Comments on: You need a paper licence to link to the Royal Mail website

By: cctv installers

cctv installers — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 01:29:51 +0000

I can't see how any site can legally stop people from linking to them, wasn't there a case a while back where some company sued someone for deep linking to their site and lost the case ?

By: Alec

Alec — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:03:46 +0000

Surely this is a request rather than an enforceable law!? I mean I could add an official looking piece of text to my website stating that you are not allowed to mention my company on your own website unless you have my express permission... But that doesn't make it legally binding.

The whole point of the internet is that you have the freedom to say and link to anything you like (within the laws you are subject to). Clearly if you are slandering someone or are liable in your statements you could be taken to court, but linking to a website doesn't break a law.

Another point, they say that they move their pages around all the time... maybe they do maybe they don't, what they don't do is change their top level domain EVER!

Makes you want to link to them just to prove a point, maybe that is why they did it!

By: Mike Turner

Mike Turner — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:46:34 +0000

I don't understand why they don't let you link to them what harm can it do?
To be fair the royal mail have more problems than this, but I guess this goes to show how they have stupid rules in place that effects their business.
Everytime I do to a post office their is a huge que, however you get to the counter and i had them try and sell me all sorts from insurance to choclate bars!

By: Colin Hall

Colin Hall — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:03:59 +0000

It sounds to me that Royal Mail prefer to use the legal route instead of [like the rest of us] programming out the problem. As far as I see it they could simply program their pages to forward an accepted list of linking sites to their useful pages and any of the others that do not appear on their list would be forwarded to a blank "Unauthorised Access" page.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:03:47 +0000

I'm also having the problem described by Patrick. I'm the sole Director of a limited company. I no longer have a company secretary, as permitted by the change on 6th April 2008.
Royal Mail is insisting that two signatories must be provided on the redirection form to "ensure that the security of the company and prevent fraud".
I explained that there is no other person who is legally permitted to sign of behalf of my company, but they refused to redirect the mail.
As a result, my business mail will be sent to an address where I am unable to collect it. This is madness! Perhaps I should get my cat to sign the form.

Has anyone managed to get around this nonsense rule???

By: UK Websites with No Linking Policy

UK Websites with No Linking Policy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:15:16 +0000

[...] my absolute favourite is………….. The Post Office, yes that’s right, Royal Mail don’t allow you to link to them without……………… get this………….. “a paper [...]

By: The Rot Within :: No Permission, No Link :: June :: 2010

The Rot Within :: No Permission, No Link :: June :: 2010 — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:52:44 +0000

[...] that they have similar clauses banning links or deep links without permission. Malcolm Coles had fun trying to get ‘written permission’ to link to the Royal Mail’s website — [...]

By: Sites that ban you from linking to them. Still. In 2010 » malcolm coles

Sites that ban you from linking to them. Still. In 2010 » malcolm coles — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:34:14 +0000

[...] The Guardian has poked some fun at the Edinburgh Fringe website for banning people linking to it in its terms and conditions. Can sites still be doing this, more than a year after I revealed that most newspapers banned deep links back then, as did brands like Apple, Royal Mail, Channel 4 and, er, the Association of Online Publishers at the time (which culminated in the hilarity of my attempts to get the Royal Mail to post me the paper licence they insisted I needed to link to the...)? [...]

By: Andy @ jordan kicks

Andy @ jordan kicks — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:33:42 +0000

I wonder whether a freedom on information request would uncover how many licenses they hold for all those travel insurance links they buy.

By: SASCon 2010 Preview

SASCon 2010 Preview — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:33:16 +0000

[...] Malcolm Coles (@malcolmcoles) Malcolm is a someone I only came to know about fairly recently via Twitter (you know, if you click enough tweets, you’ll find something interesting). His blog is now firmly entrenched in my RSS reader as he covers some interesting topics. I particularly enjoyed his post about linking to Royal Mail. [...]