Can I be sued for providing links to products?

got this letter a while back

[jackburton2000]

I run a movies review site, mostly foreign/Asian films. One day, out of the blue, I get a letter from a foreign film distribution company that was planning on releasing their movie (MOVIE-A) in U.S. markets. Now, I had reviewed this movie a loooooong while back, and back then there some of my affiliate programs offered the film for sell, so I linked to them, as I do for all my movie reviews. (i.e. Send my readers to e-tailers to buy the product if they should want to do so.) But since this distrubition company plans on rolling out Movie-A to U.S. audiences (or international audiences beyond their native country) they withdrew their DVDs and products from the market, thus all my links to their product becomes useless. So I get a letter from them, telling me to stop offering a link to sell the movie, or they'll sue me.

Which leads me to this question: Can I be sued just for offering a link to a place where there USED to be a place to buy the product? They didn't have a problem with me helping to sell their products until they figured they can make more money rolling out their film into the international arena. And now they're threatening me!

(Note: I removed the link, but I was so ticked off by this letter that I put the link back after I discovered that one of my e-tailers had begun selling the film again.)

[madmatt69]

I think that it'd be an issue for the e-tailer, not you. If they're offering it as part of their affiliate program, it's their responsibility to take it offline.

At least that'd make sense to me :)

[mack]

I honestly dont think you can be sued for placing a link.

The web is made up of links withut links the operation of the web would simply fall apart.

They may try and bring a case for you offering sales (affiliated sales) of a product that has not yet been mainstream released in the US.

Having said thet you are only an affiliate and as such are not involved in the sale or distribution.

As madmatt69 said, I think the responsability lies with the retailer.

Mack.

[lukasz]

I honestly dont think you can be sued for placing a link.

If I find link to my page on a site which I find damaging to my corporate image I would sue immediately. It doesnt mean that I would win but the legal costs associated, will stop many from innapropriate linking.

[BlueSky]

Anyone can sue you anytime for anything. Whether he will win is a totally different story. Like lukasz said, some people do it for intimidation purposes not that they necessarily think they will win. Deep linking is a fuzzy area in copyright and I don't think it's been tested in court yet.

If I got a letter from a foreign film distro company for that particular scenario, I personally would throw it away. They would have to come into my country and into my state to sue. If they filed anywhere else, I would submit a request for immediate dismissal based on lack of jurisdiction. If they were foolish enough to sue in my state, I would defend myself and either file for dismissal again or have fun running up THEIR legal bills. Since my state does not look favorably at all on frivilous lawsuits (IMO suing someone for linking to blank pages falls into that category), I would go after their attorney next requesting he be heavily fined. That is me. You need to decide what is right for you.

If you live in the US, this site here collects Cease and Desist Notices and will explain the legelese of the letter in plain English for free: [chillingeffects.org...] Not sure if other countries have something equivalent.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice.

[jackburton2000]

Well thank you all for the advices. It's been helpful.