The following story appeared today on the Associated Press wire: 

I saw a reference to this, and thought it was a joke. Then I found some other references, and it turns out it's true: the guy who broke at least the Apple EULA for the iPhone in unlocking it has been rewarded with three new iPhones and--get this--a Nissan 350Z.
 
This blatant disregard for intellectual property, contracts, etc., that seems to have taken hold of much of the IT industry does not bode well. There will be repercussions.

Here's a compelling argument on The Objective Standard dealing with the concept of banning the sale of "violent" video games to children. In short: it's not government's responsibility to decide what intellectual materials are available to children, it's their parents' responsibility.
 
The money quote:
 
"Parents properly want to shield their children from the gratuitous violence so common in today's video games. But we must not allow power-hungry politicians to use that desire as a pretense for usurping the rights of parents to oversee the intellectual upbringing of their children."

As I mentioned in an earlier post, someone's going to get sued over unlocked iPhones. And, I believe there are plenty of legal arguments for doing so, none of which have anything to do with copyright, as the linked story suggests. I'd love to read the iPhone's EULA, which I'm guessing includes verbiage directly addressing the topic of unlocking one's phone.

Here's another account of Russia's politically-motivated asylum commitments. I think the story speaks for itself:
 
Larisa Arap has just emerged from a 46-day imprisonment in two Russian psychiatric hospitals. Pills were forced down her throat and she received injection after injection. She doesn't know what medications they were, or whether they will cause permanent damage.

"I don't feel very well, but I have a fighting spirit," Mrs Arap said yesterday, adding that sometimes she was so drugged she could barely walk or speak[.]

Just a little ditty about a Russian serial killer (admits to 62 victims, police found 49), for those folks who think that only America creates people like this. And, apparently, since the police failed to find the other 13 victims, the guy lost his chance to be known as Russia's worst.

The Soviets had a tendency to put dissidents into asylums (along with the gulags and wherever else, including the dirt), which I can only imagine was an unpleasant experience. That practice was supposed to have died along with the Soviet Union, but this story suggests that it might be returning.
 
Some quotes:
 
But the treatment of one critic of the Putin Government has raised fears among Russia's human rights community that the Kremlin is preparing to incarcerate a new generation of dissidents in asylums.

Naked and with her hands and feet bound to the corners of a metal bed, Larisa Arap eyed with quiet defiance the doctors who wanted to declare her mad.

Here's a fascinating looking into the seamier side of antitrust law (if antitrust could possibly have a seamier side). Basically, this CNET article alleges (or just states, one can't quite tell) that AMD has hired a consultant to show how much money Intel has essentially "stolen" from AMD through anti-competitive practices.
 
This is, of course, essentially the same as the Microsoft case, without the dubious economics. You have a competitor in AMD (among others) who simply haven't made the best product and marketing decisions, while Intel has done pretty well. In fact, there was a recent period of time when Intel was doing everything wrong, and AMD simply failed to capitalize on it.
 

I'm all for stronger intellectual property protections, which I know puts me somewhat in the minority in the IT world. I also agree that attempted infringement should be a crime, just as with any other crime.
 
The linked story has an interesting quote:
 
One of the bill's controversial features is the fact that people can be charged with criminal copyright infringement even if such infringement has not actually taken place. "Any person who attempts to commit an offense under paragraph (1) shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt," says the bill.
 

More on China's love for the death penalty. If the Left wanted to really do something about government executions, they's start with China.
 
But, whatever. In this case, China's putting to death two gang leaders whose minions were tapping into an oil pipeline and stealing crude. Here in the ol' US, that would get someone a few years in jail. Of course, in an Islamic state, the punishment might be somewhere right in the middle, like the loss of one or both hands.
 
But, by multicultural standards, whatever works, right?