Blogspace vs. NPR

jonkl writes "National Public Radio's linking policy at npr.org has caused a fuss within the blog community that's hot and getting hotter. The policy's simply stated in two sentences: 'Linking to or framing of any material on this site without the prior written consent of NPR is prohibited. If you would like to link to NPR from your Web site, please fill out the link permission request form.' This is buried, of course, in a page linked to the site's footer, but somebody noticed and mentioned it to Howard Rheingold, who passed it on to Cory Doctorow of boingboing.net. Cory wrote scathing commentary, calling the policy 'brutally stupid,' even 'fatally stupid.' The outrage is spreading; this has to be a rough day for the NPR ombudsman who's deluged with email by now... ~24 hours after Cory's report." Reminds of the KPMG policy.

Comments

NPR's brutally stupid linking policy

[Anonymous Coward]

NPR joins KPMG and other bastions of cluelessness by requiring that anyone who wishes to link to the NPR site fill in this form. No matter how deep or shallow your link is, NPR requires you to fill in this form.

Linking to or framing of any material on this site without the prior written consent of NPR is prohibited.

Please use this form to request permission to link to npr.org and its related sites.

Gosh, I hope they don't take away my tote bag.

Really, it beggars the imagination to think that anyone in this day and age could be this fatally stupid. If you agree, drop a note to NPR's ombudsman. Link Discuss

Quote from the TOS

[sheepab]

They contain some or all of the following information:

The Internet Protocol Address (IP Address) of the machine which accessed our Web site.
The date of the visit.
The time of the visit.
The path taken through our Web site.
The browser being used.
A list of files downloaded or viewed.
The amount of time spent listening to RealAudio®, Windows Media, or Apple Quicktime files.
Any errors encountered.
The amount of time spend looking at the porn you visited.
Files on your PC
Social Security Number
Credit Card Number
Mothers Maiden name
A list of pirated software

NPR reserves the right to change this policy and rape you up the ass. Any changes to this policy will be posted to this page as soon as our lazy asses feel like it, so please check this page periodically. Use of the NPR Web site constitutes consent to the 'we own your ass' clause.

Re:Ah, and we'll make it better

[jred]

So we'll /. NPR and thus demonstrate to them that linking really *is* harmless, right?

Yeah, I wonder if /. filled out the little form before linking to them...

Re:Links on NPR

[Dark Paladin]

Modem...I think I've heard of this before....

Ah, yes - it was a way of getting porn really, really slowly.