Xit,
You wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by xit2050 If you feel the need to intervene, I would appreciate it if you would remove all my posts from this specific thread and not just some of them. On the other hand, I do wonder in what way discussing a subject that may provoke questions about the legality of it, poses a problem. It's not like someone posted links to illegal content, is it? Is merely having a discussion about certain subjects illegal? |
I'm certainly not writing this, on behalf of Stuart, nor do I wish to tread on his or the Forums (proverbial) toes, so i post this purely for informational purposes based on my 6-7 years of being on this site.
For the most part, posts are only removed if they contravene AV Forum Rules. If you join the Forums, then you agree to abide by those rules. There's usually no discussion about it, either you accept the rules, or you don't.
Secondly, providing a post doesn't break any of the rules, then posts will remain online. Asking for all of your posts to be removed is impractical, and time-consuming, and detracts for time needed by the Moderators to be used for more appropriate purposes. The Mods do this work for free of charge, and they are not paid or given any form of compensation or freebies! They do it, because they wish too, and also because they wish to give something back to the Forums.
There is, for the most part, no rule that states that certain topics or issues cannot be discussed. However, some topics like piracy and downloading of material, gets very contentious, very,
very quickly, and as such, posters/AVForum members need to be careful about what they post. The reason being, that in this day and age, companies and other organisations are very litigious! That is, they are quick to pounce on any website that is seen to be endorsing, promoting or giving creedance to anything illegal or that could harm their company's reputations, be it libel, slander or defamation.
As such, the AV Forums has to be really, really careful about what material and posts remain on their site. Sometimes, this may mean that a post is edited, censored (for bad language, intolerance or something similar), or is removed completely, if it could be interpreted by any outside company/individual, to break the law.
Discussions on piracy are often deleted or posts removed, because the whole issue of copyright law and copyright theft is a nightmare. Simply put, AV Forums has neither the time, the money or the legal power to fight any potential law-suit that may arise against it, over the content of a thread or post. So, in certain cases, which are decided on on a case-by-case situation, it may be necessary for the Forums to edit, censor or remove a post or thread. This is often a precaution, and nothing more!
Neither Stuart Wright (the boss of AV Forums) nor the Mods have to give an explanation as to why a thread or post is edited, censored or deleted. And, more often than not, it should be pretty obvious why such action was taken. If you are kind, and ask them politely for an explanation, they may offer you their reasons for their actions, but they don't have to give you one!
In your case, Xit, you've posted a comment that shows you to be
potentially nieve, stupid, or lacksadaisical! I genuinely mean no offence by this, but you have openly stated you neither know or care whether the material you download is legal or illegal because, and I quote:
Quote:
"I have no idea. I see a link and click on it and half an hour later I've got a file on my hdd. "
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This implies, albeit not directly, that you are happy to download illegal and copyright protected material from the internet, even if you aren't 100% certain of where it comes from, who hosts the file, how the file was originally obtained, who by, and whether they are the legal rightholders to that file or its contents!

It may well not be the case, and you may well be a fine, upstanding, legally and morally upright person, but your comment is open to interpretation by lawyers and companies who have more money and time to fight the Forums or yourself in one hour, than any member of the Forums earns in a month!
I trust this adequately explains everything.
Pooch