Slashdot Mirror
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.
That is one horrible flash intro at KPMG. No wonder they want people to get permission to link to it.
--- Think of it as evolution in action ---
Oops I did it again!
Damnit!
Just seemed ironic that /. linked to a site in order to break the news that a site prohibits linking to it.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
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!
Wouldn't this be like hindering freedom of the press or something? That's like saying, "If you use our name in daily conversation, we'll sue you." Its almost as bad as companies trying to sue people because they give their products a bad review.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
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.
that you ask permission before sending email to my inbox - or I'll sue!
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Use client executed Javascript to generate the link. Then you're not linking to their page, the people browsing your site are linking to their page.
What do you expect from a company that hires people based on GPA and status of college? All of the major consulting companies, Bain, McKinsey, PWC, et al, they won't even interview you if your SAT scores, GPA, and College aren't "top notch." It is pretty sad, as if this is really a measurement of ability. These companies don't like anyone to be individual or think outside the box and it shows in their draconian policies.
--Jon
This is a brilliant bit of viral marketing. Never heard of them 3 days ago and now they've been on FCompany and Slashdot. They are number 2 on the blogdex.
Watching Cowboy Bebop in my jammies, eating a bowl of Shreddies.
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.
Clearly this is just a clever ploy to get tons of people to link to them. Look how many people have taken the bait so far!
If Current Trends Continue(tm), it's only a matter of time before they're at the top of the results for every google search.
I read this earlier today in Wired and had to wonder if this wasn't all a means of advertising through reverse psychology. Tell some geeks they can't do something that obviously anyone can do and they will do exactly the opposite.
And in the process this company gets a huge number of free links from just about everywhere. How many companies would not like to have their website linked everywhere?
Are KPMG saying that if a site other than the KPMG site links to KPMG then KPMG might sue them? I wonder how much KPMG would demand for each infringing link to KPMG from a non-KPMG site to the KPMG web site at http://www.kpmg.com?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
JesusGeeks has this hours ago! :)
KPMG doesn't want us to link to KPMG? That seems absurd! What if I want to link to KPMG? I should be able to link to KPMG if I want to! In fact, I will make use of that privelige right now!
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
KPMG
The anti-salmon
*shrug* I've tried every browser under the (Windows) sun on their site over the past couple of months, and even with the "required" plugins, still can't get the bedamned thing to load properly. Since they're in our industry, they are on my boss's to-watch list--and every time I send her a report it says "broken site." Can't get past the intro screen, which usually causes my computer to yak.
...
Once upon a time, the site did work
Here's the problem (from the source code):
(c) 2000, Razorfish, Inc. all rights reserved.
Learn to write HTML you losers!!!
Moderators need an additional choice: "Karma Whore" for people who cut-and-paste articles as their comments!
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
I'm trying to remember from when I last listened to it: here goes anyway:-
We're KPMG, We're strong as can be
Something, Something
And our visions of global strategy...
Anyone know all the words? (I don't have the mp3 here right now)
*** I am the real stylewagon
Thought experiments for my web hypothetical kpmgsucks.com web site (someone owns it already):
- A link to KPMG that displays only if you're coming in from a kpmg.com (oops!) address. (I'd love to hear the conversation between KPMG and its outside corporate counsel on that one.)
- A link to KPMG that shows up on 0.1% of all page views, randomly.
- A GIF that looks like a blue, underlined link to kpmg.com (oops!)
So /. is recycling news from wired who
recycles it from fuckedcompany.com...sigh.
/. stories are posted elsewhere. Since ./ doesn't employ reporters (at least that I know of), its really hard to go out and find news that isn't from somewhere else or that wasn't published first.
I would like to point out that 99% of
The site renders extremely badly on Galeon... (And it's about as bad with Netscape 4.7 and Konqueror, albeit in different ways...)
Maybe they want nobody to link to it so that nobody knows that it's there?
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
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...
"Make it ten--I am only a poor corrupt official."
--Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca
This will not be a laughing matter in five years. The 2600 DeCSS linking case ruled it is illegal to even link to illegal sites. It's only a matter of time before KPMG's attitudes become de facto.
[begin obligatory slashdot rant] This is truly a bizarre turn of evens as this ruling raises some fundamental questions about intellectual property rights and free speech on the Internet. You would think it is legal to link to a page against the author's permission. You would also think the likes of Madonna and Julia Roberts couldn't steal registered domains containing their names. All of these have been called into doubt as we descend down this slippery slope.
The corporate chokehold on individual freedoms needs greater vigilance. If you asked someone twenty years ago what they thought of random drug testing, stealth eavesdropping techniques, etc., you would probably get a much more appalled response than you would today. What are we in danger of not being appalled about twenty years from now?
More sites on this topic, esp. 46-49 of this ruling.
The letter and response are here.
The full story is here.
HTH
marty
"I can't buy want I want because it's free. Can't be what they want because I'm me." -Corduroy, Pearl Jam
To me, it sounds more like a lame telephone loop that companies use to torture people on hold. (A friend of mine composes non-lethal telephone songs. Contact me if your company needs better phone loop music.)
So, does anybody know where this song originated?
Is this just a telephone "hold the line" theme or are KPMG employees required to sing a long to this piece every morning?
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
Do they have DeCSS source code on their front page or something? They should embed some of it in their metatags; then if the pesky other parties refuse to cease and desist their nefarious linking ways, they can just have law enforcement step in and take care of business.
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
But this is one of the largest accounting/consulting firms in the world. They don't need tricks like this to advertise. The negative press they're going to get off of it is much worse because it discredits them. Despite this stupid move, KPMG is actually very reputable and is great company to work for.
Advertising and quality of company issues aside, I'm trying to determine whether which is funnier, this request about links or the silly legal statement they append to every e-mail sent from kpmg mail servers:
The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized.
If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. When addressed to our clients any opinions or advice contained in this email are subject to the terms and conditions expressed in the governing KPMG client engagement letter.
Here's a link to the company that built the site for Razorfish.
*link via camworld
*** I am the real stylewagon
I wonder if http://www.kpmg.com/?#define%20m(i)(x[i]^s[i+84])y )c+=y=i^i/8^i>>4^i>>12,i=i>>8^y& gt;14,y=a^a*8^a>8^y/n."[k>>4]*2^k*257/8,s [j]=k^(k&k*2&34)*6^c+~y;}} would be an illegal hyperlink... Yep, that's DeCSS...
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
KPMG Morale and Puffery Manager - Alright, guys, that sounds really positive and great, we'll send you the check in the mail.
...
...
...
(leaves, whistling that godawful song)
Producer - Man, I'm glad that's over.
Studio musicians - Yeah, man. Dig it. Lame gig.
Studio owner - I've been listening to these backwards
Producer - Well, I
Studio owner - You've got Price Waterhouse's human resources department's number backward masked on the first verse. I hope they don't find out
Producer - I couldn't resist. Hours and hours of listening to that damn song! I'm only human, damn it!
I bet they even submitted the link themselves ...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"We easily sent hundreds of these letters over the past year," he said. Indeed, he wondered why this was considered newsworthy at all, as "many organizations do this."
/.? Or me? Whatever. so there!, and there!, and there!
And many organizations are freaking retarded too.
<cluestick>
Hello! When people link to you its like free advertising... hmmm maybe if we allow people to link to our site they might actually find it.
</cluestick>
What are they going to do now? Sue Google? Or
(That was very therapetic)
The Anti-Blog
I have a friend who used to work for the same company as myself. He had links to their web-site and to the sites of clients for whom he had done stellar design work as part of his online resume. The company demanded that he remove these links.
Why? Ostensibly because "too many hits are coming from your page, buddy!" But perhaps it's really because his personal page advocates veganism, or perhaps because he's a photographer who had done some same-sex weddings. Who knows?
The point is, telling people not to link to your site is just plain stupid and unreasonable, and frankly borders on unethical. May they drown in their stupid-karma!
-- thinkyhead software and media
Most people haven't heard of firms like this because it does them no good to market to the average consumer since their services are of no interest to them. Large corporations pay them millions however, and you can pretty much bet that just about every Fortune 500 firm is one of their clients. A mid-level consultant in one of these firms bills out at about $300-$400 per hour. They make huge sums of money and wield tremendous power in corporate America.
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
Several friends that are undergrads are going through recruiting. Because of the economy, the recruiting levels are lower. They were worried that if they took an "inferior" job, they couldn't recruit their next year.
Apparently the consulting firms only want to hire people that fit in a small pigeonhole. They want you to pay them boatloads of money to be advised by people that were chosen because:
1) They had no useful knowledge/experience
2) They fit a small description, people that focused on grades at the expense of everything else
I don't know, but if I was the 55 year old CEO of a company looking to hire consultants, I wouldn't want to be spending $1500/day for some kid straight out of school that has never done anything...
Alex
Haha! You've got to listen to that theme song. It reminds me of the Miss America theme song. hahahaha
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.
They took the "HT" out of HTML.
"Don't even think about it," said a sinister voice.
"Who is this?" I asked, frightened.
"Never mind," said the man. "Just think of how it would be a shame to find some management consultants in your cubicle when you show up at work tomorrow, shaking their heads sadly and holding out a cardboard box with your possessions."
Carousel is a lie!
It's a weird mix of corp-speak and Slashdot grammer.
Well, at least no one is subjected to read the useless drivel of a website that they have as long as you reject their cookies they try to set on your computer. So I guess, not only do they not want people linking to their site, but they also don't want semi-intelligent, privacy loving individuals even looking at their website. Hehe! :)
After listening to that ridiculous POS (and wondering how much shareholder money was dumped into that crud) I decided to do my part and put the MP3 in my Morpheus Shared Folder. Enjoy! (And take that, KPMG! "KPMG/We're strong as can be/A dream of power and energy/We go for the goal/Together we hold/On to our vision of global strategy..." Yuck!)
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
Looks like they went down. Heh. I wonder what they are going to tell their clients about scalability and load balancing now :)
-Jeff
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
Pure arrogance.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Hey Taco, I hope you followed Linus's example and filed a bug report with KDE.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a brutal anal raping at airport security
A mirror of the letter and response is here.
A mirror of the full story is here.
HTH
marty
"I can't buy want I want because it's free. Can't be what they want because I'm me." -Corduroy, Pearl Jam
Emerging Legal Guidance on 'Deep Linking' By Margaret Smith Kubiszyn
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
Here is the policy section from their disclaimer page.
...
The following web link activities are explicitly prohibited by KPMG and may present trademark and copyright infringement issues:
Links that involve unauthorized use of our logo
Framing, inline links or metatags
Hyperlinks or a form of link that disguises the URL and bypass the homepage
...
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
This was also reported on FuckedCompany a few days ago. An interesting discussion went along with it.
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
Don't want people linking to your site? Fine. Then don't let them. When the webserver gets an HTTP GET request, check the referrer address. If its not coming from a "proper" link, then simply refuse to serve the page. No need to fuss about improper links. They simply won't work. And you'll be MORE than capable of keeping all those potential customers OFF your website. Who really wants customers anyways? All they do is provide you with more work to do. :)
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
While the average Joe on the street may not know who they are, I can assure you that every corporate executive worth anything knows who they are (as a matter of fact, many high-ranking corporate executives worked for one of these firms at one time or another). KPMG is a powerhouse consulting firm, up there with McKinsey, Cap Gemini, Accenture, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Andersen, etc.
I visited their website when I saw this story on Wired News, and until I read this post I still didn't know what they did. Hmm. Consultants, eh? I guess I still don't...
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
So /. is recycling news from wired who
recycles it from fuckedcompany.com...sigh.
Uhh.. hello.. welcome to slashdot.org, I can see it's your first time here.. it's a weblog.. not a news reporting agency.. Not sure if you noticed this or not, but slashdot almost never (if ever) 'breaks' a story.. all they do is post links to relevant stories accross the net... you see.. the concept behind slashdot is thousands of people read the crap news that's out there and submit the relevant pieces to the editor's of slashdot, who then sort through them and give us the best of the best (well.. they at least try)..
It works because those of us who read slashdot don't want to read all the millions of stories out there just to get to the few things that interest us.. so instead, we let the editor's sort through the crap to give us the few interesting tidbits..
I hope you enjoy your stay.. ohh.. and *sigh* right back at ya...
I thought someone said there was going to be free beer!
That's paranoia at it's best. What do they plan to do about engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.? What about news released about their company? How about those financial reports that their drones put out and link back to their site for more info???? Ugh.
As the articles points out, KPMG has only gotten themselves into this embarrassing situation because they were unhappy about people making fun of another embarrassing situation: The KPMG Theme Song! It explains their power, strength, and global strategy (which must include really bad music).
(heres the akamai link to the mp3)
___
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
"It's a weird mix of corp-speak and Slashdot grammer."
Now you've done it! Surely they'll be mad at you for saying their grammar is like Slashdot's.
Their spelling is better than Slashdot spelling, however.
Bush's education improvements were
I particulary like the line
Geesh
It's 11pm, do you know what your deamons are up to?
what conclusion will they draw from this episode?
With any luck, that their "rules" are stupid and unenforcable. Either that, or they will try to sue him. Oops - and me, too.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
I'll start.
Hmmmmmm.... maybe they should use a small percentage of that to buy a decent website ...
The Anti-Blog
In 1997, there was a legal case about how the Shetland Times was unhappy about the Shetland News linking to its site. I believe that KPMG is a UK-registered company (my browser doesn't render their site either), and although Scottish law has significant differences to English law, I'd be surprised if a court would find in KPMG's favour (should KPMG push the point). The Shetland case was considered a landmark case at the time, and revolved around our old friend, copyright law. As such, it may be that KPMG are trying to make a different point, but I think they're going to have difficulties if they push this one.
> (c) 2000, Razorfish, Inc. all rights reserved.
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a consluting company (aren't we, in the KPMG world, supposed to hire conslutants when the task is beyond our ability to perform?) has to outsource its own web development?
Can you say "middleman"?
(NOTE: Others not using Netscape 6.1 might not see the error message I saw when they click on the above link. I haven't tested it, and am not sure how they have their site setup.)
I tend to be a bit technological-oriented when I look at a company, and how well their website is done gives me a good impression of:
It's bad enough they won't want people linking to their site. God forbid it should get them some new business! Watch out, nobody better send them a letter in the mail, or they might come and getcha!
And they said zombies weren't real!
That's because anyone who's heard the theme song realizes that anything to do with KPMG belongs in "It's Funny. Laugh."
Problem is, you're increasing the search engine scores when people search for KMPG.
Instead, we should be making them show up at the top of the list for more interesting things like goatfuckers, child porn, or just corporate fraud.
Forward, retransmit, or republish anything I say here. Just don't misquote me.
I work at KPMG Consulting; there really is a bizarre lifestyle here. I do LOVE the theme song. It was available on one of our international intranet sites; one of the more hip netherlandic teams had it commissioned as part of their morale-building exercises.
It worked, actually; everyone in the company has laughed about that for the past year. I guess it was only a matter of time before we got publicly ridiculed because of it. I wonder if it was leaked for publicity? Hmmmmm...
-sk
>Nah, he owes nothing... sure, it's a lot of fun to screw around with spammers, but hope the guy realizes that one can't accept a contract by sending an email.
Now that's interesting. Does this mean if I buy something via email I don't have to pay if I don't want to?
Take it a step further... does that mean you can take whatever product the spammer sends you via email (such as email spamming software that they always try to push) and not pay them?
Sounds like a great way to rip them off!
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
KPMG: Please do not link to our website.
HAH! I wonder if CmdrTaco is going to recieve a cease & desist letter? Watch yo bad self, Rob!
Seriously, the irony here is just to much. How does it affect them in any way except more traffic for their site == more exposure + more banner ad revenue. And unless someone is using KPMG's equipment to host that link, they don't have to agree to jack shit. I propose a new theme song:
K-P-M-G!
We're out of touch with reality!
We have a website we don't want you to see.
If you link to us we're gonna break your knees!
It's all a part of our global stradegy...
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
That would be KPMG Consulting, not KPMG. (Two different companies).
Hey, whats the Slashdot theme song?
slashdot almost never (if ever) 'breaks' a story
And yet, you can still find out about more stories here, quicker, because of the vast group of people posting links, and the absurdly efficient group of people who approve them. It amazes me how many things I see on slashdot before I heard about them anywhere else.
This particular story is an exception, but only because I work at KPMG Consulting (but maybe not for long after this!?!).
Jeez. That's a lot of contracts...
"I don't trust goats," --To Catch a Spy
I think the've never recovered the corporate pysche since then...so now they have a sappy "world domination" theme song and a penchant for attacking little people.
And with Arthur Anderson left holding the bag that was Enron...sheesh...who trusts the Big 5?
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
One thing you seem to be missing: Slashdot has never been about "objective reporting" or "professional jouranlism". It's News for Nerds. The very idea of Slashdot is a forum where 99% of the crap on other sites is filtered, leaving us with stuff Nerds would presumably care about.
Better yet, KPMG theme song remixes!
the jungle remix
the hard-rock remix
There's also a teutonic remix out there somewhere, somebody want to provide a link?
If you're going to go, make some noise on your way out.
I like to play children's songs in minor keys.
"We're all sons of bitches now." --J. Robert Oppenheimer
Does this issue pertain to all the websites out there that are "not link free". I did a google search for "not link free", and came up with 465 hits. Maybe it's just my imagination, but a large number of those seem to be Japanese sites. Any idea why?
The render is REALLY MANGLED with Opera 5. What kind of dumbass company helps clients harness the Internet'' but can't even write web-standards-compliant html?
THink about it. It you want massive hits to your website, can you think of any better way than to get slashdot to say you forbid links--with the inevitable "defiant" link? . . .
hawk
Theme song for a law and finance firm... Did these guys really go to law school or did they just watch a lot of Ally McBeal?
slashdot used to be a quick source for technical news. Now it's rare to find technology news that isn't in the prior day's Wall Street Journal . . .
hawk
Maybe this is the answer for the RIAA. Don't release crippled CDs that include copy-prevention measures. Release music that no one wants to copy. I bet that the KPMG theme song was not traded on Napster or any other P2P music trading service. MP3.com probably never posted a pirated copy of it.
Maybe the RIAA could consult with KPMG about how to produce music that no one will try to pirate.
A long, long, time ago I worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. in Atlanta as a CPA at the time of the merger that created KPMG, and we had a lovely little explanation of what KPMG stood for (when the partners/managers/PHBs werent around):
Kiss Peat Marwick Goodbye
It was also the most stuffy, up-tight place I have ever had the single misfortune of working at.
It looks like it hasn't changed a bit in the last 15 years.
I'm not really a CPA, I just play one on TV
Dear Mr. KPMD:
I heard that your firm had an excellent reputation for financial services, and I wanted to check out your website for specifics. But I can't find a link to it! Could you please write and tell me how to find your website??
Thanks,
Rob
here's a simple solution for KPMG.
only 'approved' referrors go into a control list. check the referrer on incoming connections, and if there's no match for the list, show a bad referer page.
so, what's the problem again?
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
My employer's Head WebMaster recently released the newly revised web policy manual that all of the various department webmonkeys have to abide by.
In that manual under the section titled "Linking Policy" is this paragraph:
I haven't yet inquired as to exactly what the intent of such an absurd statement is or how that would be enforced or how the world at large would even be aware of a policy that is (AFAIK)only referenced in a purely internal document posted on our intranet.
Just how many companies have such silly policies?
Perhaps I'll start "linkriot.com" whose sole purpose is to collect the URL's of and link to the sites of such misguided entities.
somebody should go stick that "theme song" up on Gnutella! Tell everybody who has a link on their site to share the theme song out. Hopefully the shame and awfulness of this song will make up fo rhte free advertising they're getting.
- Use their logo
- Use frames
- disguise the real address in the url
They do claim that, "KPMG reserves the right to request removal of any link to our website" but do not claim that you are required to honor their request. So, it appears that they have not read their own policy statement.In a somewhat comical incident, the same thing happened in Finland when the police forces sent a cease-and-desist letter to an association for linking to their main page (and with probably as much foundation in law as in this case).
See Fucked Company for a slightly livelier discussion on this subject. It was posted there few days ago already... And they um, 'slightly dislike' consultants, too, so it's good laugh for everyone involved! (only thing scummier than a consultant appears to be a head hunter...)
Their FAQ doesn't even mention the possibility of obtaining formal authorization to link to their site:
We would like to set up a link to your website. What is the process?
KPMG does not authorize links to or from its site.
Boy, now *that's* really demonstrating some savvy!
lynx -useragent='Mozilla/4.0 (lynx; faked; hahahaha)' http://www.kpmg.com/
After accepting or rejecting the five cookies they offer (one for the initial connection, one for having seen the flash, one for a session id, and some others for who knows what), the page appears, and looks like it was written especially for Lynx! All the images have alt tags, the text formats nicely, it's easy to read..
So now what was all that
Edith Keeler Must Die
They just need to block connections with referes not matching an approved list. It's completely under their control.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I'm not saying that it isn't foolish to ask people not to link without an agreement. However, the same thing can be said about asking people not to spider your site that you put right there on port 80. And robots.txt is in fact an internet standard so this same sort of foolishness is built into the net from the ground up.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
"..I never washed my hands, that's your policy, not mine!" Abe Simpson
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Any potential client of KPMG would immediately recognize the moniker. There's only 5 companies like theirs in the world.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How kpmg.com renders in Mozilla
If KPMG can enforce their policy easily enough by simply not delivering content when the HTTP request comes in asking for their site. They say they are "e-business savvy", so they should have no trouble setting this up in just a few minutes.
The web is about linking. That's why they call it "The Web". If KPMG doesn't want to join in, then they should just stay out. And there are many ways to do that, including still having a site served by HTTP to send content to whoever types their name in manually, or links from sites they approve of. They should just do it and prove their competence in running their site their way.
But why the hell would I want to link to their site anyway. It sucks! The whole damn thing is a morass of lame Javascript. They can't even put plain HTML in and have to have Javascript generate it. It's clear to me that they don't know how to do things on the server side.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
You haven't heard a corporate theme song until you've heard Cybermedia's theme song, Power to the People
I cringed so much listening to this that my soul feels wrinkled!
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
idiots.
And here I am having a hard time finding a job. If getting one easy means working as a 'consultant' with clowns like this, no thanks.
I think CmdrTaco uses KDE's Konqueror. The site renders OK if you instruct Konq to lie and claim to be Internet Explorer 5.01 on Windows 2000. Go figure.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
They probably don't realize that "e-business" has anything to do with making an accessible web site.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
...or even view their site in some browsers. Of course that's probably another one of their policies: you must use a "KPMG approved" browser to view their site.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
"And this one (guitar) I've never played. See--it's still got the tags on it"
"Wow, that's something..."
"Don't touch it!"
"I wasn't going to touch it."
"Well don't touch it. Nobody must touch this guitar. In fact, don't even look at it. Turn around."
Sorry. Flashbacks.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Silly company.
--Ben
"We easily sent hundreds of these letters over the past year," he said. Indeed, he wondered why this was considered newsworthy at all, as "many organizations do this."
Imagine that a newspaper or a student wrote an article or paper in which KPMG was mentioned, including the URL in question. If the company called up The New York Times or MIT and tried to make this bullshit fly, what would happen? Do they really think the news organizations all over the country wouldn't be all over that story? Headline - KMPG (clueless.kpmg.com) tries to censor major news organization
Censorship is censorship
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
I say great, let the dinosaurs use the services of KPMG, so while those of us who want to compete with those Fortune companies knock the stuffing out of them, KPMG "consultants" can write reports and have meetings, until we beat them so badly by being smarter, faster and better and they become the Enrons of the future. Oh and if your boss stiffs you on a raise, make sure they get KPMG in, they can do far more damage to a corporation than anything you can dream up.
Any sufficiently advanced man is indistinguishable from God
Have you actually read through some of those documents? Sure, they are mostly stuffy and full of starch. But there's some scary stuff, when you consider who they are really targeting it to. Let me quote from one of them:
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Their disclaimer http://www.kpmg.com/disclaimer.html says "Based on the fundamental universal condition of the electronic communication process, KPMG does not guarantee or warrant the Site will be uninterrupted". Can anyone say /. effect?
/
I really love their http://www.kpmg.com/robots.txt. it says:
# everyone go away
User-agent: *
Disallow:
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Suppose I send a plain ol' text message, in which I mention http://www.kpmg.com in plain text, but the recipient's email client renders the url as a link. Who needs to get a link agreement - me, the recipient, or the company that wrote the email client?
I know the poor guy who's box is being slashdotted to hell who KPMG sent the mail to. It was definitely not deep linkinng they were talking about - it's links to kpmg.com.
A little planning goes a long way...
Someone today sent a letter to protonic.com's site support system letting us know that someone he disliked was linking to us, and wanted to know if we really wanted our company's name "associated with people like that." :)
Frankly, if KPMG doesn't want to be linked to, they should not be on the web.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
...that McDonald's are planning to sue people who give "unauthorized" directions to their restaunts.
It actually gets worse than that, even.
Years ago, when trying to do a check to ensure that folks didn't link directly to a frame, and linked to the frameset, I found that Netscape and IE handle HTTP_REFERER on a framed document much differently.
I can't remember which is which, however, one of them considers that the HTTP_REFERER to a frame to be the HTML page with the frameset. The other considered it to be the same as the HTTP_REFERER to the frameset.
Needless to say, I couldn't implement anything using HTTP_REFERER, as some browsers would get stuck in an infinate loop, unless I forced them to go out of the frameset, and then come back in.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
As an aside, it's sad that WebTechniques has decided to pull the plug on all the useful-to-developer content starting with their March 2002 issue. I'm sure it'll be missed as a resource. I was very happy with the 70 columns I got to write for them, and I'll miss that particular outlet.
If I'm not a member of your organization, your "policy" doesn't restrict me in any way.
Companies, you can make all the happy little rules you want to make, but this is the big bad real world, where nobody gives a shit about what you think is fair. Understand?
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.