Zare said:
I like to question everything and that's how my mind works.
Same here... most the time I don't mind it as I can get more indepth with things, but it does play havoc when you reach questions that cannot be answered... brain can't get any confirmation so just replays the question over and over and over, generating more questions.. and thus, more headache. Bane of my life.
In regards to the rest of what you said, I agree (and said something similar but not quite so well put) on your basic point: If you link to a site you cannot check it every day forever to make sure it is still a 'clean' link. But, you can of course check these things WHEN you link it. So linking something and then the site changes? Not your fault you can't predict it... linking something that you already have evidence is a dodgy site, that's where I'd say the problem lies.
Ultimately, as you said, the legal issues lie with the person who is hosting the problem site, not people linking to it. But it really is better to be safe than sorry, the website I used to work for wouldn't allow linking to anything potentially illegal, or even mentioning it. For instance someone was asking about software for (I believe) composing music, asking if there was any free drum-tool type things and someone responded "Sure, piratebay and search for xyz" .... the post got removed because it was basically saying "Here, have some illegal stuff" with direct intent of that being its purpose. Linking to a site for another reason and the site has something dodgy in it somewhere, is a different state of affairs. He didn't give a direct link to the torrent, but he told them how to get it. There was a different case which we had a debate over when someone said something along the lines of "There are places you can get cracked versions", and we let it go because whilst he was saying you can find it if you look... he wasn't directing the person, so if someone took it upon themselves to look for it, that's their fault.
You have to draw a line somewhere otherwise any and every post could be interpreted as suggesting misuse if you look hard enough.
That of course, is where site rules come into play... they state what the line is. Someone owns the website and want's things to be kept within certain boundaries, the mod's felt it was outside the boundaries, so it went.
So, I certainly understand and agree with what you're saying.. but at the end of the day, whether it's sensible or stupid (it will vary from incident to incident, and for what purpose the offending site was linked to begin with etc etc) .. it's the rules.
These are the kind of topics I like.. proper discussions on things and sooner or later someone will throw in some legal quotes and you learn something