Too bad you posted that like an Anonymous Coward - Too funny! You just made my day :)

I guess they miss the times of good old STASI Time for STASI 2.0 - It's a beautiful new frontier!

The BeetleJuice Law Firm on behalf of AngryBeetle Inc. today launched a patent infringement suit against MIT. Their statement reads: It might be very well that MIT has developed something clever, but this is clearly an infringement of AngryBeetle Inc.'s patented water production method. The fact that you can help millions of people is irrelevant - we want our cash now!.... AngryBeetle Inc. and BeetleJuice Law Partners - have not been available for any further comments. Thanks to Alex for inspiration ;)

Given humanity is again advanced to a reasonable technical level a simple illustration aka this one from my children's fairy tale could work. http://einarpetersen.com/doku.php?id=fiordlings_imageexample Naturally a more stylistic approach with regards to what is drawn light source / a looking glass effect drawing, the media etc. but I'd think something like that should do it, maybe throw in a few 0 and 1's / images or whatever information is recognisable so that an experimenter would recognise artefacts ... Well just a thought - after all the human creature is one with imagination so whatever we'd try someone ought to be able to figure it out...

The Open Source Framework ushahidi from http://ushahidi.com/ might just enable the App developer to do what he wants for his audience with the use of a link imnstead. While Apple may, or may not engage in filtering links in their browsers, other browsers on the Apple platform should be able to convey the information properly - Apple could off course begin filtering content in other ways on your/their devices - But don't give up just because Apple are misguided regarding the sharing of information. This is exactly the reason to drop coding for iPhone or Android specifically - Create your stuff in HTML5 (the living standard) and they'll have a harder time shutting you up.

As a writer I don't mind people reading my stuff - heck I love to get constructive feedback, I do at the same time not particularly like to try to get involved with big media "lawyery" antics for now and NC & ND releases and asking people to contribute what they feel is the right price, is a better and more acceptible way for me to head down for now. I would as a content creator however feel rather cheated to see my characters exploited without seeing a single dime if it became wildly popular, so the option is to release as CC under ND and NC to insure that people don't just run off with an idea without prior agreement by me and secondly to ensure people do not try to profit on what I want to make available for free at least not without a consultation with me. I can understand it might be a nuisance to have to get in touch with me to be allowed to use my ideas or characters, but hey those are the terms. I as a writer just want to make sure that my audience gets my stuff with minimum hassle - that does not mean I am willing to sign away every right I have to my stuff or any opportunity to make a profit off it just because someone doesn't like to pay for it, while they themselves wish to do exactly that, i.e. make a profit. Thus the NC as in - If you want to use it comercially - get in touch with me. And the ND - If you wnat to introduce something into my "universe" we need to talk. There is nothing in the CC preventing me the owner from releasing to someone else under different terms - we just need to talk first. Throwing away the ND and NC from the CC license would make me go for a different licence as I wish to in some respect have an influence on what I create. Heck if someone threw a big bag of money at me I might just say feel free use as you please - but till that day - Forgive me but I'll stick to NC and ND.

Because Americans despite knowing better are seemingly not working to decentralizing their power and utilities, it seems they are not interested in taking responsibility for their own lives but are happy watching soaps on tv asking why when something goes wrong.. Americans it seems do not want to be independent any longer but are happy being milking cattle for power/utilities. The spirit of independence seems to have faded and is nowhere in sight. Which is sad for someone looking in from abroad. Where are all the solar panels on your rooftops, heck in China where I've been travelling extensively the last few years, the building code in many cities even requires newer buildings to have solar roofing etc. I find it funny and sad, that it seems that the Chinese price energy independence and energy stability higher than Americans who price themselves as supporters of independence and freedom. There are benefits to thinking independence into the equation - Imagine the jobs you could create if you bough "homegrown" or foreign made solar panels and put them on every rooftop,.. Windmills that extract water from the air exist - I believe are even manufactured in the US... Take a step into the future and become free again! And do so while personally winning big financially at the same time!!! What are you waiting for ?

Well actually the very idea of chipping humans or marking them for tracking or other purposes is one that should be vehemently objected to as it is dangerous and will lead to misuse. People in the western world are lulled into the belief that freedom and democracy is a permanent state of affairs, it is not. Freedom and democracy all stand on thin ice and there is a cracking sound coming from underneath already as it is now. The laws being passed in the cyber realms and elsewhere are slowly eroding away the notion of freedom and democracy, chipping or bar-coding is just another nail in the coffin of freedom.... Elizabeth should as a SCIFI writer know more than many others that ideas like this are horrible and liable to be misused beoynd belief - So as such she should not be promoting it in a positive way whatsoever.

The Danish consumer protection ombudsman has been making waves concerning the same issue as Apple in Denmark is also doing the same kind of misleading tactics. The problem however is that Apple is operating out of Ireland and might be able to squirm away from being held responsible for such despicable tactics. Hopefully, if a lot of consumers get burned by this behaviour, people will trickle away from Apple products...

Let us penalize imports of cheap Chinese solar panels in order to free ourselves from the influence of fossil fuels oil.... Good thinking !!!! I stand in absolute awe of these politicians and business people who come up with brilliant ideas like this...