# Further explanation on the rules, pls
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [December 13, 2002, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399 "2002-12-13T01:57:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2002, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/1 "2002-12-13T01:57:48Z")
Just a little curious. I know the board rules say you can’t talk about illegal activities. And certainly downloading copyrighted material is illegal. But is mentioning the name of a program that does this also illegal?
My question comes from [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=149949) . Is it really frowned upon to just ask a technical question about such a program? I know sometimes the mods feel that a discussion may lead to talk of illegal activities, but it doesn’t seem to be the case in this particular post. In which situation might it be ok to ask about / discuss such a program?
How do cases like this differ from discussion of drug use (i believe there’s a thread in IMHO right now).
I appreciate anyone with some time to explain the particulars to me.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2002, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/2 "2002-12-13T02:01:40Z")
I think it has to do with the medium. I shouldn’t have brought up the program here. Also I probably made the mistake of mentioning exactly what the program does.
Drug use discussions can be helpful, I think, because they can be informative. If you only hear about drugs from friends then it’s quite a relief to know that you can find out good, unbiased information about them here.
Not to mention, you can’t type up [www.drugofyourchoice.com](http://www.drugofyourchoice.com) and have access to the drug of your choice.
It was my bad.
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### Author:  [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/3 "2002-12-13T17:09:47Z")
The general guideline seems to be that you can discuss potentially illegal activites as long as you don’t discuss how to commit illegal activities. For example, threads on the affects for cocaine (General Questions), or personal experience with cocaine (MPSIMS or IMHO), or rants about cocaine (the Pit), or whether cocaine should be legalized (Great Debates), are alright. Threads/posts about how to purchase/produce cocaine are not.
The problem with threads about file sharing is that someone almost always mentions a specific program, and as **Meatros** points out, it’s an easy step from there to actually getting the program.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2002, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/4 "2002-12-13T18:34:28Z")
The administration here is also a bit more concerned with copyright law in general, for fairly natural reasons. The _Chicago Reader_, owner of the Straight Dope, is a newspaper, and thus depends on copyright law for their continued existence. It behooves them to encourage a stronger interpretation of such laws wherever they can, such as here on the boards.
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### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/5 "2002-12-13T20:57:33Z")
Understood. But lets say I wanted to do a pit rant about a certain file sharing program. OK? How 'bout if I wanted to talk about my personal experience with a FSP? How how 'bout if I want to debate whether a certain FSP should be illegal? How do these differ from cocaine?
I suppose cocaine is a more general category as is FSP. But what about naming a specific type of cocaine (lets say Super Colombian White Death). Isn’t that analogous to naming a specific FSP?
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/6 "2002-12-13T22:04:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jayrot \*
> \*\*Understood. But lets say I wanted to do a pit rant about a certain file sharing program. OK? How 'bout if I wanted to talk about my personal experience with a FSP? How how 'bout if I want to debate whether a certain FSP should be illegal? How do these differ from cocaine?
>
> I suppose cocaine is a more general category as is FSP. But what about naming a specific type of cocaine (lets say Super Colombian White Death). Isn’t that analogous to naming a specific FSP? \*\*
I still don’t think it’s exaclty the same. The proper analogy would be if I was talking about, let’s say, my experiences buying pain medication over the internet. If I then went on to talk about the company I dealt with, that would be the same as mentioning the FSP.
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### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/7 "2002-12-14T00:25:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I still don’t think it’s exaclty the same. The proper analogy would be if I was talking about, let’s say, my experiences buying pain medication over the internet. If I then went on to talk about the company I dealt with, that would be the same as mentioning the FSP.
So am I correct in inferring that its OK to discuss FSPs as long as no specific program is mention (although probably strongly implied)?
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### Author:  [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/8 "2002-12-14T02:24:20Z")
You should probably check with a moderator (via email), but I wouldn’t be surprised if you were told not to open a thread dealing with file sharing.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/9 "2002-12-14T12:03:00Z")
I agree with Jeff-check witht he Mods first; I think their is a little amount of wiggle-room-very little. For instance; I’ve been having problems with my cpu, I posted one of the problems. I was informed that the reason it wasn’t working correctly was because of a certain FSP. If I remember correctly, the thread is still open. The difference between that thread and the thread that I had just opened was, in the old thread I didn’t mention I had the FSP, or what the FSP was (I didn’t know it was the cause). Not to mention, there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion about the FSP either.
I think things like that are ok, correct me if I’m wrong…
I also think you could debate FSP, being legal or illegal, as long as you didn’t mention them (except maybe in the news?). But again, I’d check with the Mods first…
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### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2002, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/10 "2002-12-14T22:14:06Z")
Thanks for the replies guys. I can see your point. I’d love a mod to come along and give me the Straight Dope[sup]TM[/sup]
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2002, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/11 "2002-12-15T16:00:45Z")
“Understood. But lets say I wanted to do a pit rant about a certain file sharing program. OK?”
A program like Windows?
Basically, I think that we try not to encourage or show anyone how to do illegal stuff. Like the Faq said, we might discuss just a little of our old drug use, but not talk about our present use.
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### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2002, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/12 "2002-12-16T00:27:13Z")
So will [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=150581) be closed down? If not, WHY?
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/13 "2002-12-16T18:31:50Z")
Jayrot - because the moderators thought the topic was slightly different in tone? Because maybe they didn’t see it? Because it’s hard to be 100% consistent when you have to make 20 judgment calls a day on a subject that’s a definite gray area? I can’t say.
Here’s what I will say - posters that read this thread now know that we don’t like to see discussion of copyright violations at the SDMB, and that file-sharing programs are a touchy subject. Why not talk about something else, and keep the discussion of file-sharing programs to other message boards that have no rule against it?
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### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/14 "2002-12-16T23:49:32Z")
Fair enough, Arnold. And thanks for the reply. Believe me, I completely understand the task put forth on the mods and I certainly don’t expect perfection. I was just concerned that there was some angle that I wasn’t seeing. If it boils down to being such a gray area that no steadfast rules can be defined, so be it.
> [@](#):
>
> file-sharing programs are a touchy subject. Why not talk about something else, and keep the discussion of file-sharing programs to other message boards that have no rule against it?
Good point.
BTW, did my smiley make it to the finals?
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/15 "2002-12-18T18:57:48Z")
Jayrot - yes, your smiley made it to the finals. The poll will be up in IMHO by tomorrow morning at the latest.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/16 "2002-12-18T22:34:20Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \*
> \*\*Jayrot - because the moderators thought the topic was slightly different in tone? Because maybe they didn’t see it? Because it’s hard to be 100% consistent when you have to make 20 judgment calls a day on a subject that’s a definite gray area? I can’t say.
> \*\*
Quick question: Do you moderators collectively decide to close a thread?
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2002, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/further-explanation-on-the-rules-pls/142399/17 "2002-12-18T22:45:17Z")
Usually not. If I had to get an answer from all my colleagues before I closed a thread it would take days.