Hi, Bijal. Thanks for the questions.
If there's something in the ToS that gives the impression that linking might infringe on others' copyrights, please let me know where that is so I can have it clarified. That should not be the case. There are no restrictions on links to any legitimate resource (ie, something that's not spam, porn, etc.)
Most of what the DMCA is all about is how we (SpokenWord.org) respond to take-down requests when we're notified that something on the site is there improperly. Yes, the ToS refer to the DMCA, but in reality it's primarily an issue for those of us who run the site, not the curators.
The important thing to remember here is "good intentions." We do occasionally get requests to take down content for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we get furious letters, particularly when people don't really understand what we do. Specifically, some people think we copy and host audio and video files, which we do not. We also get complaints (rarely) that we've posted text or images that we retrieve from publicly available RSS feeds. We usually respond, "Gee, if you don't want it to appear on SpokenWord.org, Google, etc., why do you publish it in RSS?" But we take it down anyway.
Google is also an interesting example for us. Not that referring to someone else's possible error is a valid defense, but just consider your questions in light of, "What would The Google do?" Obviously, The Google is displaying links to pages that are not the original source.
Bottom line, I don't think there's a problem here, but if we're not making it clear in the ToS, we should address that.
...doug
Doug Kaye, Executive Director
The Conversations Network
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