Yes, it means that I can finally play Dwarf Fortress at a decent speed!

They sound astonishingly sane. Sadly, I don't think that they have a snowball's chance in hell of doing too well, as they're going to step on far too many toes. But this is still one of the sanest platforms I've seen.

If the many quiet and pleasant religionists (not my chosen word, I'm just working from the phrase) don't do anything to curtail the few loud and obnoxious ones, if they don't step up and deny any connection at all, then they are providing a tacit endorsement of the loud and obnoxious ones - they are, by their silence, allowing the obnoxious ones to represent them too. If they don't speak up, how can we even know that they disagree or for that matter, exist? Don't try to shift the blame onto a minority, all religionists are responsible in one way or another.

Perhaps with a car analogy?

On the contrary - it is. That is, after all, the whole point of copyright: The temporary granting of control over who can copy your work in order to encourage you to produce more. Once that temporary period is over, it's freely available for anyone to consume. Sure, there may be production costs, which is why paying for a copy of Shakespeare's plays is acceptable under law (and they'll usually come with commentary, thus being a 'new' edition), but you can freely obtain the basic text without anyone complaining. In other words, the default position - for the majority of the lifespan of the civilisation - is freedom to consume anything that you like. It's only for a very small space of time that this freedom is waived. The problem is that this temporary period is getting longer and longer, and that people (such as yourself) are believing the propoganda that this is How Things Should Be.

Try it in base 13...

These are all good points, but as it stands, the the US has a major problem - patents and copyrights. These are causing the country to slowly tear itself apart due to stifling innovation and creativity, and the resulting feeding frenzy of lawsuits. Maybe dealing with the RIAA is low on people's lists, but it's one of the pieces that needs to be dealt with before the situation can be repaired. Going along with them is not only permitting this problem to continue to exist, but it gives them a form of tacit approval - after all, if people from the RIAA are given high posts in the DOJ, surely they can't be all that bad, now can they. /sarcasm