or textSecure?

1st year is free : http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/ge...
99 cents/y may be cheap, but certainly not free

^^^what he said. On some nexus devices (recent ones) you can unlock later without wiping (BootUnlocker app for example, it's available in the play store and opensource ). You might consider building everything your self and SIGN your builds with your own keys (something other than the test key, as the private keys for those are available to anyone) and make sure any recovery you'd use enforces "signature verification" (and that it can not be disabled)

newer motorola devices are unlock-able with fastboot! All you need is a key, that you can get freely on motorola website, the trick is that you need to agree to somethingS ( among then : warranty is void)

the only shady part is unlocking (the only way to unlock some devices is through an exploit --a security flaw--) the bootloader! the rest can be done with the platform-tools you can get with the android SDK!

that's not from google, root is enabled by default Engenering and debug builds (from AOSP) the minute you lunch $device-user bye bye root.
and it comes in one and only one form : adb root (the ability to have root access from adb)

I'm not certain, but I think there is, CTS you need that and comply with ACD (Android Compatibility Definition) to be even considered for a license to ship the Google apps.

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).