It has nothing to do with copyright principles or any clever agenda.

Copyleft cuts ASCAP style enforcers out of the money loop. Plain and simple, it hits them where it hurts: the business model. The letter is just FUD to scare up lobby money - though anything they could accomplish that would effectively halt copyleft licensing would be damaging to the US IT industry.

And nothing of value was lost.

How will they learn compilers? or Driver design?

"Gentlemen, I have met the code-monkeys and it is us."

They're not trying to stick a finger in the eye of Microsoft or promote open source, they just want a product that does what they want at the best price they can get.

That's exactly what makes it a finger to the eye. The fact that it's a nonpartisan, pure-tech decision. It's the kind of thing that salespeople for OSS-based solutions can take to the bank.

Assuming they're OK with the customer potentially buying them outright. :D

My friends and I measure frustration in milliVerizons.

Despite the hype about the bittorrent "network" the first thing on Sweden's agenda should be the adverse affect on their peering relationships.

and the next time a cable tech rubs his brow...

"OH GAWD MY EYE"

Finding a mouser at the humane society is complicated by some of them refusing to let you have a cat if you just want it for a mousetrap.

Remind me again why humans domesticated them?

Funny you should mention Nokia, aren't they rewriting your privacy laws at the moment?

clipped and quoted. mod parent +2 awesome.

True that an outright deception would bite them, but hype and adjective-littered gushing hardly seem to have done so. They still move *plenty* of books. (myself included, it's still cheaper than a college bookstore on average.) Even the mighty Newegg allows noncustomer reviews. (thankfully, they also allow you to filter them out.)

Why would they do that? Amazon themselves don't really suffer from false positives. (and remember, years ago they accidentally disclosed the editorial reviews' authors: 50% shills or publishers.)

Positive reviews move product. If anything, they have a real incentive to screen or discourage negative reviews.

but do you have the resources to prove it in court?

Cost of living varies wildly in the US, in proportion with population density. I fucking dare you to try living on 12k in a city. (which would largely remove your ability to farm, due to land / space constraints.) without going into the debt trap, that is.