Why Is Business Week Telling People They Can't Link To Its Site?
from the you-got-me dept
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
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Right hand, I have someone I want you to meet.
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Linking to Business Week
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Re: Linking to Business Week
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No Follow
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link
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Re: link
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link
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Not so...
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BusinessWeek
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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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who week?
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Trying to be funny
2) Re: Hellsvilla thanks, I needed a laugh!
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Why not just block external referrers?
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Sue Them.
/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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Do they understand the concept of http?
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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They'll wonder why no one's going to their site soon enough...
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