Not Allowed
There are some people out there that have some odd thoughts on what they can keep people from doing. There are several web sites out there that proclaim that it is illegal for me to link to their site. I’m not quite sure where they got their legal advice, but so long as my linking to their site is not libelous, then I’m doing nothing wrong or illegal. I didn’t spend a great deal of time looking for these sites, here are a few sites that proclaim that I’m not allowed to link to:
- Inventor-Link LLC
- Advantest Japan
- Denso
- UMR Research
- There are probably more, but I’ve spent enough time trying to find them.
In addition to this, there is a law firm by the name of Dozier Internet Law, P.C. that proclaim themselves to be “The Lawyers for Internet Business”. Their user agreement has the following statement in it:
We also own all of the code, including the HTML code, and all content. As you may know, you can view the HTML code with a standard browser. We do not permit you to view such code since we consider it to be our intellectual property protected by the copyright laws. You are therefore not authorized to do so.
Yes, when I went to their site, I did view the source code. It’s fair-to-middle in quality. The formatting of the code is sub-par, but the technical accuracy of the site is acceptable. I would be embarrassed if I had written the code. If they are “The Lawyers for Internet Business” then they need to realize that their source code is also a reflection on their abilities. Perhaps this is why they don’t want people looking at their code.
Also, this Dozier Internet Law, P.C. business proclaims that they will not allow anyone to link to their site. Guess what? I just did it in every word in this sentence.
Another also, I’m not allowed to make reference to the name “Dozier Internet Law, P.C.” if you believe the user agreement that I linked to above. With this sentence I’ve used the text “Dozier Internet Law, P.C.” four times now. I had an urge to use it a fifth time, but I’m holding back.
PS: Please click the links that I have provided. If they are monitoring their web logs (which they probably are) and they are logging the HTTP_REFERER header (which they should if they want to track this stuff), then they will know that I have linked to them. I’m interested to find out if any of these people, companies, or groups will come after me with a cease and desist letter. I’m not asking for trouble, but I’m curious as to the reaction that I’m going to get (if any) by poking this bee’s nest.
