Dungeons & Dragons: A Threat to Prison Security

Sometime you read a story and it takes a lot of re-reading and double checking before you can bring yourself to accept it truly is legitimate. This is one of those stories.

The seventh circuit of the United States Court of Appeals has just published (The case was published back in January 2010, not 2011) a ruling on a case heard last in September 2009. Let us peruse the opening line and consider whether this may be the greatest legal ruling in history:

After concluding that the popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (“D&D”) represented a threat to prison security, officials at Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution took action to eradicate D&D within the prison’s wall.

Yes, you read that right. This is a ruling on whether or not prison officials were justified in confiscating D&D material. It wasn’t a case of officials being concerned that multi-faceted dice could be fashioned into weapons (only “twenty-one books, fourteen magazines” and handwritten notes were confiscated), but an even more serious matter:

Waupun’s long-serving Disruptive Group Coordinator, Captain Bruce Muraski, received an anonymous letter from an inmate. The letter expressed concern that Singer and three other inmates were forming a D&D gang and were trying to recruit others to join by passing around their D&D publications and touting the “rush” they got from playing the game.

The prisoner concerned, Kevin Singer, complained the confiscation was a violation of first amendment rights. He then, in the words of the court, sought “a panoply of relief”, which sadly turned out not to be a D&D spell.

Singer maintains that rather than D&D playing encouraging gang activity, it actually deters prisoners from joining gangs.

After losing the case, Singer took it to appeal. There, an expert on prison gangs argued not only that having a Dungeon Master issue direction to other players “mimics the organization of a gang”, but that the game encourages players to become obsessed with mentally escaping the restrictions of prison life, which could threaten “the safety and security of the institution.”

Although Singer produced witness testimony from 11 other inmates who said they had never heard of D&D leading to gang-related activity, the judges at the appeal ruled this was irrelevant: all that mattered was that it was reasonable for the prison officials to believe it might do so in the future.

And what is the evidence for this argument? Well, in a 2009 case, a prison gang leader “established and enforced rules.” You know, just like in D&D. And hell, there’s even a risk of “D&D players looking to Dungeon Masters, rather than to the prison’s own carefully constructed hierarchy of authority, for guidance and dispute resolution.”

In any case, the judges noted, the prison wasn’t banning all books or games. After all, in a 2005 case when some games were banned, ” strategy games like Risk, Stratego, chess, and checkers remained available to prisoners.”

In conclusion, the judges pointed out that Singer had failed in his duty to prove conclusively that D&D could not lead to gang activity. (Which may be because even the most creative role-player can’t prove a future negative.)

The court therefore rejected the appeal.

(Via Above the Law)



Apple Awarded Patent for Time Machine. Product Launch Scheduled for 1985

by Derek Clark
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Remember as a kid how you’d dream about all the cool stuff you’d one day enjoy in the future? Well, you probably don’t have a pink hoverboard or self-lacing sneakers just yet, but chances are, Apple has already patented it.

Recently, Mashable.com reported that Apple was granted 563 patents in 2010. 563! That’s a lot of lowercase i’s. Think about it. What’s the best idea you had last year? A cat litter box shaped like a chocolate chip cookie? A Snuggie tank top? A towel that dries towels? Whatever it was, I’m sure even the janitor at Apple probably thought of ten things way cooler.

Here are just a few patented ideas that Apple’s custodial engineer may or may not have helped design…

iBike: Apple’s smart bike concept is like the Nike+ running system, but for those who prefer to pedal. Sure, you’ll be able to monitor your heart rate, speed, distance, etc. on your iPod or iPhone, but the system could be utilized to create live, competitive gaming between you and other riders. The entire city could be your Mario Kart racetrack. Eat my stardust, Bowser!

iKey: Do you really need all those jagged pieces of metal stabbing you in your pocket or hiding like a frightened turtle at the bottom of your purse? Apple doesn’t think so. Your iPhone already does everything else for you. Why not let it unlock your car and home with a proximity-based PIN code system? Of course, saying ‘open sesame’ while doing it won’t be necessary, but you’ll do it anyway.

iHeadset: Hold up. Why do we need another douche-defining, bluetooth earpiece, you say? ‘Cause it’s got lasers! Not really, but it would have standalone media playback functionality. So fortunately, the asshats that insist on wearing it every minute of the day can at least pretend to be listening to music. Although, I’m not sure their Winger albums still count as music.

And that’s just the tip of the iIceberg. Who knows? Maybe Steve Jobs’ recent leave of absence is just him testing out the beta version of the Apple Time Machine. No, we’re not talking about this one here. So, if you start seeing unexplained iPhones or strange old guys wearing mock turtlenecks and blue jeans popping up in old photos from 1985, it probably means you can go ahead and download that new time machine app in the App Store. Hell, it’s only 99¢!



Trademarkville! Zynga stakes claim on Facebook “villes”

The upcoming Facebook game Blingville is still in beta testing and already the folks at Zynga are pulling out the legal guns. They sent the creators a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that the new game’s title is infringing Zynga’s trademark in the “ville” franchise of Zynga’s Farmville, Cityville, Fishville, etc.

Blingville is already fighting back though, having filed a lawsuit requesting a declaratory judgment that their “ville” is perfectly legal. And though they’re claiming that Zynga’s accusation is harming their game, I suspect the publicity is doing exactly the opposite. The Facebook page already has almost 15,000 fans even without a game open to the public.

Of course, when it comes to copying, here’s a question: What’s more similar, Farmville and Blingville – or Farmville and Farm Town? This is an interesting move from Farmville’s creators, who have been repeatedly accused of doing a little copying themselves. Though trademark unlike copyright is more concerned with market confusion (us poor Facebook users might mistakenly believe that Zynga created Blingville!), it does seem a bit odd for Zynga to get a monopoly on “ville.”

Wolfenstein 1-D

The game that changed everything, now converted to a one-pixel line! From WONDER-TONIC, Wolfenstein 1-D:

In 1992, Wolfenstein 3-D revolutionized video games and created the 3D first-person shooter genre. Now, after decades of development, Wolfenstein 3-D has been converted to breathtaking, epoch-making 1-D. You can now play the game in a single, dazzling one-pixel line.

Got a lot of time (and looking for a squinting-induced headache)? Play now!

Android in orbit: Google phone headed for space

British researchers plan to send a cellphone into orbit to discover if it will still work. If it does, it could mean major changes to the way satellites are used.

The project, run by the University of Surrey and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited will involve sending a satellite named STRaND-1 into orbit. The 30cm-long satellite will have a mass of just 4kg and include the components pictured above plus an as-yet undetermined handset, though the BBC reports it will run Google’s Android system.

The phone will be a standard “off-the-shelf” model that costs less than £300 (approx US$500) and will be used without any physical modification. To protect the handset, it will be placed inside the casing of the satellite, which will have a small hole to allow access to the camera lens.

Once in orbit, the phone will be remotely tested to discover which of its features is still operational. If the results prove favorable, control of the satellite will then be switched over so it can be operated via the phone, using a custom-made application.

Lead researcher Chris Bridges noted that many existing smartphone capabilities such as video camera, GPS and Wi-Fi are both smaller and considerably cheaper on a phone handset than existing satellite designs: “If a smartphone can be proved to work in space, it opens up lots of new technologies to a multitude of people and companies for space who usually can’t afford it. It’s a real game-changer for the industry,”

The ongoing collaboration between the commercial company and the university is said to be designed to make it possible for researchers and students to work on real-world (or rather real-solar system) projects.

While this is the first time an unaccompanied smartphone will have been sent into orbit, an iPhone has been sent 100,000 feet high attached to a weather balloon, alongside an operational camcorder. The Brooklyn Space Program, a hobby affair of a father and son, didn’t actually use the phone in space: instead they used its GPS locator to find the craft when it returned to earth.