So at best, LJ was sending links through a third party with possibly the idea of claiming affiliate link status to links that didn't already have it, and never thought to check how and whether the code worked as promised. Which it obviously didn't. Greedy, stupid and shoddy. I'm going to sleep on it, but I think this is the last straw for my full participation in LJ. Keep the LJ, sure, it's a regrettable necessity, but no more of my own content is going on their servers.