First, search engines, such as AltaVista , violate practically every aspect of the current legal model. A search engine provides no content of its own and is arguably as parasitic as TotalNews. Also, a search engine delves deep into a Web site to index words and graphics appearing throughout the site, and then returns links to the precise page where the term appears. At the Lycos search engine, one can look for images and view a thumbnail before going to the site where the graphic is located. To prohibit page-specific links at a search engine would undermine the ability of users to locate online information.
Bookmarks are the real nail in the coffin of a rule against deep linking.
Bookmarks are simply links accessed in the menu of a browser. They provide a convenience to the user. One cannot limit how an individual uses bookmarks because they exist only on the desktop. We are left, then, with the uncomfortable choice of saying bookmarks are acceptable because we lack the ability to police them, or even worse that bookmarks to pages deep within a site are illegal. We tend not to question the copyright status of search engines or bookmarks because the function is essential to the use of the Internet.