How did this devolve into whether Burma's oppression is better than some other country's? It seems that people are either living in Ayn Rand la-la land — "the market makes everything better. Just trust the market" Yeah, that worked well in things, like say the meat industry — and ultra-totalitarian commie wet dreams. Cuba is wonderful, just ask the people tossed in prison for being gay. What about some sort of middle ground where we can have all our civil liberties and surf for whatever content we want and the government does its job which is keep entities that have grown much larger than the individual, say, like Comcast, in check.

I don't think the government can legally claim an exlusive coipyright on anything produced that pertains to the law, since that information is always of potential importance to people subject to the laws of their state. There's no potential loss or misleading characterization of information be replicating it and no private income at stake. What they don't like is that people are making it accessable and using it in ways outside of the scope it was intended by the state. That is, however, a pretty weak case. If I want to post what the state says, either in the laws themselves or in commentary or explanations about those laws, I should have the right. And, I pretty much figure I and the rest of us do, which is why I've framed their laws in one of my website's pages:

http://drew3000.net/oregon-state-law/

Regarding terrorism being an issue in UK, read the headlines. Actual attacks here outnumber the number occurring in the U.S. There's been more eroding of rights regarding how long people can be detained here, but I'd still say I'm more concerned with Homeland Security than with MI5. We've got CCTV cameras all over the place, but still no torture centers to speak of.

In general, the argument regarding warrants is pointless. Google isn't waiting for them to show up or checking the constitutionality of government eavesdropping on ordinary citizens, it's just giving it unfettered access. Considering the size of Google and number of people using it daily (and it's history of complying with the Chinese government) I'd say that does make it a special case.