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Soooo...HN (or whoever posted this) is now also infringing, since it's just more indirection? And anyone now linking to HN is also infringing? I think that eventually encompasses the whole of WWW.

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Be serious. Courts usually take a very pragmatic view on this and take intent and context into account. HN linking to the Gawker story is seen differently than piratebay posting magnet links, even though the level of indirection is higher in the latter case.

But you find the exact same links that Gawker posted in this very thread.

Does that make HN guilty of copyright infringement or not?

From the POV of a court, bits are coloured [0]. Just because two links are exactly equal, it does not mean that either both of them infringe or both don't.

[0] http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23

That link was super interesting. I found this concept frustratingly hard to explain to people, so I think I'll try this explanation next time.

I think (and the article also suggests) that it is especially hard to explain to people who come from a CS background. We often get too caught up in our own way of seeing the world that does not, for better or worse, correspond to how most people see it.

You should read up on DMCA Safe Harbor. It's a very important concept that you should understand.

To answer your question, no.

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