Requesting a discussion about submission policy

[jmanghan]

We obviously can't definitively prove everything but we have a long history of catching stolen submissions so there are definitely ways to prove that someone is not the original ripper, at least. You're not wrong though - we very well could have some stolen submissions up on the sites right now and not know about it. But there's a difference between acknowledging that we can't catch everything and outright allowing "stolen" submissions from the get-go. The former just means that maybe a few will slip between the cracks while the latter is directly disrespecting those who dedicate their time to ripping and potentially condoning theft of content from other sites when that content was specifically ripped for them. It's definitely not an optimal situation but there isn't a good way to allow submissions with permission from someone else while still standing behind our no-theft policies.

For the record, our stance on uploads with permission from someone else has always been really simple and I still stand by this today - if the original ripper wants it on the site, they can submit it themselves. There is no reason to get third parties involved.

But what if the original party wants it up but specifically asks for someone else to do it because they just don't want to do it themselves?