Fascinating post surveying the linking policies of UK public sector websites. I particularly liked the London Fire Brigade site which operates one of the most restrictive linking policies in existence, banning deep-linking and threatening “further action” for “breach” of this “legal restriction” if you’ve not informed LFB you’ve linked to their site:

ATTENTION: LINKING TO THIS WEBSITE INDICATES THAT YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE AND LEGAL RESTRICTIONS AND THAT YOU WILL ABIDE BY THE GUIDELINES SET OUT BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE OR YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE GUIDELINES, DO NOT LINK TO THIS WEBSITE

If you provide hyperlinks to this Website, you agree that you…

* shall not link to an internal page of this Website that is located one or several levels down from the home page or bring up or present Content of this Website on another website without our prior written permission; shall not link to a website that is not owned by you;

* shall inform us in writing of the link; and

* shall immediately discontinue the link if instructed to do so by us.

We expressly reserve the right to revoke the right granted in this section for any breach of these Terms of Use and to take any further action it deems appropriate in respect of such breach.

Something for Tom Watson, I think.

Thanks to Tony Hirst for the original link.