I didn't vote for these laws, so I don't have to abide by them... So does that mean that the residents of New Jersey don't have to obey the laws of New York when they visit the Big Apple? For the record, the Supreme Court rejected the claim of a non-citizen of the USA about not paying taxes quite early in the days of the Republic. Funny that...

The colonists in America were there by agreement with the sovereign power - Britain - and so should have obeyed its laws. The refusal to do so had disastrous consequences for African Americans, who were probably enslaved for an extra 30 years, given that slavery was abolished in the British Empire in the 1830s. And then of course the Germans had to be defeated TWICE because the Americans were free to play at isolationism until the consequences of their doing so finally got through to them.

Isn't thinking things through fun?

My machine was working, Now it's not. Therefore you have deliberately damaged it. And you are extorting money from me.

If each owner of an affected printer files a local criminal charge against the company, it will be forced to employ lawyers for each court appearance, they will soon be very very poor.

Of course given that's the basis on which the USA came into existence in the first place, maybe we shouldn't be surprised if people are still offering that sort of justification... ;)

"Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence officials are reportedly investigating whether Donald Trump's foreign policy adviser "opened up private communications with senior Russian officials -- including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president."

WTF? There's no reason for the 'intelligence officials' to get involved with this, it's perfectly legal behaviour for a candidate. That it is being sprayed about is a measure of desperation of some people to stop Trump. Whilst I have sympathy with their purpose, their behaviour is deeply wrong.

Seven year warranties are reasonably common for cars, reflecting the fact that reliability has increased massively. Applying this to other industries would be interesting; in cars I get the impression that it was the Koreans who broke ranks on the issue and used this to overcome people's suspicion of this new source. There's an interpretation of British law that suggests a six year warranty is now part of the package, but it's not being enforced as such.

The problem of course is that for the poor, the extra cost which manufacturers would legitimately impose to raise the standards of their products to make them last longer would be a serious burden. In the longer term they would benefit from cheaper second hand good; the rich will replace white goods, furniture etc long before they wear out, leaving a good amount of life in them. But in the short term there will be an issue.

Good reply. The problem is that even if a resource is free, it doesn't mean that a use for it can be created, otherwise no garbage would have to go to landfill. However this article is a reminder that there is an 'industry' of making corrupt money out of inadequately enforced legislation.

It's all about who pays for what how. The fact that it is far easier to chuck the broken kit and buy new than get the upgrade / repair is a result of the incredible efficiency of mass production. If you want to avoid waste, you have to make the waste worth something - a standard trick in the Chemical industry, but one not associated with electronics because of the speed of change - or make visibly recycling electronics a mandatory requirement, to be paid for by a visible tax on electronic items. Which is the problem; the price of virtue is too high...

An organisation causes an otherwise safely operating piece of machinery to stop operating by means of a sent message. Does that not constitute criminal damage? A few thousand convictions in courts around the world will probably do wonders for their behaviour in future. However it requires someone with imagination to bring the charge!

Where it never gets cold...

Given that is already happening, there's a slight chance this will allow people to avoid working at home. Sadly it's probably not a good one.

The new standards are not retrospective, but provide rules for the future. They are not a function of a court order, but a change implemented by the FBI on its own initiative. It therefore has no impact on previous events.

I'm disappointed to see you retreating so inelegantly. It is a fact of history that the elite's view, defended by unjustified certainty, proves to be wrong when the elite doesn't ensure it's listening. To describe a view as racist - and on the whole I'm probably only being anti-Muslim, not anti-Arab - and therefore untrue, which is all the logic you offer, is foolish. It shows an unwillingness to THINK, the disease of our hedonist degenerate culture. But having fun is our society's highest value these days; on the whole we're not prepared to make the effort to think. May you enjoy your float down stream; of course that's not the sound of the Niagara Falls you're hearing.

"Oh fuck off with your Likud propaganda."

Please clarify what statements or steps of logic you reject as untrue rather than dismissing what I regard as a reasonable analysis of the history of the area and of Islam. You may not like my challenge, but hiding behind the label 'propaganda' would appear to reflect an unwilling to engage with difficult facts. You wouldn't happen to be a Trump supporter by any chance? This approach is typical of his political discourse - though his material barely deserves the title.

"Israel is like a trained martial artist vs a kid yelling "I'm going to kick your ass!". The proper response to that is to ignore it, because it is not a viable threat, not to brutalise the kid into the hospital."

Given the existence of riots where large rocks are being thrown at Israeli soldiers, what are they supposed to do? Ignore it? To return to your parallel, if the kid is about to do serious damage to trained martial artist's knee, he's got to respond.

Somewhere deep in your personal creed are the beliefs:

1) There must be a solution to all problems
2) People of other cultures are ultimately reasonable and will 'play nicely' if only given the chance.

In practice the Middle East demonstrates these are fantasies; the failure of the Arabs to be willing to engage in peace negotiations before 1967 and their continuing use of the refugees as a weapon against Israel reflect a pathological ideology - probably from Islam - that allows no compromise. By contrast Israel has not gone on and on about those whom it accepted as refugees from the ethnic cleansing of Arab countries after their defeat in 1948, a number remarkably similar to the number of those Arabs who were, for whatever reason, no longer resident within the ceasefire lines of 1948.