This will work itself out. Those people stupid enough to put important data on other people's servers, where the have no control over who sees them and now, after being warned time and time again that this very thing is inevitable, will find themselves devoid of a bank account eventually. At that point, they will:

1) Learn their lesson the hard way.

2) Not have enough money left to pay to host their data on other people's money siphon.

3) No longer have a need to host anything anywhere.

...

Hi, Pot. Kettle wants to meet at noon. Thanks.

I communicate with C, C++, Java, Assembler, Python, BASIC, and others. You may begin sending me money.

I think that's because most people have seen through the Emperor's new clothes, and have become dismayed with the "new", yet status quo, style he's wearing.

Let's rephrase your question, and you will see why Aero is going to lose this case:

"Suppose I rent an apartment in New York, and I setup an antenna to pick-up New York broadcasts. Then I stream those broadcasts to my paying customer. Have I illegally retransmitted the signal and I need to pay a licensing fee?"

Yes. You are now basing your revenue model on the transmission of someone else's copyrighted content.

As part of a reasonably complete tax plan, yes. But the people who depend on refunds at the end of the year don't have the knowledge or ability to plan for a large (or even small) tax debt, and so won't have the $2000 available to pay those taxes. For the vast, vast number of people, overpaying their taxes is the only thing keeping them from ruin.

This is why I haven't upgraded my Linux servers in 23 years.

The best thing about April 2 is that all those fucking stupid joke stories start to scroll off of the site.

The worst thing about April 2 is that those fucking stupid joke stories haven't yet fully scrolled off of the site.

I would REALLY love for Slashdot to have a new option: hide April 1 joke stories.

And everyone else is entitled to their opinion that he's a hateful asshole. What you're saying is, "he's entitled to his opinion, but no one else is entitled to a contrary opinion."

Our corrupt government allows corporations to poison our food in order to poison the bugs that eat it.
The bugs evolve to resist the poison, making the poison pointless.
Our government allows corporations to continue poisoning our food because the corporations have become dependent on the income the poisoning provides.
We are still being poisoned, and will continue to be poisoned.

Yet genetically altering our food is somehow still considered a good thing by the clueless. Sadly, the clueless are the ones making the decisions and supporting those making the decisions.

You've really only touched upon the disfunction in American society. I could write a Ph.d thesis on how the United States is breeding itself into obsolecense. We are a country that is more obsessed with brawny men in tight pants moving a ball from one end of a large field to another than we are with keeping our country educated and competitive.

When I was getting my degree, our school would close off parking for academic purposes so the football spectators could park. Nevermind that we had group assignments to complete; there be a bunch of young boys moving their balls across the field!

Our society is slitting its own throat.

True, but the outcome is not usually what you are implying. Billionaires tend to put their money where there is the most to gain for themselves, while governments have a stronger motivation to fund important fundamental discoveries that do not provide an immediate return on investment.

Both privately and publicly funded entities do this. At least publicly funded entities can be cross-checked. Privately funded entities are under no pressure to disclose all their sources, and will be even less so as private funding of science becomes more socially acceptable.

To a billionaire, "shenanigans" means that the "researcher" didn't arrive at the results the billionaire paid for. So yes, the billionaire will not fund that researcher again.

Yes, but only to make sure that the private donors' political biases take precedence over the truth.

And they will only "blow" their money on endeavors that make them more money. How do you think they became billionaires to begin with?

Lots and lots and lots of good science had to fight and uphill battle against the political desires of private patrons back then, which held back scientific progress rather than promoted it.

No, private funding of the sciences was, is, and will be a disaster.

It doesn't surprise me that Bill Gates would identify with the megomaniacal dictatorship mentality that permeates our Federal Government. He was the megomanical dictator of a multinational corporation for so many years, that he can't understand an organization working in any other manner.

Instead of monitoring their ranks to punish people who are actually serving the public interest, maybe our Federal government could stop doing illegal stuff that needs to be covered up and swept under the rug.

Naw, let's just persecute the messengers instead.