Likewise, most bluescreens on Windows are/were caused by hardware issues. Yet people on slashdot make fun of Microsoft about that.

Exactly. And this is all fueled by Google's greed. The way Google has done it removes all of their liability from shit like this while still getting them money. Of course, this will start to hunt them in the long run. Android brand is already quite known as crap quality and people who want quality products tend to choose iPhone/iPad or Windows Phone 7 smartphones. Android, and Google itself, has pretty much become a bad joke around the town.

I post what interests me. How is that surprising?

I know you're lying because no respectable and successful person would leave it at screwing women. You need ladyboys too.

Google has got where it is now because it has time and time again blatantly abused every law, copyright and moral thing that has got into their way. They are now the largest company on the internet. I guess lying and blatant abuse works.

Android is a great example how malware just gets there, around the obstacles when the market share is right. It's even on their official store.

Repositories also wouldn't work if Linux had the same market share as Windows, or hell, even OS X. You just cannot do everything via such system, and there needs to be a way to install software off from the "official" platforms. Hell, most of slashdot constantly argues against this too (DRM).

Most of this has been known by, well, knowledgeable users by a long time. Most of the malware now comes via third party software or stupid users. It really doesn't matter what platform you use, as hackers will find a way around to get the best bang.

All three largest OS - Windows, OS X and Linux - are pretty much equivalent now. In fact, OS X is probably less so than Windows or Linux (and I use mac!).

In before all the stupid replies that Linux cannot be hacked. :)

I used to take this hard approach on capitalism. And I still think that capitalism in general is a really good thing. However, after spending time around the world, I can now see some good sides with socialism. Healthcare being one of them. And no, it's not always so great in socialist countries or where hospitals are funded with taxes. Trust me, I know. But on the other side of the fence we have private hospitals that are there to make money. They exist solely to profit of you when something bad happens to you. They get income when they sell pills and treatment to you. You always have that feeling of them just trying to get money out of you and don't know if you really require all of that or if it's even good for you.

Now I think that something between socialist and capitalist system would be best. Europe is mostly this. There are still issues, sure, but it sure as hell is better than hard approach promoting either capitalism or socialism.

By "the government" I guess you mean U.S. government. But this story is about paying taxes to other countries. To every country Google does business in. These countries, by long history, do not spend billions in wars like the U.S. does. They are mostly peaceful and this is also why most of the world hates U.S.

In more civilized countries, the taxes go to infrastructure, healthcare and other things that benefit everyone.

In simpler terms for the readers in the grand land of America:

- India has no reason to fight against pirates
- US income mostly consists of copyrights and patents instead of actual goods
- US constantly bullies the whole world so that their largest revenue would stay secure.
- India would, long term, make their country much better and knowledgeable by letting their people pirate whatever they want, like tools for coding, operating systems, photoshop, whatever. Currently they have little money.

Conclusion - US pressures India and other countries.

About US violations of copyrights in the past. It's fully known that US blatantly ignored any and every copyright and law that Europe had back then. This is how they gained power by openly abusing other countries and their people.

This has been made after countless amount of pressure from the US. I don't think there would be any reason for India to do it otherwise - they are shooting themselves in the leg by not allowing people to get free content (yes, by violating copyright). In the long run the country would be much better and richer if they gained foothold in technology and knowledge by any means necessary. Hell, this is how US become to be what they are now - by blatantly ignoring European copyrights. Of course, US doesn't want to allow that so they can stay in power.

So you're unemployed? Would it be ok for me to kill 10000 people if I hire other 10000? I mean. I still do good as I employ people.

So your solution to taxing is to isolate US from rest of the world? Yeah that will work great in long term. No, in fact it will crash the whole thing really quickly too, as USA depends so much on cheap, mostly Asian countries to produce their goods. Hell, even your freaking post office is now mostly offshored to Bangladesh and Singapore!

Just because they didn't break the law doesn't mean they didn't do wrong. There is a difference. For example all those Nigerian scams are actually legal because their law says you can cheat people who break laws. But would you really say that those Nigerian scams are objectively and morally right things to do? I don't think so. Likewise, Google has not done anything legally wrong. Their actions, however, are morally wrong.

And no, there is no easy solution to this. The ultimate reason why we need these are to allow companies in other countries to do business with companies in another. However, then we have jerks like Google who abuse this by setting up shell companies to take advantage of it and avoid taxes. Again, legally ok, but not morally.

That's exactly why I said it's shady. Legally speaking they aren't doing anything wrong. Morally, and what people think about the practice, they sure as hell are. Especially when they jabber about the whole "Don't be evil" thing...