# Can someone be sued for linking to a web site? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620 "2005-07-28T18:48:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/1 "2005-07-28T18:48:03Z")
Just wondering if there are ever any situations where someone could be sued for making a link to a web site. Crazy, off-the-wall situations welcome. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/2 "2005-07-28T18:53:02Z")
Sorry, just to clarify the question… I mean can someone get in trouble with the law (sued or arrested) for making some link on their web site. I started wondering about this when I was thinking if someone gets into trouble for having certain content, they wouldn’t get into trouble for simply _linking_ to the content. Is this true in all cases? ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/3 "2005-07-28T18:56:50Z")
Was this a solicted link? ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/4 "2005-07-28T18:57:40Z")
> [@The Controvert](#): > > Just wondering if there are ever any situations where someone could be sued for making a link to a web site. Crazy, off-the-wall situations welcome. There have been some lawsuits. The issue is controversial. Here is a start [http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51887,00.html](http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51887,00.html) > **[Deep linking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_linking)** > > In the context of the World Wide Web, deep linking is the use of a hyperlink that links to a specific, generally searchable or indexed, piece of web content on a website (e.g. "http://example.com/path/page"), rather than the website's home page (e.g., "http://example.com"). The URL contains all the information needed to point to a particular item. > The technology behind the World Wide Web, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), does not actually make any distinction between "deep" links and any ... Check out the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article, too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/5 "2005-07-28T19:11:57Z")
Thanks, **Gfactor** , that was very interesting and quite a speedy response, I might add. Looks like you can be sued for just about anything these days. And it’s far more likely to happen to someone who is making a buck. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/6 "2005-07-28T19:16:23Z")
> [@The Controvert](#): > > Thanks, **Gfactor** , that was very interesting and quite a speedy response, I might add. Looks like you can be sued for just about anything these days. And it’s far more likely to happen to someone who is making a buck. Yeah. There isn’t any solid caselaw on it yet. But if you are worried about being sued, it can happen. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/7 "2005-07-28T19:20:47Z")
People keep threatening the Portal of Evil with lawsuits for linking to them, but none of them ever seem to go through. It’s quite interesting to see there’s some (if anecdotal) evidence that it can happen… ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/8 "2005-07-28T19:28:39Z")
Six years ago, the tech newspaper [2600.com](http://2600.com) was sued by the DVD Copy Control Association for linking to the DeCSS source code, which could be used to decrypt the copy protection on a DVD to allow it to run on unsupported hardware (e.g. Linux). The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS) has some information and related links about that. Amusingly, that led to the discovery of “illegal” prime numbers – prime numbers that, when decoded in a certain manner, translate into the source code of a legally prohibited program, such as DeCSS. I put illegal in quotes as this hasn’t been tested in courts, and to me is an amusing side effect of banning certain computer programs. Is may be possible that a strict reading of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act makes [this prime number](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime_number) illegal to possess. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/9 "2005-07-28T20:52:41Z")
- - - I am a bit lazy at the moment, but a few days back there was a tech news story about a guy in (I think) Austrailia, who got sued for having a webpage what contained _links_ to where music could be illegally downloaded. He did not have the files at all on his web space, he just had _hyperlinks_ to other sites where a few songs could be downloaded illegally. His ISP and the site that hosted the page had to pay as well. -----I saw it on Slashdot, but their native search seems to be down at the moment and I can’t seem to find it with Google… I’ll give it another try later… ~ ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/10 "2005-07-29T18:26:58Z")
What if I had a website with a whole list of links to illegal content, like child pornography or something? ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/11 "2005-07-29T18:36:32Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > What if I had a website with a whole list of links to illegal content, like child pornography or something? There is an argument to be made that linking to a site that contains illegal copies of copyrighted material can be illegal under some circumstances. > **[Assessing Linking Liability (Published 2000)](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/technology/assessing-linking-liability.html)** > > As law professors love to say, consider the following hypothetical case: And there is this [http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39128376,00.htm](http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39128376,00.htm) You might also run afoul of statutes that criminalize distribution of child pornography, like this one: [http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc\_sec\_18\_00002252---A000-.html](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002252---A000-.html) ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/12 "2005-07-29T18:47:11Z")
I worked for a dot-com, since bought out, that was sued for sometimes “deep linking” to the content of other content providers. This company is/was (since bought out and content appearing under a different name) an online curriculum provider. By “deep linking” I mean, instead of saying that “[Pinkbunnies.com](http://Pinkbunnies.com) (link to [Pinkbunnies.com](http://Pinkbunnies.com)) has cool info on pink bunnies,” we were linking to “What do pink bunnies eat? (link to [pinkbunnies.com/whattheyeat.html](http://pinkbunnies.com/whattheyeat.html))” as _our_ “What do pink bunnies eat?” content. Sometimes it’s pretty easy to see where that line is (management crossed it anyway) and sometimes not. We eventually had a sort of (purposefully IMO) half-assed permissions procedure in which the linkee would get an automated email that said “We’re linking to your content. Contact us if you _don’t_ want that to happen.” So unless and until someone at [pinkbunnies.com](http://pinkbunnies.com) specifically responded to that - and I think we were banking on a lot of those getting lost in the shuffle - we linked “with permission” using this method. I that job quit before the lay-offs started… ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-be-sued-for-linking-to-a-web-site/314620/13 "2005-07-29T18:49:45Z")
Well crap, there _is_ a [http://www.pinkbunnies.com/](http://www.pinkbunnies.com/)! Satire is so hard these days!