webprofitneur.com

3 Responses to “Can I Legally Request a Link to My Website From Another Domain Be Removed?”

1. Bostonian In MO

   January 24, 2010 at 11:12 am

   Your client really needs to consult a solicitor in the UK. His site needs to prohibit links though many laws don’t give him the right to do so but only limit the 3rd party’s right to embed content. Needless to say he may have a legal position on the false claims but these can be difficult to enforce especially if the offending site is located in a different country. Even if it’s illegal under UK law, if it’s legal under the laws of the country where the 3rd party’s server is located it may be impossible to enforce his rights.

   He may wish to post information on legitimately accredited sites on HIS website along with a disclaimer that any link from an external site back to his site does NOT imply that they are accredited.

   This isn’t something that you can post a simple link to. Your client needs qualified legal advice from a local solicitor familiar with the relevant laws.
2. annorax64

   January 24, 2010 at 11:29 am

   In addition to legal action concerning the false information on the other web site, there are ways to set up web servers so that any time someone clicks on the link from that site, then you can have the web server post a different web page with a warning about the other web site and that the information that they provide is inaccurate.

   Look into “mod_rewrite” capabilities on Apache web servers, if that’s what your client is using.

   I once had a competing site linking to my content, so I used mod_rewrite to send any one coming from that site to mcdonalds.com :-D. I almost set it up to send them to an unsavory web site, but decided that would be frowned-upon :-D
3. Adrian

   January 24, 2010 at 12:04 pm

   I agree with annorax above. I had an annoying link from another site, looking for a file that did not exist (domain used to belong to someone else at one time). This other site had a forum that kept linking to my web site.
   What I did was create a special file, the one they were trying to link to, and put a polite message in it basically saying that the forum was doing an improper link to my web server, please notify the forum admin. In a few weeks, the problem eventually disappeared.
   You could use stronger language, such as “The link you followed is not approved by xxx – we do not accredit firm yyy. Please notify firm yyy of this unapproved link”, where xxx is your company and yyy is the offending firm… Be careful not to slander the other firm, but you can be very explicit that their linking to you is not approved by your company (or whatever your lawyer says is ok to say)

   Hopefully you can fix up your web server in this fashion. I bet after a week or two, their linking will disappear.