> On March 5, 2015 at 11:26 PM Gravis <ring3k@???> wrote:

> the link you posted links to a clip from Al Jazeera that was taken
> down due to copyright infringement. you do realize that content from
> Al Jazeera is copyright and that posting it without permission is
> copyright infringement, right? if you do stuff like that repeatedly
> they ban you. are you claiming you didn't post the videos and that
> there is a conspiracy to oppress you? if so, you have a persecution
> complex.

If I understand what you are saying you mean that a link to site A which links
to copyrighted material on site B is itself a violation of copyright.

This is a truly hazardous notion (called "contributory copyright infringement"
by some).

Link A -> link B -> link C -> link D -> link E -> link F (violating) cause all
downstream links to B, C, D, and E, as well as A, to be violations?

It's involuntary, since A cannot be expected to traverse all paths to links out
of B to check for this supposed violation, especially with transitive closure
over the entire Internet and the lack of a useful discriminant for violation.

It's retroactive, because site D can change its outbound links at any time after
the initial citation of A to B and A will be none the wiser.

Doubtless there are other worms in this can, so I rest my case.

Peter Olson