Suggestion regarding discussion of legal issues

[Mr. Picklesworth]

We all know the threads. Here are a few:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1213300
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7282625
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1212635

I feel that these discussions need to be kept off Ubuntu Forums, or at least heavily regulated, to avoid further disasters like this one. (Which isn't a legal matter, but demonstrates the magnitude of these situations).

So, here is a shameless near copy and paste from what I had to say in the first of those threads:
The Abbie Schubert mess, and the apparent firestorm of emails sent to HMR group, demonstrates that the forum community can (and has) been wielded as a weapon. With a thread and a link and a bit of sensationalism, a poster can send some members of this community out to trample the work of fellow artists, entrepreneurs and human beings. That is, as far as I am aware, not good for anyone.

After all, harrasment is considered a bad thing. If a large crowd starts harassing someone on behalf of Canonical (or the Ubuntu community), for example, we are going to have a big mess to clean up. In the unlikely (and boring) even that Canonical, or someone else, were to actually press charges some day, the defendant would have a mighty counter-claim thanks to that harassment.


There are a few ways to resolve this, as I see it:

Have a rule that bans threads pointing out copyright violations and other legal complaints. These threads don't belong here, are used for ill and do not help people. In particular, it is a problem when the poster has no actual stakes in the matter and is simply a noisy onlooker.
Instead, people wanting to discuss these matters should be directed to inform the relevant people (eg: Canonical, the law, ebay or the possibly infringing artist) directly, quietly and tidily. Themselves.

As an alternative, there could be a forum section for legal discussion. In that section, any links could be purged, except maybe to information sites like fsf, creativecommons and wikipedia. This would help control the crowd mentality of rushing towards the nearest airlock with pitchforks in hand. Alternatively, it could be asked (and enforced) that links to "infringements" be removed and only referred to indirectly.