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Determining civil and criminal liability for the lost iPhone
Editor's Note: One of the advantages of having an attorney on the TUAW team is the opportunity for this sort of deep-dive legal analysis. We asked Lauren to dig into the circumstances and statutes around the case of the mystery iPhone, and she obliged. While Lauren is a real lawyer, she's not your lawyer, nor is she licensed in California, so please do not make decisions about what to do with found property in bars without consulting your own legal counsel. Ever since Gizmodo put up those pictures and claimed to have Apple's next iPhone in hand, questions have been swirling about what the repercussions, if any, might be from a legal perspective. While the iPhone's peddler probably ought to be finding himself a lawyer, the more interesting question is this: is Gizmodo courthouse-bound? This question has gotten increasingly more interesting in light of the fact that as of today, CNET reports that Silicon Valley police are looking into the matter. Let's break it down, with a lengthy look at just who might be wronged and how. Find the nearest leather chair, a bookcase of legal tomes, sew on your elbow patches, and get ready to look contemplative. There are two entities to which Giz could be forced to answer: they are Apple, and the State of California, representing both civil and criminal liability respectively.
Officers' Quarters: Courtesy counts
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. The community of WoW is not best known for its courtesy. The bar for what constitutes civil behavior has been set pretty low. We as officers don't expect much from random people, but we'd like to think our members and counterparts are better than the average player. That's why it's always so disappointing when we discover we are wrong. Dear Scott, I have been an officer in my guild for quite a while but one thing I am noticing more and more is the lack of courtesy between members. I along with several of the other officers and members think of our guild as a family and it kind of cuts us when we have members leave without any word, explanation, or a simple "goodbye". Just today we had a member (we will call him Bob for simplicity) just up and leave without any word and one of the officers made a hasty remark in the trade channel. Probably 4 hours later Bob gets on an alt still in the guild and starts smarting off which gets others responding likewise (including officers) so much so that I have to step in and stop it.
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment sued over unpaid bills
The developers of Stargate Worlds, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, has already admitted to cash flow problems. They also have had problems with not paying their employees for at least 25 days of service. Now, problems are looking even worse for the Stargate Worlds developer as they find themselves the target of a lawsuit over unpaid bills.Capital Princess LLC has sued Cheyenne Mountain over an unpaid open account, according to the Arizona Business Gazette on azcentral.com as of March 5th. This just adds to the problems of the unreleased game, which makes us all nervous and wishful that Stargate Worlds will reach completion.We'll keep you informed on this situation as we get more information.
NVIDIA faces barrage of civil lawsuits
Those price fixing allegations that AMD and NVIDIA were facing late last year may have vanished from the forefront of your memory, but you can rest assured that the legal teams connected to the two are still workin' overtime to clean things up. Apparently, NVIDIA has been slapped with as many as 51 civil complaints over "price fixing and anti-competitive agreements, among other things," and on its March 16th filing with the SEC, the firm states that "42 civil complaints as of March 14 were filed against it on the same allegations." Notably, the outfit did state that the "lawsuits are putative class-actions," and unsurprisingly felt that they were all lacking merit and would be fought vigorously. Tsk, Tsk.[Via Gearlog]
Japanese hardware sales, Apr. 16 - Apr. 22: Civil War edition
Camp Lincoln Keokuk IowaOctober the 23rd, 1862To Miss Dorothy W. SullivanMy darling Dorothy,I will inform you that I am well at this time, in this God Forsaken regiment. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I am to be no more. Death is coming, Dorothy, I can feel its stench in the blood-soaked battlefields on which we stand, in the eyes of my comrades as they see the fallen friends who once laughed and drank alongside.Would I were back with you, dear Dorothy, that all happiness should come to us as it once did. My country hath borne me on these winds away from you, and unseeing with my one eye 'gainst your two, I tread as they so commanded. Your bright smile still warms me as I lay in drought, and those who would care care not about me, and those who do not pay as much mind as they did.My forefathers have fallen, and yours live strong; our children might not remember the lineage which I bestow. O Dorothy! Do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.- Percy Sullivan- DS Lite: 172,359 39,034 (29.28%)- Wii: 77,913 2,154 (2.84%)- PSP: 29,459 4,609 (18.55%) - PS2: 11,398 1,474 (11.45%) - PS3: 11,000 948 (7.93%) - Xbox 360: 2,307 593 (20.45%) - GBA SP: 860 206 (31.50%) - Game Boy Micro: 449 168 (27.23%) - Gamecube: 266 99 (59.28%) - DS Phat: 81 65 (44.52%) - GBA: 55 29 (111.54%)[Source: Media Create]
UK report predicts rights for robots; your AIBO wants a tax break
If you've got someone who loves you, holds down a steady job, helps you out, reads your mail to you, takes care of you, and even gives birth, it's only fair that they enjoy the same rights and liberties as everyone else, right? What if that individual is powered by an Intel processor? Concerns over the status of robots in our society around 2056 have emerged from "one of 270 forward-looking papers sponsored by Sir David King," the UK government's chief scientist. Essentially, folks in favor of robotic rights suggest that if conscience bots are made to interact with humans, they should share a certain level of rights. Currently, the machines we know and love (and fear) are classed as "inanimate objects without rights or duties," but if rights were passed, somehow these creations would be forced to obey traffic lights and potentially pay taxes. Of course, a large concern is ethics towards these creatures, but some say that if robots in society are "correctly managed," it could lead to increased labor output and "greater prosperity." Although this stuff may seem pretty far-fetched right now, the logic behind it could actually grow legs in the (somewhat) distant future, but until there's a robotic candidate on the presidential ballot, we'll just keep on keepin' on.[Thanks, Fred R. and Laura O.]
