Actually, the best bet nowdays seems to be typing a word the way you think it's spelled in as a Google search. They'll generally correct it for you; for instance typing "numonya" brings a prompt for "pneumonia." The old "look it up in the dictionary" doesn't work unless you already have a pretty good idea of how the word is spelled.

IMHO, the important words in trout007's quotation from the Constitution are: "for limited Times." Once Congress passed the "Let's Protect Steamboat Willy while Pretending We're Doing Something for Sonny Bono Act," the time limitations for copyright protection became ludicrous. Unfortunately, a law that fails to make sense to ordinary individuals becomes virtually impossible to enforce without continually adding new and more draconian punishments. SOPA and PIPA were the Congressional equivalents of "those who laugh on the Sabbath day shall be confined to the Stocks for eight hours" and thus deserving of the reactions they induced.

Luckily, the Supremes of that era didn't accept that analogy. With current group on the bench, it's much better for individuals to block the law before it's enacted and some "person" like the RIAA figures out a way to get SCOTUS to come up with reasons why "piracy" should be punished by drawing and quartering.

I agree. The current model is too many students listening to a teacher drone on with the same lecture notes and/or Power Point overheads that he/she has used for the last five or more years. IMHO, that method was obsolete when I was in school 30-40 years ago. However, too many the current teachers and administrators have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo ante, so I don't have much faith in it changing quickly.

"why are judges not elected instead of appointed?"

Because elections require campaigns which require funds which then tend to influence the candidates in favor of those who provided the funds, which hurts the impartiality required of judges. The best system is one in which judges are appointed but then have to run for retention every so often (4 years is typical). That means the electorate can get rid of the really bad judges but it's not a popularity contest to choose a successor.

It was the people's demands following 9/11 that gave Congress the nerve to pass the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001." And, for anyone who hasn't read the USA PATRIOT ACT, I sincerely recommend that you set aside some time to read through it at: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ056.107.pdf and then we can all chat again about the Constitution.

Bits and bites in a particular combination are recognized by law as an object worthy of legal protection in the form of copyright and/or patent. Taking, without my permission, all of the bits and bytes that I have arranged in a particular unique combination is theft in just the same way that copying down various bits and bytes of information about you (the information regarding your birth, your social security number, and your driving privileges) is theft of your identity. You may not recognize the theft until I start using those bits and bytes by cleaning out your bank account or getting credit cards in your name, but it was truly theft all the time.

I agree, lorenlal. One of the typical Congressional rules for violation of statutes is the guilty defendant has to pay treble damages--three times the actual damages. IMHO, the judge was right in that actual damages was the cost of a license, so three times the license fee would be appropriate.

Someone needs to tell these dreamers:
1. Read the terms of the document giving you the shares to see when they vest;
2. Figure out where you'll get the money to buy the shares so you can sell them (sometimes you can do a cashless exchange but you have to know
a. who will arrange this for you, and
b. how much money it's going to cost you to have someone make the exchange
3. Realize that there are insider lock out periods after the IPO and before and after every quarterly report (any employee with options is an insider)
4. Profit? ?

IMHO, the USA PATRIOT ACT (not shouting, that's the acronym for the ridiculously long name of the Act) is just as constitutional as the Alien and Sedition Acts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts, which were also rushed through in the guise of protecting US citizens. If only our congress-folk had spent as much time thinking about the constitution as they did about the acronym!