Normally I would agree with this. However, the military in general slants a specific way politically which makes it less likely to have a fair and impartial jury relative to what sampling of the general population would provide. The UCMJ is not bad overall. It does have some screwy things that crop up here and there though.

The article reads much like the tactics used by the RIAA as well. File suit with instant offer to settle for way, way less than the cost to fight.

sent out a ton of invites to those listed above

I'd rather the content creators and the distribution stay separate. This goes even for companies that I enjoy such as Netflix. There is just too much conflict of interest down the road when one company is both.

"Egypt called up the 5 or 6 ISPs in the country and said "SHUT. EVERYTHING. DOWN"" So, Egypt is Madagascar now?

It would be interesting for the school to charge directly for it. For tax purposes you are allowed to include costs for tuition but not for books. If it is a fee charged by the school it could then be allowed for taxes. If you are going to get raped over the prices of books it would be nice if they were deductible.

I'm torn on what I would do in this situation. A hammer would probably be the first course of action on it assuming I didn't ask the mechanic to drill through the middle of it to begin with. Keeping it or trying to sell it is just stupid. They would just intercept it somewhere along the way and it would be gone. Putting it somewhere else isn't clever or funny, it is the same as just handing it back to them. The smartass in me would love to have the scenario where when they came asking for their "expensive" toy to tell them to pay him $500 or something for it. That would get into selling stolen goods though and is therefor no good as well. In any event, why in the hell would he have spoken to the FBI when they showed up? Why would anyone talk to the FBI without a lawyer unless they were reporting a crime (and maybe need one even then)? Any authority figure telling me I don't need a lawyer is the equivalent of a neon flashing sign saying "don't say another word until you've spoken with a lawyer."

In this case I have to agree with what many people have said already. I have been with DOD and DOE, as well as other companies that deal with PII and HIPAA. If they are not willing to provide you with a laptop for work use at home then I wouldn't be doing work at home. Every company I have worked for that has its employees on a lease at all times provides the equipment for them especially when it comes to full-disk encryption. Also they have supplied blackberries and run a BES. The DOD makes it clear that if you come across any information above Unclass they reserve the right to confiscate your machine and your HDD. That is the risk you take even though you should be receiving any info above unclass on an unclass machine it is a risk none the less. So in turn I do agree with much that has already been said, have them provide you with a computer to do work at home or some other device or simply don't work from home. It is their network so they can impose any policies they want for the protection of said network but you also dont have to work from home if they aren't providing you with the means to do it.

Point out to them that their encryption software is not working well when installed on employee-owned machines and therefor may not be making those machines secure. Try to do this without implying that they are incompetent or that the software is crap, even though both are probably true. Also point out that some employees may be tempted to remove the software without telling them. Suggest that a better solution would be to ban private computers entirely and provide laptops to those who need off-site access. Explain to your boss that because of your concerns about the stability of the encryption software and the risks to you and to the hospital of having sensitive information on your computer that you intend to cease using your personal machines for work. Emphasize your concern about the risks to the hospital.

Democracy is worth giving up some rights for. One of the best quotes in GTA IV

or we could just declare ISPs to be telecoms like they are and be able to enforce against them the same as we do for the other companies

They need to treat ISP companies like they do the telecos. Aren't the teleco's required to lease at wholesale prices their lines to any other teleco to provide service? This would get us out of the one or two providers per area problem and add competition. Another alternative would be to have the municipalities treat the 'last mile' cable the same as other utilities and lease the lines to whomever would like to provide service. The lack of real competition and lack of anyone being able to deploy wire to the homes is what keeps this situation like it is.

Programmers also want to get paid, yet many work on free software for free in their spare time, and some even get paid by big companies to develop free software like Linux, Qt, Firefox, and OpenOffice.org. I'm still not seeing the cause of the difference between the executable and nonexecutable portions of a game here.

Replying to own post:

Really?

You guys are comparing the Netherlands to China?

I have lived in both and there is very little comparison to the problems they each face, other than perhaps they both exist on the same planet.