Hi, Is it illegal to provide links to material on the internet which might not be legal? As your not actually hosting the material are you breaking the law? Say for instance, I wanted to make a website for fans of the TV show Lost, the website would consist of links to websites where you can download lost websites, links to torrents for the episodes and links to where the episodes can be watched for streaming. By doing this would I be doing anything illegal? This isn't my idea by the way, although its on a similar level. Regards, Dan
Yes, it would be illegal if you are linking to material that is illegally being shared. You could be found guilty of contributory infringement, and could possibly be held liable for damages. See the copyright FAQ or my blog post about contributory infringement issues. However this is a rather new area for law and would definitely depend on the country and how far the copyright holders are willing to take things. In the end you will need to ask yourself "Why you are doing this?" and "Whether it would be worth the risk?". As soon as you derive some sort of revenue from the infringement (such as Adsense ads etc.) it also becomes much more likely that the copyright holders would take things further...
Just to add on to this - don't host in the US if you're going to do that. Regardless of the law, they'll take you down. Hell, even in countries where its unarguably legal (Sweden, see "The Pirate Party") they still get raided by the police because of pressure from the US.
Hi, Thanks for the replies, I have no desire to break any laws (hence me asking in a thread ) so I don't think I'll bother. Thanks Dan
Tell that to the hundreds of bittorrent and youtube-link sites that have been shut down even though they hosted no infringing materials. DMCA says you cannot ASSIST in copyright infringement. Links count...