I don't claim to know Canadian law, and didn't pay enough attention to see it was a Canadian company :) Class action suit would not fly in the US, but may in Canada.

The best that any company can do is reduce things down to a real name and transaction number, which could then be cross referenced (perhaps externally) to find payment data. Deleting "all" data would be a breach in law, as you are required to maintain financial records for at least 7 years. There is no restriction for credit card purchases, compliance testing just ensures that you are not keeping Card data and PII data like PIN numbers and SSN.

Sneaker-net is the only answer here, and it's difficult to maintain feasibility on a web site to begin with. And we all know what happens when people need bonus checks and higher profit margins. Why do you think we have all those articles on the risks to our power plants and water treatment facilities? When the Government with the biggest budget in world history won't pay a few bucks for it.. well why would you expect any different behavior from others?

Thank you for proving my point regarding not being much above illiterate several times in several displays.

Workable analogy for anyone else: If a person leaves a box of raisins on the train open for everyone to see, and writes a sign saying "not for public consumption" should it be illegal for someone to eat one of those raisins?

The obvious answer is no, it should not be illegal. The person who put the open container on the train is an idiot. People who see the bucket and can't read the sign can not have any expectation that the raisins are contraband, nor should they.

The same thing could be said about an open electrical outlet on a train where a person can easily access the outlet. Being able to see an outlet is not the same thing as being able to read the sign above it, but you can't seem to differentiate object from language.

I said "for anyone else" due to the fact that I have no confidence in your ability to process rational thoughts. You can not write them, so probably can not read them. I certainly hope that you visit a country like China one day and charge your cell phone in the outlet surrounded by language you can't comprehend. "Never happen with me" works until you are at 0% battery and lost, but you probably can not comprehend that far either.

Hey, look over there! SHINY STUFF!

Sure, there are some dipshits in the world but that percentage is so small that they should never every get any coverage by anyone.. Yet here we have 4 different (semi) reputable sources repeating someone's nonsense.

My theory is as good as theirs by the way, and historically more plausible.

Sad that you have such a shallow view of the world. I'm sure that the immigrant or tourist who has not been educated by your public schools would agree with me. As would the person born in poverty that had to drop out of school in order to live. Both would be rare, but the law must be applied universally or it is unjust.

I should not have had to show you the exceptions to the rule, you should have been able to see them for yourself. Don't put your "public education" that far above illiterate because it really isn't.

Not any different, as this would require that 100% of the people on the trains are fully literate in English.

I didn't bother reading anything but the summary, because the summary takes every possible approach attempting paint criminals and scum as good for society. MS is lobbying for he wrong things for the sole reason of making more money. The 10mil is peanuts compared to companies which make a lot less profits without screwing over neighbors for "moh money"

Surely Gates, Balmer and even Microsoft could pay back society.. but this is not a a payment at all.. it is business as usual.

You seem to be attempting to isolate applications that phone home from software with a back door. One does not discount the other, and one is not necessarily better or worse than the other. We happen to see more legitimate applications phoning home (CAD/CAE software for example) but Botnet hosts do also.

Phoning home is something that can be detected, so the high end software won't.

FTFY - SOPA, TPP, etc.. are not products of the Software industry. I am pretty sure I agree with your point under the surface, but the generalization is plain wrong.

And who exactly would have prosecuted them? The Governments paying them to build software so that the Governments could hack people? Without the source leak, how would anyone have known except by the end consumer providing network dumps? Call me a skeptic, but I doubt the people buying this were installing it locally for forensic reasons.

I can easily see a few reasons for them to watermark their customer's installations of their software. First is obviously leverage against prosecution. Second would be to determine who did what with their software. Their own back door would allow them to kill software on a non-paying customer (or one that caused litigation). The last is an increase in revenue. There are some interesting ways to encrypt your binaries which the watermarks could have done. Sudan's software would not be able to run Nigeria's software for example, so this would ensure that everyone pays for everything individually.

Lots of reasons for an immoral shitbag company to do immoral shitbag things to everyone, not just "some" people.

So has Barack Obama, so has Angelina Merkel, John Kerry, David Cameron, etc, etc, etc... That is what heads of National Departments and Nations do because it's in their job description. Your reasoning is completely irrational.

Something for nothing? Heck no, the EU creditors were not giving loans from the goodness of their hearts.

Yes, the Greek Government is mostly at fault for this.. but so are the Greek people who keep voting in people making false promises. You know, the guys who claim that you can have all of these Government programs for "free".

I really have no idea why you tried the ole cold war propaganda routine, but it does not make any sense here at all.

Prior to the Internet, and the corporate and government push to get everyone on line, spying on people was expensive in both human and physical resources. The "good ole days" was really not that long ago, because until very recently nobody could afford to spy on everyone in a country.

I wish there was a grammar robot ...
if(No_Caps){lashes=lashes+1};
if(No_Punctuation){lashes=lashes+1};
if(lashes >10){put_user_out_to_pasture};