HAL - is it a violation to the HAL format/standard if links are in the main body?

Question

According to the HAL standard (see here and here) the links to other resources should be placed in a specific embedded section.

So for instance this

Answer 1

As observable in the specs you posted, you can have links and/or embedded resources:

A resource's links should sit as a property of that resource:

{
  "movies": [
     {
       "id": "123",
       "title": "Movie title 1",
       "_links": {
           "subtitles": {
              "href": "/movies/123/subtitles"
           }
        }
     }, {
       "id": "456",
       "title": "Movie title 2",
       "_links": {
           "subtitles": {
              "href": "/movies/456/subtitles"
           }
        }
     }
  ]
}

The alternative would be to directly embed the movie's subtitles resource:

{
    "movies" : [
       {
         "id" : "123",
         "title" : "Movie title 1",
         "_embedded" : {
            "subtitles" : [{
                "name" : "movie 1 subtitles"
                }
            ]
          }
        }, {
         "id" : "456",
         "title" : "Movie title 2",
         "_embedded" : {
            "subtitles" : [{
                "name" : "movie 2 subtitles"
                }
            ]
          }
        }
    ]
}