I've asked someone if I can link to his page and not had a response - what next?

[fiddlerintheloft]

I thought etiquette was to ask first but i think the sensible thing would probably have been to say, 'I'm linking to your v helpful page, hope that's ok' - given that it's in the public domain anyway. But now I'm stuck because I have asked, he hasn't answered (most probably because he doesn't check emails very often/is away) and I think it'll look rude if I go ahead without his permission. So, I can't upload the post that is sitting in my drafts folder... Any ideas? Do you usually ask permission first?

I'd assume that if someone has put something on the internet then they want people to see it.

How long have you waited for him to reply?

I think it was courteous of you to ask, but I'm not sure that it was really necessary. However, if you've only asked very recently I think you do need to wait for a 'reasonable' (how to define that?!) amount of time for him to reply. If he doesn't reply, I'd then send him a little note just saying you had asked, he hadn't replied, so you're going ahead - if he doesn't want you to, then can he let you asap?

But as Trills says, it's already in the public domain, so I don't really see why he would disagree!

Yes, I assumed so too. I suppose it's just about whether for any reason he might object to being linked to my blog, though it's pretty inoffensive . Was just being polite by asking but I guess I'll just email again and explain that it was just a courtesy email and link anyway. Just wondered if there was some unspoken bloggery rule about these things.

BIWI - I only emailed him 24 hours ago. And you're right, unnecessary to ask really. We live and learn...

You don't need to ask to link to something on the internet at all - it's what people want! Link to it and, if you want to, email him to let him know you have, but there's really no need to

I tell people when I link to them because I hope it'll make them come and read what I wrote!

It was v nice of you to ask but there's definitely no need to ask permission to link. Linking to a publicly available link, be it on a blog or on something like Youtube/the Guardian etc, is fine. It's not because it's public domain (which means something is no longer under copyright, which is a very different thing - can you tell I work with copyright in my job ).