What is your juridiction?
The ODP guidelines state in its illegal sites paragraph that "[s]ome nations outside the US may seek to exercise jurisdiction over websites available to users in their countries. Such jurisdictional claims may extend to websites like the ODP that merely list and describe other sites. Editors should therefore comply with the laws of their own jurisdictions regarding listing various types of websites."
Does that mean that Society: Issues: Race-Ethnic-Religious Relations: Racial Supremacy and Hate: White legality depends on the nationality of its editor? Or its place of residence? Nothing implies so in the form used to become an editor. And how sites that use the ODP would be legally involved if some of its content was declared illegal somewhere?
The recent French ruling opens a big can of worms. One wonders why plaintiffs didn’t target other companies beside Yahoo. In the meantime, the ODP staff obviously sweats about potential liability:
"The evaluation of the potential illegality of a given site is often difficult and requires case-by-case review. Editors should feel free to consult with ODP staff about such issues. The ODP staff reserves the right to delete or modify site listings at their discretion. ODP Staff are preparing an official FAQ about Illegal Sites and other illegal issues. A link will be provided here when these are ready. In the meantime, please contact ODP staff with any questions or concerns you have have about (real or potenial) illegal sites."
04/17/01 update: here’s the new phrasing: "Some nations outside the US may seek to exercise jurisdiction over websites available to users in their countries. Such jurisdictional claims may extend to websites like the ODP that merely list and describe other sites. Editors should therefore comply with the laws of their own jurisdictions regarding listing various types of websites." No more mention of a legal FAQ though.
