In 2009, a Maryland county court convicted Glenn Raynor of rape, the verdict hinging on a key piece of evidence: Raynor's DNA samples. However, Raynor didn't give his DNA willingly. After he consistently refused to provide any samples to the police, officers snagged a few samples of Raynor's sweat from a chair he had been sitting in during an interrogation session. The DNA matched DNA found at the crime scene, and the prosecution built their case around that fact, leading to a 100-year prison sentence.
Last month, online television company Aereo lost in a major case before the Supreme Court. The Court's 6-3 decision in ABC v. Aereo treated the company, and its unique antenna arrays, as just another cable network. In court documents filed yesterday, Aereo argues that it's allowed to keep operating. Only this time, Aereo will explicitly be a cable company.
Yesterday, in a 6-3 decision by the US Supreme Court in ABC v. Aereo, the government ruled that Aereo's streaming of cable TV over the web is illegal. In the process, the Supreme Court majority showed its confusion over how the internet works—and technology in general—and put forth a strange interpretation of the term "public performance."
Over in the US, the DC Circuit Court has issued a ruling in Verizon v. FCC that is likely the shape the very nature of the internet. At the heart of the case is how the companies that provide internet to consumers can control that flow of information. In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission put forth an order that required "network neutrality," meaning that internet providers had to treat all packets delivered on the internet as equal. Today, a court ruledthat the FCC lacks the authority to impose net neutrality on high-speed internet providers.
Dear Mr. President, I was hoping to get a jump on this Earth Day letter during the weekend, but I fell behind because of water in my basement. Torrential rains the past few days soaked the ground so much, the water had nowhere else to go. Of course, April showers are not unusual where I live in the Midwest; the problem is that right now, I don't have enough trees and bushes to absorb them. And that's the unusual thing. Those plants died, weak and thirsty, during an epic drought last summer - the hottest year on record. Now their absence is taking a toll.
Over in the old US of A, the high court has rejected an appeals court ruling allowing genes to be patented. The case involves two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer, patented by Myriad Genetics Inc, which obviously has implications for future issues surrounding patent law and commercial gene therapy.