Links to Illegal Sites

Over the past several months there have been discussions about the addition of seemingly illegal sites and categories in the Open Directory. The ODP guidelines and submission policies for illegal sites are as follows:

ODP Submission Policy: "Sites with illegal content are forbidden in the Open Directory. Examples of illegal material include, but are not limited to, child pornography and sites infringing on copyright.

ODP Guidelines: "Since US law governs the ODP, sites that infringe on US law should not be listed. Copyright infringement, certain kinds of pornography, and death threats are illegal. The legality or illegality of a site is not based on the legality or illegality of the subject. When in doubt, just always remember - sites that clearly violate US laws or International law should not be listed. "

A recent discussion about Warez in the Computers forum prompted a clarification of both submission and editing guidelines. Warez is a term used for software that has been stripped of its copy protection and made available for downloading over the Web. Software pirates who make warez available frequently use the "z" as a pluralization to denote something that has been pirated (e.g. appz, gamez). The Warez category pre-dates the ODP policies and guidelines, and there may be others like it.

The Netscape legal department has provided the following guidance for dealing with links (and categories of links) the contain illegal content. This will become part of the ODP Guidelines.

"In following this policy, it may not always be clear when a site is distributing illegal material, and we cannot be responsible for every page of every site listed. However, the ODP should make every effort to avoid including links to sites that are substantially focused on the distribution of illegal materials. Indicia of such a focus may be in the name of a link itself (e.g., "www.springsteenbootlegs.com", "www.stolensoftware.net", or "www.sexwithminors.com" ) or in links or text discussion on the linked-to page. Examples might include a site that prominently notes "free copies of brand-name software" or "explicit pictures of underage girls" on its homepage. Accordingly, category titles should avoid incorrectly suggesting that they contain links to illegal content. For example, sections of the directory that focus on free software or music content (much of which is offered legally) should be titled "Freeware" or "MP3s" or something similar rather than "Warez" (which may refer to bootlegged software) or "Bootlegs" or other titles that may incorrectly suggest an intent to distribute content that violates copyrights. Similarly, ODP descriptions should avoid any reference to illegally obtained software or music, or other illegal content, as such descriptions could incorrectly suggest an intent by an individual editor or the ODP to promote the distribution of such materials."

What this means is that editors should make every reasonable effort to avoid listing links to sites that focus on the distribution of illegal materials, including copyright-infringed materials. The sites in Warez have been reviewed. Computer editors have made every reasonable effort to locate sites offering illegal content and to subsequently delete these sites. Sites offering legal freeware or shareware were moved to more appropriate categories in the Computers branch. The sites remaining in the Warez category were those that dealt with Warez news and information but did not themselves include illegal content. Since the category name of Warez incorrectly suggested the category contains illegal content, it was recently changed to Software Piracy.