[Rastus]

I hope this isn't some dark secret I'm not supposed to ask, but what's the deal with the posting of the Steyn columns? Invariably, quidnunc posts an excerpt, and someone else posts the full thing. People then thank the second poster for posting the whole thing. So, why isn't the full thing just posted the first time?

[finnigan2]

"Invariably, quidnunc posts an excerpt, and someone else posts the full thing. People then thank the second poster for posting the whole thing. So, why isn't the full thing just posted the first time?"

- What you are seeing has been going on for longer than the Hatfield/McCoy feud. Quidnunc ALWAYS posts excerpts because his is a principled stand against copyright infringement or some such legal technicality that would be violated if he were to reproduce the whole article. A number of other freepers are upset at this and immediately post the whole story to show that they think he's being a pain. The unfortunate side effect is that while most readers really look forward to Stein's articles, this running dispute has caused many to stop reading the stories since half the postings consist of sniping back and forth over the, "to post, or not to post" issue.

[quidnunc]

Rastus wrote: I hope this isn't some dark secret I'm not supposed to ask, but what's the deal with the posting of the Steyn columns? Invariably, quidnunc posts an excerpt, and someone else posts the full thing. People then thank the second poster for posting the whole thing. So, why isn't the full thing just posted the first time?

It's a violation of a little thing called federal copyright law to do more thaqn excerpt copyrighted material.