One could argue that a true free trade proponent would not engage in trade negotiations, since it does not really matter what the other party does - even if they continue to impose tariffs and quotas, you will be better off if they are able to sell to you without restriction.

Of course that's politically impossible, but also the quid pro quo of an agreement can be used to convince the other party (who may not be convinced of the value of free trade) to open their market more than they otherwise would have.

Finally, today's "free trade agreements" have very little to do with tariffs and quotas, and have far more to do with regulatory harmonization. Where the U.S. is concerned, this basically means trying to convince other countries to adopt our regulatory system as it stands at the time of the negotiation, without much thought given for how well it functions, whether it might change, and whether there might be goods reasons for other countries to have different systems.

When you haggle over a price, do you immediately reveal the maximum you are willing to pay? And do you expect the seller to immediately reveal the minimum they are willing to accept? Or do you keep "secret", at least for a time, these amounts?

Nope, it works both ways. None of the negotiating parties are willing to reveal up front the maximum concessions they are willing to make without first knowing something about what the other parties are willing to concede.

There is some place for secrecy in negotiation. If our negotiators are trying to get the best deal for us, they don't want to reveal what concessions they are willing to make until they have a sense of the concessions other parties are willing to make.

The problem is that, at least in the US, the trade negotiating agency has its priorities set by a limited number of industry advisory groups, and these groups are not representative of US interests. The composition of the groups is about 20 years behind the times, so as a result you have a trade agency pushing for copyright restrictions without thinking about how they will affect the technology industry.

The trade agency also expends a disproportionate amount of bargaining capital on intellectual property, thus reducing what it is able to accomplish in other areas, such as labor and environmental standards.

Finally, the trade agency writes its own interpretation of US law into free trade agreements. It's usually pretty close to what US law actually says, but sometimes it misinterprets it, or US law changes and the FTA text ends up saying something completely different.

In a sense, we've always had real-time reporting, since you've always been free to go outside and look at your meter whenever you want.

Probably contravenes typical /. viewpoint, but smart meters are great. I have one and love it. I get a feed of its data and create a daily plot based on that information (see here).

Smart meters allow accurate time of day pricing, which can help reduce overall consumption and reduce costs for everyone, customers included. It allows the utility company to know more about where demand is and how it varies, and have a better sense of the condition of the grid (especially useful in outages).

In theory I could deduce all sorts of things about you based on your energy usage given enough resolution. Yes, maybe the police will order the utility company to produce records for a person they suspect is running a grow operation in their basement (though probably just the total usage would be enough to deduce that).

I don't care for a TV that will record audio all the time, so I won't buy one. Funny that the device I don't have choice over (the meter) actually provides me with real benefits, while other companies are trying to sell me devices that don't offer nearly as much benefit.

When I lived in Virginia, I saw two launches from Wallops - one at night, which was spectacular, and one during the day, which I could barely make out but was still fun to try and spot. Viewed them from Arlington and DC respectively. I've since moved to Connecticut, but I'm going to try and spot it tonight.

You're assuming that sound recordings are treated in the same manner as other copyrighted works. They're not. Read up on pre-1972 sound recordings. They're covered by a messy patchwork of state laws, with the result that probably neither you nor I nor anyone here can know exactly how long those recordings are protected by copyright law.

Welcome to the wacky world of intellectual property.

Too bad they didn't notice OS X is currently at 10.9...

Also, isn't the rule of thumb that it's every other version of Windows that's the good one? By skipping 9, are skipping straight to another bad one?

Can you point to a modern governor's race in which the governor does not run on a platform chock-full of legislative initiatives?

Some people say the same thing about the President - that it's Congress' job to pass laws, so the President shouldn't be proposing legislation. Technically true, but that is not how our government actually works in practice.

Wait, so we reject it because it provides more protections than the bare minimum required by law?

The alternative is a phone filled with either the OEM's additions, or the carrier's crappy branded apps.

The cleanest phone you can buy is probably the Nexus 5.

Those of us who want more control will be smart buyers and purchase hardware that is easy to load with custom ROMs, then we can decide exactly how much of gapps we want.

In Virginia, I forget if it was state or county law, but my local Autozone or Advance has a sign in their parking lot citing an ordnance prohibiting you from doing work on your vehicle.

The GP is referring to the common provision in many rental agreements that specifically states you won't do vehicle repair on the property. They usually exempt changing flat tires. I ignored it and did all the work I wanted on my motorcycles, usually on summer weekends with a beer (literally a shadetree mechanic, did it underneath the shade of a tree). But I suspect they would have objected to serious work on a car.

Thanks, I appreciate the reply. Good to know.