google Domains.
– Faminha102
5 hours ago
If you could get it to work (the server will probably reject the hostname that it doesn't know) you might run into trademark laws, or if you did it with the intent to deceive, you may run into law around that, or if the domain name is disparaging, you may run into libel laws. There are plenty possible other laws you might run into. The question you should ask yourself is, why would you want to do this?
– Erwin Bolwidt
5 mins ago