It really depends on the definition of "know" or "associates". For instance, a person working for a call center might talk to more than ten thousand people from different communities each year. If this counts under the NSA's definition of "hops", then I suspect that nearly the entire world is separated by far less than 6 degrees.

According to the FISA ruling released by Snowden, the NSA is allowed to turn over any information on domestic crimes that it discovers "inadvertenly" to other agencies (what constitutes suspicion of a crime?). The NSA might not be charged to spy domestically, but the FISA court has ruled that it is, essentially, not prohibited from doing so. Given that if they monitor all communications within 2 or 3 "hops" from a suspected terrorist, they can reach a sigificant percentage of the domestic population.

You should get out more. Corruption of government is not a U.S. phenomena. There are many counties that do it even better.

That should give you an idea of the power of the Chaebol in Korea. They can be absolutely brazen and still get away with it. In the U.S., there is still a line that cannot be crossed.

Lee Gun Hee's first presidential pardon came after a conviction for bribing the President of South Korea. Can you image if irrefutable evidence emerged that Tim Cook had given bribes to Barack Obama (direct quid pro quo, not campaign contributions)? His next presidential pardon came about 10 years later when he admitted publicly to tax evasion and embezzelment, so it was an open and shut case. CEO's have a lot of power in the U.S., but it is on another level in Korea.

I have lived and worked for corporations in both places. I saw a difference. It may be one of degree, but it certainly was a difference.

Samsung just increased the prices 30% in November of last year for the chips they were already making. There aren't many companies with the capabilities to manufacture these chips in Apple's volumes. I suspect Samsung is make quite a profit on these chips and this is more an issue with Apple unable to find other sources for these chips (it is rumored that Apple had put a chunk into GlobalFoundries in the hopes of turning them into a viable source).

Samsung takes it to a whole new level. Their CEO has been convicted of felonies twice (two separate occations) and had the verdict put aside because he was deemed too valuable to the Korean economy. American Corporations have power, but in Korea, Samsung, and to a lesser extent the other Chaebol, are truely above the law.

I don't think most people would hate Oracle if all they did was "keep what works and get rid of what doesn't." After all, Google dumps far more unprofitable products each year and they have a much better reputation on these boards. Oracle has earned its reputation by repeatedly attacking the very foundations of the tech industry in the (short-sighted) pursuit of higher profit margins from more vendor lock-in. This is the root of the anti-Oracle bias, not scrapping a few products.

I won't disagree with you that this tool, as most tools, can be used for good or bad (and you gave excellent examples of bad times to withhold a story). While their motives and mine might not be the same, all I can do is commend the journalists when they do good and condemn them when they do bad.

It is for the media to raise awareness of issues. If the reporter had simply released all the stories at once, then the potential exists that all of the stories would have been lost on the public as they could not focus on any given issue. This is smart journalism in my mind.

They were on public facing servers without any authentication. That is about as "publicly visible" as it gets. He is a stupid, unsympathetic man, but that doesn't change the facts of the case. AT&T left this information on a public server. A home is terrible analogy for a public server. It is more like AT&T left the paper copies of their customer data in a corner the public lobby of their building (that they intended to be private but had not put up any signs or walls, etc) and he saw them and took pictures, then gave the pictures to a reporter. He did not trespass to obtain this information as AT&T placed this information in a public place.

Because he has been planning this for awhile. As a long time NSA employee and contractor, he developed significant knowledge of their security systems from the inside. He then took the one job that he knew would allow him to access significant amounts of the NSA without suspicion (he said as much during an interview). Using this knowledge, he fabricated authentications to numerous systems that he wasn't supposed to have access to. Is it really that hard to comprehend?

The problem here is that there aren't any appropriate channels. Secret agencies, acting under secret laws, overseen by secret courts, where does one blow the whistle? His only course of action was to report potential (likely) constitutional violations to the same people who put them into place or to go public. Several NSA whistleblowers have already gone the former route and they got nowhere.

The leaked secret FISA order already allows the NSA to pass on any "criminal" information it finds. I suspect a broad interpretation of that order could also include copyright infringement.

I think it is safe to assume that most people in this world need handholding. If Snowden's goal is change, then having the public's attention (as large a public as possible) on the problem for as long as possible is the only chance that change occurs.