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.
Reader Comments (rss)
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Right hand, I have someone I want you to meet. by Hellsvilla on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 4:16am
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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Linking to Business Week by Stephen Arnold on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 4:52am
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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No Follow by Merrill on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 6:00am
You should add a "No follow" to all the links to BW.
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Re: Linking to Business Week by Anonymous Coward on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 6:15am
One more example of why the lawyers should not be the ones setting business policies.
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by atomatom on Jan 28th, 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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link by vic on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 6:23am
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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link by vic on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 6:24am
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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Not so... by Alexander Muse on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 6:44am
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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BusinessWeek by Mark Evans on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 7:07am
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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Re: link by Trevlac on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 7:31am
Well the internet is not hosted by "AMERICA" so take into consideration the whole world please.
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by Overcast on Jan 28th, 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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who week? by rkme on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 8:42am
hmmm.........and they call themselves business week? Interesting way of doing it.
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Trying to be funny by JustMatt on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 8:52am
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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Why not just block external referrers? by Jamie on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:00am
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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Sue Them. by Rick on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:33am
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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Do they understand the concept of http? by Iggie on Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:41am
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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by Rob on Jan 28th, 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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by Anonymous Coward on Jan 28th, 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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