justice
Music
Student Forced To Pay $US675,000 To RIAA For Sharing 30 Songs
8:00AM Dan Nosowitz | Joel Tenenbaum admitted to sharing 30 songs with Kazaa back in 2004 (Kazaa! So quaint!) and was originally fined $US150,000 per song. He worked that down to “only” $US22,500 per song, but that’s still $US675,000 in total. More »
Online
Court Orders File-Sharer To Pay $80,000 Per Song To RIAA
3:00PM Dan Nosowitz | A delusional Minnesota court has ordered Jammie Thomas, wanton criminal Kazaa user, to pay a total of $US1.92 million for sharing 24 songs. As my own little protest, I’m going to illegally download Metallica’s entire discography. And I hate Metallica. More »
Weapons
Judge Rules It’s Legal To Taser Someone For DNA Sample, As Long As It’s Not Done ‘Maliciously’
4:40AM Sean Fallon | As long as it is not done “maliciously, or to an excessive extent, or with resulting injury,” Niagara County, NY Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza ruled that using a Taser to obtain a DNA sample is legally valid. More »
Gadgets
Guy Fights Off Pranksters With Night Vision Goggles and Supersoaker Filled With Piss
6:50PM Brian Lam | Some guy got tired of kids wrapping his house in toilet paper every night. So he borrowed some mil spec night vision goggles, filled a super soaker with pee and drenched them when they showed. More »
Online
11:30AM Nick Broughall | Forget 12 Angry Men, Judge Judy and Ally McBeal – This is the courtroom-based entertainment I want to see. A program based on a true story – perhaps a comedy – where instead of following the explicit justice system rules that you cannot share details of any case, one particular juror goes home and runs a poll on Facebook asking friends for advice on whether the alleged criminals are guilty.
Imagine it: Each week the juror in question could have a separate case… One week it’s child abduction, another week it’s child rape (the two charges in the real-life case this imaginary show is based on). Of course, there are a few details to work out – like why the main character is always on jury duty – but that shouldn’t stand in the way of a good story.
But you would have to explain why they weren’t kicked off the jury each week as well, which is what does happen in real life. At least real life can give us a tagline for the show: “”I don’t know which way to go, so I’m holding a poll.” Yes, she actually said that, after disclosing all the confidential evidence of the trial.
(Insert canned laughter here.)
Fortunately, the real life trial continued without the advice-seeking juror.
[The Sun via Cnet via AllFacebook] More »
British Juror Asks Facebook For Advice
11:30AM Nick Broughall | Forget 12 Angry Men, Judge Judy and Ally McBeal – This is the courtroom-based entertainment I want to see. A program based on a true story – perhaps a comedy – where instead of following the explicit justice system rules that you cannot share details of any case, one particular juror goes home and runs a poll on Facebook asking friends for advice on whether the alleged criminals are guilty.
Imagine it: Each week the juror in question could have a separate case… One week it’s child abduction, another week it’s child rape (the two charges in the real-life case this imaginary show is based on). Of course, there are a few details to work out – like why the main character is always on jury duty – but that shouldn’t stand in the way of a good story.
But you would have to explain why they weren’t kicked off the jury each week as well, which is what does happen in real life. At least real life can give us a tagline for the show: “”I don’t know which way to go, so I’m holding a poll.” Yes, she actually said that, after disclosing all the confidential evidence of the trial.
(Insert canned laughter here.)
Fortunately, the real life trial continued without the advice-seeking juror.
[The Sun via Cnet via AllFacebook] More » 
