I'd prefer an EESU from EESTOR (if that ever happens), since it would be cheaper on a buck-per-Joule level and it would last for a very, very long time. Second to that, nickel-iron batteries, which are heavy and inefficient, but survive much abuse and have working lifetimes far longer than that of most other batteries. Pity they are no longer made in the United States; much of their price is presumably in just shipping them here.

That's true. But if I changed your locks and kept the keys, charging me with "stealing your house" is not legitimate.

Since you like that door analogy.

I see plenty to be excited about. For one, you're not having to chuck stuff out the back. With a rocket, you are carrying your reaction mass along with you. You're not only having to accelerate your ship, you're having to accelerate the stuff you'd just gonna throw out the rear a few minutes from now. It means that ships are very heavy and inefficient.

With this, you're just concerned about your energy. Without it, you're concerned about your energy, and the extra mass you have to carry along with you, and that makes the energy required go up. No dragging along big tanks of propellant with you. It might be quite liberating.

Ah, Techdirt: Free is good! Non-Free will die! Now, if it doesn't work out for you, your business model sucks. Every time you read "business model" on Techdirt, pretend it says "Plan $X for Getting Money." And we don't know what $X is. Neither do they.

Aside from variations on the hostage model, they have yet to suggest a business model that does not succumb to the things they propose in the first place. Example: Discs will be pirated. Solution: Make additional content available to people who buy your discs. Problem: additional content gets pirated ...

Basically, you have to tour if you're a musician. Don't count on T-shirts, because anyone can replicate your T-shirts, cheaper. Sign books if you're an author.

Puke.