Why Is Business Week Telling People They Can't Link To Its Site?

from the you-got-me dept

Mon, Jan 28th 2008 3:43am — Mike Masnick

We've been linking to Business Week's website for many, many years here on Techdirt. A quick search shows a long list of posts that all link to articles on the Business Week site. In fact, Business Week has hired a PR firm that has often sent us stories, requesting that we write posts to them. I actually found it rather amusing that a publication would have PR people to try to get more buzz about its own articles -- but those PR people were always friendly, and some of the links they sent were actually quite good. Yet, apparently, someone didn't make this clear to other folks at Business Week. Mathew Ingram points us to a post by SmugMug's CEO, who claims that Business Week demanded he take down a link to a story about his company, pointing to this user agreement that forbids deep-linking, among other things. In the past, we've seen other sites make such claims, though none have been shown to be legal. You simply can't forbid someone from linking to you, no matter how much you might wish to do so. It's rather surprising that a site like BusinessWeek.com would have such a policy in place (especially while actively seeking such links from others) and even more surprising that someone there would move to enforce such a policy. In the meantime, if they would prefer it, we can stop linking to Business Week.

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Filed Under: deep linking, links, user agreements
Companies: business week

18 Comments

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Hellsvilla, 28 Jan 2008 @ 4:16am

Right hand, I have someone I want you to meet.
Right hand, please do come in and sit down. I have someone I want you to meet. His name is wrong hand. Watch him closely and slap the hell out of him when he gets out of line.
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Stephen Arnold, 28 Jan 2008 @ 4:52am

Linking to Business Week
I am delighted with one more "old media" company sending mixed signals. The world has changed for publishers of traditional magazines, and their actions remind me of rescued dogs. There's joy, confusion, discomfort, and wariness. One hopes some of these dogs adapt and maybe learn some new tricks.
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Merrill, 28 Jan 2008 @ 6:00am

No Follow
You should add a "No follow" to all the links to BW.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jan 2008 @ 6:15am

Re: Linking to Business Week
One more example of why the lawyers should not be the ones setting business policies.
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atomatom, 28 Jan 2008 @ 6:18am

Telling people they can't link to your site is like telling people they aren't allowed to send you email. Even if it was true it isn't going to make any difference on the internet.
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vic, 28 Jan 2008 @ 6:23am

link
The ability to link to othere sites should be allowed. If only to make the host site user friendly. Is this hampering free enterprise? I will go in search of a link if I need to find out more. Let the host site give it to us and we will continue to use them take away the ease of use and ruin their business.I think that is UNAMERICAN.
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vic, 28 Jan 2008 @ 6:24am

link
The ability to link to other sites should be allowed. If only to make the host site user friendly. Is this hampering free enterprise? I will go in search of a link if I need to find out more. Let the host site give it to us and we will continue to use them take away the ease of use and ruin their business.I think that is UNAMERICAN.
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Alexander Muse, 28 Jan 2008 @ 6:44am

Not so...
Turns out BusinessWeek is denying this one. According to them, 'it just isn't true.' Do you have a copy of the letter?
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Mark Evans, 28 Jan 2008 @ 7:07am

BusinessWeek
It's a bizarre move - probably made by a "senior" executive who believes blogs are using links to BusinessWeek to create better content..or something like that. I expect there will be a very quiet reversal in policy soon because it's such a dumb decision.
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Trevlac, 28 Jan 2008 @ 7:31am

Re: link
Well the internet is not hosted by "AMERICA" so take into consideration the whole world please.
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Overcast, 28 Jan 2008 @ 7:54am

Who gives a F$%k?

Most sites, if not all - I use are the result of being linked there. Techdirt is one.

As a matter of fact, with My google page set up - all the sites I ever visit are links from RSS feeds.

I had Business Week up there too - but I'll give them their wish - I'll take it down and link to another financial information site.

Of ALL the business in the world that CAN make money off of the web - the finance industry is 'A Number 1'.

That's ok however - in all consideration, they obviously don't have a good grasp of how the economy is changing due to the internet. I believe I will get more sound advice elsewhere anyway.
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rkme, 28 Jan 2008 @ 8:42am

who week?
hmmm.........and they call themselves business week? Interesting way of doing it.
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JustMatt, 28 Jan 2008 @ 8:52am

Trying to be funny
1) Ha ha, I'm self-referentially linking to TechDirt! http://techdirt.com/articles/20080126/18041977.shtml

2) Re: Hellsvilla thanks, I needed a laugh!
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Jamie, 28 Jan 2008 @ 9:00am

Why not just block external referrers?
Business Week could save itself the bad PR but shutting up and just having its web developers redirect all external referrers to some other part of the website. There's no point in demanding the rest of the Internet stop "deep-linking" when Business Week could just redirect those links itself.
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Rick, 28 Jan 2008 @ 9:33am

Sue Them.
Maybe SmugMug should sue Business Week for daring to write an article about them and posting it on their web site? It's obvious trademark infringement if they dared mention the company name, right?

/sarcasm_off

Our sense of legality is so corrupted and confusing right now, it's a wonder people even try to observe the law anymore. If one company can't figure out what the left hand is telling the right hand, why should anyone bother? We can just sue, instead.
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Iggie, 28 Jan 2008 @ 9:41am

Do they understand the concept of http?
Business Week is completely clueless with the regards to the core nature of the Internet. They should have a look at any URL in the address bar of their browser and they will notice four letters - http. I wonder what they stand for?

hypertext transfer protocol

Hypertext as defined by Wikipedia is:

"Hypertext most often refers to text on a computer that will lead the user to other, related information on demand."

Therefore

Business Week=Out of Touch=Irrelevant
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Rob, 28 Jan 2008 @ 10:05am

This seems like an easy thing to deal with: don't link to them.

They'll wonder why no one's going to their site soon enough...
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jan 2008 @ 5:12pm

User agreement yawn. Worthless and ignored. I have never read one and I have no intention of feeling obliged to obey them.
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