So should OUR private info receive similar handling by unauthorized people, would the justice system give the same consideration or is this just for high ranking figures such as the Bushs.

Yeah I know the answer. But asking the question as I believe we would have minimal justice for the same crime against everyday people if we were lucky.

Now if only companies such as Concast would allow people to experience that "rich multimedia Internet" I keep reading about rather than terminate people's internet because "they used it too much" then we could go down this road without being hassled for using the service we purchased.

But then again, when you are a monopoly (or near monopoly) why would you care?

Pft. I buy DVD's and blu ray disks more than ever now. Streaming from Amazon Prime and Netflix over a provider who's up front with the terms of the contract rather than hiding it. I know how much I can use and I track all traffic through my firewall using vnstat.

If we were to stream all content we receive it would easily blow through the monthly limits these guys have imposed. Not hard to do especially these days.

If violent video games are the reason this stuff is happening then those around me would have cause to worry.

I've been playing games of that type since I was in Jr. High School over 30 years ago. When I play those games yes it's entertaining and fun however in real life I know the difference between defending my life and those around me and taking lives like these crazed shooters we've been reading about in the news.

That said, I guess it boils down to the comments made by Rep. Jason Chaffetz where the real problem isn't with those who are responsible with guns (such as myself). The problem is with those who are mentally unstable having access to guns. Looking at the last few articles about these shooters I have the feeling they definitely have issues which need addressing still. I agree with Rep Chaffetz that to reduce these issues we need to address how these people are handled.

BTW, I am a gun owner and have a CCP and have additional training in the use of my guns. As a private citizen I felt it was irresponsible for me NOT to have a gun especially since in my lifetime my family has had two incidents where they were in mortal danger and the police were not just around the corner. And since SCOTUS said it isn't the responsibility of the police to safeguard my family but to be a deterrent and clean up the mess that it's my responsibility and only mine to protect my family.

So now we have guns, bullets and training. It's the only way to protect us from becoming the next victim on FOX news.

For some people quitting piracy is just as hard as quitting the fap. Oddly there seems to be a direct correlation between the two activities.

Stop feeding the troll dude. He/She/It banters the word "reasonable" then goes for the ad homenium response. Reading through his posts I'm already where I'm ignoring AC now.

I start with the definition of the word reasonable - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reasonable

Reasonable people don't just follow the chain of command. Illegal instructions ARE supposed to be disobeyed.
Reasonable people don't just follow orders. They should first think about what they are being instructed to do before doing whatever it is.
Reasonable people ASK questions especially if it doesn't feel right.

Reasonable people. I don't see anything reasonable about belittling people (I call it what it is. Being a bully).

And the AC's comment about Congress. Reasonable people believe Congress is a joke considering their historic low approval rating. And the UN? Don't get me started :-)

Already started the process

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/rare-earth-mining-rises-again/

BTW it was my understanding America used to be the major provider over a decade ago and we simply stopped. Shows this was a bad idea. At least now competition is coming back. China may want to rethink their position.

I've been saying I will not vote for either Obama or Romney. I didn't vote for Obama or McCain in the last Presidential election. I have voted however for third party candidates which I believe are needed for real change to happen in this country. Why? Because voting for the same parties that got us into this mess isn't going to solve the problem IMO. But that's what I think.

So I've been told by several friends (and yes they are still friends) that if I wanted to get rid of Obama I needed to vote for Romney and that "your children will forgive you for it". I'm sorry but what?

If I'm to vote for the lesser of two evils and vote for what I perceive as evil, my kids will forgive me for it? Really? What if I don't? I've had many tell me I'm wasting my vote then.

Again really?

It's stunning to me that we keep voting for the same clowns and expect different results. Faces may change but the party goes on. Just not for the other 99% of American's of course. I also understand that the majority of Americans are unaffiliated with either party. (I'm looking for a citation btw). If that's true then Democrats or Republicans can loose control of the government really quick if we Unite.

I don't disagree with you. But it's a crazy government we're running here. Only the clown in charge changes wigs every 4 or 8 years.

http://www.newnetworks.com/broadbandscandals.htm

I've been hearing about this for years but I was under the impression we already paid for 45 Meg up/down under the clinton presidency and while the telco's have been taking tax money for this, they still haven't built out the infrastructure we should have had several years ago.

Anyone know more about this?

It was also my understanding that the National Information Infrastructure was a result of the High Performance computing act of 1991 under Clinton and Gore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Performance_Computing_Act_of_1991

So I have to ask. Why pay for more when we've been paying for it since 1991? I'm curious if other's can help me understand if I've misread what the act is supposed to do.

Works for me. I've been spending more and more on indie's. If the RIAA wants to go bankrupt I'm sure they will get that bailout that politicians seem to enjoy pushing these days.

Seems pretty damn insane to me.

...but there comes a time when you actually need the best possible tools to accomplish a goal. In my case I like making music. I left the proprietary music making software world full time in 2006 when GNU/Linux had finally caught up to where things were back then. I dumped Cakewalk Pro Audio, Adobe Audition, Cubase VST 24 Studio for Ardour, Rosegarden, Hydrogen, Alsa Modular Synth, LinuxSampler, and QSynth. In general, I was able to do all of the same stuff without much extra effort. In general it's all about templates anyway, so you set up your templates for how you work in these new apps and it really isn't much different. But then I decided late last year to look at what was happening on Mac and Windows and just in the short five/six years I've been away, things have changed drastically. There are much better products and many developers have dropped their prices. It's much easier to get music made with other software and I don't see the Linux apps catching up quite yet. In fact I'm seeing more stagnation thanks to Ubuntu taking over on most development. They are ignoring the applications I used or even dropping them from the repositories.

Yes I can still move to a different distro and build things from source, but that takes away from the time I have to actually make music. So I'm not sure what to do now. The lure of really easy, appealing and efficient tools (that don't all work in WINE and don't play nice with the DSSI plugins like vestige and festige) is pretty strong. And the prices aren't as bad anymore. So as much I as I really want to support freedom, I don't want to have to wait another five to ten years to be able to do what others are doing now on proprietary platforms. Therein lies the rub. Steam releasing on GNU/Linux will provide people with easy access to what they want with no waiting. That's a good thing from the perspective of a PC actually serving a purpose. It's a bad thing in terms of supporting freedom. I don't know where you go with that.

Agreed. The last time I purchased one of their games it ended up installing their DRM and screwed up my windows environment. I ended up reinstalling windows from scratch and throwing their game in the trash after I determined it was their software which compromised my machine (after weeks of troubleshooting).

It's not worth the trouble.

If he wants a locked down platform, he has one available. Just stop developing your stuff for Android and start developing for Apple. You'll get paid like you want, and you won't have to bitch about the platform people like us prefer. It's just like religious people vs. atheists. No one is telling the atheist that he has to be a Christian and believe in god. And no one is telling the Christian that you can't believe in God or go to church on Sundays. Just do what you prefer to do and hang out where you prefer to hang out and ignore those who you disagree with.

This is the most chilling thing I've read in a while: "Three decades ago, the personal computer industry was built on the backs of technology enthusiasts. Every product, every ad was created to please us. No longer. Technology must now work for everyone, not just 'computing enthusiasts'." Why is it chilling? Because I'm seeing it everywhere. Things that I consider to be killer features that MUST exist on a computing device are just disappearing. No OS is immune at this point. As a hardcore Linux fan since the early 90s, even I have to acknowledge that Linux is dying. Ubuntu is killing it. Windows isn't looking to sharp in version 8 either. It sounds like Mac OS X is headed down the same road.

As has been pointed out several times, use != seizure. But you're right. This whole thing is a power grab. God forbid we should have our favorite TV show interrupted to have the evil government tell us that a tornado has touched down near our houses or that some wacko has released sarin into the subway system. No that just won't do. Power hungry scum! who the hell do they think they are?

So you are suggesting the government is all rainbows and bubbles when it comes to doing the right thing for our safety and interests. Thank goodness. I had it all wrong ;-)

So EPIC had it wrong too. Glad to hear it. I guess next you're going to tell us you trust your politicians and the government would never do anything inappropriate.

Got it. Thanks for the clarify :-)

Perhaps I misread section 5.2e when they were talking about the use of private communications. They can claim it's needed and just grab it. It's not like we don't have other examples of that happening with Eminent domain (for example)

"(e) satisfy priority communications requirements through the use of commercial, Government, and privately owned communications resources, when appropriate;"

It seems I'm not the only one who's reading this into the order

http://epic.org/2012/07/executive-order-grants-authori.html