15 more sites that forbid you from linking to them
I've written before (2009 and 2010) about sites that forbid you from linking to them in their T&Cs - as well as the fun I had trying to get one of Royal Mail's elusive licences giving permission to link to them.
Here, in 2011, are 15 sites I've not featured before, all of which try to prevent you linking to them (usually restricting the "right" to link to just the homepage or else requiring written consent). YOU'RE ALL IDIOTS. I have, of course, linked to them - click the company name to see the T&Cs. (Update The NUS have tweeted me to say they've revised their T&Cs. One down ... Update 2 The University of Nottingham have changed theirs too. Update 3 And the BMJ.)
Facepalm
Barclays Capital
Forget the banking crisis. The important thing is that "No third party is permitted to link any other web-site to this Site without obtaining our prior written consent."
BBC magazines
Oh, the BBC. How could you? "You are not permitted to create a link to any part of our Services other than the home page unless you have our prior written consent."
British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group
Right, I won't. Oh. "You must not deep link to any of our other websites or link to our home pages without our agreement in writing."
Eurostar
The wrong kind of lawyers, as well as snow. "Links to this website shall not be setup without the written consent of Eurostar Group Limited."
Lloyds TSB
Don't we own you? We'll do as we please. "If you would like to link to the Website, you may only do so on the basis that you link to, but do not replicate, the home page of the Website".
The Odeon
Accessible versions of their site? No. Stupid T&Cs? Yes. "You undertake not to: ... establish a link to this Website from any other website, intranet or extranet site, without our express prior written consent".
National Union of Students
Actually, I will. "You ... will not create and publish a hypertext link to any part of the Website".
Northern Rail
Ooh, controversial. "You may only link to this Web site with Our express written permission. We expressly reserve the right to withdraw Our consent at any time to a link which in Our sole opinion is inappropriate or controversial."
Ocado
Can I have the consent with my delivery tomorrow? "You may not create a link to this website from another website or document without Ocado Group plc's prior written consent."
Radission Edwardian Hotels
The right to disable links on other websites? They must have totally l33t skills. "Your linking of another web site to our web site is at your own risk. In addition, you agree not to link your web site or any other third party web site to our web site without our express prior written consent. We reserve the right to disable links from any third party sites to our website."
Ryanair
They probably charge you if you do. "You may not establish and/or operate links to this website without the prior written consent of Ryanair".
Shell
Lying about reserves? Yes. This - no. "You may not ... link to this web site; without our express written consent. If you wish to provide a hypertext or other link to this web site, please email the Webmaster with details of: the URL(s) of the web page(s) from which you are proposing to link to this web site; the URL(s) of the web page(s) on this web site to which you are proposing to link and we will consider your request. It is our decision as to whether we agree to your request and we do not have to do so."
Tottenham Hotspur
It's this attention to detail that will get you in the Champion's League. "You will not deep-link ... the Site or the Services without our prior written approval to be given or refused at our discretion."
United Parcel Service (UPS)
I tried to deliver my request for an agreement but they weren't in. "Linking to any page of the Website other than to http://www.ups.com through a plain text link is strictly prohibited in the absence of a separate linking agreement with UPS."
University of Nottingham
Academic freedom's a wonderful thing. "You may create a hypertext link to the homepage of our website at www.nottingham.ac.uk provided such link is not used in a misleading or defamatory context. You may not create links to any other page or file forming part of our website without our prior written permission."
Picture credit. And if you liked this post, maybe you need to hire me as an London-based SEO consultant. You could also make use of my UK SEO blog search engine.
So there I was, chuckling away at how clueless they all our, and how you'd never catch US (Citywire Money - an online publisher) doing something so silly.
'I'd better just check,' I thought to myself.
2.2 Subject to the Standard Licence Terms contained herein you must not copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, create links to, transmit, distribute, publish or otherwise publicly display any Content without our prior written consent.
Oh.
So I have to hastily re-evaluate my opinion on this. It's not because these organisations are struggling with reality and genuinely think they can (or should) prevent you from linking to them, it's just the same old story that the legal people don't speak web and no-one at all speaks legal. Lawyers will always err on the side of caution, and web folk will continue to ignore them.
Either that or we'd better go and sue Google!
Having worked with such lawyers, I agree with Rich. I think what these sites are trying to prevent is hotlinking, or any kind of misrepresentation that involves nesting part of their online service inside your own site. That's just a guess though.
I don't think they err on the side of caution. They err on the side of verbiage and bluster, as that is the playing field on which they typically win.
The best part is that simply viewing the website both reproduces and copies it.
It might also count as distributing it, and if you're on a laptop in public, you might be "publicly display"ing it.
So, you can't use that website at all without permission, in writing, in advance.
Clever monkeys.
Yeah so...why aren't companies' lawyers sitting down with IT staff to discuss these ludicrous terms? Are the lawyers just not listening?
I hear the lawyers did try to talk with the tech guys, but after 5 minutes of trying to discern the legal babel the tech guys all committed ritual suicide.
It's the verbal war between tech and law.
Lawyers win on length and verbosity.
Tech wins on pointless obscuration by domain specific terminology and the use of acronyms.
The users, of both laws and technology, end up as collateral damage.
This, officially, is the most idiotic thing I've heard about in weeks. Unbelievable - and nicely exposed.
Hilarious, especially if you work in search.
I've worked with marketing and PR teams who don't like being linked too due to co citation. Not co citation in the way we know it for search engines, but in the form that... they feel being present on another website, if that website was to do something 'illegal' etc users may make the 'co citation' and associate brand x with y hence their 'no linking policy'. For example, a travel website not promoting holidays to Libya at the moment
It's a consideration brands make when introducing Facebook's 'Like' button too; if Facebook were to get slaughtered for privacy etc, brand teams think along the lines of would the little 'Like' button connect brand x with y and change their persona of brand x? It does happen, even if subliminally.
Devils advocate hat off... search hat back on and the giggles return.
I would love to see these websites attempt to enforce this. Obviously it wouldn't happen. It should be removed from the T's & C's.
Is the Lloyds TSB one so bad? That looks more like an anti-phishing clause than anything. I doubt it's going to put any phishers off though.
Whilst these are ridiculous terms, I suspect it's nothing more than arse-covering. If someone like the BNP for example heavily started linking to their content then they may not be entirely desirable. Enforcing it is another matter of course!
With regard to the Radisson Edwardian group's claim to disable links, you *could* do this by knowing the exact URL of the naughty link & examining the HTTP referrer. If both match, you could redirect to a '404.13 - utterly pointless refusal' page. This is not even slightly reliable, although it is 100% mental.
A far more sensible decision would be a disclaimer stating that you don't guarantee links will always work/have current information/won't set your computer on fire. You don't always want the hassle of making sure your links always work, but it's purely bonkers to try and stop people linking to public content.
G
You'd be best off creating a whitelist and any referrer not matching that would be redirected to your pointless 404 page.
Remember to take screenshots in case they sneak in and change their T&C.
On the NUS: are they not banning you from linking to unauthorised components, e.g. a backdoor into their content management system, rather than genuine content?
Mike: The university of Nottingham have changed theirs - you can still see the old one in the Google cache for now.
[...] I always enjoy reading stuff Malcolm Coles puts out. Today, he just dropped a really well written post: 15 more sites that forbid you from linking to them [...]
Look what you made me do: http://explicitly.me/dont-link-to-us
Contrast those with the British Library's T&Cs:
"Other individuals and organisations wishing to make British Library content accessible through their websites are encouraged to create hypertext links to the required content on this website."
Google should just remove from and refuse to add any site with this kind of T&C to their index. Problem solved.
Oh dear...
The funniest and most depressing thing I have read in a while.
Top round up.
You can link to http://www.meandem.com anyday. But am now hastily checking t&c's to check if they pass the MCC (Malcolm Code of Conduct).
Why don't you develop your own MCC copyright online code of conduct and t&c's. Sell them online for a small fee, which for sure will be a) half the price that SME's pay lawyers currently
b) ensure they are sensible and user-friendly
c) set up a deal with a nice friendly legal team who will for a small sensible fee personalise said legals for companies of which you take a finders fee.
You get lots of online companies with sensible legals, and companies get access to intelligent legal advice at a good price.
Emx
xxx
well thats one way to go about making friends hay - great post this - rishi passed me on to you, but i dare say ive never really come across this beofre - but then i dont read the T7Cs that often -
heck - if you've got good content and i want me readers to find it - ill be linking to ya ryanair! see me in court ya'll.
Thanks for the read man - nice 5 mins of LOLz.
iDCx
I wonder if the lawyers are now trying to stop people from pointing to the company office buildings also?
When in sight of any facilities of our company, you are not permitted to speak about, point to, or otherwise consciously acknowledge the existence of said facility, especially in regards to snickering or defamatory comments whether under the breath, tongue in cheek, or otherwise, without express written consent.
"The right to disable links on other websites? They must have totally l33t skills. "
Not at all. By using the "HTTP referer" attribute, attempts at linking can be easily diverted to some stern warning page.
[...] 5. 15 websites that forbid you from linking to them. [...]
Apparently these guys haven't heard of search engine optimization either.
[...] Coles points to absurd website terms and conditions, including one hotel and airline that actually forbids you to link to [...]
Funny stuff!
In Denmark Ikea contacts webmasters to let them know not to link to them. Se this translated article:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comon.dk%2Fnyheder%2Fskal-man-spoerge-om-lov-for-at-linke-til-ikea-1.390301.html
Major face-plaming occurs in the southern hemisphere as well. I actually threatened to pull my accounts from HSBC (Australia) due to their Hyperlink Policy (WTF!) stating: "You must always obtain the prior written approval of HSBC before creating a hyperlink in any form from a third party website to any HSBC website. HSBC may or may not give such approval at its absolute discretion"
When I was looking for car insurance a few weeks ago I scratched AAMI (that's AAMI: http://www.aami.com.au/) off my list because of their Terms of Use "policy" that "linking to the AAMI Website is only permitted when authorised in writing by AAMI." I didn't bother to contact them.
[...] "Building a better Explainer". Society, humour: Chronicling the blitheringly stupid on the web: "15 more sites that forbid you from linking to them". Science, ethics, society: @GrrlScientist has a good post up in her blog in the Guardian on: "It's [...]
May I ask what the goal is of this exercise?
It's relatively easy (mod_rewrite) to redirect all incoming traffic to the top page, if that is really what they want. But that would mean your private bookmarks and the like would also be redirected. It's probably not that hard to redirect all incoming traffic with an explicit referrer to the top page. That would block personal link pages, which few people use.
[...] just too good to give up. Earlier this morning I was reading a post on a UK blog entitled “15 more sites that forbid you from linking to them“. After having a chuckle at the list and the stupidity of trying stop people linking to your [...]
[...] as Malcolm Coles has noted in the past, is a bit [...]
[...] Link via Marginal Revolution [...]
I have never been to many of those sites. I am pretty sure I can link to them legally if I've never been to them as I would never have accepted their terms by using their site.
Anyone who pays their lawyers by the word deserves to look stupid on the international stage.
[...] 15 sites that forbid you from linking to them. Really, UPS? So when I type a tracking number into Google and it links to you, you’re not a fan? [...]
Since UPS is on the list, is it against their terms of service for a company that ships merchandise via UPS to send, as part of customer order confirmation e-mails, a link to view the tracking status of the shipment on the UPS site?
You can add BBSRC (Biotechnoloy & Biological Sciences Research Council) to the list - home page only see http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/site/terms-and-conditions.aspx "linking to our site"
"Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page."
Crazy since they run a grants portfolio under more or less Open Government License terms (see "Special terms and conditions for use of Portfolio Analyser" in the same terms of use section) that says "You are encouraged to use and re-use the DATA, subject to the terms and conditions on this page" etc etc. So you can publicly re-use the data but can't link to the page it came from .
Kafkaesque or what?
Hahahah LMAO. Your article is funy. Never though calling someone idiots in the context you did it would be so funny. But to tell you the true. Not all of them are idiots. Some people disguised themselves as the original sites. Selling tickets, financial institution. It is a protection. yes magazines you would assume they will like the advertising and free exposure, but unfortunately people not only link, they take chunks of content from sites, links that look like links but they are in fact gaining popularity based on the directories they create. So you are an idiot for not knowing business administration/ business law and only focus on your online marketing abilities. Then past judgment on all them.
Some of the ones you listed are idiots, but others are not.--liabilities of the off line world--call it semantics. This is why I'm a professional online marketer with a business degree i took after. Because i can not be a total idiot like you
and all the idiots that agreed with you. LOL sorry, but true.
@Karen - If you are going to boast about your professional qualifications at least make the effort to use good grammar and punctuation, and FFS check your spelling! As it stands it is you who looks like a total idiot.
"links that look like links"
... how profound...
Lol fabulous list
My favourite one is definitely Radission Edwardian Hotels. "We reserve the right to disable links from any third party sites to our website". Absolutely hilarious!!
um, yeah. . . . .we're going to need you to stop linking to us. We don't want you sending any qualified web traffic our way.
Links are more or less endorsements. If you don't want my endorsement, maybe you don't want my business.
But such is living in a litigious society, I guess.
I think I might add some T&Cs that say if you visit my website and have a high ranking site of your own, you HAVE to link to my pages. Otherwise you will be barred!
LOL, Love it! Those darned Internets gotta be kept in line!
[...] Surreal. 15 websites that you’re not allowed to link to. [...]
This is just ridiculous... A Danish guy got en email from IKEA telling him sort of the same:
" Dear xxx
We at IKEA noticed that we receive traffic from your site, without we have consented to this.
Can you please tell me why this happens?
Sincerely,
xxxx
Internet Responsible"
I honestly have no idea why this happens...
[...] stumbled across this post by Malcolm Coles, and it gave me a laugh. Take a look: Malcom Coles – Here, in 2011, are 15 sites I’ve not featured before, all of which try to prevent you [...]
It's not unreasonable of Lloyds to say that we can link to them but not replicate their site. They are a bank, phishing is an issue.
Once upon a time we were reading from the newspaper the films played in the cinemas.
Apollo: "wet waves", Embassy theatre: "vicar in bathing suit", Astor: "chick pea finds dad's sneakers" and so on.
Now we 're not allowed to list the cinemas. Only after express permission !