Whoa, and whoa again

I've stayed out of the whole debacle re: LJ/6A and child porn, and I'm really loathe to add another post to something that I'm truly, completely sick of hearing about (as so many of you are, as well, I'm sure). But I don't feel like I can not pass this link along. Thanks to kaiz for the heads' up:


So you know how everyone's been waiting for LJ to answer that question about LINKS which they so conveniently ignored in the latest lj_biz post? Well, I got an answer. And you're not going to like it.

That takes you to violet_quill's LJ, and y'all should read that entry. I'm still at the !!!! stage, because dude. They're saying that even linking OFFSITE to something they consider to be 'child porn' could get a journal suspended.

kaiz also linked to this entry at p_zeitgeist's journal, also addressing the linking.

kaiz (I suppose I could have just linked to her entry *g*) goes on to say this in her entry:

In short, after numerous folks (myself included) have pretty much begged LJ/6A to clarify (yes, I know: LOL!) its policy, LJ/6A has finally deigned to answer (privately, of course--wouldn't do to actually publicly inform paying customers so that we can actually comply with the TOS).

They now seem to be implying that, yes indeed, you can be TOSSed for linking to "objectionable content" that is housed on servers that LJ/6A does not own or control.

Those of you who have been sitting this issue out because it's all about the pervy HP Freaks™ should think again. Why? Because if you link to any content that LJ/6A finds objectionable (that includes political and socially incendiary content, folks, check out the TOS) you may find all of your accounts banned. And, given that a link that, yesterday, pointed to something something fluffy and funny might tomorrow point to some hard core porn if the domain gets poached by some annoying squatter, well...there you go.

Sounds unlikely? Maybe.

Do you feel lucky?

That's the question. And, given the climate here on LJ lately, I don't.

As a result, I'm mulling over my options about how best to continue my URLs of the Day posts here on LJ. Because, dude, I want to keep bringing you all the freaky links, but I don't want to get banned.

I don't think that I've violated any laws with what I've linked to in the past. But, well, you know about assuming thing. So, for the time being, I've taken private any posts that I thought might be potential problems. Sorry for the inconvenience, guys.

I don't want to be an alarmist--far from it. I LIKE it here on LJ, and I don't have any plans to go anywhere. But I think I'm going to have to go back and look at some of my entries, and think real hard about what I post and/or link to, from here on out.