But shouldn't the public know that their data was vulnerable? How does the alleged attacker know that if he sent sent the info to AT&T that they wouldn't have sat on it and then had him prosecuted in a more quiet sort of way so this info doesn't go public? Shouldn't AT&T and/or Apple be the ones being prosecuted and/or sued for leaving this information vulnerable?

Common sense. Not as far under water means its easier to get to and there is not as much pressure.

...Or you are driving a sports car on 694 East, with cruise control set at 63 mph (in a 55) and a green Dodge Caravan flies by you, and then the cop looks up, sees the two vehicles, and just figures its the sports car speeding, and I get a ticket for 84 in a 55, because I drive a faster car than the green, rusted out van.

"Before BP killed the Gulf with the consequences of offshore oil/gas drilling." The Federal gov't is who forced them to go that deep, if they were allowed to drill in shallower water, they wouldn't have had a problem stopping this leak.

When private citizens are telling other private citizens what to do, you shouldn't have a problem with that, because they can't force or coerce you into anything without your consent, the government on the other hand, is a completely different story, since they are able to confiscate your property or throw you in jail if they decide to, "nudge" you in the direction they see fit by taxing.

Hopefully our politicians are as forward thinking as you. One of the reasons we need to do this is so that we can save our fossil fuels for when they are absolutely necessary. I don't think we will ever be able to run a tank or a fighter jet off of electricity alone.

Agreed, the govt is supposed to be a referee in the market place and the businesses are the players. Once a referee starts playing sides, it turns to shit.

Most of the problem I see is that we are for some reason afraid of a recession. Recessions are necessary, it makes businesses check their gluttonousness (did I just make that up?) and businesses that are misusing their resources (money and people) they go under, so then other businesses can better use those resources.

I have always looked at political ideologies as circular, with anarchy on top and fascism on the bottom, and conservatives and modern liberals as respectively on the left and right. Both sides have their own separate fascist qualities, like the old saying "Liberals want to legislate the boardroom, conservatives want to legislate the bedroom"

Agreed, how can we trust these people to take care of things that are this serious when they cant even get a ban on lead done right:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032301764.html

They try to put a law in place to protect children from lead, and end up banning minibikes and used book sales, whose lead content is equal to about a glass of water.

They mess up a simple lead ban with shitty wording, and we expect them to deal with such things as our privacy laws and national security. We need to get rid of every single sitting senator and house rep next time around, no matter party affiliation, get rid of them all.

Nothing, anything can be deemed "critical" (kind of like "too big to fail") because there are no stipulations on the term critical.

Such as "We must shut down access to porn sites because it is critical to the morals of our society."

Not specifically saying he would do that (although future administrations might with this power) its just the first thing that came to mind.

(Yes, I said it, porn was the first thing to come to mind)

That would be great if the MPAA/RIAA would agree to something like that, since TPB doesnt sell songs or movies.

I must be infected. My XP machine is telling me I may be a victim of software counterfeiting.

This is me, winning, hard.

Nope, no mistake. Know of any software/music/movie makers successfully stop piracy of all their products? Its impossible. You can create laws, regulations, sue people, send government agencies in with their badges and guns, and you will be able to stop and punish a single individual or group, but the data will continue to be dispersed to those who seek it, and you will never be able to catch and jail them all.

Just think of it this way, if you can figure out a way to stop the cycle from starting for a given media, you have the potential to make a lot of money.