I was thinking of registering to access the Irish Independent site, but decided to have a look at its Terms and Conditions first. They include this interesting clause:

Hypertext links to this website by other users and websites are permitted provided that the link to this website is in a simple list of companies by pointing to Unison.ie’s home page http://www.unison.ie. This limited licence entitles other users and websites to link to Unison.ie’s home page only, and linking to other content on or information in this website is prohibited without Unison.ie’s express written consent.

Translation: no deep linking to our content. The result is that the Irish Independent is effectively shutting itself out of the networked universe. What kinds of clowns would embrace such a daft strategy? If people can’t link to your content then effectively you disappear from cyberspace.

Needless to say, I didn’t sign up.