It seems to me, as has been suggested by many throughout this thread, that if companies want to protect their information the answer is simple - Don't publish it!
If, on the other hand, they want to make information available, but want us to visit other parts of their sites before reading it, then make it *not possible* to get at it in any other way.
The principle seems much the same as citing a reference to the Times or any other newspaper. One can refer to the article directly, but if we don't have a subscription (or another legitimate means to access the newspaper) then we can't read it. It really is a matter of site design, and I would be surprised indeed if any lawyer could successfully argue that "deep-linking" to web pages was anything other than reasonable!
Laurie
Laurie Fenwick
University of Sunderland
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