As a French, I would endorse this action. Either we finally get an update of these laws (which date back from the WWII aftermath and the denazification period) or an alternative to Google pops up. Win-win.

You can't imagine, being a developer in a country where software patents do not exist, how happy I am to see US firms shoot themselves in the foot and spend billions over an imaginary property issue.

I agree that a chip factory does not want a machine that takes hours to print a single chip but fablabs do want a possibility to make only one or two chips of a custom design. It makes sense for this niche.

I was shocked in 2008 when I read that Sarkozy and Merkel talked to each other about EU policies through SMS. Apparently, both French and German leaders do think that spying does not happen, that cell phones are secure, and are genuinely surprised by what happened.

The only thing Snowden has really revealed was the degree of incompetence of the politicians in my country (France)

I know better than to laugh at Fortran developpers.

That's what Aaron Swartz gave his life for.

The source is not stated. I guess it is a Japanese governmental source. So the government anonymously says it did nothing wrong? Astounding.

The article is very light on details. I wonder if that could make it possible to produce small series of microchips. It would be an incredible tool for your local fablab...

My favorite feature of markdown is that it can easily be used to collaborate with people without having them learn a complicated syntax. "Use the same formatting as I did" is all they need to know.

Switching sides when comfronted to new data is a desirable behavior.

I agree. All I have to add has been in my slashdot signature for years.

Trends... USA does become a more closed and strictly controlled country, however, it is very hard (though possible) to have political opinions censored in America. If every country in the world suddenly aligned their policies on USA, that would be a tremendous step forward.

The more it unfolds, the more I feel like Snowden is a counter-intelligence operation to stop talking about Assange. Snowden teaches us nothing new, makes vague claims, redacts useful contents.

People who are suprised by this behavior from Apple in 2013 deserve what happens to them.

Luddites (contrary to more recent neo-luddites) was not an anti-technology group. They were depicted this way by their political enemies but actually they only protested to the way many workers were fired and obsoleted without any kind of safety net. There has been some machines destruction, but their revendications were social, not technological.