Bruce, pardon my tinfoil hat, but could it have been a 3-letter agency running a live simulation? The data would be skewed if the participants knew it were an exercise.

Or, migrate to another OS if applicable. What I meant to say ;)

I based my argument on the behavior or existing free and non-free operating systems, especially with regards to customizability.

Monopolies are monopolies because they control what the user does, not vice-versa. With a free operating system I can examine the source and do whatever I want to it or even port it provided I have the time and the skill available. With closed operating systems, I'm pretty much stuck. If there's a (hypothetical) kill-switch on a proprietary OS which forces a software upgrade(possibly a hardware upgrade too) then I'm stuck with three choices: try to break an agreement and crack it or be forced to upgrade. And we can get over-pedantic about licensing and all that, but if everybody used different distros and hybrid mutants having only the Linux kernel in common then I wouldn't say that Linux the operating system would not be a monopoly in practice.

False dichotomy. As long as there isn't a non-free OS monopoly which essentially forces upgrades which require better hardware each iteration, then almost all hardware stays relevant in the long term. There will always be exceptions for hardcore gaming, visualization, media development, etc.

As Captain Splendid said above, it's actually been that way for awhile - though Microsoft and other monopolists wouldn't want Joe User to realize that.

It might not be his fault. For example, the quote "640K ought to be enough for anybody" is still widely misattributed to Bill Gates.

Check out his wikiquote for more.

Not always. Many online classes (especially the maths and sciences) require students to take the midterms at school, showing photo ID before the tests are administered.

My community college even offers calc I online and I believe they did offer calc II. Perfect for those of us who work full-time but have to jump through the hoops only to never use the math again. I don't know many webapp or database programmers whose job depends on solving improper integrals.

Did anybody else notice that the web browser shown in the picture of the device in the summary's linkappears to be a simulated screenshot of Firefox on Windows XP? ;) Specs indicate only Android.

Exerpt from Turnitin's website:

Without knowing the mechanism of the plagiarism detection I'm wondering about writers, especially budding ones, who like to use the same style and mannerisms as their favorite writer(s). Being influenced by an artist does not necessarily constitute ripping them off.

Right. In the future we'd probably instead see more "virtual classroom" lectures, where students log on to a real-time lecture via webcam from the comforts of their home or dorm room, replacing actually going to class. Another good compromise would be to have the lecture videotaped and the office hours walk-in or live cam session as described above.

What exactly are the "pirates" pirating? Does mere communications count as "piracy" now?