That is the point. Paraphrasing another article about P2P, people are playing a cat and mouse game and the mouse may keep evading the cat almost indefinitely, via encryption and other tools. It is a waste of time and resources, I agree, gaming the network admins should not be a student's concern. What I was trying to say is that their snooping may be borderline illegal, but on the other hand, fighting the system has its costs, too. My sympathy goes for your situation in Croatia, but I'm pessimistic about the U.S. and overall.

As the GP suggests, keeping the sensitive material in an encrypted VM which accesses the net via VPN should be enough, unless the so called "Client Security Engine" includes keylogging or screen capturing functionalities, begging the question: how far can they spy on their students? Shouldn't they have privacy to do their online banking, exchange private e-mail, access medical records, or many other *perfectly legal* activities?

Point taken, perhaps "artificial" wasn't the best way to put it. But again, with few exceptions, the high-end technology of today becomes the mainstream of tomorrow.

For what it is worth, looks like artificial market segmentation = bad for upgraders. AMD is guilty of that, too.

From a technological point of view, it is not rocket science: some components have to be better protected against corrosion, the engine has to withstand higher compression rates, and the ignition has to be remapped. (Disclaimer: I am not a mechanical engineer.)

Adapting current U.S. cars may or may not be viable, but all major automakers do have access to the technology and could start selling flex-fuel cars in the U.S.

There are many open questions about ethanol: sugarcane vs. corn vs. whatever as a source, ethanol vs. biodiesel vs. electricity vs. hydrogen, etc. Technology is not one of them, and that's why TFA is a poor attempt at trolling.

In Brazil, ethanol fueled cars reached parity with gasoline-fueled ones still in the 1980's. Brazilian gasoline has about 24% ethanol, and properly designed engines work flawlessly. Nowadays, most cars are flex-fuel, i.e., can take ethanol, gasoline or anything mix of both.

The kind of fear-mongering from TFA = not invented here syndrome + troll.

is way cooler.

Isn't that wishful thinking? A scenario where most if not all ISPs become copyright enforcers (maybe under new laws), and just a handful of scapegoats (paying costumers) are sacrificed once in a while - just enough to keep the masses fearful - seems as possible.

... for sufficiently large values of n.

A single genial paper may have more value than several (even infinitely many) mediocre ones. However, the majority will define the rules - funding, "peer" review, etc - so individual genius is eventually suppressed anyway.