Palomine,
Thanks for the comments on my comment. Obviously, the concerns I and some other people had about Nadine getting upset were justified. On the other hand, I think that I addressed most of your comments myself, directly in my original post. Specifically, in my last paragraph, where I pointed out that you are free to impose a policy of "no posting even if it's a perfectly legal fair use", if a copyright holder is sufficiently litigious to make it advisable. Strictly from a legal standpoint, I stand by my original comments. Actually, given the rather poorly constructed "safe harbor" provisions of the 1999 DCMA (Digital Millenium Coyright Act) copyright holders don't even need to sue. They can ask an ISP to directly take preemptive action against an allegedly infringing site. I think that this is an abominable and poorly considered law--but I understand that you still need to live with it and work around it.
As for the issue of whether a file is a "1st generation" or "2nd genration" copy, I specifically said that it didn't make a difference from a legal standpoint. I simply said that I, personally, would feel better about copying something already in a public area as opposed to stealing straight from the source.
Finally, I too noted that the restrictions on the UG were imposed deliberately. I understand about the distinction between the MG and UG and in general why these have been imposed. What I still don't understand is why using the forum just to deliberately evade those restrictions should be ok.