Update on Indirect Link Risks: School Site Shut Down Due to Porn Link

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Lauren Weinstein [lauren () vortex com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 3:04 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Update on Indirect Link Risks: School Site Shut Down Due to Porn Link

    Update on Indirect Link Risks: School Site Shut Down Due to Porn Link

               http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000363.html


Greetings.  Yesterday I discussed the case of a Florida Middle
School resource officer who was under dual investigations due to his
MySpace page being linked to "friends" who in some cases themselves
were found to be linked to porn sites
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000362.html ).

I expressed strong concerns regarding this sort of indirect
responsibility being implied.  After all, you can only control your
own site, and directly linked pages can change without your
knowledge or control at any time.  When we're talking about indirect
(links to links) pages, the situation is even more ludicrous.

I also noted yesterday that the school's own Resources
page was problematic when viewed from the standpoint of indirect
links, and suggested that a double standard was perhaps being
applied ( http://gmsbearsden.pasco.k12.fl.us/Information/Resources.html ).

Today comes word that the school's Web site has apparently been shut
down (and as I type this, it continues to be inaccessible),
reportedly due to the presence of a direct gay porn link on their
resources page.

I'm told that the school currently has no explanation for this link.

However, even giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that
they were hacked in some manner, this incident certainly emphasizes
the dangerous folly of trying to assign responsibility to a Web site
or its author for linked pages that aren't their own, and the even
more gross insanity of trying to extend such responsibility to
indirectly linked pages.

Employing the usually dubious concept of "guilt by association" when
evaluating Web links -- particularly indirect ones -- is a sure fire
way not only to drag the Internet into a litigation firestorm, but
also to decimate the concepts of justice and free speech on the Net.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
   - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com


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