I don't really understand it, either.

What was the point of it if they could continue for 4 years without repercussions? Just to let the RIAA know that the federal judges in Austin won't be kind to them?

From TFA:

To survive for years in space, astronauts may need to bring along miniature ecosystems that provide necessities such as oxygen and food. Past research into what animal protein astronauts might live on has assessed poultry, fish, and even sea urchin larvae. All of these animals have drawbacks. Poultry needs a large amount of food and space, which is typically limited on expeditions, and it produces a lot of excrement. Fish and other aquatic life are very sensitive to water conditions, disturbances in which could delay spawning, hatching, and development.
Enter silkworms.

They're not talking about just carrying silkworms. They're talking about creating miniature ecosystems containing them.

Neither the fact that you don't have a Y chromosome or the fact that someone else put part of their body inside of you without their consent gives you an "I win" card when trying to make a logical argument. I've never had any trouble not caring about anyone's gender while conversing or debating with them. Maybe its because I'm bisexual, I don't know; I simply don't understand how or why someone comes to the conclusion that they can make assumptions about an entire gender of people and then expect to develop logical arguments based on that assumption.

You go through a post saying how much sexism pisses you off, so in response, you post a sexist comment?

Sorry, Freudian slip. Obviously, he doesn't actually have a criminal record per se, and that's not what was exactly said--I don't recall the exact wording, but you understand what I mean.

Actually, we tried to get the student-run newspaper to run a story about it. They decided that to do that would be in bad taste. The most interesting reaction, though, was when some of us called the local paper; we figured this would be "Wow, holy shit" news, but the reporter we ended up talking with answered "That's not really newsworthy, that happens all the time." I had one of those moments where one of the foundations of your philosophy gets blown apart and your entire way of thinking just stops and tries to rebuild itself.

He considered legal action against the school, but he was told by counsel that he couldn't do anything about it, and that even if the court did find in his favor, he would have to reapply, and they would probably just screen him out during application.

He has coped with it EXTREMELY well; despite being very intelligent, he hasn't been able to get into any other 'reputable' schools, so he had to attend a state university.

For more information, at the end of the quarter, he was going to go intern at IBM. He was sent an e-mail by HR about two weeks after this all started and was told that it would be against policy to accept interns with a criminal record, so he lost his co-op for that quarter, which was something he was really looking forward to at the time. Now, every time he applies to an internship, it gets brought up quietly, he always tells his story, and he never gets accepted (although he always gets selected quickly for an interview).

If "secret courts" where there's no press is the only way to solve these kinds of problems for people who are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, then I'm all for it. If they're found guilty, great; publish it all over the place. Until then, there's no need to ruin people's lives like this whenever some vindictive woman gets mad because she lost her boytoy.

Your position is based on a faulty presumption; it simply doesn't work.

No one is saying that someone who is actually raped suffers less than someone publicly identified as their rapist.

People are saying that someone who falsely accuses rape (which happens very, very frequently) doesn't suffer as much as the victim, who has done nothing legally wrong and just wants to go back to their life.

Unfortunately, they cannot.

As an undergraduate at RIT, I have a friend who was in a relationship with a woman. As relationships sometimes do in college, it died away after they had sex a few times; my friend had decided that he wanted something more than just sex, and since she didn't want to be in that kind of relationship, she left him.

The next morning, he was walking back from the bookstore; public safety showed up with three officers and a police car. They said his name, and he responded with a groan (he was the RA, and there had been some drinking the last week that he had to break up) and a "what's up". He was taken to a room and asked where he was on a given date (incidentally, he had been at the hospital on that date for an injury that had happened during robotics club). He was then told that he was being accused of rape.

Before he was even *charged* with the act, he had to start defending himself to the college immediately. A student conduct hearing was scheduled, he had to move off campus immediately (as in, that night; he had to come back to his room under police and campus safety escort and get a small number of his belongings to take to a hotel which he had to pay for for 4 weeks until the hearing), and he was removed from his job, all classes and student activities, and his position as the RA pending the hearing.

Mind you, this is all BEFORE he has been charged.

The police verified that he was, in fact, at the hospital at the time (two days before they broke up); she quickly changed her story 7 or 8 times as this went on, to the point where the police told her not only that this wouldn't fly in court and that it was pretty obvious that she was lying. At his request, they filed their recommendation that the school that they find in the same fashion.

They didn't; they decided that "no conclusion could be found". He was kicked out of school. If you search for his name on Google (he has a rather unique name), the first thing you see is a bit in his home town paper saying that he was under arrest for rape.

If you think that his suffering was less than the suffering of the woman who put him through that, please, tell me how.

Verizon's already got that covered. Don't worry about it.