LISNews: Librarian News

Asia
Biz-Tech has an interesting Story on a verdict
handed down by the Osaka District Court states that,
under certain sets of conditions, links used to connect
one Web page to another could be considered an
infringement of the law.

\"

The court\'s ruling means that if somebody creates a
Web page that includes a link to another page, and if
that other page is in violation of the law, then the person
who creates the link can be charged with aiding and
abetting the crime. This is regardless of whether or not
they are aware of the illegality of the page they linked
to.\"In the reading of his verdict, Judge Kawai pointed out
that there was clearly a vast amount of obscene
material being made available on the Internet and that
under the terms of Japan\'s constitution it was
necessary for restrictions to be applied for the sake of
public welfare. He went on to say that punishing
offenders did not amount to an infringement of people\'s
freedom to post information on the Internet.
The verdict is causing something of a stir in both legal
circles and among Internet users, with strong views
being expressed both for and against.