NPR has changed its linking policy and no longer requires prior written permission for every link. It urges linkers not to suggest that NPR endorses causes that it doesn't endorse, which is fair. But it still doesn't understand: it reserves the right "to withdraw permission for any link" that it doesn't like.
PS. There are two problems here. One is that no permission is required for linking. So permission cannot be withdrawn. The other is that NPR is taking exactly the wrong strategy to avoid being confused with the advocacy groups and commercial concerns that might link to it. The more it tries to control those links, the more justified it is for the world to infer that linkers have NPR's blessing. If NPR would give up, then it could truthfully claim that it has no control over linkers and hence that links only reveal something about the linker, not about NPR. It's not our problem that NPR isn't pursuing its interests very effectively. But it is our problem when its self-defeating strategy gives support to the false and dangerous idea that links need permission from the target site.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/28/2002 11:08:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
