Slashdot Mirror
NPR Reconsiders Linking Policy
jfruhlinger writes: "Slashdot wasn't the only site I saw that commented on NPR's stupid linking policy, but I'm sure it generated a lot of traffic and comments to NPR's site. Now NPR has issued a statement that they are reconsidering that policy. The statement goes into the reasons why the original policy was established -- it looks like it was an overkill response to a legitimate problem. It concludes with the encouraging statement that 'NPR also recognizes that the majority of the linking on the Web is not infringement. We are working on a solution that we believe will better match the expectations of the Web community with the interests of NPR.'"
Thgey are well intentioned. Read their explanation
Request Permission to Link to NPR.org
"To those of you who wrote to us about our linking permission policy, thanks for your many comments. Many of you offered thoughtful insights that have prompted us to reevaluate this policy.
The policy was originally intended to maintain NPR's commitment to independent, noncommercial journalism. We have encountered instances where companies and individuals constructed entire commercial Web "radio" sites based on links to NPR and similar audio. We have also encountered Web sites of issue advocacy groups that have positioned the audio link to an NPR story such that one cannot tell that NPR is not supporting their cause. This is not acceptable to NPR as an organization dedicated to the highest journalistic ethics, both in fact and appearance.
However, NPR also recognizes that the majority of the linking on the Web is not infringement. We are working on a solution that we believe will better match the expectations of the Web community with the interests of NPR. We will post revisions soon at www.npr.org.
Linking to or framing of any material on this site without the prior written consent of NPR is prohibited. "
Should be an int4eresting discussion here!
I emailed a webmaster in '95 to ask permission to link to their site. They were astonished that someone would consider that. Let's hope it stays this way, though I fear it will not.
Actually, I saw a far more hubaloo on the blogs than I did on Slashdot. And I'd hazard a guess that there were many more links (or readers, if you lean that way) to the original BoingBoing post than there were to the Slashdot story.
"'d say that NPR is committing patent infringement every time they use a hyperlink! [slashdot.org]
This all sounds pretty stupid to me, agreed... but who listens to NPR anyway?"
Outside the very large markets, not many. I've seen the raw Arbitron numbers for my area, and NPR, despite being on THREEE 50,000 watt radio stations gets fewer listeners than one of the religious AM daytimers...
If you hate Clear Channel, for it's practice of using out of market voicetracking and satellite automation, you have to hate NPR, the SINGLE LARGEST satellite automation network in radio.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
NPR isn't particularily tax-supported. It receives minimal competitive grant funding ($0.000001058/US taxpayer). See this discussion board.
Setting aside your ad-hominem attack for the moment:
RealMedia servers *can* accept start parameters, but they don't *have to* accept them.
It's not, but most people either wouldn't have the skill necessary, or the desire. If I visited a site, and it wouldn't let me view it based on my referer, I'll either copy the url and try to open it in another window (blank referer), or I just won't bother. If it's really important, then I'll start on the main page of the site and try to find the page from the original source. Only then, if I couldn't find it, and if I really really really wanted to see it would I go about trying to fake the referer.