http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

Yes, exactly. You must take possession, or consume, a good or service before paying to incur a debt, and only then does the distinction of legal tender come into play.

Say you are buying a sandwich at some place like Subway. You don't take possession of the goods until after you have handed over your money (even though you might be holding it in your hands), so there is never any debt, so they are free to refuse $100 bills (which a lot of shops did before the 100 was updated to the 2001 "Canadian Journey" series).

Now in a restaurant where you sit down and eat before paying, there a debt is incurred, and they cannot refuse legal tender without absolving you of your debt. Note however that the law does not obligate them to make change!

Pennies are only legal tender in amounts no greater than 25 cents. So a restaurant can refuse to accept 2025 pennies in payment for a $20.25 meal without absolving you of your debt. But if you give them a twenty and 25 pennies they can't hold out for a twenty and a quarter.

The Mint stopped making new pennies last May (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/05/04/mb-canada-last-penny-mint.html). But they are still in circulation. What happens on February 4th is the Mint stops putting pennies it gets back into circulation. What is unclear is when exactly stores will be required to stop giving pennies out.

Right on. I have this argument with friends occasionally. If you don't like the price or some other aspect of the product (eg. having to use Origin for EA games), do the principled thing and don't consume it at all. It is too easy to say prices are too high or DRM is too onerous when you are getting it for free anyways. Real principles aren't easy.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Photos and video are incredibly powerful and persuasive. Even without doctoring them, they can be tremendously misleading. Present a video in court and a jury will believe that if something is not in the video IT DID NOT HAPPEN. If someone doesn't believe that they can be misled with unaltered photos and video, they are a fool. It happens every day in the news we read and watch.

7200.10. I just RMAed 2 of them recently. Died on arrival with the "chirp of death" (sounds like a little metal bird inside the HD). Only reason I got them was because I had good experience with the .7s and .8s. Lesson learned: in the HD market, past experience with a different model is irrelevant.