Torrent Sites

[HSharp]

QUOTE (notjarvis @ Feb 13 2012, 08:59 AM) Do you really feel right opening TE out to months of worry and expense, over your opinion of where the rules should lie?

The rules are there - have always been the same, and I am in full agreement with them personally.

What Fuzz and myself are saying is that censoring links to torrent sites (not illegal torrents) is like censoring links to youtube and pretty much any other website in the world so if your going to censor those links you might as well censor all links and images or make images mod preview, maybe TE would have gotten sued if some mother came along when Psych goatsed people (although mod preview wouldn't work in that case so maybe banning images all together is better).

I know we are sounding very hippy 'the internet should be free' especially when TE is the one who has to take any risk but I feel that if you roll over for stuff like this then it just goes on and on. Honestly if you aren't taking the "risk" to have a torrent website link then why risk all the other crap in the forum like the NSFW threads (I'm sure some uppity mother won't be hindered by an acronym).

[notjarvis]

QUOTE (fuzzylunkin1 @ Feb 13 2012, 09:49 AM) There are a lot of rules which are being ignored.

Eh? That wasn't meant as a personal attack Fuzz, and I'm sorry if you took it that way.

What I'm saying is that - it doesn't have to go close to court to incur much worry and expense, frankly, especially in the UK, freely admit I have no idea how it works over there


For right or wrong there is much legal happening specifically around torrent sites at the moment.
It's also true that thevast majority of torrents are copyrighted.

Having a thread which lists the best torrent sites or whatever seems to be asking for trouble.

[Raveen]

I'm fully in agreement with you in principal. But it's up to the staff here to decide where the line is in the interests of the future of the community (because if TE gets hit with a large bill for pretty much anything he may choose or be financially forced to pull the plug).

You're probably right that YT links are just as illegal, I don't know the current legal thinking on the subject. I do know that torrent sites are the current bogeyman (apart from MegaUpload but that was mostly used for porn right?) and more likely to draw a legal challenge than a YT link.

You're right that NSFW links and threads are equally bad and in the past it's got out of hand and needed reigning in. Maybe that's due another look (not my call happily).

Nevertheless torrents (sites or otherwise) have long since been declared a no-no by the powers that be. The ROC/TOS doesn't say that the rulings of the admins have to make sense, only that people have to follow them.

[Makida]

I again don't have a problem with the rules. I do want to mention in defence of Canada, however, that in our system, in civil law cases, IIRC, the loser has to pay all legal costs for both parties -- so if someone knows they don't have a case that has a chance of winning, they won't bring it to trial. Or at least, that's the theory. Of course that does nothing to eliminate either the stress or the waste of time that this sort of thing would lead to.

I think from a practical perspective focusing on torrents and the like more than on YouTube, etc., makes some sense, since torrents are still the subject of a lot of legal and other negative attention, from what I see in the news. But YouTube, for example, has our Google overlords to back it (who know all and see all! They'll just bring the plaintiff's top 20 most embarrassing searches up in court... ), and besides, has been noted to be very aggressive in taking down copyrighted content lately, I think.

When most people hear "torrent site" they probably think "sketchy source of copyrighted content" more so than for just about any other part of the Internet.

P.S. The above should be taken as a personal attack against TheDevil™ and his horrible opinions about Stargate!

[pkk]

QUOTE (girlyboy @ Feb 13 2012, 04:29 PM) When most people hear "torrent site" they probably think "sketchy source of copyrighted content" more so than for just about any other part of the Internet.

You don't need torrent search engines to download Linux, World of Tanks, WoW patches (build in), the Arisman Codex (atm 404), whatever, because torrent descriptor file (and seeder) are hosted by the supplier.

Anyway, please respect the house rules.

[HSharp]

QUOTE (pkk @ Feb 13 2012, 03:53 PM) You don't need torrent search engines to download Linux, World of Tanks, WoW patches (build in), the Arisman Codex (atm 404), whatever, because torrent descriptor file (and seeder) are hosted by the supplier.

Anyway, please respect the house rules.

I'm sorry PKK I didn't know that unless it's a broken link that the Arisman Codex is illegal software to link a torrent to.

Arisman Codex

[fuzzylunkin1]

QUOTE (pkk @ Feb 13 2012, 10:53 AM) You don't need torrent search engines to download Linux, World of Tanks, WoW patches (build in), the Arisman Codex (atm 404), whatever, because torrent descriptor file (and seeder) are hosted by the supplier.

Anyway, please respect the house rules.

1) Just because you don't need torrent search sites for them doesn't mean you can't use them.

2) If you want to enforce some rules, enforce them all equally.

PS: Slackware sucks balls: http://www.gentoo.org/

[Raveen]

QUOTE (fuzzylunkin1 @ Feb 13 2012, 06:03 PM) 2) If you want to enforce some rules, enforce them all equally.

All rules are enforced by the same group of people (on the forums). All rules are enforced to the point that this group deems necessary. Therefore all rules are enforced to the same criteria.

[Cadillac]

We enforce them as we see fit. The rule of law does not apply in these forums.

If you want to start holding us accountable to IRL standards then I'll be taking a salary please.

[Raveen]

Pft, you already get more than you're worth.