Although I think glints from this ATMB query may be helpful there, I’m asking here to help elucidate THE SD/Chicago Tribune (if it comes to that, and I have no idea) POLICY ONLY on linking to sites, addresses, or simple info on unsuitable sites/topics.
A link to “Buy and sell your laptops–amazing bargains!” exchange, where the items are known to be stolen, is probably not even allowed in a spoiler.
I don’t think that would even begin to apply unless you have also PM’ed this request to the mods and given them a chance to see it, discuss it amongst themselves, and respond.
No offense intended here but just some constructive criticism. That OP reads like it was written by Howard Cosell on mescaline. Why not just ask the question in the simplest way possible? If parsing the OP didn’t require unneccessary mental gymnastics it might get a quicker reply.
I don’t know the SDMB policy but in general viewing stolen documents that have already been widely released and are available to everyone and are in the public interest isn’t beleived to be illegal by legal scholars.
He waited more than 24 hours before bumping a perfectly reasonable question. If there is any discussion among the mods, they should have posted that and asked for time to conclude the discussion.
But I don’t understand why that would be needed. There have been many such leaks and sites created in the past. If no policy already exists on the question, then that’s a huge mark against the mods.
Hold on while I contact the team of lawyers that we have on retainer. Last year was such a banner year they owe us some pro-bono work to make a determination.
If it’s just something like the overall vault 7 cache a link isn’t all that useful since it’s such an easy search.
A spoiler box would be useful even if the board is fine with the link. I’m retired but I was still in and mobilized when the Manning links were posted. We received the memo reminding us that the information was still classified and not allowed on unclassified systems. I wouldn’t have worried too much about getting in trouble when/if the monitoring picked up the data on my computer from even an inadvertent click. It would have been serious ass pain both dealing with the investigation and having my computer plucked up for however long it took to securely wipe everything. On a NSFW level for those working with or part of the US government this could be a link that pegs the meter.
Dopers who are federal government employees may wish to bear in mind that it is a violation of our terms of employment to view classified material, even when posted publicly.