The real solution, if the goal is preventing things like this from happening, is proportional fines (I.e. An independent accounting firm determines how much money the company made from its misconduct and they are fined say 5 times that amount). If misconduct is unprofitable they will stop doing it, if a CEO continues doing it when he should know it will be unprofitable he can be found personally liable to the shareholders for fiduciary misconduct.

What about the third side that says addicts who aren't harming anyone but themselves should be offered help if they (for whatever reason) want to quit but should otherwise be left alone?

How about something more functional like this?

Especially in the Washington area (proud home of the worst drivers in the US) where things like using turn signals are already considered a sign of weakness.

Really? Where can I find one of these mythical cell phone operators that doesn't screw the customer? Last time I checked there were only about 4 cell networks all of which had the same anti-consumer policies (locked and exclusive handsets, long-term contracts, 700%+ markups on text messages, caps on "unlimited" data, etc). At least I can hook any router and computer(s) up to my cable modem but I can't buy an iPhone (even at full, unsubsidized, price) and use it with my T-Mobile account without the trouble and risk of jailbreaking it.

DVD Jon Connor emerges as humanity's last hope of survival.

ASCAP needs distribution. Just like the labels agreed to many things they didn't like to get on iTMS (DRM-free distribution, selling singles instead of albums, fixed pricing, etc) they will see that Apple dominates the digital music distribution industry and even they are not stupid enough to give up a large, established revenue stream chasing a new one which they have never received before (how many stores that have kiosks to allow you to preview CDs are paying performance fees?)

Early iterations of services like the legit Napster, PressPlay, Rhapsody, etc showed what the industry wants from digital music and also showed that the vast majority of customers will opt for piracy or nothing ahead of that option. The people in charge of RIAA and ASCAP are obviously out of touch with reality but they are, if anything, bean counters and will almost certainly be able to look at the numbers and see that they stand to lose far more than they stand to gain by making a stand on this nonsense. I think that if Apple simply says no this new demand will go away. If popular artists start disappearing from iTunes it is pretty much certain that a significant number of people who would have purchased them will torrent them instead and that is the last thing the labels want.

Probably, everything else seems to be

Not true. They try to confuse you into signing up for direct debit but it is possible to sign up for paperless billing without it.

Why only people who link to it?

A true student of the RIAA would just start suing people at random and offering them the chance to "settle" for less then the cost of defending themselves at trial.

Finally, I can't believe it took this many posts before someone mentioned Snow Crash.