You May Not Link This Web Site

Ganon34 sent us a funny story about a company requiring permission to link their website. The company in question is KPMG, a financial and legal advisory company, and the article itself is an entertaining read about the aftermath of them sending demands that someone remove a link to their public web site. It's a pretty funny piece -- especially the part about KPMG's theme song. Also references the old ticketmaster vs ticet.com case that held up deep linking. It's all funny 'cuz its true. Their page could also use some testing since it doesn't render in my browser.

Comments

jez

[British]

If they don't want people linking to their website, just block all referrers. Mind you, it might be a bit difficult to get to their website, but rules are rules!

Big deal..its a request

[CMiYC]

Okay... so here's what I don't get... the company's policy clearly says "KPMG is obligated to protect its reputation and trademarks and KPMG reserves the right to request removal of any link to our website."

So what do they think? EVERYONE that they request to remove a link is going too. If they want to try to use this stupid policy to "enforce" something (what, I'm still not quite sure) then at least word it properly. In the form of "we request the right to force you to remove a link to our site." Not that either policy actually means anything.

I reserve the right to request you to remove any silver type jewerly while visitng my website.

Re:Big deal..its a request

[D_Gr8_BoB]

Here's a link to their actual disclaimer page. By posting this, I'm violating both their "no linking without permission" policy and their "no links that bypass the homepage" policy.

If they really cared, couldn't they just block all pages but their index for all browsers who don't send a referer header indicating they came from another page on their site? If you're going to make up stupid rules, you might as well enforce them when it's that easy to do.

Opinion Piece

[Tackhead]

Boy, is KPMG's theme song lame.

If my boss gave me the choice between singing that song and sodomizing myself with a baseball bat dipped in a paste of ground glass and 5-minute epoxy, I'd ask him for a map to the nearest Home Depot.

I wonder...

[BarefootClown]

if they have written agreements with Google, Altavista, and the other search engines. If not, perhaps their name should be removed from the engine.

Same with the phone books...

Re:Ugly Flash

[logicnazi]

Jesus...KPMG has really won haven't they. With one stupid letter they managed to get more free advertising and even active links than X10 has purchased during its entire lifetime. Given the way modern search enginges work this probably boosts it up to the top of the heap in search results as well.

IANAL but...

[sheetsda]

please be aware such links require that a formal Agreement exist between our two parties, as mandated by our organization's Web Link Policy."

So its their policy, so what? It's not a contract, what binds anyone to abide by it? They can't do anything about it if he links to them, not to mention the free speech implications. This was just a lame attempt to shut off some bad press and ironically they're getting tons of attention for doing it. Perhaps that affect is the intention.

Re:Ugly Flash

[CaseyB]

I don't know if the "any publicity is good publicity" rule holds for consulting firms. It's a bad thing to get a reputation as a company that Doesn't Get It, when your whole business is based on the perception that you Get It.

Re:Ugly Flash

[nomadic]

KPMG is one of the Big Five accounting firms; just about anyone who would need their services already knows they exist. I think this just makes them look kind of dumb...