That is why we have labor laws, OSHA, unions, and minimum wage act.
The odd thing is , it we consider it wrong for us ( american workers) to be treated that way , but think nothing of expecting people in other countries to have that problem. This is a lot of what made off shoring economical in the first place. We should either require importers follow american style worker safety and EPA regulations or repeal our own. ( personally i favor the former as I'd rather not work in a country where the latter has happened).

?? what are they stealing?
What property , that belongs to another person have they taken?
What right to money , that belongs to another person have they taken?
They are creating Knock-offs( like has and is done for just about every product in the market, for most of human history) .
Sometimes their imitations sell better.

The whole , you are stealing if you violate copyright, is about half wrong headed as well.
Violating copyright is stealing under the second not the first question. It would cease to be stealing if the laws were changed.
It is certainly stealing , to violate the social contract and betray people trust, by not giving them money they are owed under the law.
However, that is bounded by changes in the law. How can you be stealing something from someone by not giving them money they have no legal
and therefore no reasonable, right to expect you to give to them?

The idea of 'intellectual property' is an artificial construct, created because information can have monetary value, but because it is artificial , it is like a virtual object.
it only exists in so much as the 'legal' code causes it too.

if i copy work that was written by Beethoven and change it by adding elect guitars and record it with digital drums.
Have I stolen something from him?

You can't steel what isn't there to steel.

that could be easily fixed by requiring that shareholders actually take an interest in the companies they fund making a law requiring that a purchased stock may not be resold for at least 5 years, should just about do it.

Patents holders should be required to show yearly the amount of dollars invested in developing technology tied to the patent.
If that level drops to zero for 3 year, the patent expires. If the company can be shown to be not actively using ( aka for making money) a patient then it can also be revoked by a court.

Same with copyright, if the holder is not keeping the work published and available for purchase at no more then 200% of the normal market value for similar products , then copyright should expire.

Both are about making money , and if money isn't being made they should be let go.

Also, the parent's complain would be benefited if there was something like a 'interface' copyright. that could be filed for.

So far that i know.
Rabbits were accidentally introduced into Australia by farmers ( having no predators) they thumped like rabbits.
cats were introduced to to control the rabbits , but like native birds better.
dogs were introduced to try and control the cats ( dingo's prefer kangaroo though).
not sure how the invasive toad species that are all over got there.
i think people still go out with bats and gulf clubs to kill rabbits ( they should export the meat , but i believe right now burn it)

Why would an elephant eat the tough grass first , why not the sweet tender native stuff and leave the tough grass alone until all the tender sweet stuff is gone?

well, there were a lot of comments about , and talk about, getting the private sector involved.
My point was , either this is a government doing this, with tax payer support, because the public believes it is valuable as science, or it isn't going to happen. All the talk about incentive, and space colonization/ tourism is pretty much just day dreaming , because the cost / benefit will not likely EVER be there.

As an efficient use of tax payer money I think building a living working sea colony might be a good first step in pushing our technology the direction it would have to go to make colonization of stellar bodies possible.

i was once told ( never did verify it) that as many as 40% of the people in the world do not have sufficient IQ to understand the advanced Calculus like deferential equations. If that is the case then what percentage of the population can understand Quantum Mechanics.
Or worse yet, is it possible that fully understanding Quantum Mechanics is beyond the IQ of even the most intelligent human being?
If so , how would we know?

i was once told ( never did verify it) that as many as 40% of the people in the world do not have sufficient IQ to understand the advanced Calculus like deferential equations. If that is the case then what percentage of the population can understand Quantum Mechanics.
Or worse yet, is it possible that fully understanding Quantum Mechanics is beyond the IQ of even the most intelligent human being?
If so , how would we know?

Should Android be more efficient, and every app it runs. OF COARSE. There is not such thing as efficient enough, but Google has to decide if it is worth
their money right now.

Should the network provide stop wining because their network is running up against the physics of
allowing too users on it and just fix the problem. Probably.

Sorry, but don't take on more subscribers then you can service. And if their are devices that you don't like their affect feel free to ban them.
If that doesn't make you money , that's called business. It's balance. Either provide what people want , or go out of business.

I think of many good pure science reasons to establish colonies on the moon and beyond.
But can you make a case for profitability, beyond , perhaps driving innovation.
Tourism is unlikely to cut it , unless the cost can be brought WAY down and the same for any kind of materials, manufacturing or mining. The further away from the mood you go the worse that cost of transport becomes.

Why not drive innovation by colonizing the sea or the antarctica, both of which seem more useful and within our reach at this point.

This old joke i first heart from the Dean of Chemistry at a Midwestern university.

meaning of degrees:

B.S. == Bull Sh@!T
M.S. == More Sh@!T
PHD == Piled Higher & Deeper.

I've got to ask , why just apple?
something like 1/4 of the U.S. economy is run products that come from Chinese slave labor and or Asian "slave labor'.
Countries where workers aren't allowed to complain or they can be jailed or killed.

We SHOULD pass a law that says any product imported into this country must have been made under similar OSHA and EPA and FDA , standards as things made here. Including labor laws honoring a 40 hour work week and some kind of adjusted minimum wage.

We won't though. We like , our cheap stuff from , wall-mart, k-mart, and best buy ... WAAYY too much for that. Not to mention the fact is would probably tank our economy for a generation.

I think the problem that most people are having is this.
There are existing laws, and therefore existing expectations that customers have , about what it means to 'buy' something.
You cant just go and change that agreement without making it clear to people what you are doing. Otherwise they have a right to be upset.

It is as simple as this:
If I knowingly create a situation , in which you are deceived into thinking you are buying something you are not, they I have lied to you and undermined our , previous, relationship. That is wrong.

I have to question if this use is even legal, ( I'm sure their are corporate lawyers all over this , but there is some grey area here).
The reality is the contracts cannot contravene consumer law.

For instance, it makes no difference what kind of contract you agree too. If you employer pays you less then minimum wage , even if you agreed to it in writing. You can turn around and sue you employer for the rest of your wages.

So, i understand why people are upset.

As far as , making money goes. If the game companies need more money for what they sell, they should
a) charge it.
b) make it easy to know and explicit what they expected to be paid and when.

Anything else is just fraud and there is no reason the consumer should tolerate it.

I don't know anybody who leases a car, I guess somebody must somewhere because I keep hearing about it.
But leasing something is NOT owning it. And that is the difference. If I lease it from you, when it breaks down , YOU take it back and fix it , I just lease a different one. Hardware manufactures do leases as well, but that is not the model the XBox or software is using. If software is leased, rather then sold, then you have to actually sign a rental agreement for it.

Schools are already requiring people to take 'diversity classes' to teach them not to think 'hateful thought' or have 'hateful speech' towards people.