can't they -the user- hire "a true überwizard " to do it?

no "command line", honestly that;s the only thing stopping me from getting one. Now I have a Mazda 5, not as big -6 adults but no cargo space, or crap load of cargo space no passengers, and yeah manual transmission :-).

Well, that's for their attorney and a judge to determine, not for me, you or "people".

Some might argue that Sony is liable for negligence -- not properly handling/storing sensitive private data --.

and who said that nothing is private ?
if you want privacy, the onus is on you to protect it. The fact some people did brake into sony's servers and stole information (NSA --or insert your favorite 3 letters agency listening on every one) does not make it less illegal or an attack on the privacy principle. Whats Sony's asking is impossible, as some have said above the cat is out the bag, all they can do is sue for damage (and prove damage).

thepiratebay was full of those !!

there's text secure, can use their service -over 3G/Wifi -, fall back to encrypted SMS or simple non encrypted SMS. Or YOU can choose if there are mutilple choices. I read somewhere that there's an IOS version in the works.

who checks, the customers? as last time I checked, those places are 18+ or was it 21 (they are bars after all)? (The strip club doesn't care who inside as long as money comes in)

how about all encounters be public record. Say a group of people (as the example given above) has a concern that a new legislation might alleviate. They pool their resources (hire a lawyer or something, let's call that person lobbyist), draft a bill send to the office of said politician (or a special office that deal with that sort of things), somebody review it, an invitation is sent to said lobbyist to assist in a committee to defend the case/concern/drafted legislation, all before everybody (no secret meetings). And when/if the said legislation is debated the lobbyist is invited again to clarify/defend it again if need rises.
or something along those lines anyways.
The problem with the system as it is now, is accessibility (not everyone is treated equally. And bias saw it with what the then Minister of heritage (or industry I can;t recall) James Moore when the copyright reform bill in Canada was debated, he outright sided with "the industry" on principle, especially on draconian DRMs and anti-circumvention a la DMCA (may be worse). And finally secrecy and backroom deals (which in a way sums up the previous points).

yes, there is: boredom.

Personal experience: I was stopped because I was on a bike on a sidewalk at 4 AM, the reason I was went there was to avoid getting hit by the same police car, they found a Swiss army knife on me I got fined $300, and accused/threatened with all sort of things so that I would feel lucky to get of with just a fine. I went to court and I won - I didn't get back my knife though, they LOST it-, it was a waist of my time, theirs and the judge's. But that's irrelevant). The premise is : if you look hard enough, you'll find something (bogus may be, but still). From a probabilistic stand point, what I described is bound to happen, question is when! I not saying all cops are like that, some are nice, approachable and reasonable (anecdote: few nights before the incident, in the same neighborhood, a friend of mine cut his leg on a glass door, we hailed a cab to go to the hospital -5 minutes ride- he refused, a police patrol was there, they saw us and offered us lift to the hospital) , some are simply assholes with a power trip, you're bound to encounter one of those a some point in time.
Ruin your life may be an exaggeration on my part, but my point still stands, as it is still a hassle that CAN ruin your life!
The anecdote above was in Montreal/Canada. I lived once in Algeria and more often that not we were harassed by the police for the mere fact of being there (but they had an excuse : power with no accountability, and they didn't actually give a shit about what the law actually said).
To finish, we're all judgmental assholes occasionally (quick, reaction without all the facts, and there could be a lot of reasons behind that, good or bad is irrelevant to this discussion), the difference with a normal person and figure of authority (cop for example) is that the normal person doesn't have the authority to act on it! And the way the laws are written, is just a mine field!

And that's enough, to make your life a living hell for a certain amount of time (be it brief or long, doesn't matter).

you mean under the police radar? given any reason at all (rub the wrong way for example), they'll look, and they'll certainly find.

replicant?

how would a phone fit in those things anyways?

if the card itself is stolen/lost, usually you notice it right away (at max a day?) and you can always cancel it (all it takes is phone call). As opposed to a cloned card, you want notice it until it's too late.
Besides, even the chip is not 100% safe.

You're lucky (figure of speech). Usually the cloning thing requires the help of the cashier or the store owner (the terminals are modified), in most cases, I'd say what we call here : "depaneurs" (small stores where you buy beer, magazines, newspaper, cigarettes, milk, candy ... etc).