Don't turn this into a political discussion. It's not about free speech, it's about keeping the forum running.

Tom runs the server on which this BBS is hosted, and he wants to see it continue to operate without hassle from anyone. Because of how it's hosted, we could instantly lose this resource if someone complained to the host that it was some kind of a warez BBS. Tom's not in a position that would allow him to stand up for someone's free speech in that regard.

A long time ago, a religious friend told me his motto: "Avoid even the appearance of sin." That's all Tom's trying to do here... to make sure that everything is (a) on the level, and (b) also appears to be on the level, so that nobody from the RIAA has any reason to even start sniffing around, let alone find anything bad going on.