The International AIDS Society, organizers of the XV International AIDS Conference, has an interesting Web policy which reflects the disconnect between important AIDS organizations and effective use of communications technologies. It in part reads:

"Linking to the websites: www.ias.se, www.ias2003.org, www.aids2004.org and www.ias-2005.org: Other websites wishing to link to the IAS websites shall obtain permission from IAS. Requests for permission to link may be emailed to secretariat@ias.se."

Permission to link? I thought this issue came and went years ago (see, for example, this Wired article from 2001). The IAS should be doing everything they can to encourage linking. They should be begging for links. Links drive information flow (and perhaps more importantly, search engine rankings). If the Web site for the most important international gathering on AIDS discourages linking, that is a big step backwards for all of us. (Incidentally, I note that the IAS main site currently has 287 links to it -- my little 25 person consulting firm has 2160.)

I suspect most reasonable people will ignore this linking prohibition. Actually, I just did -- three times. I hope I won't be arrested...