CMP blocks some incoming links
Clarification: An earlier version of this post stated, "CMP Media is blocking links from Google News." CMP tells CyberJournalist.net today that those cases must have been mistakes and it does not intentionally block links from Google News, only from competitors. See below for more of CMP's comments.
CMP Media is intentionally blocking links from certain competing technology news sites, such as LinuxToday and Cnet, and has inadvertently blocked some incoming links from Google News.
When clicking on at least two examples of links on Google News to headlines on one of CMP Media's technology publications this week, you got this message:
Welcome to CMP Media and our unparalleled collection of techhnology news and information sites. Our primary business objective is to supply the news and information you need to make informed technology and business decisions.Unfortunately, we cannot satisfy the request to link to our content from the site that referred you to us. That site has chosen to reproduce a significant amount of our content in a manner that we deem to be outside the bounds of fair use on the World Wide Web. We have a major, ongoing investment in producing high-quality, authoritative content and we intend to protect that content vigorously. We have explained our decision to the site in question and asked that they cease the practice of lifting significant portions of our content. We have also advised them of other, acceptable means of linking to our content. We will revisit this decision if and when that site complies with our policies, which are the very same policies we follow when linking to content created by other companies.
Thank you for helping us protect our intellectual property.
One reader reported a similar experience this week. And a quick Google search shows at least one other person who encountered the same redirect back in March.
Blocking incoming links from the largest search engine on the planet?!? What a foolish idea! Maybe one could make a compelling argument for doing so IF Google was monetizing its news search and placing ads next to CMP and other content. But Google News isn't do that... not yet at least.
UPDATE FROM CMP (6/25): CMP says it did not intend to block incoming links from Google News, only for certain competitor sites it feels are using too much of its content when linking. "One possibility for how that mistake occurred is that we may have inadvertently installed a broader block while we were evolving our blocking strategy," writes Mike Azzara, CMP's vice president in charge of Internet business.
Azzara also said that the blocking page displayed above has been replaced with a new version, though it is still viewable as of today. "We have replaced it with a page that intercepts a visitor, explains our position on matters of competitors stealing our content, and then allows the visitor to proceed to their originally clicked-for destination," he said.
"...Because we are in a transition from one technology platform to another, a few sites still do use the old blocking page that you encountered. I suspect that the Google News snafu stems from something related to the vagaries of that transition," he said.
This makes more sense. It's certainly within CMP's rights to want to block incoming links from competitors, particularly if they are violating fair use. The new strategy makes much more sense, though, because that still allows readers to read their content (and see their ads).
CMP appears to be handling this smartly; nevertheless, this case is a very good example of how blocking technology isn't foolproof.
June 24, 2004 | BY JONATHAN DUBE
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