Fair enough. So post some links to pornography in your LJ and let's see how far it gets you. Just because something isn't explicitly illegal doesn't mean it's a good idea, and just because the United States Government (TM) hasn't laid out in the Constitution that something is a crime against humanity doesn't mean you should go around doing it. It may be perfectly legal for me to teach someone how to make a bomb, but I'm not going to do it because it's not something I want people to know.
The problem with the U.S. (well, one of many) is that people love to sue. Groups like WFI have way too much money backing them and can afford to file all the lawsuits they want. Companies that are targeted with lawsuits, no matter how frivolous, have two choices: Pay a huge amount of money to settle out of court, or pay a huge amount of money for a legal defense, spend time in court, and risk still having to pay an even huger amount of money if they lose the suit. There's no defense against it. The only option is to strip away everything that might ever conceivably look like fodder for a lawsuit and leave as narrow a profile as possible. It's still not perfect, but it makes it harder for anyone to find a suit that'll make it to a judge.
Yes, it's entirely legal to link to whatever the hell you feel like linking to. It's also entirely legal to complain about someone linking to something, make trouble for the hosting service, and make a big stink about their service because OMG your precious CHILDRENZES clicked on a link and saw something they shouldn't have. LJ isn't going that far... yet. (I'm waiting for it.) But they probably don't want to deal with the possible legal implications of having links from their site to illegal material, even if they could win the long, drawn-out, expensive, highly publicized court battle.
So if a link is not content, why are you posting it, anyway? Just get rid of the link... you're not losing any content. I can't imagine why anyone ever links to anything... what's the point? It does, as you say, nothing.
no subject
The problem with the U.S. (well, one of many) is that people love to sue. Groups like WFI have way too much money backing them and can afford to file all the lawsuits they want. Companies that are targeted with lawsuits, no matter how frivolous, have two choices: Pay a huge amount of money to settle out of court, or pay a huge amount of money for a legal defense, spend time in court, and risk still having to pay an even huger amount of money if they lose the suit. There's no defense against it. The only option is to strip away everything that might ever conceivably look like fodder for a lawsuit and leave as narrow a profile as possible. It's still not perfect, but it makes it harder for anyone to find a suit that'll make it to a judge.
Yes, it's entirely legal to link to whatever the hell you feel like linking to. It's also entirely legal to complain about someone linking to something, make trouble for the hosting service, and make a big stink about their service because OMG your precious CHILDRENZES clicked on a link and saw something they shouldn't have. LJ isn't going that far... yet. (I'm waiting for it.) But they probably don't want to deal with the possible legal implications of having links from their site to illegal material, even if they could win the long, drawn-out, expensive, highly publicized court battle.
So if a link is not content, why are you posting it, anyway? Just get rid of the link... you're not losing any content. I can't imagine why anyone ever links to anything... what's the point? It does, as you say, nothing.