zlacker

In this context, I think it's an appeal to the ethics of property rights over some other framework. It's an answer to the (undefended in the post) statement "[Rate limiting] is certainly immoral" by offering a framework in which it is not: "People run servers, and they host users on those servers. What is 'moral' on those servers is the will of the operator, and we are all guests. Morality extends to us the opportunity to freely leave at any time; it need not extend us more than that."

One can argue this framework is bad, but it is a framework under which one can consider the question of whether rate-limiting is immoral.

(I'd even go further to argue that "my property my rules unless the government has declared otherwise" is a default ethical framework for, at least, most Americans. Be it Disney World or my own hearth, there are a set of rules, written and unwritten, that those who do not co-own the property must abide while inhabiting the property or operating the property, and the owner may revoke the privilege of inhabitance or operation at, broadly, their discretion. Maybe "ownership makes right" isn't good enough for the specific context of "a user of a freely-provided authenticated public forum", but I think the burden is on the person holding that opinion to explain why we need a rule more restrictive than the default property-ownership-based 'my forum my rules').