Not that I disagree with the fact that copywrite and software patent law is being abused, but the examples you gave don't do much to prove that point.

Hellfire was an expansion that was licensed by Blizzard to a third party to produce. It wasn't a 'hack' or an unauthorized modification at all.

Same goes for Counter Strike... it was made within the authorized modification framework for Half Life. A similar comparison would be Aeon of Strife for the original Star Craft, or DoTA for Warcraft III. Both were modifications made through the avenues provided by the developer.

These same modification avenues are still available for Starcraft II. It ships with a map editor, and there is even distribution for custom maps built into Battle.net.

I don't know that I agree with what Blizzard is doing, but they are certainly not trying to do what you seem to be accusing them of.

If you're actually interested:

"300dpi" is something of an oversimplification. Images are sent down at 300dpi. The printing plates are usually imaged by laser at 2400dpi, but each halftone cell takes up more then one "dot". Print resolution is measured in "lines per inch", and ranges from ~85 lpi for newsprint to over 200 lpi for higher end printing. I'd guess that playboy prints much closer to the 200lpi end of the spectrum.

A "1200" dpi inkjet (usually more like 1440dpi) will be able to print 1440 dots per inch, but multiple dots are needed to make each halftone cell. In effect, even the best consumer level inkjets are half the resolution of an offset press.

As for laser printers, if you look at the industrial level digital presses (many of which are really glorified laser printers), they produce print that is much closer to the level of an offset press, but then again they can cost well into the six figures, so I guess you get what you pay for.

This.

I work for a fairly large design/print company, and all design files and resources are kept on a SAN. With gigabit ethernet, access time, even for large files is hardly noticeable. It also makes backing much, much easier.

I'm actually kind of shocked that you don't have a file server already... I don't think I've dealt with a printer or design shop in the last five years that didn't have some kind of centralized storage.

I don't know about video, but there are plenty of version control systems for graphic design and publishing. Adobe, Quark, and a few other large vendors all have their own systems that will let you "check out" documents, pages in documents, or sections of a page.

If you're already a print subscriber, you get the Times Reader ($14.95 a month) free, as part of your subscription. I'm not sure if that carries over to their Kindle edition, or if it would carry over to the iPad edition.

Federal aid per $1.00 of tax collected (2005)

New York State - $0.79
Texas - $0.94
Pennsylvania - $1.07
Minnesota - $0.72

You're trying to stick to plastic?

They do, in fact, use umbilical cords, and cord blood to harvest stem cells, for what it's worth.

The NSA can not only file for patents, they can do so secretly.

From wikipedia:

The NSA has the ability to file for a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under gag order. Unlike normal patents, these are not revealed to the public and do not expire. However, if the Patent Office receives an application for an identical patent from a third party, they will reveal the NSA's patent and officially grant it to the NSA for the full term on that date.