Major Icelandic Newspaper Says Aggregators Not Allowed

from the fair-'nuff dept

We're still confused by some news publications' war against those who send them traffic. We've already covered some newspapers choosing technical means of blocking aggregators, which is effective cutting off your nose to spite your face, but what about just claiming that it's illegal? That seems to be the plan of a major Icelandic newspaper, who has put up a new policy that bans " repeated and systematic" linking to the website (Boing Boing's coverage implies it bans all deep linking, but that does not appear to be the case). This definitely seems targeted at aggregators, but I'm really not sure how that makes much of a difference anyway. First off, blocking links seems like a silly way to go about running a media publication, but second, just declaring that it's not allowed doesn't make much sense. If you really don't know how to capitalize on incoming traffic, then just use technical means. Insisting "it's not allowed" when your webserver says "yes, it's allowed!" doesn't make much sense.
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Filed Under: deep linking, iceland, linking, newspaper


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  1. identicon
    ant anti mike, 9 Feb 2010 @ 7:19pm

    HEY downloading is illegal

    ya know it isnt but we say it is .....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 9 Feb 2010 @ 8:58pm

    To answer you question ...

    "We're still confused by some news publications' war against those who send them traffic."

    Blame the indians, circle the wagons, then round them up and kill them because you trespassed on their land.

    That statement requires some explaination. The news papers have entered a new land (internet) where they can not understand the language or actions of the people around them. They are entering the stage where they are believing the hype of the wagon train master (in this case apple) and they must circle their wagons. They are excluding all those who dont pay them, and attempting to re monopolize using the iPad and its future clones.

    Its a desert sand in an infinite seive problem. It cant be solved.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    pink floyd, 9 Feb 2010 @ 9:51pm

    a new land thats existed how long?

    hrm whats to understand
    YOU dont get it if they paywall themselves then we talk to people and we hear the news instead.

    PERFECT , in way what do you think happens with forever copyrights?
    in time so little will be able to be created and those very few with it all will extract such a tool on mankind as to be unbearable and then ONLY THEN will the bombs and torches come out to end the stupidity.

    Solved sure it can let em paywall ...see that was easy. HOPE its works. ILL talk to my buds overseas and suddenly they will wnt to hang and get news form us and we'll be like NO YOU have your little island fuck off.

    see how it works you dont want to share neither do we want you on the continent , you go stay on your little island.

    and then we can go one further and just have NO ONE ever talk to reporters without compensation first.
    THAT'S RIGHT i want 5 billion euros ( FUCK USD ITS SUCKS )
    for a one liner.

    after all whats another brick in the wall

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Mark Ryder, 10 Feb 2010 @ 12:45am

    your wrong again

    look people will steal and we try to stop it but if you don't have a terms of use you don't have a leg to stand on
    so by making a statement of how you want your copyright material used is telling everyone how they should use it even if you do not have the means to secure it from theft don't mean you want it stolen.

    further down the line courts will know by who makes it clear now what rights are give and so with terms and conditions of use it will be clear to see who has abused those conditions..

    just because someones front door is open dosn't mean you can enter and take what you want! and so go's this story just because they don't close every access point dosn't mean they can not tell you don't access this way as you will be stealing from us..

    pay for what you use!

    http://www.ukunderground.com

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Getefix, 10 Feb 2010 @ 12:49am

    Re: HEY downloading is illegal

    Actually, downloading is legal in Iceland. Uploading copyrighted content is illegal. The gov puts a HUGE tax on writable media (the excuse being that it will be used to distribute the downloaded material) which is then given to the Icelandic Arts Council.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2010 @ 1:28am

    Re: your wrong again

    Yeah! No aggregation without representation! Aggregation is stealing! Linking is wrong! Sharing is evil!

    No aggregation without representation!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2010 @ 2:01am

    Major - Icelandinc

    It's fun that the words major and Icelandic are used in the same sentence. The population of Iceland (according the popular Wikipedia site) is 320,000 people. The local evening paper in my city has a greater circulation than this but I would hardly describe it as major.

    Iceland is however a great place to visit and the people are very nice.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 10 Feb 2010 @ 2:26am

    Re: your wrong again

    look people will steal and we try to stop it but if you don't have a terms of use you don't have a leg to stand on
    so by making a statement of how you want your copyright material used is telling everyone how they should use it even if you do not have the means to secure it from theft don't mean you want it stolen.


    So many things wrong with that paragraph, hard to know where to start.

    1. "Theft" is not the same as infringement.
    2. You don't get to define your own copyright terms above and beyond what copyright allows, so, no, you don't have to have terms here. The terms here are simply incorrect by law.
    3. Linking is not infringement (nor theft, but that was point 1).
    4. If you have a website, you have means of securing it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    martyburns (profile), 10 Feb 2010 @ 5:23am

    Re: your wrong again

    I'm imagining a new internet. One where you are not allowed to link to anything without prior aproval of the owner of said link. It's really easy to use. I just click on one of my trillions of bookmarks.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    yozoo, 10 Feb 2010 @ 7:54am

    Re: Major - Icelandinc

    Well the country is majorly bankrupt . . . at least thats what my UK friends keep telling me

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2010 @ 8:34am

    I'm not sure which kind of aggregator we're talking about. If it is one which simply links back to the main site, providing a sentence or two of description, that's one thing.

    If it copies the whole of the article, then the patronage model of advertising is lost, hits go down, etc.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2010 @ 10:57am

    Re: Re: your wrong again

    TAM would love it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2010 @ 10:58am

    Re:

    Considering the policy is focused on (trying to) stop linking, not "copying," I don't think it's very difficult to figure out which type of aggregator they're whining about.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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