More people should understand this simple fact. Good job AC.

Blizzard never purges character information, so you would only have to pay for the expansions you didn't previously pay for. And in the case of the most recent expansion, the DVD (or download) will install the client for the player based on if they 'upgraded' their account to either expansion. So, if you stopped before Burning Crusade, you would have the updated version on the lvl 1-60 game installed.

Blizzard got this part very right. Just because you leave a game, there isn't an absolute need to erase your character data in case you come back.

Good points.

Another $45 to play new content for a game you already bought and pay $15 a month to play.

Hey Blizz, how about not charging for this one, say, maybe as a thank you to the suckers like me that have played for years and already bought the two previous expansions?

Hey, rather than find a way to reuse a complicated piece of tech, lets play like cavemen and come up with awesome ways to break it so no one can do anything with it.

Sure, some data is too valuable to risk, but it is 2009, you would think we would have a non-physically destructive way to securely erase data rather than a hammer.

The scope of the pure wastefulness of this is just sick. Yeah, I'm probably in a minority, but this logic is why our landfills leach out heavy metals into the water table.

America used to be resourceful and frugal.

Smart people can tell the voices in their head are their own thoughts, while the less intelligent think they are hearing disembodied voices, not their own?

damn it!

Just because you are too 'busy' to read the contract doesn't mean you are safe to assume what that contract contained.

You should be able to assume that the state isn't watching you walk to work, or who your friends are. But, when you sit down and sign a contract, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure you know what you are signing, and if you don't agree to the letter of it, don't sign.

It is important to 'raise the alarm', but if a person can't be bothered to do their part in a contact signing, as in reading the damn thing, then they can't play victim.

While it isn't 'clear' (haha) if Clear has the legal ability to sell the info, if the clients signed a contract giving Clear the right, the clients are out of luck. Their lack of effort isn't an assault on privacy, it's a symptom of how profoundly lazy we have become.

If you sign away your privacy, then it isn't the evil corporation's fault, it is yours.

Grow some responsibility people.

I hope the films inspire the people not already out in the streets to join the ones that are. The new revolution will be twittered.

No, the jury said that the total Thomas was liable for was 80k per song.
The law sets the amount per infringement and the jury, not the RIAA, set the amount awarded.

At no point did the RIAA demand a set amount, oh I'm sorry, they did, $5000 at the beginning of this mess.

Thomas did infringe on copyright, and also lied in court. The jury did the the job they were required and followed the letter of the law.

Quit bitching about the RIAA and start bitching about the Congress that wrote these amounts into law.

Just because a cat has kittens in an oven, you don't call the kittens biscuits

Off topic question. What about OSX server is causing the pain? I have been asked if it would be a reliable/easy replacement for a 50-70 user network (doing file shares/email/wiki/mobile and remote access for mostly Macs)and aside from garbage on the ol' internet, I can't find decent pros or cons from people actually using it.

I'd be happy to take it off to email otopico at that yahoo dot com

thanks

You sir FAIL.

This is /. Making that much sense in one post is forbidden.

Who would think that not any one thing is perfect, but, in some cases, one thing is better than another? Madness.

OSX abandoning ZFS surely has its reasons, but it would be nice to see OSX developed in a way where the user decided which fs suited their use best and let the user decide the pro v con on one over the other.

Imagine a world where the tool was chosen by its function, not the fandom of one thing over another.

So your solutions is to not tax anyone?

So, the employees of MS have all received increases to their wages and benefits in line with the executives and the profits of the company? So if ol' Steve gets a 15% bonus each year, the employees also get a 15% bonus?

No?

Oh yeah, some of us live in that real world place.

Microsoft doesn't want to pay their fair share, plus, you might have noticed, they have been firing OOPS! SORRY! 'laying off' thousands.

Tell me again how the profits help out the workers again....you know, the one MS fired OOPS I did it again!