The short version (for anyone who is unwilling to view the link from work): Guy brings his computer in for repairs, techs discover pictures, he's arrested. In court he's finally presented with the evidence (apparently innocuous photos of naked children running around in the yard, playing) and announces that these are his grandkids.
About ten years ago I was working for a company that was featured in a (fairly glowing) article in the NYT. We linked to it from our media page, and a month or two later received a similar letter from their legal department instructing us to either remove the link, or pay them some outrageous amount of money (something like $4500, if I recall correctly). So we changed the link to an "I'm feeling lucky" search on Google that took you directly to the article. Never heard about it again.
I'm using Windows 8 with the aftermarket StarDock start menu, and I've pretty much forgotten that I'm not using Win7 until I accidentally blunder back into Metro. I thought Metro was really neat for the first 20 minutes after I upgraded - until I realized that the mail indicator inexplicably doesn't connect to Outlook. It works with Windows Live/Outlook.com/Hotmail, but not Microsoft's flagship office software suite.
Definitely, I'd drop the free plan and offer a trial instead. My guess is that your plan distinctions are lost on most of your target customers who "just need a website".
Put out some resumes, get a job offer. You'll be surprised at how seriously they take you when they realize that the guy who solves all of their problems is going away.
Yes, although it's not easily replicable. I spent a couple of years working remotely as a web grunt. Some weeks were insanely busy, but in general it only took a few hours a day of my time. I was able to do a lot of work on my startup between assignments. The key is to find the right kind of company. You want to be positioned as the technical asset who solves problems, not the person who creates the product being sold. If you're the latter (like a web developer in a marketing agency), then there probably won't be much downtime.
Microsoft does have a free mail product (http://domains.live.com), but it's been plagued by problems recently. For example, it was impossible to add new domains or users between January 30th and February 5th. The only recourse when something breaks is to post in a public support forum and hope for the best.
Your understanding is correct - you cannot store CVV under any circumstances. There's no way around this. When we do recurring payments, we're only able to pass CVV on the first transaction.
Really ineffective performance measurement standards and incentives. When there is no reward for going above and beyond or penalty for simply coasting by, you're essentially creating a haven for shitty employees.