Linking to the Print page

[farmboy]

I've noticed that sometimes, when writing about and linking to an article that appears on a newspaper or magazine's site, people (bloggers, columnists, etc.) will link to the "Print Article" page instead of the normal page.

If the magazine or newspaper's normal pages are loaded with ads and distractions, this is a relief for the visitor that follows the link.

However, it bypasses the advertisements the visitor would have seen if he/she had of visited the normal page.

Are there legal issues in linking to the Print Article page?

Ethical issues?

Should magazines and newspapers simply stop providing Print Article pages if they don't want people to link those?

FarmBoy

[stapel]

If this sort of linking is undesired, I would think that a pop-back script could be employed: something along the lines of "if the referrer isn't the ad-laden corrsponding page, then redirect to that ad-laden page".

I agree with your main point, however: this is clearly not the intended use of the print-friendly page. This is part of why many sites discourage (or forbid) "deep" links, and why it is frequently regarded as being, at the very least, rather rude.

Eliz.