Copyright Law Could Stop 3-D Printed Guns. Should It?
The latest strategy to stop the signal: seize 3D gun file copyrights using eminent domain . . .
Like a computer program, the plastic gun schematic is a document file. As such, it automatically receives a copyright owned by the creator of the schematic, namely Wilson. Accordingly, under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the federal, state, or local government could exercise eminent domain to take ownership of the copyright. Indeed, a fair number of legal scholars believe that copyrights are subject to the Takings Clause, and the Supreme Court has suggested a number of times that the clause applies to intellectual property. For example, in Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto, the court held that it applied to trade secrets; themselves a form of intellectual property.
To exercise eminent domain, a process known as condemnation, the government would first need to identify a relevant statute broad enough to authorize the taking (such as California’s statute, once deemed broad enough to authorize Oakland to condemn a football franchise). It would then file a lawsuit asking a court to condemn the copyright and thus transfer title to the government. An eminent domain action is necessary here because the government needs to fully divest Wilson of his copyright; a “regulatory taking” where the government only restricts the manner of use of the copyright would not suffice.
What if guns were regulated like cars? To increase child safety, AAP president calls for public health approach
Yeah, this again . . .
What if, she asked, “guns were regulated like cars?”
Speaking before doctors, nurses and students, Kraft proposed the idea of taking a public health approach to “keeping kids safe when it comes to gun violence.”
What if the law mandated that gun ownership require licensing, liability insurance, health requirements and inspections at regular intervals, she asked.
Once officials began looking at car ownership and driving rights as a data-driven public health and safety issue, she said, the result was seatbelt laws, federal safety standards, speed limits and the introduction of child safety seats. And the result of those things has been a significant drop in automobile-related deaths, she said.
Hedge Fund Billionaire Takes On The Strangely Thorny Issue Of Gun Data
This should be good . . .
The ripple effect of the Parkland shooting and students’ activism continues to roll across the policy landscape. One small, but potentially significant initiative: The Laura and John Arnold Foundation is piecing together a coalition of private funders to devote $50 million to research on gun violence as a public safety issue. To oversee the project, the foundation picked the RAND Foundation, which has its own Gun Policy in America initiative.
John Arnold is a former energy trader who worked at Enron and later founded his own firm. His fortune is estimated at $3.3 billion. After he retired at 38, he and his wife have made science one of their primary causes.
The Foundation hopes to work across political divides to produce a body of evidence that both sides will trust. “We are about evidence, where the truth takes us,” said Jeremy Travis, senior vice president of Criminal Justice. “We’re not on one side or another of the gun debates that are really dividing the country. We are interested in testing ideas and finding out what works.”
WATCH: MLB Star Stands Ground As Reporters Hound Him Over Pro-Gun Post: My Family Fled Castro
“As most of you guys know I’m Cuban-American, and most of my family was run out of Cuba because of a brutal dictator,” Martinez told a swarm of reporters on Tuesday. “It’s terrible. It’s one of those things where I’ll never get to meet some of my family because of it.”
“I love my country. I stand by the Constitution and I stand by the Second Amendment,” he continued. “It’s something I take pride in and it’s something I’ll back up.”
“Everybody has a right to stand by what they believe in and that’s what makes us American,” added Martinez, according to the New York Daily News. “We’re not all going to believe in the same things, but that’s what makes this country so great.”
3 students in custody, 1 hurt after police find gun on SF campus
Isn’t that illegal? . . .
A 14-year-old freshman accused of bringing a gun to Balboa High School ran away after the gun accidentally discharged in a classroom, according to a source.
The student brought the gun to school in his backpack. No students were injured by gunfire, though one girl hurt her back, according to officials.
The student who brought the gun to school turned himself in at the Bayview Police Station Thursday afternoon. His mother took him to the station, which is near his home.