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A Timeline of Handwavium Law in the United States of America
September 11, 2008: Washington DCIn response to the recent wave of thefts and other scandals, most recently culminating in the theft of the former-Soviet 'Buran' space shuttle prototype, President Bush signed into law a complete prohibition on the use or distribution of the substance known as 'handwavium'. The bill, known as the 'Maintaining America's Technological Security Act', makes it a federal felony to posess or distribute handwavium without proper licensing. The bill contains, however, no regulations on how such licensing is to be granted. . . .
March 14th, 2009: Washington DCPresident Giuliani today signed into law the Blaisdell Act, a comprehensive set of regulations for the safe use of 'handwavium' in research and production. Due to the clear dangers associated with the substance, any facility working with it will need to meet stringent safety standards. Applications from several prominent research institutes are already pending, including MIT, Harvard, and Lawrence Liverpool National Laboratory. . . .
September 15th, 2009: Rochester NYRockhounds, Inc. today became the first corporation licensed to utilize handwavium in commercial production under the Blaisdell Act. Consumers may rest assured that the substance is not utilized in any actual production methodology. Instead, the mining consortium is making use of handwavium-modified vehicles (so-called 'fencraft') and mining equipment in order to extract raw minerals and ore from asteroids. . . .
April 8th, 2010: Helena MTThe Montana State Supreme Court today agreed to hear the case of Carolyn Fischer, former Professor of Biochemistry at Carroll College. Doctor Fischer asserts that her employment with the college was terminated because of discrimination against her due to a handwavium-induced "bio-modification". . . .
July 4th, 2011: Livermore CAResearch scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories announced the successful test of the first operational fusion reactor this morning. The reactor utilized handwavium-based gravity generators to induce fusion, rather than the traditional laser arrangement. Producing three hundred megawatts of power over and above its own functional requirements, it is the most powerful sustained fusion reaction so far produced. . . .
August 1st, 2012: Washington DCThe Land Theft Prevention Act goes into full effect today, prohibiting the removal of large areas of land from their current locations. . . .
October 1st, 2012: Rochester NYCerion Energy Systems announces a patent on a new form of high-density storage battery. At more than ten times the capacity of previous rechargeable systems, the new batteries are expected to revolutionist the electric automobile industry. . . .
November 1st, 2013: Washington DCThe 'Catgirl Protection Act' goes into effect today, adding "nonconsensual Handwavium-induced biomodification" to the list of actions that qualify as assault under Federal law. . . .
January 5th, 2014: Reno NVHandwavium-related technologies took another leap forward today, as Reno-based Migitech Inc announced they had received Federal licensing to go ahead with their new line of NanoForge water filters. Because the production process uses a handwavium-enhanced machine, the company has faced an uphill battle to gain approval under the Blaisdell Act's strict regulations. "NanoForge water is entirely safe," Migitech president Joseph Brown stated. "I've been bathing with, and drinking, nothing but NanoForge water for the past year, and not a single blue hair to be seen." . . . .
April 1, 2014: Cocoa, FLNASA's Handwavium scandal came to an end today as the embattled space agency agreed to privatize their handwavium-enhanced spacecraft operations. A contract was signed with the already-licensed Artemis Foundation to operate and maintain the aging Shuttle fleet on NASA's behalf. . . .
June 8th, 2015: Los Angeles, CAIn a move hailed as ironic and
"deeply amusing" by pundits on both sides of the aisle, a consortium of
eleven coal-mining companies today joined the class-action lawsuit
seeking repeal of the Land Theft Prevention Act, after its provisions
were used by eco-protest groups to have surface mining operations shut
down in several states. Today these corporate miners find themselves
standing alongside the same protestors who shut them down as they throw
their backing behind the pro-Handwavium protest groups. . . .
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Please feel free to suggest additions, edits, changes in this thread!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Here are a couple things I pulled out of the wiki:

The Maintaining America's Technological Security Act of 2008, the hardest American crackdown on handwavium enacted before 2012, passed because of Ptichka's launch.

The 2012 Land Theft Prevention Act passed in the wake of the Grover's Corners launch. The Corners launched April 20, 2012, so this probably became law before Fall of that year.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
April 1st, 2014: Cocoa, FL
Because of their violation of handwavium-use laws, NASA is forced to divest its space exploration arm, selling it to a previously-obscure company called the Artemis Foundation. The company, which was wholly-owned by Stellvia Corporation, immediately went public to raise the funds necessary to complete the purchase ...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
After knowledge of the Catgirling Machine became public, a law was passed in 2013 regarding "nonconsensual Handwavium-induced biomods". Rammed through the system, most people had no problem with the idea that it should be an assault crime... the problem people tend to have with it was that it was so broadly written that a completely accidental biomod could wind up with serious criminal charges filed against a handwavium user.

In 2017, a case came before the Supreme Court regarding the broad stroke of the law, charges having been brought by the American parents of a college student caught in a completely accidental biomod when the University lab she was at in England had an unforseeable containment failure. She was insistent that it was an accident, there's no need to go to all the trouble, and she actually liked her biomod, but her parents had been in a protracted appeals fight with the university over what the parents saw as their criminal liability. The Supreme Court ruled that the law was overly vague, and that criminal charges for something that was a complete accident out of anyone's control was a bit much, thank you very much.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
Related to the criminal charges was the Kentucky Cat incident in 2013, where a number if individuals involved in organised crime were charged with kidnapping and grievous assault, in relation to the disappearance of a number of Kentucky locals. They had been seeding them with handwavium, before kidnapping them, stealing their equipment, catgirling to hide the evidence, then shipping the catgirls to orbit. The question of whether creating a catgirl constituted murder, or grievous assault was tested in court, under the same jurisprudence governing extreme cases of assault leading to brain damage or other loss of faculty or memory. Further charges relating to the use of a weapon of mass destruction, terrorism, armed robbery, racketeering and unlicensed distribution of handwavium led to an accumulated sentence for one defendant exceeding 1500 years.

Those involved were further sentenced to death, or life without possibility parole, for the capital murder of Stae Nor. They currently remain on the Kentucky Death Row as of 2022.

In all cases, the appeals process is ongoing. (I'm making assumptions about the US legal system here).
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

HRogge

Hmm... one "hard incident" in 2008 (election year)... one in 2012 (election year).

I wonder if someone of the hardliners would look into 'creating' another accident in 2016. Wink
I'd like to think the 2012 Land Theft Act would eventually be invalidated by the Supreme Court, if only because it took long-standing property rights away from landowners... and maybe because it might have been badly-written enough that it accidentally outlawed strip mines and other large-scale digging operations; when the environmental movement noticed that and used it to shut down a few particularly nasty operations, you can bet corporate lobbyists were suddenly pitching for its repeal...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
OK, added a few bits here and there. Let me know if you think any dates need to be changed for the incidents I've invented. Dartz, I'd like to add the Kentucky Cat incident, just not sure how to write it up for this format, since all I'm really putting in is the first sentence or three of the news story.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Quote:HRogge wrote:
Hmm... one "hard incident" in 2008 (election year)... one in 2012 (election year).

I wonder if someone of the hardliners would look into 'creating' another accident in 2016. Wink
Boskone took care of that for them.
Does anyone have a link to the timeline on that? I'd like to work in the post-Boskone scandals, the fall of the TSAB, etc.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

HRogge

ECSNorway Wrote:Does anyone have a link to the timeline on that? I'd like to work in the post-Boskone scandals, the fall of the TSAB, etc.
Shadowrunning and Cats Crandle happening end 2014 to begin of 2015... the whole "handwavium can manipulate memory".

Not sure the US ever learned about it. But maybe they heard that the Boskones still had a whole space station in 2015.
Taken from the FenWiki Artificial Intelligence page:
Quote:"Occasionally groups with interest in acquiring 'wavetech, or merely being excessively wavephobic, will push for legislation that declares them to be little more than property. The worst of these was an early attempt by the United States Congress to declare anything that had been created or altered by Handwavium to be property subject to immediate seizure if it entered the United States; that attempt died in committee."
There should probably be a at least three entries for AI: one for an immediate, knee-jerk reaction, one a tentative law that that repeals that original but doesn't actually say anything other than "we're keeping an open mind," and the last a cautious acceptance, probably as late as the 2020s.
(Tenetive to approval)December 2016- The US Navy anounces the completion and relaunch amphibous ship USS Tarawa a joint waving prodject between one unnamed fen and the navy in experiment in waving the ship for both flight and space travel 
edit: so noted and changed 
 
Rajvik Wrote:(Tenetive to approval)December 2016- TSAB anounces the completion and relaunch amphibous ship USS Tarawa a joint waving prodject between one unnamed fen and TSAB in experiment in waving the ship for both flight and space travel
TSAB's goal is to duplicate all the toys without using handwavium. This sounds more like a US Navy partnership to me.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
It's also not much of a point in the timeline of legal affairs. As in points of law. What I'm trying to trace is the trending towards hardening and softening of the laws regarding handwavium.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
What about the blanket pardons and so on for some of those chased off-planet ca. 2008?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
That was part of the Treaty of Kandor-Con, if I recall correctly. But the amnesty included the dropping of charges related to handwavium laws, so it counts as a legal event, at least.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Mm. First thing -- Rajvik, "fen" is plural, "fan" is singular. The usage was born decades ago in a joking analogy to "man/men".

Second thing -- The crew of the Grover's Corners are, at least as of 2012-13, wanted criminals in the United States mainly because of the scale on which they worked and its proximity to Washington DC. I've never stated if this is ever dropped; it might be fun if there are regular attempts to try to extradite them back to the US which are politely (or not so politely) ignored by the Convention.

Hm.
Quote:It doesn't matter that they didn't have terroristic motives. Their actions were de facto terrorism regardless of their intentions, and they should be prosecuted accordingly by Federal authorities.
-- [insert choice of extreme Congressman here]
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

HRogge

Foxboy Wrote:What about the blanket pardons and so on for some of those chased off-planet ca. 2008?
Getting a pardon doesn't mean you can come back with illegal goods... so coming back might have been okay since 2008 as long as you leave waved stuff behind... difficult to do if you are a biomod or an AI.
Pardon's for handwavium crimes are great...

Now there's just violations of planning regulations, aerospace regulations, environmental regulations, health and safety regulations.... A well motivated government can find any number of ways to make life difficult, and none of them are related to handwavium. And that's not even getting to the T-word, which now seems to be shorthand for 'did something in a way we just don't like'.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
One of the things A.C. did to at least try to keep himself out of some legal trouble was use contracts stating that he was NOT a doctor, that the other party knew and accepted this, that there was a high risk of a biomod if complications arose, etc, etc...

Other people tried this too, and they were being challenged in various courts when Kandor-Con came around. These were accidentally grandfathered in by the treaty (if you want to be more deliberate, an A.I. slipped a clause in for something else that could be expanded), but was no longer allowed.
Dartz Wrote:Pardon's for handwavium crimes are great...

Now there's just violations of planning regulations, aerospace regulations, environmental regulations, health and safety regulations.... A well motivated government can find any number of ways to make life difficult, and none of them are related to handwavium. And that's not even getting to the T-word, which now seems to be shorthand for 'did something in a way we just don't like'.
And Noah was extremely careful to stay completely within the law - that's why he was allowed to make the April Fool's Purchase where many other fen with checkered pasts were turned away.

Bob Schroeck Wrote:Second thing -- The crew of the Grover's Corners are, at least as of 2012-13, wanted criminals in the United States mainly because of the scale on which they worked and its proximity to Washington DC. I've never stated if this is ever dropped; it might be fun if there are regular attempts to try to extradite them back to the US which are politely (or not so politely) ignored by the Convention.
"Hello, Mr. Schroeck? This is Patience McInnis at the Convention Authority. We have a request here from the United States government for you to return to West Virginia. Are you willing to accept the document?"
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Quote:robkelk wrote:
Quote:Dartz wrote:
Pardon's for handwavium crimes are great...

Now there's just violations of planning regulations, aerospace regulations, environmental regulations, health and safety regulations.... A well motivated government can find any number of ways to make life difficult, and none of them are related to handwavium. And that's not even getting to the T-word, which now seems to be shorthand for 'did something in a way we just don't like'.
And Noah was extremely careful to stay completely within the law - that's why he was allowed to make the April Fool's Purchase where many other fen with checkered pasts were turned away.
Yep. It's entirely possible that Marsden is the only other Fen with sufficient funds and legal standing to do it... and he never even thought about it.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

richardson

Say, as a tangentally related subject, what would the chances of the Stingray's commander pulling legal-fu to pull some of the 300 F-18s in mothballs at the boneyard (minus engines, avionics, and weapons), and then waiving them, mounting railguns and fen-built speed drives and avionics, and hiring retired naval and airforce pilots to form a Navy-Comissioned and regulated militia? The fighters would remain Navy property, 'on-loan' until a proper space navy branch could be established to protect American citizens and economic interests.

All technically legal according to the constitution and the bill of rights, after all...
Hm. It's been a week since the last change to the "timeline" in the first post. Is this ready for putting up on the wiki in some form?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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