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Archive for the 'Law' Tag

Dude, where’s my card? ‘Stoner Fluxx’ coming back into print

September 26th, 2009, 10:29 pm by Jayson Peters
Fluxx

A game of Fluxx

The creators of the ever-changing card game Fluxx are expanding into hazy territory.

Fully Baked Ideas, a new imprint of the family friendly games company Looney Labs, will publish an updated edition of the once controversial and now out-of-print Stoner Fluxx. The new company’s official site promises that 5 percent of the proceeds from the game’s sale will be donated to organizations that actively support the end of marijuana prohibition in the United States.

Other editions of the game published by Looney include Zombie Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx and the recently released Martian Fluxx. All versions of the game feature the same basic mechanic: Each card played can change the rules or goal of the game, making sure it’s a different experience every time.

Looney explains that a spin-off brand was necessary “to make sure children are not accidentally exposed to adult themes on our family games web site.” Fully Baked’s new edition of Stoner Fluxx will be followed at some point by the recently announced Drinking Fluxx.

Free speech? You be the judge — er, clerk …

August 20th, 2009, 10:50 pm by Jayson Peters
O'Connor

O'Connor

Think you have what it takes to be a Supreme Court clerk?

Sandra Day O’Connor says: Bring it, noob.

Supreme Decision, a free computer game for teens created with the help of the former Supreme Court justice and Arizona lawmaker, has launched at www.ourcourts.org. It’s the first of several planned Web-based games designed to get middle-school age students totally amped about the Constitution and the legal system.

Players assume the role of a clerk helping one of the esteemed justices prepare for a tie-breaking vote on a First Amendment case. It’s kind of like when I was in school and our class split into groups to roleplay a similar scenario — except, now the students can do it at individual computers, ignoring each other and preparing for a life of featureless solitude in the cubicle farms of Changzhou.

Via The Associated Press

Feds probing Apple’s ban of Google Voice app

July 31st, 2009, 11:26 pm by Jayson Peters

I wasn’t going to blog about this, but it just got a lot more interesting.

On Tuesday Apple rejected an iPhone app for Google Voice, a free VoIP service that lets users link their various phone numbers together. Immediately a googol of Google fans cried foul, saying the iPhone maker was stifling innovation by acting only in its own self-interest.

Now, late Friday, comes word via The Wall Street Journal that the Federal Communications Commission has sent letters to Google, Apple and iPhone carrier AT&T, wanting to know more about Apple’s practices of late.

A clash of the titans is brewing, it seems. And now the government is getting involved.

Via Gawker/LifeHacker

Nightmare of genie

July 23rd, 2009, 10:36 pm by Jayson Peters

BBC News is reporting that a family in Saudi Arabia is suing a genie, accusing it of threats, stonings and mobile phone theft. They say the troublesome spirit has forced them to flee their home of 15 years.

0490075Westerners know genies, or jinn, from the tale of Aladdin and the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, but they are actually supernatural figures deeply rooted in, and predating, Islam. But granting wishes for others and never yourself, and living in oil lamps and bottles, has got to take its toll on a spirit over the millennia. Phenomenal cosmic powers … itty-bitty living space!

Image: Photospin

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Judge rules against family of ‘Superman’ creator

July 9th, 2009, 8:05 am by Jayson Peters

action1According to a report by Michael Hinman at Airlock Alpha, the family of late Superman creator Jerry Siegel will have to be happy with the royalties they’re getting now for the iconic comic book character. A U.S. District Court judge said Warner Bros. and DC Comics have fulfilled their obligations to the Siegels under a profit-sharing agreement for the 2006 movie Superman Returns and the CW series Smallville. It’s just the latest in a long line of legal battles for the heirs, including a federal court decision last year to awarded them half of the copyright to the Superman material in Action Comics No. 1.

ASU sued by blind groups over use of Amazon’s e-book device

June 30th, 2009, 2:15 pm by Jayson Peters
amazonkindledx

Amazon Kindle DX

Arizona State University is being sued by advocates for the blind, who say the school is discriminating against vision-impaired students by offering textbooks via Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reading device, according to a story by Courthouse News Service.

Darrell Shandrow, an ASU journalism student who is listed as a plaintiff along with the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, tells ASU’s State Press that the Kindle DX’s lack of an audio menu interfacefeatures locks the blind out of the new technology and puts them at a competitive disadavantage.

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At least one D&D piracy case headed to mediation

June 19th, 2009, 11:33 pm by Jayson Peters

An Associated Press story reveals more details about the recent Dungeons & Dragons lawsuits than you can shake a Rod of Lordly Might at.

One of the defendants is bravely questing forth to represent himself in a copyright infringement suit filed by Wizards of the Coast, which is basically Hasbro — one of the largest toymakers in the world. His case appears to be headed for mediation, so he may yet make his saving throw vs. scary corporate lawyers.

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D&D parent co. pulls legal PDFs off market, starts flame war

April 6th, 2009, 10:58 pm by Jayson Peters

Wizards of the CoastToday the game company Wizards of the Coast filed three lawsuits targeting eight people accused of distributing pirated copies of its new Dungeons & Dragons book Player’s Handbook 2, while simultaneously ending its arrangements with online retailers to sell PDF copies of its past and present products. The move has set message boards ablaze with anti-WoTC sentiment that already was stoked by the new edition of the game and the transformation of the popular Dragon and Dungeon magazines from print to an online platform.

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Geek in Review: 2/15/08 - Lawsuits & Lions

February 15th, 2008, 10:38 pm by Jayson Peters

First, the latest news:

mordortext.jpg

  • There’s trouble in Middle-earth - again! The Tolkien estate is suing New Line Cinema for profits from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This may cause yet another delay in the long-awaited production of The Hobbit.

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