I would mod you up to 5.

In childrearing, my philosophy was let them do anything they wanted, with the limitation that "only so long as it is not too much trouble to keep a watch that they don't kill themselves" (or someone else).

" Is there no line that can be crossed between holding an opinion and seeking harm to others?" I think the line is the infringement of the other's liberty.

From "The Rights of Man" 1789. Article IV "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights."

As for enforcement. I do not think there is such thing as "a right to privacy in public space".

To control violence I would have all public space under continuous (webcam) observation with facial recognition and AI watching for any developing situation.

Your generalizations about Electric v IC engines are inaccurate. For instance the torque capacity of the two most common electric motor types (induction v synchronous) vary more from each other than does either from an otto cycle.

Both capacitors and batteries store electric energy. One important difference is the power discharge/recharge rate. Another is the energy density (J/Kg). Batteries are about twice as good as capacitors. At least according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#Energy_density_in_energy_storage_and_in_fuel

Its beyond my pay grade to design a device that turns the diminishing voltage energy from a capacitor to constant voltage energy (if that is what is needed). But theoretically energy, (watts) not voltage is the issue. So a capacitor is a battery in that both store energy.

OTOH I have thought of a beaut motor that doesnt care what thge voltage is.

Huh??

Without copyright, lots of copying would occur, but it would actually HELP the artist/creator. The big corporates would vanish.

Think about it. Somebody (maybe Rupert Murdoch) copies a story and puts it on his masthead alongside some advertising. If it was a good article I would look for the writer's website and go there direct. Then he gets the advertising!!

Some artists are already doing this. I read the free online web comics Girl Genius online, smbc, xkcd, Questionable Content. Those guys make a good living from advertising.

Same applies to downloadable music and EVERYTHING ELSE that is copyrightable.

All the people trying to preserve copyright are shills for the big corporates.

I suspect the big publishers would be out of business.

"How will the content creators make money? Advertising?"

Depends on the art form.
1. Movies. Ticket prices at theatres. Advertising within the movie.
2. Journalists/cartoonists. Advertising. e.g. XKCD.
3. Painters. They should make enough from the originals.

etc.

Just try to do what somebody in power defines as:
1. Deny the holocaust,
2. Incite homophobia.
3. Incite racial hatred.
4. Display child pornography (where in some places e.g. Italy the "child" can mean a 17 years old).
5. Denigrate the Moslem religion.
6. Suggest that Homeland Security has been given too much power.

And in all those cases, truth or consent is NOT a defence!

And you will find yourself in jail, not just banned from posting for a month.

That is inhuman. So a gift of $100 actually costs me $100 instead of $50 odd dollars?

Not in one step. First we halve the time to termination of copyright on all new and existing copyright material. If after a year that wasn't too traumatic, halve it again. And so on.

I'm pretty sure artists will keep producing. Movies will still be made. (there does not seem to be a high correlation between cost and financial success in the movie business. And anyhow, a large part of profits seems to come from theatre showings).

Timeline.
1. 18 Nov. Swedish prosecutors request issue of arrest warrant.
2. 28 Nov 2010. Wikileaks reaches agreements to publish 220 State Department secrets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_diplomatic_cables_leak
3. 29 Nov 2010. Hillary says "we are taking aggressive steps to hold those responsible." http://www.nowpublic.com/world/hillary-clinton-wikileaks-statement-and-remarks-november-29-2010-2732928.html
4. 6 Dec 2010. Police advise Assange that arrest warrant issued. (Wikipedia)
5. 7 Dec 2010. Assange hands himself in. (Wikipedia)

I suspect that the US will not try to extradite Assange from Sweden because the negative repercussions (on UK, Sweden, and even US public opinion) will be too serious at this point of the election cycle, besides highlighting a major failure of the US state department.

Maybe not beyond reasonable doubt. But definitely on the balance of probability.

It was her department that was humiliated.

If you read past this sentence, you will have to go out and shoot yourself.

Well actually Hans was a secret CIA operative (operating illegally inside the US) trying to gain cred with the real terrorists. That person he shot was an idiot anyhow, and Hans probably did a public service by doing him. That NY cop unfortunately was not in the intelligence loop, or he would have backed off.

In fact, it was because of this debacle that Homeland Security was formed!

Now please go out and kill yourself. You have learned state secrets way above your pay grade.

The real evil in our representative democracies is regulatory capture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

For instance software. Ubuntu, Apache, etc have shown that Copyright laws are not necessary in the development of good software. I suspect the same is true in music, movies, books and a lot of other stuff.

The copyright laws funnel money to organizations (MPAA, RIAA et al) that advertise the product and "capture" favorable regulations. (is copyright really necessary to produce good movies? Then why does'nt the success of a movie correlate strongly with its production cost? Most of the profit comes from showing the movie in theatres).

Fortunately for everybody (except those few who benefit from regulatory capture) the copyright regulations are failing. Hence (I suspect) the recent involvement of homeland security in closing pirate sites.