Hi Pulsar...
Just to clarify (tho I don't think it was me who removed the thread)... info on torrents, etc... aren't technically against site rules and fall into that nebulous grey area of mod discretion. The concern (when someone posts a link to a site with tons of pirated pix) is that a) it's wrong, and b) hosting the link creates a liability for the BEA Owner. Of course, a torrent presents an equal liability (since what's being distributed isn't public domain) but posts about them generally stay in the grey area (not pulled) since they usually point to a single item of content, which presumably is viewed as a lesser sin/more minor liability. At least this is my impression, since the site owner hasn't commented on the issue himself thus far.
Thus, the only time (right now, until the next cease-and-desist letter arrives or worse) that a mod is likely to pull a thread w/torrent info would be if it were deemed to be excessive in some way. So, if that wasn't the case with the thread you mentioned, then it probably was pulled for some other reason.
Incidentally, a PM isn't always involved when a mod pulls a thread, spots/fixes a violation, etc... sometimes a PM is justified, sometimes the mod just deals with the problem w/o starting a dialog about it. Varies incident to incident and mod to mod.
Hope this clarifies things just a bit.