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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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The heirs to Jack Kirby, co-creator of a large chunk of Marvel's intellectual property, have filed suit to terminate Marvel's copyrights to Kirby's creations, a move that could cost the publisher millions of dollars... and lead to competing Avengers movies. More »
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DC Comics have fired their attorney on the ongoing Superman copyright case, replacing him with a man who defended Enron CEO Jeff Skilling. Does this mean that DC are planning to finish this once and for all? More »
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Everyone who wants to make their own Stormtrooper costume without fear of reprisals from George Lucas, move to Britain. That seems to be the message sent by the British courts, which have just declared that Star Wars' Stormtroopers aren't copyrightable. More »
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It's been confirmed that that Jack Kirby's heirs are, indeed, including Spider-Man and supporting characters in their list of Marvel characters that they want the rights to. The only problem with that? Well, Kirby didn't really create the character. More »
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The sale of the century is already under threat from lawsuits, as two separate legal actions are announced that see Marvel shareholders calling foul about the Disney buyout. More »
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When a person kills someone, the law is pretty clear as to responsibility. But what happens if an autonomous machine is responsible for someone's death? The British Royal Academy of Engineering thinks that it's time someone looked into that. More »
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The day after Halcyon, the company that holds the rights to the Terminator franchise, filed suit against their financers, a subsidiary of the same company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Is this the end of the new Terminator series? More »
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A new court ruling has awarded the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel the rights to more stories than the previous original Action Comics #1 appearance. Does this increase the possibility of DC Comics losing control of the character? More »
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Despite Warner's legal victory against the family of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel over the character's copyright, the legal future of Clark Kent seems even more complicated than ever - leading the court to appoint an expert to explain it all. More »
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Next month will see a mediation between Warner Bros. and producer Larry Gordon. The issue to be settled? Just how much Watchmen's legal troubles will cost both parties... and who will be paying Fox. More »
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The latest Terminator skirmish is over, without dramatic gunfights and explosions. We'd be disappointed, except this isn't an episode of Sarah Connor we're talking about, but the lawsuit surrounding the rights ownership of Terminator: Salvation. More »
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Now that Watchmen has made it to theaters, we need a new SF film to be threatened by legal action. Thankfully, Terminator: Salvation has stepped up to the plate... and into the courtroom. More »
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One of the strangest outcomes of the lawsuit surrounding the movie rights to Watchmen is that producer Larry Gordon stands to profit - and lose - big if the movie's a huge success. Here's why. More »
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Is extreme government censorship about to rob British comic book fans of their monthly fix of ultra-violence? That's what some paranoid fans are expecting, thanks to a new (and vague) anti-pornography law in the UK. More »
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Was multiple-Oscar nominated Benjamin Button originally written years ago by an Italian office worker? Legal papers filed yesterday say that that's the (curious) case, and now we're waiting for a Judge to weigh in. More »
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Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee has found himself the target of a lawsuit claiming that he's not been honest about the financial success of his creations. How far our heroes have fallen. More »
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Fox and Warners have reached a settlement in their lawsuit over the rights to the Watchmen movie, but exactly what that settlement actually is is remaining a secret... for now, at least. More »
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It's your daily Watchmen legal battle update - and, as has become customary about this story, forget what we told you yesterday, because the situation has changed... again. More »
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Just when we'd gotten used to the idea that Judge Gary Feess could rule as early as January 20th on Fox's delaying Watchmen's release at the end of this month, a new timeline appears. More »
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The battle over Alan Moore's Watchmen rights may finally reach a decision this January. The trades are reporting that both Fox and Warner Brothers are looking to finish this courtroom brawl, once and for all. 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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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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It's been 12 years since the Los Angeles Times speculated that we'd have robo-bailiffs, floating cameras, virtual reality goggles, computerized judges, and some kind of weird red vs. blue lightsaber battle in our courtrooms, but we're no closer to having this than we are the flying car. Hell, we'd commit a minor crime just to check all this stuff out if it existed. Robo-bailiff, FTW! Just wait until the Judge 044227 comes on Court TV, too. More »
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