Lowes has a License to Link

Want to link to Lowes.com? Don’t, unless you’ve faxed in your license agreement. Turns out, the company is trying to protect its brand so strenuously that, unless you get permission from the company, you’re not allowed to link to them at all.

I wonder if anyone has told Google?

The license comes in two versions: one for when you want to use Lowes’ logo and name on your page, and one for when you don’t. Lowes expects you to sign the documents and then submit them.

By fax. There is no other option. And, of course, Lowes can revoke your right to link at any time. you are then (supposedly; no one has ever tried to prosecute this, so we don’t know if its legal) required by the contract to take down the links.

When a writer for Ars Technica contacted Lowes about this, he was politely told "Managing link agreements is part of protecting our brand. The process we have in place to handle links to lowes.com is a business decision."

Of course, if the web required these kinds of agreements, the web wouldn’t exist. As it stands, the internet remains an open place where you can give directions, which is all that a link is. If Fellowgeek had to obtain permission for every link we posted to any site, I can tell you right now, we wouldn’t have time to post anything.

Be glad that the agreements are little more than an oddity, not normal practice on the net.

ars technica Photo by : dcJohn