[kagamine]

Yeah, but when I was driving 12km/h over the limit I got a huge fine right there and then. I wasn't told to drive under the limit up the road while the police reviewed my behavior. I think that's what OP means, one rule for megacorps, another for the rest of us.

edit: My question is that when you have a company that has a track record, why do government contracts and private enterprise keep begging on the same street corner, instead of looking for work elsewhere, that is to say, why do they keep going back to Windows and not invest elsewhere as investment would lead to an acceptable (to them) enterprise Linux (Red Hat++ exists!)

[maccard]

That’s not true - plenty of people/places will stop you, and tell you not to speed, and then send you out a ticket in the mail. It’s also a totally different situation - if you were under investigation for X crime (but not proven guilty yet) you’re allowed to (mostly) go about your business while you wait for the investigation to conclude

[fapjacks]

Only if the crime is relatively minor. How bad of a crime is using dragnet surveillance to create activity logs and dossiers of millions of people, then using that to profit financially, but also (very probably) providing those dossiers and activity logs to foreign governments' intelligence services?

[aerique]

I more often get away[1] with a warning than getting fined by governments officials. Then again, this is in The Netherlands and I'm a average white guy.

Just being understanding and being sorry generally works for me :-)

[1] This happens once every two or three years?

[kagamine]

Well, I'ma white guy in Scandinavia, doesn't get whiter than that and the police here are not giving an inch. I have a much worse opinion of the police here than in the UK where I am from.