Legalities of download/pirated software "links"

whydna · Oct 16, 2006

Hi, does anyone know about the legalities of providing links to downloads of illegal software, movies, etc.

For example, bit-torrent link sites, forums like warez-bb.org, etc.

How are these sites still running?

007 · Oct 18, 2006

Seems like a thin line to me. Linking to those sites will certainly get you flagged with Google though, so if you like being in Google then it's not a good idea to do that.

I don't think you can get in trouble personally though, since you aren't hosting the files, but then again I am not a lawyer so I can't say for sure.

Dale Hubbard · Oct 18, 2006

Ask Denny007 about it. Check out his signature.

Olney · Oct 19, 2006

Most wouldn't advice doing it if it's a domain or site you care about.

whitebark · Oct 19, 2006

go to google, yahoo, msn or any other search engine and search for whatever illegal piece of software you want. you will find tens of thousands of links - don't worry about it. Just don't host the material yourself. That's not a legal opinion, just an observation of the way things are.

denny007 · Oct 19, 2006

aZooZa said:
Ask Denny007 about it. Check out his signature.

I am just innocent search engine. If someone find a children porn with Google - would be Google to blame ?

whydna · Oct 20, 2006

Reason I ask is because I own a downloads domain, and want to create a downloads forum. Not that I will be promoting the sharing of pirated downloads links - but wondering if I should work hard to prevent them from being posted.

Talkhost · Oct 21, 2006

Even just a link to an illegal download can cause problems. Does not matter if the actual download is on a server in a country where it is not illegal.

I've been contacted in the past from the Hollywood legal types regarding "links" on sites on my servers.

I had a client who ran a torrent tracking site. No physical downloads just a tracking site, with links to torrents..

As far as I was concerned it was not illegal. But I didn't need the headache of lawyers so I just pulled the site.

Why do these lawyers never chase google/yahoo etc for having links to torrents???