Derp. Forgot to log in. That was me.

Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. How can you possibly say that putting something under consideration is a crime? You actually have to do something (or sit idly by) in order to commit a crime.

Even if you could, what would you define as "consideration"? If you get a letter containing this proposal, do you throw it out without reading it? How do you know that is some whack job proposal if you don't read it? Ok, so you read it. Now what do you do with it? Whoops, you just considered what you should do with it. That's against your new laws, so get in the cop car, you're under arrest.

Too strict? Ok, so you're not under arrest yet. Say you don't have the authority to make the call, so you hand it to your superior or bring it up in the boardroom. Is that consideration (even if it gets throw out immediately)?

Maybe I'm so angry about your position that I consider murdering you. Luckily, I decide not to. Did I just commit a crime under your world view?

So, say you traveled to another country far away on vacation, or even some sort of long-term stay. Say you happen to have a heart attack or some other major health event. You're obviously not a citizen of that country, and you may not be able to pay cash for the proper health services. Are you saying that you should be turned away?

See, that's exactly the kind of mindset that I don't like about open source software in general (specifically just about anything that's developed for the linux platform).

I want to use open source software - I *really* do. However, in many cases, the developers do not make user friendliness and ease of use a priority. This usually manifests itself in the configuration of the software. If the software isn't usable, it's not going to be used, no matter how much the software costs. So, if you want your hard work to be used, tear down the barrier to entry as much as you possibly can.

That said, I use MythTV as my DVR and the only MS products on my computer are Windows 7 and Visual Studio. I greatly appreciate all of the work in the open source community. This is just a pet peeve of mine and many others.

Illegally downloading music and movies is not the only use for BitTorrent. For example, Blizzard distributes all of their WoW patches using the BitTorrent protocol. So, if you played WoW between those dates (and you were a Comcast customer), then you are theoretically eligible for compensation.