Copyright is a gift by government which may become too troublesome to be worth the expense. Copyright expires
(despite Disney and their puppet Sonny Bono who lived far too long considering the damage he did) after all, and could expire much sooner than later. It's an annoyance.

If artists want money they can emulate the Grateful Dead who generated a fanatically loyal following (that long outlived the band) by encouraging taping, even off their sound boards at concerts.

If the price hurts, just cancel the account. It's a want not a need.

I have no such accounts because I've better uses for money than entertainment subs.

What other numbers make that 48 impressive or otherwise?

Craving intimacy is an evolved emotional weakness brought about by a species naturally selected drive to reproduce. Consider that carefully before responding including every answer driven by emotion (which when un-mastered is a self-control flaw). Species can have no other reason to exist but perpetuating the group. The individual exists for that and cannot exist for anything else or different for evolution is not a choice.

Craving intimacy results in a wide variety of psychological problems many of which result in toxic, often violent conduct including sexual assault (and often, homicide to conceal same).

Not everyone will get conventional intimacy and so pretending is a lie. Not everyone has the option to become desirable. Efforts to do so include damaging surgery for "looksmaxing".

That demonstrates the desire for intimacy is now a bug not a feature, as the grotesquely large global population also demonstrates by driving high poverty rates. Quality of life does not scale but the opposite.

Alternate options which produce the same result are useful and to the degree they succeed, effective.
They are harmless to others and pleasing to those so satisfied and sated. Sentimental objections should be seen for what they are, silly.

BTW I was (I'm now ancient and out of that game) conventionally attractive to both sexes and had a long, loving marriage until death did us part so none of this comment is motivated by butthurt at exclusion for I was not excluded.

Most of "humanity" is a collection of traits which do not benefit the individual and are often toxic (including drive to deny they're toxic). Redirecting drive for intimacy in those who would be silly to pretend it's an option is a kindness. I don't need it but my personal needs are irrelevant. I do not pretend others are me for projection is lazy thinking.

Society would be better served by contented, happy humans when that state can be easily afforded. Harmless technology could replace toxic, socially destructive gratification techniques like prostitution. Cravings exist and will continue to exist as they're not a matter of choice. Sating them in modern, less socially toxic ways WHICH DO NOT INVOLVE COMPETITION is the logical choice. Competition has many beneficial uses, but winners outnumber losers so best if the second can opt out. It really is that simple however intensely naive idealists object.

"Just let me live the life I want to live, by fucking up others' lives way more than the other party may have mildly inconvenienced me for sound policy. Wait, why is this affecting me now?"

It's a tale as old as time.

and they ignore our laws in favour of their own

Well, we can at least tell you learned zero Canadian history.

I live in Ontario, Canada. You're an idiot, and don't speak for me. There are idiots everywhere on the planet. You're one. See you at the polls.

~22% (I'll round it to 25%) of Canadians speak French as a first language, and using rough numbers that would be ~10 million Canadians, which equates to 1/8th of 1% of the world population. If forcing kids to learn a language that ~0% of the world uses seems rational, you've lost the point of education.

I'm unlikely to read anything dumber than this today. French is a single class, its easy. You remind me of when I was in grade 7 and two morons in my class took up the cause to protest that we had to learn the subway stations even tho, in their words, 'they would never use it'. So that's fun, you make the same fundamentally stupid mistake that some grade 7 kids were making about the value of learning things - the point isn't to teach things that you need, the point is to teach you thinks so that you learn how to learn. That French *can* help you if you're not some kind of moron allergic/scared of the greater world is part of the point.

3 Inches of Blood

ROFL. Youre whining about CanCon then complaining about a Canadian band that isn't being played on the radio? The stupidity astounds me. I dunno what small town you're from, but it's doing you no favours.

the fucking country speaks English

I hear French all the time on the streets of Toronto, parents at school, in public transit. I am from Toronto. Despite being from an Anglophone family with two parents who don't speak a lick French, all of my school was in French until I was in grade 6, and then half of it was in French until I was in grade 9. I understand French fluently (although I don't really need to speak it) and I know many other Anglophones who are fluent in it here in Toronto.

You're a moron. Don't talk about things you don't know shit about.

Netflix doesn't "broadcast" anything. Users pull it, if they so desire.

Netflix makes content available, and they choose what is available, based on the geographic location of the person watching it. Doesn't sound much like a pull model to me. The ask of Cancon is simply to regulate that there's a particular balance of Canadian produced content. Suggesting Cancon is about regulating the balance of consumption belies the fundamental stupidity at the base of your argument.

And oh, when's the last time you saw the majority of US media (incl Hollywood, to look at the bastion of American cultural power) saying /nice/ things about the US?

Literally any time it would improve their bottom line? What are you, an idiot? Your entire post sure makes it sound that way.

Wanting total internet connectivity is a sign of utter ignorance, and that ignorance is a choice.

Make ignorance shameful again.

Ban them for safety reasons.

Nicotine addicts have plenty of delivery options including lozenges.
Selling products intended for volatile substance abuse is illegal in the UK. Products inherently designed in a way that their normal real world disposal is dangerous make sense to regulate.

Not everything everyone wants to do makes sense for society to permit, including producing flammable products whose nature makes them into incendiaries when broken.

I inert all my expended lithium cells by destruction either in my welding shop or outdoors on my land, then dispose of the metallic slag safely with other mixed scrap metals. Small cells make impressive incendiaries so I'm not surprised cell disruption during recycling of objects containing them causes fires.

I use welding PPE so it's no risk to me and have ample water to flood cool spatter (which I do anyway after welding outdoors). I suggest other Slashdotters (the original techy sort who know how to safely break lithium cells which is quite simple) self-educate so they have direct experience of how powerful small cells really are.

If you're rocking tech money there are many good places to spend it. The metro area has some beautiful wealthy neighborhoods, especially in northern New Jersey, which have fine old housing stock with large plots and good schools. Many good boarding schools are in easy range of the metro area.

The news focuses on the usual urban hellholes but many metro areas were never heavily industrialized and remain surprisingly refined. Passenger rail is well developed and built the burbs long before automobiles were more than a curiosity.

Tech money can also buy into Pennsylvania which is in easy reach by rail. If you're a tech worker expecting to make bank I suggest not living IN NYC but in rail commuting range instead.
I quite enjoyed relaxing on the train vs. driving.

Many people want the US disarmed. Many others do not. Even wanting that data center there in the first place is bizarre.