http://www.bingham.com/Media.aspx?MediaID=7219

The damages calculus becomes much more difficult where the defendant generates only "indirect" profits from the infringement...

So no, that's not entirely true. STATUTORY damages are always the same, but I think that's precisely his complaint: COMPENSATORY damages, the kind of damages that we think of as being "fair" actually ARE different if the infringement is non-commercial, so it's arguably wrong for statutory damages to do away with such distinctions. IANAL, but that's my take.

As I understand it, there is a fear that if Asperger/Autism get cured that we will have a problem finding people that excel in mathematics.

[citation needed]

Sorry to be blunt, but this sounds like rubbish to me.

No, I'd say it makes perfect sense. Word, for example, depends on being backwards compatible in order to maintain it's lock-in. In fact, that's about the ONLY thing keeping it these days--you can count on the next version of Word reading your old Word documents better than anything else. If not, why would you HAVE to buy the next version of Word? What else would be keeping you locked in? Or what if the next version of iTunes no longer processed the old DRM standard? You lock them in by creating a proprietary format, and then making sure you are the one vendor continues to support it (backwards compatibility).

Point: N1AK

And asking if humans and dinosaurs coexisted is an opinion question, not a question about science.

Uh... we clearly have very different definitions of what is and is not science.

Or, to put it another way, as far as I'm concerned in order to understand science, you have to understand that you can't pick and choose what parts of science you like because of your peculiar opinions. It's sorta, well, essential to the nature of science and all... The belief that dinosaurs and humans coexisted is strictly unscientific.

You seem to be confusing the word "use" with the word "distribute." These are different things. Or are you now going to try to argue that you're as criminally liable for using drugs as you are for selling them? Different activities, different laws apply. Sorry.

(For the criminally dense, GPL GRANTS the right under certain conditions to DISTRIBUTE goods. DRM RESTRICTS the right under certain conditions to USE goods. Notice the difference. Also, GPL is based on traditional copyright law, while DRM relies on the DMCA to grant it legal backing.)

To be fair, I would certainly not call Visio a "drawing" application, unless you're willing to call PowerPoint, Word, etc. drawing applications too.

Visio is very specifically a diagramming program, and you'd want something like Umbrello to duplicate that functionality on Linux.

That's the iPhone.

And pretty much every other cell phone in existence. By those qualifications a $50 phone from Radio Shack should be great.

Japan INVENTED the reality distortion field.

If that's all you want a phone for, then the iPhone is seriously overkill for you. There are a lot of attractive, simple phones that make much better ACTUAL PHONES than the iPhone (actual phone quality and reliability being, in my experience with mine, probably the thing the iPhone is worst at).

The thing is, the iPhone is trying to be that kind of fancy do-it-all phone with everything but the kitchen sink. And compared to markets in other countries, it just comes up short. To put it another way, if all you want is a phone, you don't have to spend several hundred dollars on an iPhone to get an attractive one that works well. If you want something with all the bells and whistles that justifies that kind of price, the iPhone is not and never was state of the art.

Relative to me of course.

A sort of "prime mover" of good taste if you will.

iPhone was the first to offer a touch screen based UI (etc...)

More accurate to say it was the first phone to receive any major marketing in the United States that does all that. It is most assuredly not the first cell phone to do all that, which I think is kinda the point of this article.

I reckon that the iPhone is actually a good phone

In my experience with mine, "phone" is one of the things it is definitively NOT good at.

iran is a fundamentalist theocracy

A fundamentalist theocracy that has as much popular support as most secular governments. An important distinction, I think. (And to be fully technically correct, they're an elected fundamentalist theocracy)

which is building nuclear bombs

You mean, just like every country crying foul about them building nuclear bombs is also building nuclear bombs?

and enforces an ultrastrict fundamentalist religious pov

Because, and correct me if I'm wrong, the citizens of Iran generally support fundamentalist religion.

especially on its women

That there is no excuse for. Certain basic rights should never be subsumed even if the country at large subscribes to a worldview that demands it. I'll agree there.

grow a brain. blind america bashing is tired and dull

Matthew 7:2-5

I agree with you to a point. But we've got some serious beams in our own eyes to deal with, and that's more important. They're not perfect, and neither are we, but we have no right to complain about the things WE are also guilty of.

+1 Insightful

If anything ever deserved to be thrown into the pits of Mount Doom...