In legal issues whenever something isn't explicitly mentioned that leaves the door open to any number of interpretations. The best thing we can do now is to update the bill of rights to include technologies and situations that were not possible when the original bill was written. This will slam the door shut on any interpretations that run contrary to the true goals of the bill of rights. Here is a fun bit of info. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/apr/13/goldman-sachs-programmer-source-code-theft This was news from earlier this year. A Goldman Sachs employee stole proprietary source code, but walked away a free man after the court cases. Why? Because the source code was not a physical object. The law needs specificity in order to be applied correctly sometimes. This example shows how lawyers could argue, and make a case, that any digital file you have isn't technically covered by the bill of rights. It needs to be extended to support new technologies before lawyers set dangerous precedents.

I started one here. http://wh.gov/XLym

Thus why I started this petition. Help me get the 150 votes required to make it fully visible! http://wh.gov/XLym

This is why I think we need a digital bill of rights to stop this stuff from happening before it even gets going. I started a petition on the we the people sight. If you agree go sign it! Apparently I need 150 signatures just to get it properly listed. http://wh.gov/XLym

Considering it specifically calls it a Bill in the headline this seems to be one of those situations where anyone with knowledge of how the system works would automatically understand what you said anyway. Otherwise, even without your additions the argument wasn't really enhanced in any real way. The privacy problem is still very real, and the legislation should be stopped immediately. The fact that this is "only" at the bill stage doesn't diminish the realities of the privacy violations here. Aside from the fact that this likely is unconstitutional as a violation of the 4th amendment. However, to be fair, we need to update the fourth amendment. It currently reads "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." We need to expand on this to account not just for papers, but to digital documentation.

Those keys frustrate me daily!

They Qwerty keyboard layout was specifically designed to prevent jamming in typewriters while at full typing speed.It optimized the usage of the levers to prevent those jams. This functionality is useless in the modern world, and there are in fact better alternatives. It may not be broken, but it's not necessarily the best tool for the job.

Iran bragged about doing this to the US's drone months ago. *Yawn*

I used to have a temporary insurance (before I got full time at work) and I paid as low as 50 dollars a month. Sure the deductible was 5k, but its still cheaper than paying the tax, and that's not even good insurance. The point here is that one way or another everyone should have health insurance, and that there are plans out there that can give at least some degree of coverage. With that shitty plan I still had 20 dollar copay and generic prescriptions. That's still considerably better than nothing.

I am not in a privileged position as you claim. I pay out of my paycheck just like everyone else. I pay $1200 a year on my health insurance. More than the tax I'd pay if I didn't have it. You know what though? If I get in a car accident I don't have to worry about being billed out the ass for an accident. It's worth the extra money so that I don't have to worry about going into debt because of a random occurance.

That's a whole lot of assumptions there buddy. First off, I wouldn't live on medicare just because my work drops me. I'd pay for my own insurance instead of sucking from the government. Last I checked, that was part of the reason the individual mandate was put into place from the beginning. Second off, considering the full brunt of the law hasn't even gone into effect you are speculating at best. There is a whole lot of rhetoric flying around, but not a whole lot of cold hard facts to support claims like yours. You make these accusations based on nothing but fear at the unknown. The fact is what you say is a worst case scenario. The reality of worst case scenarios is that they rarely happen, and even more rarely are being able accurate prognosticate that scenario ahead of time. What is more likely to happen is the law and its implementation will be tweaked as it's rolled out because as it is with any law it never quite works exactly as it was written on paper. I view the cup as half full. You clearly have an empty cup.

The SCOTUS labeled it a tax after the fact. Obama did not lie. It was reclassified by others. Also, anyone with work supplied health care doesn't have to pay this. i.e. Me. So basically he didn't raise taxes on everyone. Not even close to everyone. In fact for most people it won't change anything. Like myself. Go cry in a corner because its clear you don't understand whats happening here.

That's exactly what he is saying. I think you are too hung up on the word free. It's not as if a better paid option is available. All the drivers for each platform are free. As a user who purchased hardware at the full price I fully expect the hardware creator to release fully functional drivers for their device, and to not half ass it. This shock and awe that Linux should be treated differently or somehow less free than the windows version is the ridiculous argument here.

That would just signal the rise of Linux.

This is only true for Windows RT. Not for Windows 8 pro. I could be wrong, but everything I'm seeing online seems to agree. Windows RT = ARM architecture where apps can only be acquired through the App store, and all apps in the app store are Metro. Windows 8 Pro = x86 where I can write my own programs and they can be either desktop or metro and I can freely give them to friends or as web downloads like traditional windows.