So, why not allow the option of...

Because you don't live in a capitalist country, despite what the mainstream media tells you?

Slashdot likes to argue about intellectual property and patents, and it's clear that both extremes are undesirable

It is? I'm pretty sure the world would be a better place if people were not allowed to own ideas or expressions of ideas.

Time to update the list of things that will let you automatically get a patent for something:

• - on a computer
• - on the internet
• - on a stick

Hail, time traveler! Welcome to the World of Tomorrow! I will give you a brief introduction on some important changes in society that have occurred since your time:

• Michael Jackson died a white woman
• New Coke turned out to be a flop
• Berlin Wall has fallen

Believe it or not, a black man is president of the United States now. We have computers so small that they fit in the palm of your hand. The top 14% of Americans own almost 75% of the wealth and have devastated the economy over the past half decade. The average income of a worker has remained about the same since your time, but the average CEO now makes 350 times the average worker. With so much wealth being sequestered among the super rich instead of being shared among the middle class where it would be used to keep the economy going, the US is on the verge of a complete financial collapse.

Welcome!

Logan's Run was definitely one of the few movies that was far, far better than the book. The book reads like it was written by a thirteen-year-old, and the sequels get progressively more outlandish (aliens sending Logan to an alternate reality? good lord).

"Fish, plankton, sea greens, and protein from the sea. Fresh as harvest day!"

. So, what can a company do in this instance?

The company can pay the current owner whatever he wants for the domain, or the company can live without the domain name. The end.

for the first part of your opening sentence.

Learn to internet, please.

Your name (or anything under 30 characters) will be written, in DNA, into the glowing plant genome!!

Wouldn't it be cool if some of the "junk DNA" we see in modern living things contained names or messages from some advanced prehistoric race which genetically manipulated life on earth?