Its plausible deniability to the a$$hats running our governments. I run an IT consulting business and have machines with all kinds of malware come through, and I also share my internet with all my neighbors. I don't do anything illegal, but all my drives are truecrypt encrypted and anyone who takes my drives would told briskly where to go. I don't care who did what and where. I don't care and refuse to be a policeman. Internet is internet and only the person who sent the bad stuff should be responsible. Me or my internet provider should not be held liable if someone does something bad over a carrier. Phone companies aren't liable for murders planned over the phone. Suck it gov'ment.

Licensing is all about protecting the creator of the work. It can lay down explicit allowances for the consumer, but make no bones about it, they are not there for you the user. Regardless of how software is licensed there needs to be some protections for the consumer. Things have gotten absolutely ridiculous. How about regulation that enshrines: 1) Separation of hardware and software in all devices. Both from the "bundling" standpoint as well as the right to move software without permission or notification to the author 2) Rights to privacy of the consumer (i.e. once money has changed hands, I have the right to refuse your software from sending/receiving ANYTHING from/to the internet and still have my software function properly) 3) Similar to 2 but deserves distinction... the right to use software anonymously i.e. compulsory registration and named user licensing are gone. 4) Enshrine 1 license 1 (unnamed) user as the defacto law of licensing. In other words, no limiting HOW I use your software and as long as it is only a single use at time, legalities should be met. I may think of a use that no one ever imagined before.

I understand developers want to protect their work. But their right to protection ends at using their software as a reporting tool to my network or computers inner workings.

I would go a step further with that statement... the reason it sucks SO badly is that they try to create revenue streams because they falsly believe they have a captive audience. Hulu is free on a computer, but hulu plus blocks some shows depending on your device. WTF??? I'll just hook my computer to my TV and bypass your damn cripple ware. Stop trying to lock me in and give me value that makes me WANT to stay.

I will fully agree that context is everything. Its also pretty apparent that my post was very much a description of myself. But I try very hard to 1) stand my ground when I'm right, 2) fully admit when I'm wrong, and 3) not make a pissing match out of it. But with that said, politics and ego stroking serve no purpose whatsoever. Softening things up to not offend almost always result in misunderstanding. Hinting and innuendo lead to hurt feelings much more than being brutally honest. In a technical position, most things truly can be reduced to a black and white answer or at least one of many possible black or white answers. Agreeing with someones pet project for political reasons when the idea sucks hurts everyone. The whole conecpt of "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" is utterly riduculous. Let things ride on their technical merit. If the facts don't argue themselves, then BOTH parties need to move on and be done with it.

Its not always what it seems. Some people have extra sensitve arrogance alarms. I think in a large portion of the cases, people with a degree TECHNICAL skill feel less of a need to participate in politics. This gives the illusion of arrogance when it actually is not. A technical wizard in some area is likely to say 1) xxx is what I believe. 2) yyy is why I believe that. Beyond that, there is no discussion that will change anything unless the other party proves yyy is incorrect. They have no interest in discussing why they should ACT as if xxx is not true unless it is actually proven to not be true. Prove otherwise the geek will likely say "Awesome" and move on to the next thing. Its not arrogance, its fact until proven otherwise and you can take it or leave.
TLDR: Facts or GTFO

This is FUD at its worst. Yes you'll have to clear your name but this is America and only the person responsible for the crime is the one who is in trouble. I keep my wifi open because I have lots of guests and work on lots of computers. Screw the FUD type threat from the government. I'd send their letter back telling them to mind their own business.

That prove that consumer protections in the electronics industry are badly needed. Enshrine the separation of hardware and software in all electronics, and enshrine that owners cannot be locked out of their own devices.

Tethering is a built in function of all android devices that is artificially crippled because crap like this is allowed to go on. Yea yea yea, I know you can hack YOUR OWN DEVICE and put a different OS of your own choice on it. I already do that (cyanogenmod), but you shouldn't have to hack past security that locks you out of your own electronics.

This so misses the point. Do not track should be a anonymization option built into the browser where it isn't POSSIBLE to be uniquely identified. In other words all browsers report exactly the same thing.

Asking to not be tracked is absolutely ridiculous. What is even more ridiculous is people pretending like it will be honored. wink wink.

I don't see why anyone would want it. I would rather lag behind with open source application support and have security knowing that my apps are not working against me. I want to know that my softwares motives are my motives. So much commercial software now is about artificial limits and openly working against the owner of the PC. Either to sell functionality piecemill or because they are under the thumb of some watchdog like the RIAA or MPAA. I'm not a programmer, but I would hazard a guess that 50% of the coding done in todays software is to LIMIT you in some way, not to enable you to do all you can do even/and especially if it wasn't planned for by the author of the software.

Wow. Are you me or am I you? Our posts were almost identical (the post just above yours). Let me guess, you're about 6'3 with Sean Connery level good looks, great brain on your shoulders and absolutely DOES NOT live in your moms basement?

The hammer analogy has been used before and is completely irrelevant. Hammers have always been designed for a single task. Computing devices are general tools that have traditionally been open to the owner to work with and change as he pleases. The only limits have traditionally been limits in imagination and coding skill. The last 10 years has seen a new breed of computing devices that ARTIFICIALLY limited, broken by design, so that you work within limits set by the overlord errr Apple and/or have those restrictions removed one by one to generate a revenue stream.

Kudos to ANYONE with enough brains to say no, even if this motive might be secondary in this case.

I'm feeding a troll, but here are the few no go's I have personally ran in to. The lack of configuration options are enough by themself but these are functionality that is lost. Over and under dual monitors doesn't work, such as a laptop panel as the primary lower and secondary monitor above. No go.. can't move apps through the ENFORCED top bar. Static IP addresses can't be done with the gui with default software. When trying to add Network printers from the gui, it doesn't allow you to see properties for each printer until AFTER it has been added, so no way from the gui to tell which printer is which in the list if you have multiple printers of the same model on the same network. You have to use the CUPS web interface. The old gnome 2 printer additions dialogs and wizards were just fine. The programmers are idiot control freaks..... their way or the highway.. at least cinnamon restores some level of sanity to the gnome 3 desktop.

It's all part of the game to KILL PC's. Everyone wants part of the action of devices locked to a captive audience. Metro, Markets... no thanks. I'll retain control of my own devices. If anyone ever creates a tablet device that I don't have to hack to make it mine, then I'll buy into the hype. I just wish more people understood what they are losing with these types of devices.

Regardless Torvalds recently getting his feathers ruffled with Nvidia.... In most cases Nvidia just works on Linux. I swore off AMD/ATI loooong back because JUST about time they finally get a decent proprietary linux driver support for one of their chipsets, it drops off the back side of support. I DESPISE forced upgrades and won't get caught in that trap again. All of our perfectly working AMD video laptops still work great but no proprietary driver support and the open source driver is waaaay worse. Nvidia proprietary drivers still support VERY old chipsets.

As long as Steam for linux is what it should be... a portal to purchase games and nothing but that I am all over it packaged in an unannoying executable that I run when and only when ** I ** want it to run on my machine, then I am all over it. If it departs from that, sends any data back home without my approval, tries to add or remove software from my machine, etc. Then I'll burn it with fire. People have a right to protect their software.. but their agreement is with ME, not my hardware. If they use my hardware or software against me they are out. That is the whole reason I am on linux. I control my machine, not someone else.