Yes. And no.

Copyright protects one implementation - if you can create the same output for the same input without copying the actual implementation, then you're perfectly entitled to do it.

Patent protects all implementations [as far as I can see - regardless of whether the patentee actually though of the implementation or not].

Actually it's about every 7/5 months - DST starts about 1 week after the vernal equinox, but ends about 5 weeks after the autumnal equinox, meaning DST lasts about 7 months, non-DST (sun-time) lasts about 5 months.

It is get up an hour earlier in Winter, so that when you've been getting up at 5am in DST, when DST ends, you then get up at 4am instead, which is what 5am in DST equates to in non-DST - ie you have not changed your sleep schedule with respect to the sun (and the slowly changing daylight), only the clock (which has changed with respect to the sun).

Thus when DST ends, you will then have an hour less in the evening as you'll also go to bed an hour earlier (with respect to the clock, not the sun) when it's dark anyway, along with going to work an hour later (giving you an extra hour in the morning).

If you want light at the end of the day, try moving further North...you'll get light long into the night - far enough north and you'll get 24 hours of the stuff (in the summer when the DST is in effect).

Problem solved: instead of changing clocks, make school/work/pub closing times all run one hour earlier.

Same effect, just it also makes the sun correct so that the middle of the day (and daylight hours) is (approx) 12 noon not 1pm every day (or 2pm on double summer time).

Going to sub-Sahara Africa is an interesting experience - dawn is (approx) 6am +/- 30 mins, dusk is (approx) 6pm +/- 30 mins all year round - none of this day light saving clock changing.

All right --- Sony appears to be guilty of perjury after filing a takedown notice for someone else's work.

[Emphasis added] Does that mean the actual creator of the work can go after Sony for piracy (sic) and do them for copyright infringement - if Sony are indeed claiming to own the copyright on the work they created and thus for which they have copyright?

...One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written...

That explains the quality of MS Software then...

...And all OSS software which is free (as in gratis)?

...in their fancy new interface they make you Copy by clicking on Paste!

Why does this surprise you? Windows 95 (98 def had?) introduced the START button you have to click to shutdown the computer - you had to click START to STOP the computer (XP as well?) - so why are you confused over needing to click PASTE to COPY?

Just as Vista removed the start button (presumably to avoid the stupidity of having the click the opposite to what you want to do) expect a new version of the ribbon to remove the Paste sub-menu and replace it with an icon of some sort

What the research actually concluded was that the total cost of ownership can vary...training and support.

My one objection to most similar studies...is that switching from, say, MS Office 2003 to 2007...is considered to take little or no training...but switching to OpenOffice is projected to incur significant retraining expenses...

A few years ago a large UK retailer upgraded their staff laptops to Windows XP. All the [laptop] staff went on "XP training". Changing to "what you know" doesn't necessarily mean no training costs; proves your point, and that was in use of WIndows itself - which I seem to always hear as touted as not needing any training when "upgrading".

Directly they may get little from the factory OEM installs (do they still insist that OEMs buy enough licences at bulk rate regardless of how many actually installed?) but with the installed base, it provides excellent persuasion power with other companies to make products to work with Windows and so need to licence required I[maginary]P[roperty] from them. The OEM factory installs could be considered Loss Leaders (except that I doubt very much that MS makes a loss with the OEMs).

Well spotted: you do NOT buy the software, you buy a licence to use the software - that unfortunately is fit for purpose, unlike the software. There is perhaps a fraud here in that they lead you to believe you are buying the software at the POS whereas once it has been opened and the install process is started then that belief is refuted by the then presented EULA?

Serif managed it quite well in Windows 3.1 days - it took quite a bit of searching to eventually find the file containing the trial expiry information which wasn't deleted when the software was removed (and so reclaim the disk space it was using): it wasn't an obvious config file.

It's more likely to be will not may run into similar problems in the future

TCO of owning Windows just got bigger...^_^

The only real solution is to pass a law that makes all kinds of DRM illegal.

Or perhaps make those who insist on using DRM responsible for cost of replacement of damaged goods, ieeg if disk becomes unreadable and user was prevented from making, and using, a backup due to DRM, then publisher of disk becomes legally liable for replacing the disk and will bear all costs for that replacement, including the cost of user having to contact them.

...unskippable DVD ads...

are theft and should be treated as such. By being unskippable, I am forced to provide electrical power to my DVD player for their duration; that is electricity for which I have paid and once gone is unable to be reused. I am supposed to watch those ads, so I am also expected to have to power my display and sound devices [could be same device] for the duration - more electrical power being stolen. There is also my time which has been stolen. When an unskippable ad appears at the beginning of a DVD which contains 2 or more episodes of a series, each time the DVD is inserted to watch an episode, the electricity is stolen again.

It would be funny if it wasn't true the hypocrasy of those who wish to give us information (incorrect information at that) about theft use theft to do it.

...should be banned

The global climate change is a very good argument against them: a 30 episode series with a 30 second unskippable ad amounts to 15mins worth of electricity [and time stolen] when viewing all the episodes for each disk [set] that is used - it soon adds up to quite a lot of wasted power.

...since the hardware in your PC is not covered under the Windows EULA.

You sure? Activation of Windows would disagree with you on that point as if it sees your hardware modified (past some extent of which I'm not privvy as I do not use Windows) it tells you to reactivate it (or so I'm informed).

...they have my money, and I have their product. Our relationship should there be at an end.

So you're happy that:

• the product is not fit for purpose which you discover only after getting it home;
• the product fails to work soon after getting it home

and you have no recourse to get them to fix it as your relationship with them has ended now that they have your money and you have their product?