At least you could wipe the thing and get a thumb drive out of it.

If there's one or two nukes in DC, we're not in a "US defending itself against a serious attack" scenario, we're in an "end of human civilization as we know it" scenario. There's plenty of folks elsewhere in the country who will be around to push the button.

Eh. The opinionated troll ratings are no less prevalent than the "you say what I agree with, and therefore it's insightful," moderation.

I still prefer the troll rating to the overrated rating - that's just someone who want's to downmod and doesn't have the balls to call the post troll or flamebait.

Say what you will about vinyl, but there is a huge difference in the experience of reading on a computer screen that sits a foot in front of you and a paper you can hold in your lap while kicking back on the couch.

I hold my computer on my lap as a kick back on the couch - they call them laptops.

Another interesting example (and one I hadn't thought of). Of course, like you mention, it's the FCC. Also, radio and TV broadcasting is a government licensed monopoly on access to a resource held in common ownership by the state (broadcast spectrum), though I imagine it pertains to cable as well.

Still don't know if it's parallel to the blogging situation; probably the closest thing I can think of is false advertising controls.

It's true, too - lovely, vivid colors. My Kodachrome slides still look as vivid now as they did when they were first taken.

Typically, yes, and in a case like this, you're a fool to not ask for it.

But the MP4 codec is produced by a company that 1) holds a significant number of patents itself (which both reduces the issues with infringement, and the likelihood of lawsuits, since in that limited domain, a lawsuit war can be dangerous for everyone), and 2) would indemnify the licensing parties against infringement suits.

The license matters a whole lot less than the potential patent encumbrance for the codec.

The developers of Theora state that the codec is not encumbered by patents, but to my knowledge, there's been no legal tests of that and no intensive review of the possible areas of infringement by a patent attorney. That's a serious issue for the uptake of the codec by vendors, since they're potentially on the hook if it later turns out that the codec infringes on people patents and the holders want to be dicks about it.

This is not obvious. It's the case (as another poster notes) for financial commentary because it has implications in the securities markets.

I don't know if it's the case or not for other topics/genres of media that they're subject to the kinds of regulation that are supposedly being proposed here.