Right. In general the chances of being found liable for an infringement
you weren't even aware of are very slim, unless you clearly should have
been aware or showed a reckless disregard for copyright.

On the other hand if you *deliberately* link to material you know to
be pirate, you could be in trouble, though this is an untested area.

There is a doctrine in copyright law known as contributory infringement.

Even if you don't do the illegal copying, if you deliberately facilitiate
it for others, you can be found liable. It's harder than for direct
infringement, but it can happen.

If you put up "Joe's page of the best in pirated stuff on the web" I would
bet you could get your ass sued.

But it might go further than that. You shouldn't deliberately turn a
blind eye, either. I mean if you see a playmate of the month and it's not
from playboy, you have to be pretty stupid to know it's not a violation.

Now comes the tricky part that only a judge can answer ...

What if somebody puts up their own material on their own page, but says,
"The only way people are to download this is coming in through my pages,
because I have put up ads to pay for it that way. Don't link directly to
the good stuff."

At first I felt there was nothing (legal) they could do to stop you, but the
more I think about contributory infringement, the less I would be willing
to bet the farm on that.

Does that mean you can't put the good stuff on your hot list? Well,
technically, yes. But nobody is going to sue you for that. They might sue
you if you put up a public link, though.
--
Brad Templeton, publisher, ClariNet Communications Corp. info@clari.net
The net's #1 Electronic newspaper (95,000 readers) www.clari.net/brad.html