I know I'll get modded down for this. but I find it hard to sympathize with someone who goes on vacation on another continent and wants to play computer games in their hotel.

Sever allergy to sunshine must be more common than I thought.

I see no criminal charges mentioned. There's an allegation of perjury in a civil case, but no criminal charges.

Can you name a single case in which someone has been prosecuted, ever, for a bogus takedown notice?

That the other guy is living in his car will, no doubt, be a great comfort to me as I'm living in my car.

And what happens when a passenger makes unreasonable demands - "Hey, I need to stop here and do some shopping, so you just wait here, and BTW, I only have half the money, so you won't get paid what I agreed to pay." - and then threatens to give the driver a bad rating if they complain about it, what mechanism is there to address that deliberate libel once it's posted publicly? Sure, the driver can give the passenger a bad rating, too, but that won't help him any.

And that is the failing of relying solely on a reputation system. There's no protection against liars.

Uber drivers, as a rule, don't have insurance. There have already been lawsuits over it. Your private insurance will not cover you if they find out you're driving someone for money. Your private driver's license is not good enough, either. So, in most states, when you use Uber, you're riding in an uninsured car with an unlicensed driver, and if there's an accident, you, the passenger, are 100% responsible for whatever medical expenses you have (because the driver will be spending all his money to avoid prison).

Unless you just sign up for a different account every time.

After the customer leaves the car, there is no record of their behavior in the taxi.

Given that most cities require video and audio recording devices in all taxis, I find your source less than convincing.

I'm sure that will be a great comfort to those who are the reason for those bad ratings. You know, the people who get ripped off, kidnapped and held for ransom (I need another $500 or I'll just dump you here), or worse.

And the cops will be less than enthusiastic about chasing those bad drivers down, when there isn't a multi-million dollar a year company to fine the hell out of.

And it's only a matter of time before organized crime smells the opportunity to take over the entire taxi industry, without regulation.

Or maybe this is Microsoft admitting that they, as a corporation, are simply incapable of passing up an opportunity to shove advertising down people's throats, largely because they have no desire to do so.

What you advocate is, literally, complete lawlessness and anarchy, no law at all. Because if you are the victim of a crime, what you advocate is do not report it to the police, or anyone else. And at that point, anybody can do anything they like to you, confident that there will be no negative consequences.

Do you realize this?

To quote Ron White, "I had the right to remain silent. What I lacked was the ability to remain silent."

We're taught by television and movies that the law is composed entirely and solely of loopholes, and that everything we want in life it free if we can only find the right loophole.

Television and the movies are stupid. As are most of the people who watch either (and yes, that includes me).