The Library of Congress review that resulting in approval of jail-breaking is a part of the DMCA. So there is no question of precedence. The DMCA said that the Library of Congress was allowed to make this decision. The LOC did.

So what would it take to actually build an HDCP re-recording device? Does it require custom silicon from a fab, or can it be built using a FPGA and a bread board?

What a waste. Even the first page has an obvious error:

That tool kit re-entered the atmosphere in August of 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidemarie_Stefanyshyn-Piper#Lost_tool_bag_during_spacewalk Come on guys. Do some fact checking.

No bucks, no Buck Rogers.

This will go nowhere unless additional cash is added to NASA's budget.

So what you are saying is that instead of investing in space technology so that we can see spin-offs in other areas, we could be investing in bike technology that spins-off to space technology.

That's not how it's suppose to work. It's suppose to be only space that has spin-off technologies. /sarcasm

We really need to realize that any tech that pushes the envelope will have spin-off technologies.

“We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” - Wernher von Braun

No, the headline is "Microsoft bullies FOSS with patents and conspiratorial coersion."

When Microsoft patents obvious things, then uses those patents to threaten law suits, that is a threat.

If Microsoft was competing by building great software, we would be having a different conversation. This conversation is about Microsoft competing without building software.

Too late. That tool bag is already back to earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidemarie_Stefanyshyn-Piper#Lost_tool_bag_during_spacewalk

It is designed and built for show, not for real testing. The Ares 1X is just a Potemkin rocket to make a good impression on congress and the American public. Any test data is just incidental.

There are so many things that need to be tested, but this launch tests almost nothing. Unfortunately this is what I have come to expect of NASA: good PR, solid engineering, poor vision.

Please let the president and NASA administrators choose the Augustine flexible path using EELV rockets so that we can get something accomplished in addition to burning money.

Optical scan machines have software bugs too!

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/election-transparency-project-finds-ballot-counting-bug

A single significant innovation: The RIAA Curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization for correct playback of vinyl records.

Now, of course, they did patent the RIAA equalization curve so that others would have to pay money to make their records sound good, but it was a significant innovation.