The Rules of 'LOST' Time Travel

Posted below, found on this website, is the exact dialog from LOST where the rules of time travel are explained by the character Daniel Faraday to Sawyer (and the audience).  Though this time travel, or time skipping, may prove to be the catch-all device LOST has needed to explain everything, at least (thus far) they're sticking to some strict principals -- but it may very well turn the show into a magician's act where the audience is already privy to the secrets.  And that's never fun.  POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW.

DANIEL: The island… [pauses] think of the island like a record spinning on a turntable, only now, that record is skipping. Whatever Ben Linus did down at the Orchid Station…. [pauses] I think it may have, dislodged us.
MILES: Dislodged us from what?
DANIEL: Time.
[Miles, Daniel, Sawyer and Juliet look at each other.]
JULIET: So that's why our camp is gone. Because the island is moving through time?
DANIEL: Either the island is or we are.
SAWYER: What?!
DANIEL: It's just as likely we are moving, your people and us. Everyone in your group, you're all accounted for, right?
[Juliet looks at Sawyer and he takes another deep breath.]
SAWYER: Not everyone. [to Juliet] Locke.

DANIEL: That's not the way it works.
SAWYER: Who says?
DANIEL: You cannot change anything. You can't. Even if you try to, it wouldn't work.
SAWYER: Why not?
DANIEL: Time, it is like a stream. Alright, we can move forward on that stream, we can move in reverse, but we cannot ever create a new stream. If we try to do anything different, we will fail every time. Whatever happened, happened.

SAWYER: How do you know so much about this Danny boy?
[Daniel takes off his backpack and opens it. He takes out his leather bound journal.]
DANIEL: I know about this because I spent my entire adult life studying space time. I know all this because [patting journal] this journal contains everything I've ever learned about the Dharma Initiative. This, is why I'm here. I know what's happening.

SAWYER: So how can we stop it?
DANIEL: You can't stop it.
SAWYER: Then who can?