Software patents have always been like this. Most software developers hate them with a passion. I should know, I am one.

Google. Apple. Facebook. Oracle. Red Hat. Microsoft. Biggest names in tech...and all do their software development in the US. That should tell you something. You don't turn over development on your mission critical software to a bunch of people you don't know in a foreign country. It's just stupid, and the only people who seriously consider it are a bunch of idiot business majors who don't know any better.

Note, this is not meant as a slam on programmers from India; the reality is that there aren't enough good programmers on the planet to meet the demand for them. Outsourcing companies make up the difference by hiring crappy programmers, who inevitably end up being a net drain on productivity.

Everybody needs to go read The Myth of Male Power . Like, right now. SOOOOOOOOO relevant to this article.

...a good reason to encrypt everything by default.

The practical issue here is that not everybody has the same idea about what constitutes a "human right". And people's concepts of rights often conflict with each other.

If we let the U.N. decide what is a right, they would censor anything that criticizes a religion.

Computers can be turned into botnet zombies only because they have no will of their own to begin with. Arguing that humans can likewise be "programmed" presumes that people are purely deterministic, and cannot make independent decisions. Even if you believe that's true, it raises serious issues from an ethical standpoint; human rights are based on the assumption that humans have free will.

In other words, arguing that the media constitutes mind control is the same as arguing that there are no inherent human rights, and governments/corporations/the System/whatever are totally justified in exploiting people.

I see two good reasons to split the NSA, neither of which is really discussed by the article: 1.)Computer security is not part of the NSA's mandate. Currently its stated purpose is just spying; it's being pressed into a cybersecurity role because it's the only agency with the talent needed. That means security is secondary to spying. We could change this, but the current system is not optimal from a security point of view. 2.)Perception. The NSA is widely known as a spy agency and that is intimidating. Companies need to trust an entity to seek network defense help from it and an agency that only handled security would probably be viewed as more trustworthy.

Yeah, but patents aren't just based on capitalism. They're based on intellectual property legislation, and the point of that legislation is to encourage technological development. The moment that patent laws no longer bolster innovation and research, they become illegitimate. Patent trolls are clear evidence that current law does not produce innovation. If software patents had any actual value, people would use them for more than just lawsuits.

The reliability issues of GPS suggest we should hasten the development of Galactic GPS. No way that would ever go down.

Simpler idea: Hook an mp3 player up to a microphone and use it to amplify volume. That takes care of the basic hardware...now just need a way to position the mic conveniently, and probably a bit of software tweaking to optimize it.

Indeed it is, and Obama has already responded to it. Remember his announcement not to enforce the drug laws for marijuana users? That's probably not enough to satisfy reform advocates, but realistically there's no way that a full repeal would pass Congress.

Compromise Solution: Why don't you guys put in nasty DRM for the first couple weeks (when games tend to make the majority of their money), and then just patch it out of existence once the game inevitably gets pirated? You'd still have the protection while it matters, and the gesture would help assure gamers that you aren't going to rip them off by remote deactivation.

It would take a net decrease in the Earth's average temperature over an extended period of time. Cyclical climate variations should make that happen eventually, if human activities are not having an impact.