Banning Linking to a Page

Surely this isn't legally enforcable?

[Stark]

I recently had my website featured in a small article in the national press. Needless to say I was very pleased about this, as it was quite flattering and as such I included a link to the story on my home page.

However, the article on their web page has a number of sites mentioned, and some were included as links, other's weren't. An oversight when the story was transferred onto the website I'm sure, as they weren't affiliate links or anything.

As such, I sent a very polite email to the newspaper in question asking if they could change the reference to my site (which was the URL in full) into a link so that people could easily click on it.

I received back two seperate emails from people in their legal department, quite forcefully demanding that I remove the link on my site to the story. (They made no real reference to my request at all). They said that deep linking to a story on their site was in breach of their terms and conditions.

Is this even possible? If you publish a site on the internet, surely you can't demand that people don't link to it?

I pointed out to them that they might be better off spending their time and money on a simple redirect system for new users to a registration page, than chasing people down to remove links to them. What sort of business logic determines that you pursue people who try to deliver business to you?

[ytswy]

It does seem quite mad, but its not the first time:

[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

The issue seems to be news sites (particularly) who want people to see all their advertising, and who can pay for good lawyers to confuse judges who don't really "get the whole internet thing" [disclaimer: this is not even an educated opinion :)].

It does seem mad, especially when there are easy technical solutions if you really want to stop deep links.

[killroy]

I've not explored this subject in depth, BUT I would NOT disregard them off-hand. I seem to recall some times where th ejudge ruled in favour of the content provider, and indeed did make it legally enforcable to bann linking to content. I'm not certain though, jsut a warning that you might want to do some indepth research and possibly seek advice from your lawyer before you dismiss their request.

SN

[Stark]

Well, I actually removed the link after the first email. It's not like I care at all whether I link to the story or not, it just seems to most bizarre move from a business perspective. The NY Times seem to have it perfect if they want registration.

The other thing is that this site doesn't even insist upon registration at any point, you can just browse to this story without having to fill anything in or go via any adverts.

This is all UK based by the way.

Very strange

[jetboy_70]

I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed before on Webmaster World in regards to a Danish site doing exactly the same thing. Worth searching the archives?

Are thet actually claiming it's illegal, or just that it's against their terms and conditions? Two different things entirely.

I'm not aware of any laws preventing anyone linking to anything ... and even if there were I'd tend to ignore them. ;)

In a similar vein, there are some record companies who actively try to get other sites to link to their video and audio streams, but then state that you have to fill in a form and fax it (fax! I ask you ...) to them for approval! Some people have way too much time of their hands.

<edit>Damn you lot can type quickly!</edit>

[edited by: jetboy_70 at 11:09 am (utc) on Oct. 14, 2003]

[DaveN]

loads of people do it [dontlink.com...]

DaveN