Apple is a public company. There are significant penalties for misrepresenting their financial situation.

Press release != financial statement. Many (read most) companies tend to overblow their own accomplishments in press releases while being more (not fully) conservative in their financial statements.

And If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit!

You're saying money changing hands impacts how often the accidents happen?

The short answer is yes. It is an economy of scale. Money changing hands means more passengers to be profitable. More passengers means more chances for accidents involving payouts. More payouts means more risk thus higher premiums.

Now to put it in the proper context:

The key word in this isn't insurance. It is commercial. Any time you have dealings with the general public there is an increased risk they will sue (some for just about any reason just to take the insurance for a ride).

You know... Google is your friend...

https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

It isn't so much that they got an obligation but they did get tax breaks as an incentive with no repercussions for going back on the deal.

A tax break==owed taxes not paid==taxpayers took up that slack. So yes, it was taxpayer funded in that sense.

On the other hands, those 'millions of Americans who are starving' they starve simply because they are too fucking lazy to work

Or they have a felony conviction for pot on their record and every job application asks if they have ever been convicted of a felony. The background check companies are allowed to do will reveal those that lied.

Let's face it, the system of denial because of legal issues is huge in the US which also happens to have the largest prison population in the world. Convicted felons, whether they served their time honorably or not, are denied a job, a home, the right to participate in our political system and in general to be considered "rehabilitated". In short, they are stigmatized from the first arrest for the rest of their lives.

At the risk of getting modded to oblivion, I consider Apple Pay the same as I consider Google Wallet. It is like broadband availability in that it will be predominately a big city thing. In rural areas like where I live I don't see it working. Hell, I saw my first Apple Pay commercial this holiday season and even the bigger stores such as Walmart in my area doesn't have the receivers for this. It simply requires too much involvement from too many entities to be feasible everywhere. First, the buyer has to have confidence in the tech and more importantly the security of that tech. We aren't there yet. Second, it requires the merchant to install the receivers which are costly and again, the trust that it will be secure has to be there. Lastly, it requires the cooperation of the bank to honor payment requests from the receivers.

Again, this may work in larger cities but in the vast majority of rural America I don't see it.

And you are in for a big surprise when you as citizens will need to pay that national debt...

Nah.. We will do like any other corporation out there and declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, change our name and move on.

I have always said fining a corporation does no good since it simply becomes a "cost of doing business" usually with their customers footing the fine.

Want to really punish a corporation? Revoke or suspend their corporate charter. Remove the protections they, and more importantly, their shareholder's enjoy. Let them feel the pain when a company does something illegal. They want to be thought of as a person, then let's treat them as a person and remove the entitlements they receive by being corporations.

Where you gettin all that free money, Tex? Obamacare fraud?

No... He works for Bank of America...

which brings this back on topic...

Here you have someone whose offense had zero effect on the economy yet those who brought the world to its knees got billions and never even saw the insde of a court room much less a jail.

but 17 USC 512(i)(1)(A) applies the safe harbor only to service providers with "a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the service provider's system or network who are repeat infringers".

I was going to say the same thing but the point remains that Rightscorp would have to overcome the wide open ""in appropriate circumstances" clause in the DMCA as well as be able to prove that a particular IP in a dynamic IP block constitutes a "repeat offender". Good luck with that...

Each student had old fashioned paper records recording all that stuff: behavioral problems, class results, rewards, etc.

Is it really that different now because it's on a computer?

Yes it is because the paper copy isn't shared with God+his dog unlike this application does. Also, the paper copy is destroyed once the student passes that year unlike this application which stores it forever.

So to answer you directly, some things are better off only in paper if even there.

It isn't just secrets but any PII. Medical or financial for example. I work in state government and can tell you they have locked down many of these type of sites and track every keystroke and mouse click to include what sites you tried to get to even if it was blocked. It may be that they were fired at the meeting for a previous transgression (not necessarily transgressing at the meeting).

I've got a better solution for both of you...

Put an automated message that says the following...

"If you are calling about a recent scam involving our number, please call Level 3 at..." and give the phone number to Level 3's complaint office. If they don't have a complaint office then simply give the main number. Better yet if you can, forward the call to them via a menu system. Let them deal with the fallout. Maybe they will take the hint.

Obama destroyed healtcare in this country because he was just doing what the Republicans ordered him to do.

Frothing at the mouth aside, I will call you out on this one. Just how is healthcare in this country destroyed by the act? Please be specific.

Forcing me to buy something does not count as "getting it for me".

I would agree with you if and only if the hospital could refuse to treat you when you show up at the emergency room until you pay up front. Because, you see, when you show up and they have to treat you regardless of your ability to pay it raises the cost for all the rest of us who do have insurance.