"Without copyright, GPL could be implemented as a contractual agreement. It would loose some of its teeth, but it could still bite."

It would have no bite. I could take GPL software and do what I want with it. You could take the binaries and share them, but I would not be obligated to give you the source.

"Because those will be their strongest supporters."

This is because software pirates don't care about illegally copying software and will support anything that will give them less of a chance of getting caught.

This is why I can't take the movement seriously.

"The Pirate movement is using the word "pirate" specifically in an attempt to reclaim the word, which is currently used as a propaganda term by the copyright lobby in an attempt to link downloading to stealing ships, and associate it with freedom, privacy and all that other good stuff. It's all a war of words."

If I posted your credit card info on a website, should the site get taken down? After all, it's just data and information. I should have the freedom to do what I want with it.

"But if the "crimes" don't involve money, or physical goods, or (physical) personal interaction, or something else trackable in the real world, then "safely hidden" is probably the same as "free speech", "

Right, so if it doesn't meet you definition of crime, it's a-ok in your book. Since nobody here seems to care about the rights of content owners, I wonder why there is an outcry when people violate the GPL?

"Isn't the desire for privacy really a desire for freedom from some form of oppression?"

You are confusing freedom with copyright infringement.

"Have you ever seen the anime One Piece? It's a fantasized story of pirates"

Pirates have almost always been criminals that steal, rape, and pillage. Your one example of anime where they just so happened to be good doesn't justify a name change.

"Why associate the creation of ISPs that protect your privacy with piracy? "

Because their intent is to allow people to pirate digital goods. Privacy is just the excuse.

"Wow, less than 4000 people, go look how many people die on the road every week, or from heart disease, or even farm animal attacks in the last few decades. Then decide where we should focus our efforts."

We can't control those deaths, unless we want to control the general population even more (IE: banning bad foods, alcohol, etc).

If the government put little effort in stopping terrorist attacks, the death toll would likely be considerably higher (because groups would know they could get away with it with little consequence). A good example of this is Somalia.

'Ignorance is claiming Obama isn't an American because he's never shows his birth certificate even though Hawaii has repeatedly indicated they do not give out copies of such. They only give Certificates of Live Birth, similar to what other states do."

You mean to tell me they can't make an exception for the president? It would really put all of the questioning to rest if he showed it. It just seems strange to me that he won't.

"Their next sentence could be about the dangers of muslim theocracies"

Are you honestly trying to tell me that muslim theocracies aren't a threat? Have you seen most countries in the middle east? I'm not saying that it's an immediate threat, but it is something to watch.

"pretending that evolution is a lie that shouldn't be taught as fact"

Evolution isn't a lie. However, there isn't really a way for anyone to prove or disprove the existence of a higher power creating humans.

"pretending that a woman's body is the property of the Federal Government."

I will be fine with a woman's body being her own if the left is fine with my money being my own (2011 will be a wake up call for many people who think that Obama isn't raising any taxes) . I also don't feel that abortion should be covered under any sort of public health care (my money, my choice).

"How many Fox News viewers think Saddam was responsible for 9/11? No, both parties manipulate the truth to their benefit but one party takes it to a whole new and exciting level."

Not many. How many people think that global warming is man-made, even though there is evidence to prove otherwise? How many people believe that bush started the war to make himself rich?

It's pretty obvious that the entire point of the "study" at UofM is to somehow prove that "misinformed" (or people on the right) people are believing lies more than the truth. This line of thinking is pretty typical of elitist leftists that feel they know what is better for the rest of society.

"There are 170,000 prisoners in California."

Ok, so the answer is to just let the criminals go? What a great answer to the deficit problem.

It looks like California's prisoners get medical and dental care. Why don't we cut the cost of those and some other benefits first?

"Leep jail for the really bad crooks - not the idiots that decided to smoke the wrong substance - those guys need education/rehabilitation, not jail."

One has to wonder the cost of "Educating" those prisoners as opposed to keeping them in Jail.

"Traditional musicians make money from performing concerts and giving lessons. Recordings are advertisement, not the main product."

Only very popular artists make money from shows. Most are getting paid $100 for a shitty bar gig. Selling music online at least gives them a chance at making a living at music.

"And there are many pathways to changing the system so that it doesn't screw everyone who isn't financially succesful, but they all involve paying attention to people's bank accounts to figure out who's doing the screwing."

So what's your answer? giving people with small bank accounts more money and creating an upper limit on success?

You act as if making money is evil and is somehow "screwing" the poor.

"President Obama has set the salary cap at 500,000 for any of the companies that the government bailed out (ie. 10x), and that seems like a reasonable starting point to me."

I don't support the government dictating the wages of any employee of a private company (aside from minimum wage). It shouldn't be a "start". It's the result of a private company borrowing money from the tax payers. I hope it's a special situation that is not repeated.

"You can only live in one house, cruise around in one boat and drive one car at a time. At a certain point, bigger and bigger salaries for top CEO's stop increasing the real quality of life of an executive and instead just becomes a way of keeping track of how much better than the next CEO they are - ie. the marginal utility of every extra dollar a CEO earns approaches zero, but it is in our nature to always want more, so the salaries grow way beyond the point at which further increases are meaningless."

I may just want a billion dollars just because. Neither I nor any CEO should have to justify where they are going to spend our money.

"The same amount of money however, makes a much bigger difference to employees at the bottom end of the pay scale, and would overall improve the standard of the average employee much more, and generally make for happier employees."

Maybe so, but that's up to a private company. Not you.

"I am just questioning the huge disparity between the top levels and the bottom levels, which are by and large maid at the expense of the guys on the bottom rung."

As an employee, you are only paid what someone is willing to pay you. The reason the maid is paid so little is because anyone can do that job. It takes little or no experience or education.

Top level employees have a lot of responsibility. They are also educated and many times risk more than the average employee. You can question the disparity, but it's really up to the company how they are going to spend their own money. If you don't like it, start your own company.

"I was hindered by 'traditional' education. Maths was the best example, they gave us a sheet with 100 sums of the same type. I solved the first 5 on paper, the next 5 in my head. And the rest I skipped. Of course performance was measured by the amount of sheets you had finished. "

If your boss gives you 10 things to do..and you only do 5 (because you think they are stupid/worthless), should you still expect him to be satisfied?

"I cheated myself trough a LOT of classes, never been caught."

This doesn't make you more intelligent than anyone.

If you take the SATS and score a 1300, and I get the answer key and get a perfect score, it doesn't mean I am any smarter than you. Any monkey can get the answers/cheat.