Yawn.

That's an unfortunate side effect to those banks going business in the US jurisdiction.

Just like Google can be (and have been) forced by European courts to remove data that may be held on American servers.

Google can always say No, just like Microsoft can. But then they can't do business in this jurisdiction, and better get all the execs the hell out of dodge before someone comes to put them in jail for contempt.

Please. Educate yourself.

I'm going to start linking to this comment. I've been struggling to say exactly this all over this goddamn commentary, but have failed to put it so clearly. You're 100% spot-on.

s/fine/crime/;

No, this is a reminder to people who have no idea how judicial law works that any company you do business with is subject to the laws of the jurisdictions under which they're incorporated, or do business in.

Any jurisdiction in the world can force the local incorporation of an entity to produce data it has access to outside of its borders.
It may not be able to go seize that data for itself, but it can certainly levy sanction against the entity subject to its jurisdiction.

Moving incriminating evidence offshore is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It never has been. They may not be able to nail you for the fine, but they'll hit you with the full power of a contempt order until you produce the evidence.

The dude you're responding to is a class A troll. Give up, you can't open eyes that are sewn shut.

They are able to.

All you can hope, is that said company is wise enough not to have data you consider sensitive on their server in China.

Google is an incorporated entity in the United States of America.
The IRS most certainly *can* bring suit against them in a US court, and demand that they turn over records for their tax-haven bank accounts.
The jurisdiction applies between the plaintiff and the defendant, borders matter not.

Where jurisdiction comes in, is we can't fly a team of cops over to the Bahamas and raid the offices of the bank to produce the data, the worst we can do is levy sanctions against the defendant.

This is *completely normal*, all over the goddamn world.

This is why the data should never have been in Microsoft's possession to begin with, and why it matters what companies you do business with, and what countries they operate in/what laws they are subject to in the various jurisdictions they're incorporated in.

I'm afraid you're simply an idiot.

US Law applies to a US entity, plain and simple, just like Swiss law applies to a Swiss entity.
If the Swiss pass a law requiring a Swiss bank to turn over all data for their American citizens, all conveniently stored in their US offices/subsidiary, then that Swiss presence absolutely must produce said data.

Come on, use your damn head.

It does if US law says it must under court order, and it wants to maintain a US presence.

This is the same *anywhere*.

The court may not be able to enforce said subpoena upon actual individuals in Dublin, but it can damn well enforce it upon the US Microsoft presence.
"Sorry your honor, we already shipped the stolen goods to China. We're off the hook, see ya."

http://beagleboard.org/black

It used to be $45, but it has apparently gone up to $55 :/
Although, it still eats RPi lunch for anything other than being able to play media. (RPi VideoCore can flick 1080p hardware-decoded video, the BBB can't.)
Tons more GPIOs, over twice the real-world performance in computing, and 2 dedicated processors to run deterministically timed code for GPIO/peripherals (outside of the OS)

*itself a successor/lower-price option for the BeagleBoard

proof-read fail on my part.

BBB retails for $45. While that is 28% more... It's still just $10.

Also, the BBB is just the successor to the BeagleBone, itself a successor/lower-price option for the BeagleBone... All of which were alive and well with active communities *long* before the RPi existed.

BeagleBone Black is better, hands down for every application other than a Media Center, (It can't frame 1080p video over its HDMI), or applications where 50-100mA @ 5V more, or an extra $10 on the price is a deal-breaker.

I've replaced my RPi's with them in all my embedded gadgets. The horsepower difference is well worth it.
I wish people would stop apologizing for that anemic ass ARM11 in the RPi. They need to update the CPU specs. RAM, I'm not so worried about.

Beaglebone Black eats its lunch for general computing, if you don't mind the inability to handle media quite so well, and for only $10 more. The Cortex A8 in the BBB eats the ARM11 in the RPIs' lunch.
It also dominates in actual embedded hardware applications, since it's got 2 little built-in processors that allow deterministic timed code to run with access to GPIO/peripherals, and many more GPIOs to play with.

The RPi VideoCore hardware-accelerated codecs and ability to frame 1080p are awesome, and it definitely takes the cake in graphics/media.

I've got both, and I will be getting one of the B+'s, just because the old layout was goddamn atrocious, and an RPi is still a neat toy, but my RPi has been retired and replaced by BBB's for embedded work where a Linux installation is beneficial.