We have to be this generous to attract talent, it's not like people move here for the weather or civil liberties :)

I agree with "needs to be able to protect their customers and their business" and disagree with "did something to my goddamn phone without my express permission".

How about a compromise? A notification that says "WARNING - This App is malicious, we recommend you remove it. [Uninstall App] [Cancel]"

Protecting their users without having the ability to remotely alter my phone without my permission. win-win.

The HTC Hero has a bookmark widget that uses screenshots of the websites as the buttons with a small label underneath(which is the websites title text I think). Since these images are called bookmark_thumb, I'm going to propose it has something to do with that...

As a programmer, I speak for all of myself and no-one else. but let me say this: fuck unions. fuck them. Seriously. If a company starts treating me like shit, I find a new job and they lose my skills. what's difficult about that? Even if I can't line up a new job instantly, I'll survive. I'll do freelance work(heh, I'm not ukranian) or become a taxi driver or something if I run out of savings while jobhunting.

I don't need or want a union to look after me(for a fee that might as well be another tax). I'll do it myself, thank you very much.

As I said, speaking only for myself here...

They have this sort of thing in Taiwan, I was working for a company in South Africa that bought the license to sell it. Here it is: Ip-Guard Basically, the software is scarily powerful in what it records and can do.

In south african law it's legal only if the employee is aware of it, so if it's in the employment contract. I think.

The company I was working for charged too much, didn't make enough sales, went tits-up. Classic case of greed before the fall.

Granted, if you follow a blogger and don't follow a newspaper, then the newspaper's website would gain nothing if the blogger hadn't existed. but is that 100% of the way people find news articles? Let's say I live in dallas, and I google "bloke who got shot on main street" and click the reposted article in the blog and not on the newspapers website, then what? Personally, I think this approach to finding news is more likely from the technologically impaired. So if a blogger ends up higher in a search results page than a newspaper website? In this situation? yes, the copyright infringement is damaging the revenue stream of the newspapers website.

I agree with what you are saying to an extent, but you say it isn't a black and white world, and you're very much correct in that. I think there should be some protection for content creators in respect of the effort put into creating content. I do not think the USA or the UK or Canada or anyone really has an acceptable solution, and I don't think the content creators can carry on as if the world hasn't changed. Not black and white indeed. the content consumers have changed, the content creators need to change, and so do the laws, but I believe content creators do deserve protection.

The fact that they have a revenue stream from the adverts is the evidence you need that people would otherwise have read the original work.

If you're in south africa, student cards can get 50% off driving offences or even being let off with just a verbal warning if the officer is in a good mood. always good to have in your wallet. Not sure about other countries though.

Maybe they should spend time with their children and instill in them the values and morals they want their children to have, rather than campaigning for something to be illegal. because, if they spend all their time making something illegal instead of teaching their children that it's wrong, their children will do the newly illegal thing and end up in jail.

Also, the problem with asking the govt for help is that the govt will not only help them, but all of us, and I don't goddamn want the govt to help me. Especially because someone else is whining that they can't cope with the responsibility of raising a child.

Yes, they are bad parents.

As for surveillance, It's totally unnecessary. if you don't trust your child to behave appropriately(yes, and even make mistakes and learn from them) you didn't raise him very well and no amount of surveillance will fix that.

If by 30% off, you mean 100% more, then yes, you can.

if that's what the money ended up being used for, I'd be quite happy to pay for it. Better than many other things they do with tax money.

Because they disagree with you? No, that's perfectly democratic. you write back and say "My vote takes the opposite view from you" and then vote for some other party. If no party does what you want, you can start your own. If enough people agree with you, you will get what you want. the only thing undemocratic about the UK is the voting system, which is, frankly, toilet.

I disagree, because it puts people between getting paid money to feed their children and walking out and getting nothing. Since corporations are "owned" in the sense that they have shareholders, I think that any corporation that commits a crime just gets partiallt or totally claimed by the state. For small infractions, say, take 20% ownership(equally from shareholders), which is a fine of millions/billions depending on the size of the company. For more serious things, the govt should just take complete ownership of the company. Also make it so that the govt has to then auction off the company, and the previous owners cannot buy any shares in that company ever again. This has three major benefits, firstly, the employees just trying to feed their families don't get shafted. secondly, it punishes those ultimately responsible. Thirdly, people know they can lose everything if they invest in dodgy companies.

Why shareholders aren't punished for the actions of a corporation is completely beyond me. They decide who the CEO/CTO is, the majority shareholders decide what the corp does. why not hold them all responsible? and even give them jail time, etc etc for more serious things.

Install dictators in foreign nations with lots of oil, then replace them when they get uppity?

I thought something similar.. "and they want to JOIN that list?"