Mod parent sad but true ...

You mean the update notifier popping over what you're doing rather with an icon notification? Or with (as of Karmic) IPV6 settings that break a lot of commonly used routers? Or (starting with 10.04) using a program that destroys image exif data as their default image-viewer? Ubuntu has done a lot for Linux and lately seems to be doing a lot against it too :-(

Distros that don't include Gnome by default and use the defaults when it is installed or built. I assume Gentoo, Arch, *BSD et al. Might be wrong though.

The GPL is great for standalone applications but if you want to allow developers to make addons you really have to rethink it. Yes, it ensures that any addon made for the application will be free software however you have to consider the tradeoff; GPL it: everything is GLP'd, some companies/people won't develop or release addons; Other license: non-freesoftware addons may be developed, companies/people will have no reason now to release their software but it may not be open.

So it depends on what you value more; having the software but maybe not the freedom, or not having the software.

Obviously Stallman would rather the software was never created if it wasn't open, so the GPL wins for him there.

Personally I prefer the Artistic License 2.0; all the freedom and protection of the GPL without the virality.

Before you decided to be a smug prick on the internet did you consider the fact that Blackberry's Internet services were down for 8 hours but are now fixed? That perhaps when the story was submitted, the service was down but due to the delay in the story reaching the front-page the service is now restored? Did you think about that?

Of course you didn't.

Apparently the Armageddon is still a few days off.

Shuttleworth is one of the biggest problems with Ubuntu. His focus on "usability" has left the OS in complete disarray; while the developers are busy fixing 100 little papercuts they're shipping a release with broken DNS resolving. What is less user-friendly: a poorly labeled checkbox in the installation screen or "breaking the internet"? Canonical and Ubuntu were good in the beginning, they righted the wrongs of Debian, brought Linux closer to the desktop and then threw all that away with some really bad decisions (update notifier popup, software update policy, shipping releases with very serious bugs). Hopefully with someone new in charge Ubuntu can try and become what it used to be, given that Shuttleworth's hubris seems to be the most major bug in Ubuntu at the moment.

Assume you write up a generic example of a "letter to a member of parliament". You know, with the usual fluff people include in them. Then publish it on the internet with all rights reserved. Then a friend of yours, who has no rights to redistribute the work, emails it to members of parliament. They open their email client in the morning and bam, they have just downloaded illegally distributed copyright-infringing material. Which is why a law like this cannot work, target the distributors not the receivers.

I remember the time I was called in to do dury duty. In the NZ system the juror pool is sat in a room and names are called at random for the case, when your name is called you get up and walk to the juror's seats. At any time between when you stand up and when you reach your seat, the lawyers for either side are allowed to call "Objection", which means you go home. Each side can do this three-times and they're not allowed to give a reason why they object (because it's usually race or gender-related, eg. they want more females on the jury etc.) So as I was entering the juror room I sparked up a (loud) conversation with the guy standing next to me about how all criminals should be killed and "if they've got this far they must be guilty, we should just shoot them now -- losing the odd innocent guy for the benefit of society is no loss -- heck if they're here they must have done at least something worth killing 'em for". When my name was called, I hadn't even have completely stood up before the 3 defence lawyers and, to my surprise, one of the prosecution lawyers shouted "OBJECTION". Was lucky it worked because that case dragged on for three-weeks ...

In New Zealand, Xtra offer an unlimited plan, however they do traffic management on it. Meaning if you use any P2P software your connection is slowed down to dialup speed (much the same if you go over your cap on a limited plan) for about 24 hours after the program (Transmission etc.) is stopped before it returns back to full speed.

Did the EU say members of parliament have big noses?

I must have heard wrong, you'll have to speak up -- I've been getting a bit deaf lately.

They blame piracy for their predicament?

If the dissenters are morons who don't understand it, what does that make the believers? Blind-faith followers? You can't have your cake and eat it too.

So if someone finds an address in the White Pages and robs their house the homeowner should sue the White Pages?

And an even greater body of evidence against or possibly for? The point is that science which is contentious is at the limit of our understanding. To say that Dr Halton Arp's observations falsify the big bang is almost absurd. That is because there are many lines of evidence for the big bang. Yet despite this it is still not certain and maybe a better theory will come about.

In discussions like this, a considered opinion would present both sides, weigh the evidence and possibly come down on the side which seems most likely. In the debates on the Internet and in the media we get one side and then the other simply shouting the other is wrong.