Maybe artists should start treating their recordings as promotional material and not as a revenue source? I have seen several studies suggesting that even though recording sales are down, artists are coming out ahead as they get a considerably larger share of the profits from live performances. From a personal perspective, I have been to concerts for dozens of bands over the last few years that I would not have even heard of had I not come across their music online and downloaded their collection.

Also if you think strong DRM would solve the 'problem', ask yourself why the majority of e-book retailers are dropping DRM left right and center.

2000 years in the future a Centauri remote probe skims over the cracked and baked desolation of what was once believed to be the home planet of an advanced humanoid species. A dark cavern proves to be the entrance to what might once have been an underground data storage site. A ruined sign hangs on the wall; 'GOOGLE' it says in alien pictograms. Scanning the rubble the probe locates a partial fragment of a data storage device.

Years later the signal reaches Proxima Centauri, and a group of the Emperor's best scientists begin to decode the fragment.

[PARTIAL DATA FRAGMENT RECEIVED FROM 61-F32 PLANET III] Apart from the third law, very likely given the rather low number of people on the moon. Unless it somehow figures out how to build weapons to attack...........[FRAGMENT CORRUPTED]

The scientists look around at each other, panic in their eyes: They too had not taken appropriate safeguards...

(A scattering of lights move across the heavens of Proxima IV. Only the emperor and his [incarcerated] scientists know that this is the end of their race.)

As a physicist I am familiar with fractional dimensions in dimensional regularization (a process whereby infinities in Feynman diagrams are tamed by reducing the number of space-time dimension by a small fraction), however I have never heard of applying such advanced theoretical concepts to an environmental model. Bravo!

I should also add that tax forms are full of jargon which has to be pierced before any newcomer to the system can even begin to start.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the 1040EZ; I've had 2 years experience now. The most difficult part in my case is not the federal but the NY state + NYC tax form which has a large amount of exemptions and deductions for varying circumstances, local school taxes, and a boat load of other things.

I'm surprised that my post got modded +5 funny, considering it was meant in earnest. I do believe that IP enforcement has become a massive burden upon society that is stifling innovation and causing the introduction of poorly-conceived laws that fail at their prime purpose while chipping away at our rights. I seriously doubt anyone but the big patent owners are actually in favour of the system as it currently stands, and even those are getting tied up in a pointless and costly patent cold war.

Considering the 306S model has been around for a few years already, I expect most people who want one will already own one, and if not I imagine most retailers have a huge stockpile of the things scattered across the US, not to mention the number of second-hand consoles available on E-bay or on the high street. Actually I hope it does get approved, as then it becomes more ammunition to fuel the case for patent reform to end the ever-more-ridiculous patent war.

Its about time someone admitted that.

Copyright is not a right, its a privilege granted by the people to foster innovation. The law is clearly failing and desperately needs to be fixed before innovators throw up their hands in despair and move to a country with a less ridiculous system.

I'm a Brit living in the US, and the only tax I pay is to the US government - federal, state and city! Also, the tax system in the UK is considerably easier to operate within as an employee, as your employer handles your deductions and the Inland Revenue calculate how much you owe/are owed. Apart from a few fringe cases, I have never known anyone who was owed money to / was owed money by the Inland Revenue at the end of the year, so I guess the employers know exactly how much to deduct.

Here in the US the situation is far more complicated even for someone in such a trivial tax situation as myself - no investment earnings, mortgage, other revenue sources, etc. I have to wade through hundreds of pages of explanatory documents to fill in boxes which the IRS then go and check independently anyway. What's worse is that most tax software doesn't work for Non-resident Aliens, so the people who most need help with the tax system are left to figure it out by themselves or pay an extortionate fee to an accountant.