FastCompany's terrible linking policy

FastCompany -- the tech magazine for the new economy -- has a spectacularily clueless policy on linking, in which they expect people who want to link to their site to fax a permission form to their legal department! Imagine if this were enforceable: the Web that Fast Company has built its business upon would crumble into a billion individuated and unlinked pages.

Due to the large volume of requests we receive, we do not have a reciprocal linking program. However, if you like, you may link to us at no cost. This option requires the execution by you and Fastcompany.com of a one-page Web-linking agreement. Please download and sign the agreement and fax it to 617-738-5055, attn: G+J legal, Fastcompany.com. As soon as you receive back the agreement signed on behalf of Fastcompany.com, you may begin linking to our content.

Here's some of the spectacularily clueless "linking agreement" Fast Company thinks it can force linkers to sign off on:

For good and valuable consideration, effective upon the duly authorized signatures of Owner and G+J below (the "Effective Date"), G+J hereby grants to Owner a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to create a hyperlink from the Linking Site to Inc.com from the Effective Date, unless and until such permission is terminated by G+J upon notice to Owner, subject to the following terms and conditions.

Owner hereby represents and warrants that: (i) any content displayed on the Linking Site shall not infringe upon or misappropriate any third party intellectual property or other proprietary rights, shall not invade any third party rights of privacy or publicity, shall be free from any libelous or obscene material, shall be accurate, and shall not otherwise violate any applicable law, regulation or non-proprietary third party right; (ii) the Linking Site does not and will not contain any harmful software code or viruses; (iii) Owner has duly registered the domain name of the Linking Site with all applicable authorities and possesses all rights necessary to use such domain name; and (iv) Owner shall use its best efforts, including any and all then-available technology, to prevent Internet users from downloading any content from Inc.com.

There are a lot of stupid organizations that have policies like this, but very few of them have the close relationship to the Web that FC has. The disturbing thing here is that FC's credibity as an authority on the Web lends credence to this bizarre and damaging idea of needing permission to link. Link (Thanks, Jordon!)

Update: Well, this is the kind of slow company that Fast Company has put itself in: Sellotape forbids linking to their site -- this is the kind of idiotic behaviour that Fast Company should be able to sell itself on: "Buy a sub to Fast Company and learn how not to be as stupid as Sellotape!" (Thanks, Reyhan!)

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