The last version of this argument was deleted because it was getting a little too out of hand. In this post, I am going to have to ask everyone, including Yorick, to not insult people. It is okay to counter what someone said, but do it in a nice manner. Don't forget the forum rules --

"Be Nice: No posting of material that antagonizes, harasses or creates hostility toward another user or group of. If you are angry with someone in the forum, take it up with him/her through private channels like e-mail or ICQ."

you can also take out your anger on an inanimate object, (i.e a pillow, a punching bag, a dart board, etc.)

Anyway, the debate: Music Companies want to sue music-swappers in other countries. The story is at http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne...eut/index.html

Alright, let me start by saying that if the music companies want to stop file sharing, they should do so without the use of lawsuits. They could easily state their points in commercials and maybe slip subliminal messages in ther (oh, wait, that's a bad idea. I believe the last guy who used subliminal messages was dismembered by a massive horde of brainwashed people...or something like that.) or they could make their CDs cheaper and give the artists more money. The problem is not the sharing of music files, but the fact that artists aren't being paid enough.

And now, let the ENLIGHTENED debate begin.

You shouldn't have deleted it. Everyone who posted in there had valid opinions. Ask a mod to have it locked instead of deleting it. Now their voice is gone.

I think it is a bad decision on their end:

1. American laws don't actually have any merits on other countries.

2. Some countries aren't very keen on civil cases, as such, putting an offender to court might take a long time.

3. And they expect all the countries to bow down and let foreign companies scr*wed around with their citizens?

4. Poorer countries will have better thing to do than to comply with foreign corporations' demand, unless huge "donations" are forwarded before hand.

5. Not all ISPs are willing to co-orporate with foreign companies.

Just my 2 cents.

I tend not to post in threads where the creator is known to have deleted previous threads. My time is too valuable to type something that gets 86-ed.

[ 01-28-2004, 01:14 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

Exactly.

I'm in 100% agreement. It's just rude and unthinking IMHO. At the very least give people a chance to copy their old posts. But better yet, if you didn't like the admittedly hot debate, why not get a mod to lock the thread and open up a new one?? This type of behaviour is the reason Dan was forced to put a temporary block on editing/deleting your own posts, you know?

I was lurking on the topic in question and very much enjoying the interesting posts. I can imagine the people taking so much time to write them up are feeling pretty miffed right now.

NB - if the thread was deleted by a mod and not by the TS, then I take it all back and offer my apologies for the misunderstanding! [img]smile.gif[/img]

You are going off topic.

Maybe you should delete the thread then?

Why stay on topic when they know that unless their posts align with your personal specifications the thread will be deleted? It's ironic to me that you would break so exuberantly a very important piece of forum etiquette because you think a thread which you happened to start was too heated. When others post on a thread you start, you no longer have sole rights over it - it is everyone's property, and therefore deleting it is EXTREMELY bad form.

Exactly, Aelia. And good comeback, Djinn :D

Whackmeister, if you want us to do you the courtesy of going back on topic, you could do us the courtesy of explaining why you breached forum etiquette and forever erased well-written posts that people did their best to write.