Internet Protocol (IP) starts at layer 3. Ethernet is layer 2. Internet Protocol is about connecting local networks together into a big network, and it is independent of how that local network manages the local point-to-point transport. I can have a site running only ATM, and connect it to the Internet with no problem at all. I don't feel this is being picky, since it's exactly the reason that IP has been so successful.

802.11 (the original subject) is just one of the ways that you might choose to run a local network, and its success doesn't come particularly from any close links to IP, so far as I'm aware. I think its successful because it's good at local wireless data transport, but it's not necessary to run the Internet.

But individual lawyers and legal secretaries could make this database their full-time job, in which case it wouldn't be a conflict for them any more. There is already an industry publishing books that list references from the law to cases where it was applied. This would be a natural extension, wouldn't it?

So level 1 should be some branded driving school training track, then Winslow, Arizona, progressing through New York, and working up to Cairo? There's something there, and lots of product placement and local tourism authority opportunities for alternate revenue streams. The overhead is just one web cam location with internet connection per level. Maybe "Frogger Route 66?"

Is 5th Ave. harder at 9am or 2am?

My first thought was "Brilliant!" but something like the Massa incident in Hungary 2009 might end up looking a little too much like life imitating art.

It's an unwillingness to work together. Most European countries prefer to negotiate trade agreements individually whenever possible. Look at the power the EU should have when negotiating with Russia for natural gas, and compare it to how Russia has split the EU up into individual arrangements. If the EU made some general economic move against the U.S.A., then the individual members would see it as an opportunity to make special exceptions in exchange for some sort of return that prefers them over other EU members.

Thanks for the clarification. If something like this were to be enacted, I guess it would be fantastic news for the electronics shops near the border in Spain.

Isn't 64 x €0.02 closer to €1.28? Even at the originally quoted €0.2 that sounds very high.

Talk radio is exactly what I was wondering about. Radio is certainly an "electronic or digital device," and people from Howard Stern to Rush Limbaugh are in the business of using that it to offend and annoy people. It's the main goal of their shows. Does the new law apply, or does the "constitutionally protected activity" clause save them?

My memory is that you could buy Windows for $60, or OS/2 for $500 or thereabouts. Always thought that might have had something to do with it.

The lost sales weren't due to copyright violations, they were due to a baseless legal action (actually, a threat of a baseless legal action) to enforce a non-existent copyright. It's easy for a person to think copyright is over-zealously enforced in general, and also be happy that people fail spectacularly when they try to use that zealous enforcement on copyrights they don't even have claim to.