I'm not sure what the problem is?

Just play the game in steam offline mode then... i can play all of my steam games in offline mode...

It seems to me the easiest way to deal with this is for the shipping companies to hire independent patrol ships, it wouldn't cost very much to be escorted through dangerous waters by an armed patrol boat that forms a safe perimeter around the ship...

this also has the added bonus of solving the problem of oil tankers not being able to have weapons fired on board due to the volatility of their cargo and it solves the problem of certain ports not allowing armed ships, the patrol boat simply anchors off shore in international waters and waits for the cargo ship to re-embark.

Whats a "myspace"?

I think of gold as more of an "emergency currency" rather than a money making investment...

Historically (most recently Zimbabwe) when a country has a total currency collapse, gold and silver are quickly adopted by the grass roots as an alternative currency because of the inbuilt trust in its value... people are positive that its a relatively scarce commodity, and therefore of some value.

So surviving a crash becomes about having enough food to get you through the first 2-3 months of wrecked commerce, and then having the currency that is currently being used to buy your necessities after that.

It seems like all some shady person would have to do is target all the officials responsible for horrible legislation like this and make sure there computers are compromised and download tons of illegal files...

Indeed, there is a story of a toy developer that had a Chinese company design a motorized toy that had some simple microcontroller logic on it. The toy was designed for young children and would basically move around in a preset pattern and respond to some simple stimulus.
The company chopped apart the design so much they ended up running the motor straight from the stamp with no flyback diode...

needless to say, when little kiddies on Christmas morning started rolling the toy with a little force, the back emf fried the stamps...

ouch

the lesson here is, if you pay to have that work done, at least hire a known contractor to check the circuit for design defects.

So Saddam Hussein has his own distro of Linux?

TowelHat maybe?

hrmm... ironic,

i just downloaded a linux distro and a bach symphony that are in the public domain... FROM PIRATE BAY!

Right back at ya champ...