New Orbitz Terms Prohibit Inbound Deep Linking

chekovma writes "Orbitz has announced a new set of Terms and Conditions that take effect March 12th which require anyone who uses their website (creates an account there) to follow strict inbound linking rules. These rules prohibit a user from creating even a plain text link to orbitz.com without first notifying them and require a user to take down such a link at their desire. It also disallows any deep linking -- meaning even this post violates those terms and conditions."

Comments

Use the referrer field

[soundman32]

Can't their web server just reject or redirect any page requests that don't have a referrer field of their own web site?

Re:Hmmm

[jamesoutlaw]

Here are a couple of examples of why someone would want to deep link:
A competitor may want to deep link in order to directly compare rates for flights... similar to what Progressive does with car insurance. Or, some unaffiliated company (like a travel agency) may want to build their own travel web portal and simply use the Orbitz site to show/reserve flight information without Orbitz's permission.

W3C say ...

[Anonymous Coward]

any attempt to forbid the practice of deep linking is based on a misunderstanding of the technology, and threatens to undermine the functioning of the Web as a whole

-- http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/deeplinking

They need to read the Ticketmaster case

[unassimilatible]

Deep Link Away.

Or maybe, Legality of 'Deep Linking' Remains Deeply Complicated

BTW, anyone who reads this post owes me $20, that's my TOS.

Re:Hmmm

[Sporkinum]

Their pop-up/under ads are exactly why I have never been to their web site nor will ever use it. Even their TV commercials were annoying. I guess this latest "policy" sounds like business as usual.

Re:Isn't Orbitz Owned by Microsoft?

[Anonymous Coward]

Orbitz is owned by a group of 5 major airlines:

• American
• Continental
• Delta
• Northwest
• United

Travelocity is a SABRE company. Expedia is the Microsoft controlled travel site.

Re:This is too bad...

[Eric Savage]

Well, it would appear that if they deny your eloquent request you just have to use http://www.orbitz-sucks.com which might not be covered under the TOS:

"Site" means the www.orbitz.com website and/or the www.orbitzforbusiness.com website, and their respective subsites, together with the respective Content, Marks, Products and Services available from these sites and subsites.

A similar case in the Netherlands

[SpaghettiPattern]

I know of a case from the Netherlands where newspaper editors wanted to prohibit deep linking to their sites. The judge did not honor the request.

IMHO you can link to whatever you want on the Internet. There are enough ways to prevent your content being accessed by unauthorized people. The content provider is the only one responsible for its authorization management.