a plea

[dlw]

"... Brian's original post titled "a plea" complains about off-topic 
discussions/ responses..."

An original post complaining about off-topic discussions is clearly not 
"discussing licenses any more". In fact it is farther off topic than is 
discussing the legalities of licensing law.

Why not just add to your killfile all those you don't wish to hear from?

PJ over at Groklaw has some very effective software to make dissenting 
views appear only to the original author. That way the original author 
doesn't know he has been censored. He thinks everyone reads and ignores 
his dissenting post. That's a brilliant strategy worthy of a Karl Rove.