This submission, and the article referenced to, read entirely differently.

Where exactly does it say they were fired?

Yeah well, when your company's revenue was up 15% over the same quarter last year, and net profit is down 10% from the same quarter last year... that's not something you'd want to draw attention to. $700mil may look like a large number on the surface, but it's actually much smaller than it should have been.

Something similar happened to me. There's a guy out there that has a similar username as me but would constantly either mistype it or forget to add his numerical digits to the end of his username, and as a result I found myself on several mailing lists. Informal mailing lists (not actual lists, just a circle of friends auto-replying to each other) that get your email address can act like a virus as they spread everywhere.

Sometimes a kindly worded message (or twelve) would get me removed from the circle of people replying to each other. But there was one occasion where I found myself receiving mails from a group of guys who coordinate all their golf games. I was polite the first couple of times I requested they remove my email address, but eventually my requests became less than friendly. Just about the time I started musing on the idea of getting on a plane and showing up to one of their golf expeditions and bringing just one club, they must have had the same thought occur to them, because it suddenly all stopped.

I think there are more than just a few people who frequent /. who would be much more eloquent and articulate than I am while they school you on the finer points of copyright and intellectual property.

Actually, if you purchase a stolen item, said item can legally be taken back from you. Purchase of a stolen item does not grant the purchaser any right to keep it.

In most cases, if the stolen item is worth $5, and it would cost $50+ in resources to go collect that item, it's just not worth the effort. On the other hand, if the item in question is worth $20,000 (like say... a car), then yes, expect to get a knock on the door from somebody looking to take it back.

Now if that $5 book only cost a couple pennies to get the book back, then it's now worth the effort to go and retrieve it. Welcome to the Digital Age.

You left out the point that when Amazon removed 1984 (and Animal Farm too) from Kindle devices, it was because it was discovered that the books were added to the Kindle store by a publisher that didn't have the rights to sell the books. And that the books were subsequently re-added to the Kindle store by the publisher that DID have the rights to them. The customers were refunded and credited for their troubles.

The analogy that it's akin to breaking into one's home is a bit of a stretch.

Dead or alive, it won't differ much in any escalation there may be.

On the other hand, a threat of terrorism or kidnapping against a US ally with the US holding the object of ransom would be an undesirable headache. It's one thing to have a terrorist problem, but it's a whole new entity when it can be used to strain relations with an ally. Somehow I doubt the US would want to look at an ally and say "Sorry it really sucks for you, but we're not gonna give him up."

I guess you missed the numerous occasions Osama took credit for and bragged about what he had done, and openly stated he will continue to do so. And oh yeah... his open declaration of war against the US.

Yeah, and open the opportunity for kidnappings and more acts of terrorism under the demands that we release him.