InvoluntaryTransclusion

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TransClusion is when one page includes another inline, especially if the other is remote. It is involuntary if the included page didn't agree.

You sometimes see this in the WWW when a page with frames links to one without. When you click the link, the new page can be loaded into the frame the old page was in, leaving old content in other surrounding frames untouched. (Generally this is due to badly written HTML so it is pretty rare).

It can happen on some wikis through the PageRedirect feature, although only the title of the original page is kept, which limits the danger.

It is at best irritating. It can also imply that the included page sponsors or condones the including one, which may be misleading or deceitful. Changing the context of a page can change its meaning. For example, a comment on "Why I like Microsoft" may show up under "Why DaveHarris is a pratt".

Compare DeepLinkDefense. Contrast RightToInclude.

As a TechnologySolution, you can at least defend against InvoluntaryTransclusion via frames. Using client side javascript you can check the name of the window your frame is being opened in. If it isn't one of the windows you have predefined, you get the javascript to open a new browser window with your frame in it. This works against Ask Jeeves, for example, which has a habit of transcluding other pages within its answers window. This method is no good when javascript not enabled, when people are aware of this method and working around it, or when they've taken a copy of your page. It will also fail if the client has a popup blocker. Alternatively, you could change the transcluded content to something that the remote site doesn't want to transclude. One particularly nasty trick is to change it to contain an image from one of the internet's "shock sites".

This is pushing ridiculousness. Could you imagine forcing every web author to litter her pages with landmines, barbed wire, and hidden ambushes, just to ensure that her page is viewed in the "right" way? Of course, this isn't ridiculous due to the interconnected nature of the Internet. Perhaps this is why TedNelson gave up and invented TransCopyrights.

As a LegalSolution, you could invoke your DefensiveCopyright.

Over at the [Chicken Nation] they have some interesting rules, and one of them relates to this question. Please don't leech images in your posts. That is, don't display an image unless you own the webspace hosting it. Every time that image comes up on someone's screen, bandwidth is being eaten. Do not offer bandwidth to the fora that is not yours to give. - I think BillBoards are still cool. MarkDilley

Should this page cover "BandwidthTheft" of images, or is that/should that be a seperate issue?

HelmutLeitner discusses this issue as an [IllustratedLink]

InvoluntaryTransclusion

Discussion