Public Sector Forums (found via DavePress) has a great selection of genuine but, shall we say, curious website terms and conditions from the public sector demanding that people don’t link to their website or jump through various odd hoops in order to do so.
Want to link to the Identity & Passport Service’s website? You must get written permission first.
The Millennium Commission don’t like you linking without permission either. But at least they invite emails asking for permission.
The Office of Government Commerce says you can link … as long as you follow some rules which include the provision that … you can only link to a website if you own it. So that’d be no links then.
Consumer Direct South West has a different take on permissions: you can’t link to them from a website that you don’t own. So no URLs in comments posted on anything other than your own site you naughty internet scamps.
Shropshire County Council wants to know your postcode before deciding whether or not they’re happy for you to link to their site.
And Bodmin Council bans links from party political sites.
But the prize for best rule must go to Hyndburn Council. You’re allowed to print off information from their website. But you are explicitly banned from then photocopying it. Go Hyndburn Lawyers!
You can read more details (and find links to private sector sites which have similar strange terms and conditions) in the Public Sector Forums post.
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One Comment
This whole idea that organizations don’t like you linking to their website, I find totally astonishing. Do they not know that the more people who link to them, the higher up in the search engines they go?
It just seems to me that some people in these organizations have had their common sense ability removed.