Why are some links ok and others are not?

January 10, 2007 10:57 AM

So, this FPP linking to a copyrighted movie is ok, but this one discussing how to download music in a place where it's legal to do so is not. An Inconvenient Copyright Law, indeed. Is there a rational explanation for the disparity?
posted by Kickstart70 to etiquette/policy at 10:57 AM (59 comments total)

Its completely random. Move on.

(really, if you can't see the difference between providing means and indicating where someone else has previously used the means...)
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:03 AM on January 10, 2007

Ogre...note the "where it's legal to do so" phrase in my post. US laws don't apply worldwide and MetaFilter in this case did nothing illegal even under those.
posted by Kickstart70 at 11:12 AM on January 10, 2007

Is there a rational explanation for the disparity?

No.

Hell, there's hardly anything rational about modern copyright law itself. And very little rational has been said or done about it. Both sides have pretty much failed to have any sort of rational dialog. Why should here be an oasis of pure rationality and reason, when the whole world is obviously mad as a hatter?
posted by loquacious at 11:15 AM on January 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

AskMe and MeFi have different thresholds for deletion, generally.

The MetaFilter server lives in the US and so a "help me (possibly) end run this law" question on the MetaFilter server is going to come under stricter scrutiny than "watch this movie on someone else's server." Matt decides what sort of risks he's willing to take with content that lives on his server.
posted by jessamyn at 11:19 AM on January 10, 2007

INCONSISTENT DELETION PISSES SOMEONE OFF FILM AT ELEVEN SOMEDAY WE'LL HAVE TO DISCUSS THIS ISSUE IN METATALK
posted by quonsar at 11:27 AM on January 10, 2007

Kickstart70:

I don't think you expected it, but, since you asked, yes, there IS a rational explanation.

it is not illegal, but, AFAIK, it is a POLICY of AskMetafilter to not accept questions of the kind "teach me to break the law". Since it's unreasonable to request that mattamyn know what's illegal or not in each province of the 200-or-so countries in the world, and since, if their asses were on the line, they would be liable under US law, it's just approximated to "teach me to break the US law". There, deletion explained - policy

Now, for the non-deletion, it seems from the comments that the policy in the blue is a lot more relaxed. Again - policy.

And, in general, AskMe is a lot stricter than the blue. And the blue is stricter than MetaTalk.

Note: this comment is not an endorsement of any of the two policies. In fact, I find it incoherent, and think the blue post should be deleted, specially because it opens the door to all kinds of "HEY, LOOK, L33T ROMZ, WAREZ, MP3Z!" post.
posted by qvantamon at 11:28 AM on January 10, 2007

"...a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."--J.R.R. Tolkien
posted by OmieWise at 11:34 AM on January 10, 2007

If you willingly seek copyrighted content or software through the green than you will have your post deleted and you may be ostracized.

However, if you put up a link to a movie that's a year old and has been hashed and rehashed countless times than you'll probably be OK. Actually, go ahead and include entire television series linked through completely bloated FLV-farms that will cease to exist within a years time... those are pretty kosher posts as well. Oh, and if you can grab a YouTube linkdump that's eight thousand lines long you may just garner yourself 200+ Favorites in one fell swoop.

Make sense now?
posted by prostyle at 11:36 AM on January 10, 2007

"...a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."--J.R.R. Tolkien

Certainly not Tolkien -- I'm pretty sure Emerson but it may go further back than that.
posted by hackly_fracture at 11:49 AM on January 10, 2007

Speaking of favourites, where do I cash them in?
posted by ODiV at 11:50 AM on January 10, 2007

Between the pure white of the unimpeachable and the festering darkness of the DOA lays a grey swamp of uncertainty—no stark black line of Yes and No, no comforting cascade of laws and provisions, this—and when some post dare travel through that ambiguous marshland it can not know if it will live or die, but only have a quiet still sense, informed by the relative brightness or darkness of the haze it navigates, of the probability of its doom. This is the thing you must understand, if you value your sanity.
posted by cortex at 11:55 AM on January 10, 2007

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE TWENTY THIRD OF DECEMBER
posted by fishfucker at 11:58 AM on January 10, 2007

hackly_fracture writes "Certainly not Tolkien"

You don't say?

It was a small hobgoblin joke. Not that funny, I know, but it livens up quoting that tired old Emerson hobbyworkhorse.
It also showed me that FF 2.0 has "Tolkien" in the spell check database, which makes me sad for some reason. At least "Rowling" isn't in there.
posted by OmieWise at 11:59 AM on January 10, 2007

I think after that massive '15,000 youtube videos' link-dump, anything goes on the blue :)
posted by empath at 11:59 AM on January 10, 2007

Speaking of favourites, where do I cash them in?

I'm currently offering exchange rates of 3/1, but the market is extremely volitile right now, so you'll want to ask for a new quote before trading.
posted by loquacious at 12:00 PM on January 10, 2007

OmieWise,

"d'oh!" -- Eric Cartman
posted by hackly_fracture at 12:02 PM on January 10, 2007

I am angry.
posted by chunking express at 12:04 PM on January 10, 2007

"a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"

Actually, I think this is Ralph Waldo Emerson. /pedant
posted by RustyBrooks at 12:08 PM on January 10, 2007

And someone even out-pedanted me. Well done.
posted by RustyBrooks at 12:10 PM on January 10, 2007

"And someone even out-pedanted me. Well done," — Samuel Coolridge
posted by klangklangston at 12:13 PM on January 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

PS— The AskMe deletion was kinda dumb, but on the bubble.
posted by klangklangston at 12:13 PM on January 10, 2007

"Shut the fuck up about this stuff, please" - Sammy Cooldude
posted by Falconetti at 12:22 PM on January 10, 2007

"The AskMe deletion was kinda dumb, but on the bubble." - Coolio
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:25 PM on January 10, 2007

"I wish they hadn't put the dump across the street from my pond." - Henry David Thoreau

"So sue me!" - Bronson Alcott
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:28 PM on January 10, 2007

"Todd Lokken" - Todd Lokken
posted by COBRA! at 12:34 PM on January 10, 2007

"But seriously, don't tell anybody about the Yahoo! acquisition. For serious, dude." – Matt Haughey
posted by cortex at 12:45 PM on January 10, 2007

Dude, you're so hearing from my lawyers. You just spanked my stock holdings.
posted by loquacious at 12:59 PM on January 10, 2007

"Lackadaisical linking leads to lucrative litigation" - F. Lee Linkletter.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:00 PM on January 10, 2007

"Kids say the darndest things" - Art Linkletter
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:02 PM on January 10, 2007

"Ludicrous loompanics tuba oompa-loompa catfish jewharp aleph weds nodding hat-gavel smoked newt-pants tabulator. Nimbus nexus wonks mock mark arc. Moo." - Golem #2733
posted by loquacious at 1:09 PM on January 10, 2007

Kids are punny but Trump sucks.--Rosie O'donnel
posted by OmieWise at 1:12 PM on January 10, 2007

"This thing has got some stuff on the dealy bob." -- Sir Johnathan Gregory Hibiscus Slapnuts III
posted by jefbla at 1:18 PM on January 10, 2007

"I have a fish. In my pants." - anonymous
posted by yhbc at 1:19 PM on January 10, 2007

"SMOCK SMOCK" - SMOCK
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:28 PM on January 10, 2007

"that's hot" - socrates
posted by dflemingdotorg at 1:37 PM on January 10, 2007

Jesse and Matt. For your consideration, here is my list of "gotcha" criteria for deleting threads. You might want to tread lightly around these sorts of things.

Inconsistent deletion pisses people off.
Consistent deletion pisses people off.
Serious deletion pisses people off.
Jokey deletion pisses people off.
Obvious deletion pisses people off.
Borderline deletion pisses people off.
Strategic deletion pisses people off.
Preemptive deletion pisses people off.
Careful deletion pisses people off.
Justified deletion pisses people off.
Democratic deletion pisses people off.
Snarky deletion pisses people off.
Polite deletion pisses people off.
Expected deletion pisses people off.
Logical deletion pisses people off.
Uniform deletion pisses people off.
Erratic deletion pisses people off.
Clear-cut deletion pisses people off.
Noticeable deletion pisses people off.
Sensible deletion pisses people off.
Imperceptible deletion pisses people off.
Insignificant deletion pisses people off.
Axiomatic deletion pisses people off.
Aphoristic deletion pisses people off.
Apophthegmatic deletion pisses people off.
Certain deletion pisses people off.
Uncertain deletion pisses people off.
Indubitable deletion pisses people off.
Manifest deletion pisses people off.
Dubious deletion pisses people off.

Try to avoid those. Just a helpful suggestion.
posted by Devidicus at 1:45 PM on January 10, 2007

Oops.......

Apophthegmatic should be apothegmatical.
posted by Devidicus at 1:47 PM on January 10, 2007

"A foolish constituency is the only hope of this little administration"-- George W. Bush.
posted by jamjam at 1:50 PM on January 10, 2007

"Smile. You're on candid camera." - The Asshole aka My Ex-boyfriend
posted by nooneyouknow at 1:55 PM on January 10, 2007

w-g p : Lackadaisical

Weird. That word just popped into my head last night. I don't think I've heard anyone use it in years, and here I hop onto the grey and there it is.

"Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness." - Miller
posted by quin at 1:55 PM on January 10, 2007

Quin--
Last night I dreamt you were feeding me some prawns, but they were listless and withdrawn.
posted by Dizzy at 2:21 PM on January 10, 2007

ASKME QUESTIONS ARE NOT FPPS.
posted by Eideteker at 2:55 PM on January 10, 2007

qvantamon writes "And, in general, AskMe is a lot stricter than the blue. And the blue is stricter than MetaTalk."

I've always wondered how many threads have been deleted from MetaTalk. It must be an exceedingly small number -- usually the threads are just closed and left there.
posted by clevershark at 3:11 PM on January 10, 2007

"Frankly my dear. Damn Frankly." - Steven C. Damn Frankly
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:36 PM on January 10, 2007

One was deleted by Jess, one was not deleted by Matt.
posted by delmoi at 4:00 PM on January 10, 2007

"Pass the salsa, dad." - Yeshua bin Yeseph
posted by Jimbob at 4:06 PM on January 10, 2007

"Frankly my dear. Damn Frankly."

HEY, THATT QUOT IS FRM CASABLINKA?
posted by Kwine at 4:10 PM on January 10, 2007

One was deleted by Jess, one was not deleted by Matt.

Lord help you if you think this is the way things really work around here.
posted by jessamyn at 4:32 PM on January 10, 2007

To be frank...
posted by liquorice at 7:07 PM on January 10, 2007

Matt decides what sort of risks he's willing to take with content that lives on his server.

When you explain it that way, I understand it. But as you can see, this "server living" business muddles the issue for a lot of folks.
posted by scarabic at 7:07 PM on January 10, 2007

this is living?
posted by pyramid termite at 8:44 PM on January 10, 2007

You call these bagels?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:19 PM on January 10, 2007

"You call this a tax return?" -- J.C. Dithers
posted by evilcolonel at 9:32 PM on January 10, 2007

white people delete post THIS, but black people delete posts like THIS.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 11:41 PM on January 10, 2007

"Is this thing on? " -- J. Random Soundcheck
posted by eriko at 5:55 AM on January 11, 2007

I had this dream last night in which I solved a murder mystery. Shortly after solving the mystery, whose details I cannot, in waking, remember, I told my girlfriend I was going to write a book about it. I awoke shortly after coming up with a title.

The title was going to be "Lather, Rinse, Revenge".
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:57 AM on January 11, 2007

Half asleep the other morning a quote came to me and I don't know if I made it up or heard it somewhere. "Stature perceived is stature achieved."
posted by ODiV at 8:57 AM on January 11, 2007

"Mmmm, paste tastes good!" --George W. Bush
posted by flabdablet at 3:53 AM on January 12, 2007

ODiV: Looks fine to me. Now quick, trademark it!!
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:45 AM on January 12, 2007