I mentioned in a previous post that NPR prohibits linking to their site without permission. Discovery and dissemination of this information caused all sorts of uproar in the blogosphere, as one might expect, and I'm sure NPR received many thougthtful and provocative emails inquiring what part of Mars their policy makers came from. To their credit, they are reconsidering their policy. Since the no-linking-without-permission directive is still in effect, I won't, but here's the new introduction on the permission request page:
To those of you who wrote to us about our linking permission policy, thanks for your many comments. Many of you offered thoughtful insights that have prompted us to reevaluate this policy.
The policy was originally intended to maintain NPR[base ']s commitment to independent, noncommercial journalism. We have encountered instances where companies and individuals constructed entire commercial Web Radio sites based on links to NPR and similar audio. We have also encountered Web sites of issue advocacy groups that have positioned the audio link to an NPR story such that one cannot tell that NPR is not supporting their cause. This is not acceptable to NPR as an organization dedicated to the highest journalistic ethics, both in fact and appearance.
However, NPR also recognizes that the majority of the linking on the Web is not infringement. We are working on a solution that we believe will better match the expectations of the Web community with the interests of NPR. We will post revisions soon at www.npr.org.
Behemoths, even "public" ones, often find it difficult to change direction.
9:29:59 AM 
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