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When some people find themselves gifted with powers beyond those of mere mortals, they often ditch the wage slave life and turn to a life of crime. But what are some of the legal ways you can use those awesome powers to get rich quick? More »
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In 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott was getting aggravated by the number of psychologists and psychiatrists being used as expert witnesses in legal trials. To protest this perceived overuse of psychiatric professionals, Scott tacked the following protest amendment onto a bill: More »
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Looking for a really awesome way to lower your taxes? Virginia residents may want to consider having their cremated remains blasted into space. The state is considering a law that would give folks who want to mingle their ashes with the debris of space up to $2500 a year in deductions, with an $8000 cap. More »
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Lawyers and policy wonks with a futurist bent are advised to take note. The University of Miami School of Law is organizing a conference called "We Robot: Inaugural Conference on Legal and Policy Issues Relating to Robotics." They're seeking scholars, lawyers, and roboticists who want to discuss a topic that will probably be making headlines in a decade: How the law will regulate robots. The school bills the event as one of the first conferences of its kind. Attendees will "examine how the increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues." More »
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Most Silicon Valley companies were opposed to the patent reform law that President Obama signed last week. Some argue that the America Invents Act favors large megacorps over smaller companies, and could dampen innovation in the tech sector. More »
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Are you confused by The Vampire Diaries? If so, then for the love of God, don't click on the latest installment of "vampire legal issues" over at Kate Linnea's blog. You'll only wind up twice as confused. More »
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The Yale Law Journal's Betsy Cooper wrote an essay examining our favorite Jeopardy! champion (and new medical diagnoser) robot Watson, but from a new angle: Could Watson help judges make legal decisions? More »
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Social media can be problematic for professionals who don't want their bosses to see unflattering college party photos. But it's even worse for people whose livelihood literally depends on anonymity, like undercover cops. What happens if the gang you've infiltrated finds your grinning mug in Facebook photos from the police union annual picnic? More »
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A federal judge's decision requiring the government to get a court warrant before obtaining mobile-phone location data is one of a string of conflicting opinions on the topic. It comes as lawmakers and the Supreme Court weigh in on the hot-button issue of locational privacy. More »
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Scientists have been tinkering with memory-altering drugs for years, discovering substances that can make you forget that you crave cocaine, and change the emotional weight of traumatic memories as you recall them. But the prospect of swallowing a pill that erases your past has troubling implications. Many ethicists say we simply shouldn't develop these substances at all. More »
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We've seen pundits on The Today Show be perplexed by that wacky world wide web fad — now check out Coolio weigh in on the CB radio of the future! Listen to that soundtrack! Better than Ezra! And at last, a twirling image of R2-D2! More »
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If you're making a flicking gesture with a pen near your computer, watch out. Microsoft may own the rights to the gesture you're making. And if you like to draw letters of the alphabet using one penstroke per letter, you may one day find yourself paying a licensing fee to Xerox. More »
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For years, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has been defending the First Amendment rights of comic readers, creators, and retailers. We spoke with the organization and saw exclusive new CBLDF promotional art from award-winning 100% creator Paul Pope. More »
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You'd think Wolverine, Batman, Superman, Catwoman and Iron Man would collectively hold enough superpower to keep the cops at bay. More »
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Rutgers University law professor Greg Lastowka has directed us to a free PDF copy of his new book, Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds. The book covers the increasingly bizarre legal framework that's encompassing virtual worlds like Warcraft. More »
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In 1856, seabird guano was an in-demand fertilizer, so the the United States Congress passed The Guano Islands Act. This legislation was a precursor to American imperialism, as it allowed citizens to claim bird-crap-covered islands in the USA's name. More »
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The United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs has the text of its treaties up on its site. Find out which jobs these space sheriffs outlawed, and which they created. More »
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In 1992, Neil Gaiman created Medieval Spawn and Angela, a warrior angel, for Todd McFarlane's up-and-coming Spawn comic. Years later, the characters "Dark Ages Spawn" and "Tiffany and Domina" debuted in Spawn. McFarlane must now pay Gaiman for these derivatives. More »
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Today marked an evolution of sorts for Twitter. It's no longer just for following your favorite celebrity rants or for informing your followers you're having a ham sandwich or just took a shower. More »
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If you care about the future of books, you need to understand the Google Book Settlement. It's a complicated legal document, but we've talked to some of its architects, detractors, and defenders - and break it all down for you. More »
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British writer Simon Singh was sued for libel by a chiropractors' group in 2008 after publishing an article which questioned the scientific value of chiropractic therapy. Now a court has found his statements "fair," but the battle continues. More »
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In a blow struck for consumers and scientists against the pharmaceutical industry, a New York judge ruled yesterday that a company could not patent a human gene just because they discovered it. The ruling could revolutionize the biotech industry. More »
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A bizarre legal case pits the family of recently-deceased Mary Robbins against Arizona cryonics company Alcor. Robbins signed a contract with Alcor to have her head cryogenically frozen after her death. But now her daughter won't hand the head over. More »
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In a new essay Half Guilty, Nick Kam explores the legal ramifications of a thought experiment: if a conjoined twin commits murder, can the legal system punish them? Could the innocent twin be punished simply for their unusual medical condition? More »
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Peter Watts, the critically-acclaimed Canadian author of Blindsight and other dystopian novels, entered a dystopia of his own on Tuesday after border guards beat and pepper sprayed him at the US-Canadian border. Now you can help with his legal defense. More »
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DNA evidence has become the gold standard for criminal investigations, but researchers in Israel say that finding DNA at a crime scene may not be evidence of a crime, but rather the handiwork of a clever biology student. More »
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An Iowa man was convicted of possessing child pornography last week because some of the books in his vast collection of Japanese manga (comics) appeared to depict minors engaged in sexual acts. How exactly can a court determine whether a comic book character is a "minor" or not? More »
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Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, is being sued by two Papua, New Guinea, men who claim the award-winning science writer lied about their lives to prove that tribal culture is violent. More »
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Waiting for March's release of the Watchmen movie? Get ready to wait a little while longer - The lawsuit over who owns the movie has hit a couple of roadblocks en route to early settlement. More »
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As the Asian space race heats up, nations are beginning to ask who owns Earth’s lone satellite. According to a prominent researcher on the subject, lunar property rights should be strictly first come, first served. More »
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Is it the beginning of the end for the patent system? Last week, a US Court of Appeals decision eliminated most patents on business methods and software, but some still feel that the very system meant to reward inventors is stifling innovation. Many a scifi plot has hinged on who owns a particular technology, and it seems most writers agree that the system is due for a change. More »
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Earlier this year, an Indian court convicted Aditi Sharma of murdering her fiancé. Although she maintains her innocence, Sharma was convicted based on a brain electrical oscillation signatures test, which the prosecution claimed proved that she possessed experiential knowledge of the crime. Now some individuals are looking to introduce brain scan evidence in US courts as well. Could your brain waves really be used to convict you of a crime? We give you the legal breakdown. More »
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When 24 year-old Aditi Sharma was tried for the murder of her former fiance, her brain was the chief witness for the prosecution. Sharma had submitted to the highly controversial Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test (BEOS), now employed by prosecutors in the Indian states of Maharashta and Gujarat. Going beyond lie detection, the BEOS test is supposedly able to identify whether an individual possesses memories related to a specific event. And Sharma's conviction represents the first time an Indian court has accepted the BEOS results as proof of guilt, although neuroscientists remain skeptical about the technology's reliability. More »
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This fall’s Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica, will plunge civil rights attorney Joseph Adama into unfamiliar legal and ethical depths when he encounters the first member of the Cylonic species. Fortunately, lawyers on our planet are already considering the legal consequences of the future, toaster-laden or otherwise. After the jump, five legal areas sure to burn up the billable hours of future law firms. More »
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Yesterday we told you about the Denver man who is pushing for his city to create an Exterrestrial Affairs Commission." He even got a measure on the ballot, so voters can weigh in on this issue in the next Denver election. Today, he showed selected press a video which he claimed was "living breathing proof" that aliens exist and that Denver needs to have a commission to deal with them. Though he refused to put the video online, it got leaked anyway (with a few sound effects edited in). Here it is - now the voters can decide whether this alien would prefer to deal with a local Denver city commission, or maybe to deal with an international alien rights organization instead. [via Gizmodo] More »
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Using bacteria and harmless biological materials to whip up bio-art projects in your living room is not against the law, a U.S. district court determined yesterday. The decision marked the end of a four-year ordeal for artist Steve Kurtz, who was arrested in 2004 when his wife died and police arrived to discover petri dishes and other "suspicious" lab equipment in Kurtz's home. The equipment was for a show he and his wife had been prepping for a show about GMO foods at a Boston museum, but police confiscated it and detained Kurtz in jail anyway. More »
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If you're concerned that the family of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel regaining part of the copyright to Action Comics #1 means that you're going to be deprived of new Superman comics or episodes of Smallville, then I have good news for you. That's not going to happen anytime soon, as DC Comics still owns half of the character's copyright, and most of the character's mythology. Over at Uncivil Society, lawyer Jeff Trexler has taken the time to make sure that even the legally-stupid like myself understand just what's going on with the battle over the Man of Steel. More »
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Ronald D. Moore and David Eick sat down and went over the different types and social systems and moralities they've created for the new Battlestar Galactica, including the need to the government (and not just the military) to bring down the heavy hand of torture from time to time, and how the legal system works in the BSG-verse. These audio interviews are the kind of geekery you usually only get when fans debate these facets of the show in a forum somewhere, but they wax poetic for over 30 minutes, and that's not even including their thoughts on the politics, economy, and the fight for Cylon rights in their show. Hit the above links for the audio files, and keep staring at the clock until new episodes air. [Concurring Opinions] More »
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You may have been wondering why President Bush vetoed bills that would have authorized government funding for stem cell research that could lead to cures for everything from Alzheimers to paralysis. Apparently it's partly due to reading parts of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a classic 1930s scifi dystopia about a world where the government genetically engineers everyone to be obedient workers. What's hilarious is that Huxley was a leftist, and he would have despised Bush's anti-science policies. More »
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