A: The FSB has claimed that they are able to tap skype calls,

and B: Skype (Mirosoft) is in the list of cooperating companies in Snowdens PRISM disclosure. If A and B are true, C: it is likely that ALL skype calls are either actively intercepted in real time or logged for voice and language analysis later (probably minutes later) (In fiction this is a central part of a 'Project Black Briar')

If that doesn't give you the willies and make you clutch your laptop and hide under the bed, well try this on for size.

It would seem a stolen laptop may be the least of our concerns

Except when the risk is that those 'whistleblower protections' wont protect you from...

So Um, sometimes you need to RUN hard, fast, far, and keep moving!

Health and Wellness should not be patentable - the drive to produce medicines will of course take dedicated researchers and the finances to power them, however this does not NEED to be aprfitable enterprise in order for it to happen. There exist a small group of very wealthy individuals who commit vast sums of money to the saving of lives with no other motive than 'it being the right thing to do' and self organizing groups of like minded donor can fill the shoes of profit motivated Big Pharma.

The argument made by Big Pharma - if we cannot monetize it, noone will do it - is as facile and pretentious as the MPAA/RIAA assertion that without their involvement music would cease.

Case in point, Sabin declined to patent his inventions in the search for a cure to polio; "costing" him an unknowable amount of revenue from all of the direct and indirect results from vaccination techniques and science. However, because of his unwillingness to patent, MILLIONS of people were and continue to be spared from debilitating and fatal diseases.

Yes, if we abolish medical patents, there will be a loss of future revenues for Big Pharma investors and speculators. Investors and speculators should be aware that there is risk of loss of any and all of thier funding through unforseen but inevitable changes to the marketplace. Tuff Shit! thats what happens to investors.

But how many lives will be saved in the short and long term by the transfer of medical research from patent hungry, financially motivated, greedy investors and replaced by TAX EXEMPT donations to medical research teams dedicated to a cure?!

I can't wait to see

in the spirit of you break it you buy it, you should have a sticker across the top edge "You touch it, I'll break your finger!" and then grab ahold of every offending finger and pull-twist-turn.

Seriously, when an organization is served a FISA warrant within the US, the usual GAG ORDER obviously will apply. However when a non US entity is aware that NSA wiretapping has occurred with or without FISA warrant; is the company complied under EU regulations to disclose that breach to users?

Another vote for turning off autoCraptasticRefresh Ive been AnonymousCoward for years, almost since the month the site first launched, i remained loyal through all of the design "improvements" and CorporateOverlord-ing - and THIS is what it took to make me create an account so i could yell about the abortion that some web-minister has foisted on all the readers! I'm tempted to close this account and wander the web looking for a replacement news source.