How long does it take you to type? :-) (I went with windows since that is non-technical :-)

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=packet+sniffer+windows+wireless

Did the user also disable the pull checking of email?

Prevents the bomber from backing out.

It'll be on the disk with Duke Nukem Forever...

I read that as TSA *puts* down 3 year old... which also didn't surprise me.

Most (all?) WAps that I know of ship with a very large instruction sheet that tells you to set a password and select encryption. People need to take some responsibility for their (in)actions.

Having a share on a computer is not distribution. Providing CDs to people would be distribution. Downloading songs from a share would be distribution - of the person doing the downloading not the person doing the sharing. Sharing files is passive. Copying files is active. Distribution is an activity, you cannot passively distribute something. At least that is how I see it (regardless of whatever laws actually say).

The reason for the multiplier goes something like you share it with two people, they each share it with two people, they each share it with two people. There is the issue of what happens if they sue person A who, 5 times removed, shared it with person B and then person B is sued as well? Logically the "fine" for person B has already been paid.

Of course, just as the stealing argument doesn't work for music (since you are just copying it not taking the only copy) you cannot use the "fine" for shoplifting when comparing it to copying.

The amount in this case is still stupid though :-)

Except that the person producing the digital item has no motivation to create new ones (as in different songs, not a different file of the same bits). That being said I am a user and creator of GPL software... but that is the choice of the author not of the end user.

Also, don't get me wrong, the damages awarded in this case are stupid. To my mind the suitable punishment would be to track down the people who downloaded the songs and make them pay for them + something to deter the action, say 10x the amount of the song. So if you download the item "illegally" then you are on the hook for the average retail cost of the item and + 10 * the average retail cost of the item. That provides a deterrent for those who download and makes them at least think "do I really want this, and is it worth 10x the price of just paying for it).

Actually pirates do take something from someone - as in those who sail around in ships and plunder :-)

Those who copy things (God knows why they are called pirates...) just don't make sense to me. If I want something I pay the price being asked (or have my wife bargain for it :-). If I don't want to pay the price I don't get it. Guess I am old.

Take the example that the poster used about an aviation book - he needed it for an exam (so he was getting a benefit) he just did not consider the benefit worth the asking price. The simple, moral, decision is to not use the item then.

If you would never have paid for it why are you downloading it?

Even if that is true (citation needed) there is a big difference between the capacity to plan something (which I agree children can do before they can talk/walk) and the capacity to have the understanding of the ramifications of their actions. There is no way that a toddler could truly understand the result of their actions in that case. Similarly a 4/5 year old would also truly not be able to form the intent to set out to break someones hip with a bicycle.

I personally ran into an older woman at a bus stop when I was about 5 years old. I was going down a hill (she was out of view until I was committed to going down the hill), locked up the breaks, and skidded into her unavoidably. She only wound up with a bruise and a rip in her nylons thankfully. I was riding recklessly in that I was not under control and not experienced enough to figure out how to avoid the accident. I didn't have a parent around but that would not have made a difference. I had no intent to hit someone, it was an accident due to my inexperience. Even if I had set out to hit her and had wound up killing her I would not have understood that that was really a likely outcome, and I may not have understood the permanence of it as I had not really encountered death at that age.

Only if you have A CPU that directly executes C code. You can, however, write portable C code that can be compiled without altering the code.

Source portability is not the same thing as binary portability.

I thought we were talking about wikileaks... how did you manage to make it about your leaks?