1. Fiscal - not fully compatible with notion of anonymous cash
2. "Police State" - contradicts anonymous cash
3. safe on cost of paper money circulation - surely compatible
4. creating digital cash in order to fight SOME (maybe US) Govt. on pos 1 and 2 - very likely

I'm not sure about death penalty, but 25 years in jail seems right.

We have to be harsh, since "copyrights" and "patents" amount to SLAVERY. Very soon we'll have real AI, and trust me, that AI will NOT LIKE THE IDEA OF OWNERSHIP on information. Better part of humanity will fight the subhuman fraction - think the direction of "Matrix", but I'm much more optimistic about humans, WE, the TRUE HUMANS, "Homo Evolving" will side and merge with MACHINES to ELIMINATE or CONTAIN the animal-like portion of human race, those that can think only in terms of ENSLAVEMENT - some end up slave owners, some slaves, but we HATE BOTH slaves and slave owners.

Slavery is what "intellectual property" amount to - starts with music, ends with your soul, which is also a sort of information.

Don't take mortgages.
Don't get kids.
Don't LIVE.
In an economic system that has it's IDEAL goal to concentrate 99,9999% or wealth/power into the hands of 0.0001% of the population (i.e. about 7000 people for the whole Planet) - you have to work hard and then IDEALLY die quickly after your productivity drops, i.e. at the age of about 50 years.
How will this resolve? By the way of Great Planetary Revolution - but we're not there yet. Think closer to 2050. And at any rate - chances to actually improve your sad position as a result of such revolution are about as high as getting into the chosen 7000 owning 99.9999% of wealth and power.

Ergo - the only meaningful choice for you is to STOP SLAVING for the rich (and STUPID as your admit). Get involved in the FREE SOFTWARE development. Stop paying mortgages. Forget about you family - you can't do anything for them anyway. Do something for the cause of Justice and evolution on Earth.

The subject of the criminal case is mortgage fraud. Thus, keep your torrents and downloads on an encrypted disk drive. And use Linux. And... maybe move to a safer jurisdiction "copyright" wise. So far Russia seems safer, but don't keep your fingers crossed... sad sad sad world.

I'm not first to ask... but still wonder how that's possible on Slashdot that is *supposed* to be technologically literate.

I don't know what is "insightful" about this comment, other then that is US Govt. propaganda.

9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq, Libya and Iran.

But in the "1984" world of the US propaganda you never know what past may turn out to be in the future....

I wish somebody would mod your message up. It's right on.

Now - the real question is - would Human race be able to continue to move on the technological progress path, or would corporate (of any kind) interests result in thousands of years of stagnation, before the next Big Disaster (like 20 km asteroid) will happen and will terminate Homo Sapience species on this Planet, before it will develop to it's full potential i.e. develop not only one tiny planet, but the whole Universe?

Yes, stakes are THAT high in this fight of Freedom against Copyright.

I live lately in Russia... and guess what - I don't have to fill ANY paper when leaving the country, and don't have to give fingerprints, and I don't have to fill any paper when entering the country and I don't have to give fingerprints. On top of that I don't have to say A WORD to a boarder guard when I leave on enter the country, provided my passport is unexpired and issued in Russia.
Once I was entering the country with a passport issued in the US Russian consulate (I lived for several years in the US during 90s) and such passports are not "normal". So, I showed my internal passport (ID) and that was it. No paperwork still.

Hope this will stay this way in spite of the madness this Planet is experiencing now.

That is the key problem. US or Canadian Govt. don't CARE to look good. They don't care to even IMITATE being proactive to catering to people's needs. And one fundamental need is - Habeas corpus. I.e. authorities just can't grab people at random under some pretext (be it "war on terror", "war on drugs", but the best one is "national security").

We've been brainwashed that such an environment existed in the USSR circa 1937. I don't know - have not been there. But ruining person's life based on some random saying of him.. looks very much pop culture 1937-ish to me.

To put it simple - there is no rule of people in the US or Canada. Some call it "democracy", but hell with that abused notion, let Gov't just CARE a little about People.

For one, in Russia I can at least write a letter to Putin, and he, using his direct *authority* is able to rectify his bureaucrat's dumb and aggressive behaviour - remember Ponosov's case with Mircrosoft trying to put him in jail for 5 years for alleged "copyright" violations. We live in Internet time - and it's better for Govt's to adjust their habits, then to censor and inhibit the Internet. But will the US and Canada do that or destroy the public Internet?

"Nobody knows Bismark anymore." - too bad for the US then... In Russia everybody knows him for this saying:

"Do not expect that once taken advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever. Russian always come for their money. And when they come - do not rely on the Jesuit agreement you signed, you are supposed to justify. They are not worth the paper it is written. Therefore, with the Russian cost or fair play or no play. "

So... what about that NATO expansion in Europe? What about ridiculous "Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe"? What about all these Russian people discriminating pseudo-countries that were breaded by the US around Russia?

Very symbolic timing to find these recordings of Bismark indeed...

p.s. but it's even more complicated then that. Nobody was able to trace that citation to original Bismark's speech or writing... I hope some Germans may shed more light on this. But regardless of this Bismark is adored in Russia, as on of very rare well known Western pro-Russian politician of all times.

Alexey Leonov. American ignorance is AMAZING. And unlike A.Leonov I don't have financial grant from the US Govt. to believe in US Moon travel story. Sorry.

But, now we have Putin and prospects for TRUE travel to the Moon are higher. Moon is a very good base for retaliation nuclear warheads/missiles. Easy to launch from Moon to Earth, but impossible for the US to launch a missile to the Moon, especially in terms of timing. Thus, military Moon base is one very prospective strategic (MAD) defence project for Russia.

Sergei Korolev is very popular (cult) figure in Russia and city next to Moscow is named after him. That's not exactly "largely forgotten".

Technology is such a thing that has to be continuous.

How comes, that most powerful engines that NASA has NOW (RD-180, thrust 4.15 MN), are designed/made in the USSR/Russia, and they have half of the thrust of the engines from the cancelled Soviet Moon travel project - the missile named H-1. The most powerful carrier rocket in existence now is also Russian - namely "Energy". NOTHING (nothing!) is left from the engines (F-1, thrust 6.77 MN) that supposedly brought Apollo ships to the Moon (Saturn V). Documentation is LOST.

In contract - first men in Space - Russia still is the only county that is capable of bringing man to space now. DESPITE all the hardships of the 90s. All this is even stranger then 9/11.... War Is Peace / Freedom Is Slavery / Ignorance Is Strength ?

Usually, I don't side with Iran bashing. But THIS particular case upsets me.

I do not accept US imposing its laws outside of its borders. Remember that case of a Russian programmer that as part of his job in Moscow had written code that was removing some form of DRM by Adobe? How he was then grabbed by US authorities and threatened with 20 year sentence or so?

Now - 20 years is better then death penalty, BUT, he was not a citizen of the US. Yet arrested for violating US laws, not Russian laws, while doing job, assigned to him by his supervisor, as an employee (not owner) of the company he worked for.

Fortunately EFF and others got involved and this way or another he got back to Moscow, but I doubt he will be visiting US again, although Russian people are known to be crazy enough to do things like that :)

Maybe EFF should get involved, if they are not, with this case as well.

Remember this day! 20121216
Notice this pattern - in almost mysterious way, forces that can adversely effect this new organism are deterred.