title: Magadan Oblast

text: Owing to the severe climate, agriculture is Magadan Region's least developed economic sector; as a result, 50% of all food products must be supplied from outside. The agricultural complex consists of companies producing agricultural products, the food and processing industries, a production infrastructure, and farm enterprises. The particular areas of specialization are reindeer herding, fur farming, and traditional hunting, fishing, and fur trapping activities. Companies involved in food processing and production include Gormolzavod, a distillery, a pasta factory, a sausage factory, the Dukcha state poultry farm, and the Khasynsky state farm.


title: Magadan Oblast

text: Despite rich natural resources, the economy has not prospered as much as might have been expected in recent years. The severe climate and poorly developed infrastructure are partly to blame, but the difficult transition from Soviet times has led to the collapse of a number of companies with the result that many inhabitants have left the region. Recently, there does seem to have been renewed efforts to encourage foreign investment which could lead to improvements in the economy. Indeed, on a visit to Magadan in November 2005, President Vladimir Putin supported the extension of special tax advantages for the region in order to encourage gold exploitation.


title: Magadan Oblast

text: 2009 - 1.54 | 2010 - 1.44 | 2011 - 1.48 | 2012 - 1.65 | 2013 - 1.69 | 2014 - 1.66 | 2015 - 1.66 | 2016 - 1.59(e)


title: Magadan Oblast

text: Magadan is a federal subject that has the highest rate of depopulation in the Russian Federation. Its population, which stood at 384,525 in 1991, stood at 165,820 on January 1, 2008 (according to the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics), falling at a rate of around 2% per year. The rural population, which had stood at 59,151, was just 8,833 in 2008 and decreasing at a rate of around 10% per year. Entire villages are being emptied out and the population of the rural areas of the districts is simply disappearing. The rural population of Yagodninsky District was reduced from 13,843 (1991) to 445 (2007). The Omsukchansky District saw its rural population plummet from 1,301 to 79. Especially extreme is the example of Susumansky District, where the rural population almost disappeared: from 9,764 in 1991 to just 116 in 2007. Emigration is evident from the fact that for the 20-24 age group, there were only 66 females living in rural areas, compared to 202 males. Male life expectancy for rural areas rose to 53.73 years in 2006 from 51.88 in 2005. In 2021 the depopulation continues with approximately the same rate, as the population is about 139,000 people.


title: Magadan Oblast

text: According to a 2012 survey 29.6% of the population of Magadan Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 3% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 3% is an Orthodox Christian believer without belonging to any church or adheres to other Orthodox churches, 2% of the population adheres to the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery) or to Siberian shamanism, 1% to Islam, 1% to the Old Believers. In addition, 27% of the population declares itself to be "spiritual but not religious", 13% is atheist, and 20.4% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.


title: Monster (2018 film)

text: Monster is a 2018 American legal drama film directed by Anthony Mandler, from a screenplay by Radha Blank, Cole Wiley, and Janece Shaffer, based on the novel of the same name by Walter Dean Myers. It stars Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jennifer Ehle, Tim Blake Nelson, Nasir "Nas" Jones, Rakim "A$AP Rocky" Mayers, Paul Ben-Victor, John David Washington, Jennifer Hudson, and Jeffrey Wright. Wright, Jones, and John Legend also serve as executive producers on the film.


title: Monster (2018 film)

text: Three years after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2018, the film was acquired by Netflix and released on May 7, 2021. It received generally positive reviews from critics.


title: Monster (2018 film)

text: The film premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In April 2019, it was announced that Entertainment Studios had acquired distribution rights to the film, retitled "All Rise". In November 2020, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film, with the title switching back to "Monster". It was released on their service on May 7, 2021.


title: Monster (2018 film)

text: The website's critical consensus reads, ""Monster" would have benefited from a less heavy-handed approach, but Kelvin Harrison Jr.'s performance gives this timely drama emotional heft." According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 18 critics, the film received "mixed or average reviews".


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Sunday Bloody Sunday is a 1971 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, written by Penelope Gilliatt, and starring Glenda Jackson, Peter Finch, Murray Head and Dame Peggy Ashcroft. It tells the story of a free-spirited young bisexual artist (played by Head) and his simultaneous relationships with a divorced recruitment consultant (Jackson) and a gay Jewish doctor (Finch).


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Although a box office failure in many regions of the United States, the film received critical acclaim upon release, with major praise drawn towards Schlesinger's direction, performances of the cast (particularly of Finch and Jackson), and its screenplay. The film garnered significant praise for its positive depiction of homosexuality, marking a considerable departure from Schlesinger's previous film "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), which portrayed gay men as alienated and self-loathing beings, as well as other gay-themed films of the era, including "The Boys in the Band" (1970) and "Some of My Best Friends Are..." (1971).


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: The film received numerous accolades. At the 25th British Academy Film Awards, the film received eight nominations, winning a leading five awards, including for the Best Film. It received four nominations at the 44th Academy Awards; Best Director, Best Actor (for Finch), Best Actress (for Jackson), and Best Original Screenplay.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Set in London, the film tells the story of a middle-aged gay Jewish doctor, Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch), and a divorced woman in her mid-30s, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson), who are both involved in an open love triangle with sculptor Bob Elkin (Murray Head), a younger man in his mid-20s. Not only are Daniel and Alex each aware that Bob is seeing the other but they know one another through common friends. Despite this, they are willing to put up with the situation through fear of losing Bob, who switches freely between them. Bob has his own coterie of artist friends who support his work, which consists of glass fountains.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Alex and Daniel are both close friends with the Hodsons, who are a bohemian, academic middle-class family living somewhere in a leafy London suburb. They alternate having Sunday dinner with the Hodsons, who are quite aware of their relationships but do not talk about them, though the Hodson children are inclined to snicker. Alex also has a depressed client who has recently lost his job to age discrimination. They sleep together at Alex's flat, and then Bob announces his arrival, forcing them to pretend to be having a casual drink. Bob tells Alex that he has no problem with her sleeping with other men. They are, in his words, "free".


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: There are minor crises in the narrative. The Hodsons' family dog is run over by a truck which narrowly misses eldest daughter Lucy. Daniel has to deal with a former lover (Jon Finch) who is a heroin addict. After unsuccessfully trying to fill a heroin prescription for him at a pharmacy, being unable to prove he is a doctor, Daniel finds that his medical bag has been stolen from his car.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: For Alex, the relationship is bound up with growing disillusion about her professional life, failed marriage and uneasy childhood. For Daniel, it represents an escape from the repressed nature of his Jewish upbringing. Both realise the lack of permanence about the situation. When Bob decides to leave the country to settle in New York, after receiving an offer to open his own art gallery, they both come face to face for the first time in the narrative. Despite their opposed circumstances, Daniel and Alex come to realise that it is time to move on; Bob leaves for the United States.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: The film ends with an unconventional speech from Daniel directly to the audience. He muses on his relationship with Bob, his friends' concern for his happiness, and declares "I am happy, apart from missing him." His last remark is "I only came about my cough," often a punch-line to a joke about a man going to the doctor and getting unexpected news.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Schlesinger had the idea for the film when making "Far from the Madding Crowd". The film took five years of development. "There were endless delays," said the director. "No one was very keen about our doing the film." There were casting problems. "For what it is it ended up being terribly expensive."


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: The film was partly based on Schlesinger's personal experience as a Jewish English gay man. He approached Penelope Gilliatt, who had recently finished a novel, "A Statement of Change", about a love triangle involving a doctor, and asked if she would write a script. They collaborated extensively on the first draft.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: The relationship between Schlesinger and Gilliatt was somewhat difficult. According to John Schlesinger biographer William J. Mann, the first draft came out of intensive collaboration and brainstorming sessions between Schlesinger and Gillattt. Schlesinger and producer Joseph Janni did not like Gilliatt's dialogues. By that time, Gilliatt already moved to New York to work for "The New Yorker" magazine, and did not want to return to London to revise the script. David Sherwin was brought in to do an extensive rewrite. Sherwin and Schlesinger are not credited for the script, because Gilliatt had it in her contract that she would be the sole scriptwriter.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: After the film's success in the United Kingdom, Gilliatt took the sole credit in the published final script in her interviews, going as far as stating that the "ideas had been hers", while in fact the initial idea was Schlesinger's and the story was very personal to him. Producer Joseph Janni wrote her a letter, asking her to acknowledge the collaborative nature of the final script, statingI have just received a copy of the book of SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY and I am flabergasted at the note at the back which says that you "first thought of this film script on a train in Switzerland".


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: I am writing this letter to you because of what has happened for some time with regard to verbal and written statements, ... all made by you with regard to the authorship... You have gone out of your way to want to create in everybody's mind the impression that the subject and the subsequent script were entirely your creation...


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: I want to be very clear that we do not want to take away from you any glory or fail to recognise the marvellous work you have done on the script of SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY. I wish, however, that any statement made about this work should correspond to the truth as I have stated it above and the reason for my writing this letter is to ask you to do so, so that we should not be forced, especially when coming to America for the opening of the film, to have to deny certain statements or make declarations which will conflict with yours and which ultimately will not be pleasant for any of us.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: John Schlesinger said he wanted Peter Finch for the role of Daniel Hirsh. However, he was meant to star in a film of "Man's Fate" so was unavailable. He then cast Alan Bates but Bates was held up filming "The Go-Between" (1970), so Ian Bannen was cast. Apparently, Bannen was so nervous about what kissing another male actor on screen might do to his career, he could not concentrate enough to even get going with the part. He later said that losing the role set back his career, and regretted it till his death. He was replaced by Finch who had by then become available.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Schlesinger was thinking of casting Jean Simmons until he saw Glenda Jackson in "Women in Love" and decided to offer her the role.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Several actresses (including Dame Edith Evans and Thora Hird) politely refused the part of Glenda Jackson's mother, Mrs. Greville, because they thought the project was too risqué. Dame Peggy Ashcroft accepted, after the director explained to her the elements of the story, and she gladly signed on.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Daniel Day-Lewis made his film debut in an uncredited role as a vandal. He described the experience as "heaven", getting paid £2 to vandalise expensive cars parked near St Alfege Church, Greenwich. The sequence showed children walking alongside a line of parked cars, casually scraping the cars' paintwork with keys and coins.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Of the kiss scene between Head and Finch, Schlesinger said he wanted to direct it "purely natural. Both Peter and Murray were totally involved in their parts and they were certainly less shocked by the kiss than some of the technicians."


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: The film makes extensive use of source music including a leitmotif of the trio "Soave sia il vento" from Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte".


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Schlesinger says that when he showed the film to United Artists executives in New York, "they were all appalled except David Picker. They were prepared to let it quietly die."


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: Peter Rainer of Bloomberg News wrote, "It's Finch's finest moment as an actor (and literally a far cry from his most famous role as the "mad prophet of the airwaves" in "Network"). As for Jackson, she was never better, more variegated."


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: This film appeared on both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel's Top 10 list of 1971, listed as No. 5 and No. 6 respectively. Roger Ebert commented, "The official East Coast line on John Schlesinger's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was that it is civilized. That judgment was enlisted to carry the critical defense of the movie; and, indeed, how can the decent critic be against a civilized movie about civilized people? My notion, all the same, is that "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is about people who suffer from psychic amputation, not civility, and that this film is not an affirmation but a tragedy... I think "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is a masterpiece, but I don't think it's about what everybody else seems to think it's about. This is not a movie about the loss of love, but about its absence."


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: The film performed strongly at the box office in urban centres but was not popular outside these and ultimately lost money. It grossed £20,149 in its first 13 days of release at the Leicester Square Theatre.


title: Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)

text: "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was released in blu-ray by the Criterion Collection in the U.S. and by the BFI in the U.K..


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Microsoft Game Studios and Ubisoft as part of the "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" series. Key members of the "" team, such as creative director Maxime Béland worked on the game. Gameloft released a handheld version for Apple's iOS on May 27, 2010. There are also versions available for the Android, Windows Phone and Bada, as well as a side-scrolling 2D version for mobile phones. The game was followed by a sequel in 2013 titled "".


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The game received positive reviews from critics with praise of its polished gameplay, art direction, and engaging narrative, although there was criticism on the short length of the campaign, and departure from stealth genre as compared to previous titles.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: "Splinter Cell: Conviction" introduces a number of new gameplay features to the "Splinter Cell" series, one of which is the "Mark & Execute" feature, which allows the player to mark specific targets, such as enemies or objects, and shoot them in rapid succession without manually targeting each one. The player can choose to prioritize these targets, so that, for example, he can distract one guard by shooting out a light in his vicinity and then take out another guard. Another new feature is the "Last Known Position", which occurs when the player breaks the line of sight of an alerted guard. This creates a visual silhouette where the guard thinks Sam is, allowing the player to flank his enemies.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Other new features include the ability to interrogate characters in real-time, and use objects in the surrounding environment against them. Mission objectives and key plot points are projected onto walls within the in-game world, in order to keep the player immersed in the gameplay. Several other features, such as blending into crowds, improvising gadgets, and interaction with the environment, were announced, and according to creative director Maxime Béland would have given the game "a lot of "Bourne Identity" influence," but were scrapped after the development team decided that going in this direction would be taking too much of a risk.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Some of the features that were present in the last four games in the series do not appear in this game. Sam's hybrid night/heat vision goggles and his multipurpose SC-20K assault rifle, which were the mainstay of the last four games, no longer appear. However, he can equip sonar goggles in the later stages of the game. His light sensor is also absent, although change in the screen saturation now shows whether Sam is hidden from view. Sam can no longer move or hide dead bodies, nor can he knock enemies unconscious, as all equipment that helped doing the latter are absent. Lock picking and hacking minigames are also not included in the game. Sam has been equipped with pistols with unlimited ammo and suppressors, which helps him to takedown his enemies in a stealthy way.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: One of Ubisoft's stated goals for "Conviction" was to make the game more accessible. According to Béland, "" is "very hardcore", which turned off many players and disconnected people from the fantasy of being Sam Fisher. Béland contrasted the earlier games in the series with works containing James Bond or Jason Bourne, who "run fast, they don't make noise, they kill one, two, three or four guys super quickly," and he stated that "Conviction" delivers a similarly dynamic experience with more of an emphasis on action than previous "Splinter Cell" games.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Multiplayer mode in "Splinter Cell: Conviction" involves both split screen, System link (Xbox 360), and online cooperative mode, plus a "Deniable Ops" mode, involving four modes that pit players against AI enemies in game modes such as "Hunter" (where the player must kill a set number of enemies), "Infiltration" (where the player must kill a set number of enemies without being seen), "Last Stand" (where the player must protect a bomb as enemies try to disarm it), and "Face-Off" (a competitive version of "Hunter"). "Face-Off" is the game's only competitive multiplayer mode, as it features the ability to kill the opposing player. "Hunter", "Infiltration", and "Last Stand" can be played in single-player modes and do not always have to be played with a human partner. The game does not contain the "Spies Vs Mercenaries" mode featured in the previous games of the series.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: According to co-op game director Patrick Redding, the stealth in "Conviction" is designed around new core elements like "Mark & Execute" and "Last Known Position".


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The game's story is divided into two portions. The main portion is the game's single-player campaign, which puts the player in control of Sam Fisher three years after the events of "". The "Prologue" portion of the game, meanwhile, is accessed through the multiplayer co-op mode, which puts two players in control of agents Archer and Kestrel 10 days before the campaign starts.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Third Echelon agent "Archer" and his Russian partner, Voron agent "Kestrel" are deployed to Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, Russia to halt rogue elements of the Russian military from selling advanced warheads on the black market. Intelligence from criminal Andriy Kobin points to drug and human trafficker Valentin Lesovsky as the broker for the sale, and Archer and Kestrel are tasked with terminating Lesovsky and his associate, Boris Sychev, as well as gaining Lesovsky's contact list.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Having completed their mission, Archer and Kestrel are then deployed to the Russian embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan to gather intelligence on an arms deal conducted by former Russian GRU Colonel Leonid Bykhov. They observe the deal and witness Bhykov betray his associate, Tagizade, ordering his men to kill him. Archer and Kestrel prevent the destruction of the weapons crates, learning that the weapons Bhykov was going to sell were Block II JDAM missile guidance kits. They interrogate Bhykov, learning that he is working with Major General Kerzakov, who is in the Yastreb Complex, an underground fortress situated underneath Moscow's Red Square.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: They infiltrate the complex and learn the location of the EMP warheads. They render the JDAM kits inoperable by using their portable EMP devices, and download data from multiple servers to trace the EMP devices to the Mozdok Proving Grounds. Sneaking aboard a supply truck, they infiltrate the Proving Grounds and secure the EMP devices with the help of Kobin. During their extraction, Third Echelon director Tom Reed contacts Archer and orders him to kill Kestrel; concurrently, Kestrel reads Archer's OPSAT device, forcing him to act in self-defense. Whilst either player can die, the canon ending has Kestrel fatally shooting Archer; overcome with grief and unaware of Kobin’s presence, Kestrel is shot in the head.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Private military company Black Arrow interrogates Sam Fisher’s former Navy SEAL squadmate Victor Coste, who begins to recount the events of the last few days.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: After quitting Third Echelon, Fisher heads to Valletta, Malta, to investigate rumors that the hit-and-run death of his daughter, Sarah, might not have been an accident. Suddenly, Anna "Grim" Grímsdóttir, Sam's former colleague, contacts him and warns him of an imminent attack by a group of hitmen. Sam neutralizes them and goes after their contractor, Kobin, who was the true culprit behind Sarah's death. He infiltrates Kobin's mansion, kills his guards, and begins to interrogate him, but a Third Echelon Splinter Cell team subdues him before he can extract anything useful.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Grim and Black Arrow bring Sam to Price Airfield in Virginia, where they are to interrogate him. However, Grim releases Sam, revealing that she is working undercover for U.S. President Patricia Caldwell, investigating suspicious circumstances concerning Director Reed, Black Arrow, and the stolen Russian EMP technology. She reveals that Sarah is still alive and helps Sam escape the airfield.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Sam then contacts and arranges to meet with Coste at the Washington Monument to receive some equipment. He also learns that Lucius Galliard, CEO of Black Arrow, has tasked them to provide security for White Box Technologies, his recently purchased R&D company specializing in EMP technology. Sam infiltrates White Box Technologies and witnesses Black Arrow mercenaries purging scientists that are no longer needed. He hacks a high-security White Box computer and retrieves strategic data about an operation involving EMPs for Grim's analysts to study. He escapes the facility after fighting through more Black Arrow mercenaries, triggering an EMP to cover his tracks. Later, President Caldwell directs him to the Lincoln Memorial to eavesdrop on Reed and Galliard. The conversation and the subsequent interrogation of Galliard reveal that a group called "Megiddo" funds and organizes the operation, which is to take place in 24 hours. However, a hitman shoots Galliard dead before running away; Sam gives chase, but a car bomb ultimately kills the assassin.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Sam then heads to Third Echelon headquarters where he receives a set of advanced sonar goggles from Grim's friend Charlie Fryman, and raids Reed's office for information. However, Sam finds Kobin there and interrogates him. Kobin reveals that Reed works for Megiddo, and is planning to activate three massive EMP devices in Washington DC and assassinate Caldwell in the ensuing chaos, allowing Vice President Calvin Samson to take over the presidency. Reed would then get a promotion in return. Kobin also reveals that it was Grim who gave him orders to fake Sarah's death. Grim confirms this by playing an audio recording of deceased former director Irving Lambert where he reveals that he discovered a mole in Third Echelon who was plotting to threaten Sarah's safety and use her as leverage against Sam. Although Lambert successfully staged Sarah's death to foil this plan, he was unable to identify the mole. Grim urges an enraged Sam to destroy the EMP device in the Michigan Avenue Reservoir, as Sarah's apartment is within its blast radius. At this time, the Third Echelon building's self-destruct protocol activates, and Sam escapes before the building explodes.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: With the aid of Coste, Sam attacks the Michigan Avenue Reservoir. After fighting through the Black Arrow mercenaries defending the site, Sam marks the EMP generators for Coste to destroy from the air. Sam is then extracted by Coste and reunites with Sarah before the two remaining EMPs are activated, destroying most of the electronic defenses in the city and causing chaos. Shortly afterward, a surface-to-air missile takes down Coste's helicopter, but all three survive. While Coste takes Sarah to safety, Sam journeys through downtown Washington to make his way to the White House, which has been overrun by Black Arrow mercenaries and Third Echelon operatives. After he confronts and incapacitates the corrupt Vice President, Sam regroups with Grim.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: As Grim and Sam must enter the Oval Office without alarming Reed, who may kill the President, Grim shoots Sam in the shoulder and pretends to detain him at gunpoint, allowing them to enter the Oval Office safely. Reed prepares to execute Sam and the President, revealing that Caldwell was going to shut down Third Echelon after Lambert's death. Reed then plans to frame Sam for assassinating Caldwell as supposed proof that Third Echelon is still needed. Sam and Grim then spring into action, disarming Reed and killing his escorts. Sam interrogates Reed while United States Army soldiers extract Caldwell. Reed finally reveals himself to be the very mole Lambert was investigating. At this point, Sam or Grim executes Reed depending on the player's choice. Canonically, Grim executes Reed.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: As Coste begins to wrap up his story, he states that Sam, in his last conversation, promised to protect him just as he would his brother. At that moment, the interrogators hear an alarm, followed by an explosion and gunfire in the background. They abandon the interview and leave Coste behind.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The existence of a sequel to "Double Agent" was leaked to the internet on September 21, 2006 through a 2GB rar file containing, among other media, 75 concept art images of as-yet unannounced next-generation games uploaded to Ubisoft's public FTP site. The leaked images showed gloomy images of the Washington Monument under military occupation, as well as roadside views of Washington, D.C.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: "Conviction" was officially announced on May 23, 2007 when Ubisoft released a trailer for the game. It depicted a more rugged-looking Sam with long hair and a fully-grown beard. He had the ability to blend in with the environment, interact with tables and chairs and utilize hand-to-hand combat against enemies, making the game appear less stealth-based than previous games. The lighting and shadow effects also showed a vast improvement over "Double Agent". The game was originally due for release on November 16, 2007. However, it missed its initial launch date, and on May 19, 2008, "Xbox World" reported that "Splinter Cell: Conviction" was "officially on hold," and had been taken "back to the drawing board." While Ubisoft never confirmed this, they did announce that the game had been pushed back to the 2009-2010 fiscal year.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The game resurfaced at E3 2009, with a completely new visual style and a more casual-looking Sam. The developers confirmed that the "new" "Conviction" had been in development since early 2008, commenting that "the gameplay has evolved a lot" and "the visual direction is simply much better." The game was given a November 2009 release date at E3, but was later pushed back to the first quarter of 2010. After initially announcing a release date of February 23, Ubisoft delayed the game again until April. On February 4, 2010, Ubisoft officially announced that the game would be released on April 13 for the Xbox 360.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: On July 16, 2007, it was announced that composers Kaveh Cohen and Michael Nielsen, in association with music house Groove Worx, would be composing the score to "Conviction", their first score for a video game. On October 25, 2007, Soundtrack.net posted a news item from the scoring session for the game, featuring photographs of the orchestral recording of the music. On January 28, 2010, a message was posted on Amon Tobin's website, stating that he would contribute to the game.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: On March 29, 2010, it was revealed in an interview that Michael Ironside considered not returning to the role as Sam Fisher as a result of not being able to add more to the character. However, he changed his mind when Ubisoft sent him a copy of the script.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: "Splinter Cell: Conviction" is available on the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows platforms, as well as mobile versions for the iOS and Java ME. Ubisoft has stated that it has no plans to release it on the PlayStation 3 with Max Béland, the creative director of "Splinter Cell" further stating; "Well, "Splinter Cell" was originally built on Xbox and we've had a great relationship with Microsoft. So "Conviction" is an exclusive for 360, it's not going to go to PS3." The PC version implemented Ubisoft's new DRM, which requires a permanent internet connection.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: "Conviction" was released in four retail versions. As well as the standard version, a "Special Edition", a "Collector's Edition", and a "Limited Collector's Edition" were also released.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The "Special Edition", called "Shadow Edition", was exclusive to Britain, specifically, Game, Gamestation and Gameplay, and featured alternate box art, a SPAS-12 silenced shotgun, early in-game access to the SC3000 and a special "Shadow Armor" playable skin. Pre-orders also included "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction" Projector Torch.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The "Collector's Edition" was exclusive to the United States and Canada, and featured a USB flash drive, an artbook based on the "Splinter Cell" series, two decal stickers, a comic book detailing the events leading up to "Conviction", and two in-game items: an MP5-SD3 sub-machine gun and a Third Echelon spy suit. Due to a number of defective USB drives, Ubisoft lowered the price of the collector's edition by $10.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: The "Limited Collector's Edition" was exclusive to European, Middle Eastern, Asian and Pacific territories. It included a high quality edition box with a Sam Fisher figurine, steel-book DVD case with the game disc, manual and game soundtrack CD (24 tracks), and a card with 5 bonus in-game content codes: for the MP-5 sub-machine gun, SC-3000 assault rifle, SMG-2 machine pistol, "Infiltration" game mode and the Shadow Armor outfit.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: Some individual stores also released their own variations. GameStop pre-orders included a SPAS-12 silenced shotgun code. Best Buy pre-orders included a SC-3000 assault rifle code. Amazon.co.uk released its own "Limited Edition" which contained the standard version of the game, a separate DVD case called "Exclusive Pre-order Pack" and the SPAS-12 code, a 32-page comic book ("Digging in the Ashes") and a DVD detailing the making of the game. Play.com's version of the game contained the standard edition, plus "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction" carabiner torch.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: In March 2010, Microsoft announced a special limited edition black Xbox 360 Elite console for "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction". The unit includes a 250 GB hard drive, two black wireless controllers, a black wired headset, an ethernet cable, a standard definition composite A/V cable, and the standard edition of the game.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: On May 27, 2010, a version of the game was released for the iOS. Developed and published by Gameloft, it featured very similar gameplay, with the biggest difference being a simplification of the story, omitting the entire prologue, and many individual scenes and characters from the main game. It did however feature an exclusive level not found in the original game - a speed boat level set on the Potomac River.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: In June 2010, Ubisoft announced a version for the Mac OS X. It was set for release on October 19, 2010, but was delayed until February 17, 2011.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: "Splinter Cell: Conviction" released weekly unlockable content every Thursday through the in-game "Extras" menu. The content included weapons, gadgets, multiplayer skins and Deniable Ops maps. "Conviction" also continued with Ubisoft's new Uplay downloadable rewards program. With Uplay, players earn units for completing set in-game tasks that can be used to purchase various content in "Splinter Cell", or saved for content in future Ubisoft releases. On May 27, 2010, the only official DLC map pack was released, titled "The Insurgency Pack." It features four new levels for the Deniable Ops mode, and nine new Achievements worth a total of 250 Gamerscore.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: On April 19, 2012, a closed multiplayer beta was made available to owners of "Splinter Cell: Conviction" on Xbox 360 for the upcoming installment in the "Ghost Recon" series, as well as people who preordered the game from GameStop or PlayStation Plus members.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: On April 13, 2010, Ubisoft Music in conjunction with composers Michael Nielsen and Kaveh Cohen released a 16-track Official Soundtrack to "Splinter Cell: Conviction" exclusively via iTunes.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: With the release of the Limited Collector's Edition of "Splinter Cell: Conviction", the "Original Soundtrack" CD by Michael Nielsen and Kaveh Cohen was included, featuring one track composed and produced by Amon Tobin, who had previously composed the soundtrack to . No track list is incorporated onto the CD or packaging. However, on April 18, 2010, Nielson posted a track list for the CD on his Myspace page.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: On April 20, 2010, a news bulletin was posted on Amon Tobin's website following the release of what is understood to be the majority of his contributions to the "Splinter Cell: Conviction"s score.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: IGN's Alec Meer awarded it a score of 9.3 out of 10 and gave it an "Editor's Choice Award." ""Edge"" magazine's Tim Ingham awarded "Conviction" 8/10 in a lead review, claiming that the title is "in reach of greatness." He was particularly impressed with Sam Fisher's ability to turn any environment into "torture chambers" at the press of a button. The main points of criticism were its short length and that too much of the title is played in monochrome. GameSpot's Kevin Van Ord awarded the game a score of 8 out of 10, praising its cooperative mode and storytelling, but criticizing its short length and slimmed-down stealth elements, as well as most of the interrogation sections, stating that interrogations were a "missed opportunity" and "more predictable than provocative." GameTrailers gave it an 8.9 out of 10 praising the "top-notch voice acting" and the game as a whole, saying ""Conviction" is a gripping new chapter in the "Splinter Cell" saga." "Game Informer" gave the game a 9 out of 10 and GamePro gave it a 5 out of 5.


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: "Conviction" had a less welcome reception with some PC reviewers. GameSpot's Kevin Van Ord scored it 6.5/10, citing bugs, missing features, connection issues and a higher price than a typical PC game. "PC Gamer UK" gave a score of 87/100, but wrote "we can't recommend you buy this game with the current DRM."


title: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

text: 486,000 copies of the game were sold in April 2010 in the U.S., which made it the best-selling game for that month.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Michael Henry Schwerner (November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964), was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) field workers killed in rural Neshoba County, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Schwerner and two co-workers, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were killed in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among African Americans, most of whom had been disenfranchised in the state since 1890.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Born and raised in a family of Jewish heritage, Schwerner attended Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, New York. He was called Mickey by his friends. His mother, Anne Siegel (May 1, 1912 – November 29, 1996), was a science teacher at nearby New Rochelle High School, and his father, Nathan Schwerner (June 19, 1909 – March 6, 1991), was a businessman. Schwerner attended Michigan State University, originally intending to become a veterinarian. He transferred to Cornell University and switched his major to rural sociology. While an undergraduate at Cornell, he was initiated into the school's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He entered graduate school at the School of Social Work at Columbia University.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: As a boy, Schwerner befriended Robert Reich, who later became U.S. Secretary of Labor. Schwerner helped protect Reich, who was smaller, from bullies.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: In the early 1960s Schwerner became active in working for civil rights for African Americans; he led a local Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) group on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, called "Downtown CORE." He participated in a 1963 effort to desegregate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Maryland. As activism increased in the South, Schwerner, recruited by John Lewis, and his wife, Rita Schwerner Bender, volunteered to work for National CORE in Mississippi, under the tutelage of Dave Dennis, the CORE state director. Bob Moses assigned the Schwerners to organize the community center and activities in Meridian. James Chaney was a local youth who started working with them there. The Schwerners were the first whites to be assigned by CORE permanently outside the state capital of Jackson. In the summer of 1964 CORE intended to hold classes and drives to register African Americans to vote in the state, what they called "Freedom Summer". Many volunteers, mostly college students and young adults, had been recruited from local communities and northern/western states to work on this project.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Civil rights activists were resented and held under suspicion by white Mississippians. Spies paid by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a taxpayer-funded agency, kept track of all northerners and suspected activists. The Commission conducted economic boycotts and intimidation against activists. In 1998 its records were opened by court order, revealing the state's deep complicity in the 1964 murders of three civil right workers because its investigator, A. L. Hopkins, passed on information about the workers, including their car license number, to the Commission. Records showed the Commission passed the information on to the Sheriff of Neshoba County, who was implicated in the murders.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: The Ku Klux Klan targeted Schwerner after he and his wife, Rita, had taken over the Meridian CORE field office, where they established a community center for blacks as part of grassroots organizing. Schwerner tried to establish contact with white working-class citizens of Meridian and went door-to-door to speak with them. He also organized a black boycott of a popular variety store until it hired its first African American, under the principle of "don't shop where you can't work".


title: Michael Schwerner

text: James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi. They were investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been a site of a CORE Freedom School, in a nearby community. Parishioners had been beaten in the wake of Schwerner and Chaney's voter registration rallies for CORE. The Sheriff's Deputy, Cecil Price, had been accused by parishioners of stopping their caravan and forcing the deacons to kneel in the headlights of their own cars, while they were beaten with rifle butts. That same group of white men was identified as having burned the church.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price arrested Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner for an alleged traffic violation and took them to the jail in Neshoba County. They were released that evening, without being allowed to telephone anyone. On the way back to Meridian, they were stopped by patrol lights and two carloads of KKK members on Highway 19, then taken in Price's car to another remote rural road. The KKK men shot and killed Schwerner, then Goodman, and finally Chaney, after chain-whipping and castrating him.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: The men's bodies remained undiscovered for 44 days. In the meantime, the case of the missing civil-rights workers became a major national story, especially coming on top of other events during Freedom Summer. The federal government quickly assigned the FBI to a full investigation and called in Navy sailors and other forces to aid in the search.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Schwerner's widow Rita, who also worked for CORE in Meridian, expressed indignation publicly at the way the story was handled. She said she believed that if only Chaney (who was black) was missing and the two white men from New York had not been killed along with him, the case would not have received nearly as much national attention, as other black civil rights workers had earlier been killed in the South.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: The US government prosecuted the case under the Enforcement Act of 1870. Seven men, including Deputy Sheriff Price, were convicted. Three strongly implicated defendants were acquitted because of a jury deadlock.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Journalist Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter for the "Jackson Clarion-Ledger" had written extensively about the case for many years in the late 20th century. Mitchell had earned renown for helping secure convictions by his investigation of several other high-profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the assassination of Medgar Evers in Mississippi, the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, and the murder of Vernon Dahmer in his Mississippi home. Mitchell developed new evidence, found new witnesses, and pressured the State to take action. Barry Bradford, an Illinois high school teacher, and three students: Allison Nichols, Sarah Siegel, and Brittany Saltiel, joined Mitchell's efforts. Their documentary, produced for the National History Day contest, presented important new evidence and compelling reasons for reopening the case. Bradford also obtained an interview with Edgar Ray Killen, which helped convince the State to reinvestigate. Mitchell was able to determine the identity of "Mr. X", the mystery informer who had helped the FBI discover the bodies and smash the conspiracy of the Klan in 1964. He relied in part on evidence developed by Bradford.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: On January 7, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an outspoken white supremacist nicknamed "Preacher," pleaded "Not Guilty" to state charges of the murders of the three men. The jury found him guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005. He was sentenced to sixty years in prison—twenty years for each count, served consecutively.


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Schwerner "was described by family and friends as friendly, good-natured, gentle, mischievous, and 'full of life and ideas'. He believed all people were essentially good. He loved sports, animals, poker, W.C. Fields, and rock music."


title: Michael Schwerner

text: Robert Reich, the American political commentator, professor, and author who served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, says that as a child, he was bullied, and sought out the protection of older boys; one of them was Michael Schwerner. Reich cites this event as an inspiration to "fight the bullies, to protect the powerless, to make sure that the people without a voice have a voice."


title: Air gun laws

text: Most countries have laws about air guns, but these vary widely. Often each jurisdiction has its own unique definition of an air gun; and regulations may vary for weapons of different bore, muzzle energy or velocity, or material of ammunition, with guns designed to fire metal pellets often more tightly controlled than airsoft weapons. There may be minimum ages for possession, and sales of both air guns and ammunition may be restricted. Some areas in the world require permits and background checks similar to those required for firearms proper.


title: Air gun laws

text: The Australian gun law is quite restrictive and differs on a state-by-state basis; however, as a general rule all air guns — regardless of action type, caliber and muzzle energy — are considered firearms for legal purposes; e.g. air rifles are considered Class A firearms and as such are subject to licensing and registration.


title: Air gun laws

text: Air pistols are considered same as rimfire and centerfire handguns and subjected to Class H firearms restrictions. An air pistol shooter will require membership and sufficient attendance at an authorized pistol club for six months before allowing ownership, and needs to shoot in at least ten events per year — four for each handgun class (air pistol, rimfire or centerfire)—including at least six formal competitions to keep the licence.


title: Air gun laws

text: Paintball markers are classified as "soft air weapons" and treated differently to other air guns; refer to the paintball section on legality for a state-by-state breakdown.


title: Air gun laws

text: Paintball markers are classified in NSW as "recreational sporting devices" as of the 1st of July 2019.


title: Air gun laws

text: Though also regarded as "soft air weapons", airsoft guns are strictly prohibited in all states except in the Northern Territory (where they are considered regular airguns and subjected to the corresponding laws and licensing) and the ACT (where they are considered "imitation firearms").


title: Air gun laws

text: The Brazilian legislation that regulates the manufacture, import, export, trade, traffic and use of airguns divide them into two groups:


title: Air gun laws

text: Airguns in the first group may be purchased by anyone over 18. Airguns in the second group can only be purchased by people registered in the army, transportation depends on authorization, and usage is allowed only in places approved by the army. Airguns of any kind may not be carried openly. There is no muzzle energy limit for any type or calibre.


title: Air gun laws

text: Scopes or any equipment with magnification needs to be registered by the army in the shooter's registry and accompany a traffic authorization, and are allowed to civilians only if under 6 times magnification and with the objective lens smaller than 36 millimeters. Scopes with magnification equal or above 6 times and/or over 35 millimeters, or equipment that mark the target (like laser sights), are restricted to civilians and allowed only for use by the army. The permitted equipment has to be registered in the civilian's document, this process is called "Apostilamento". The document for a shooter's registry is called "Certificado de Registro de Atirador".


title: Air gun laws

text: Air guns can be freely bought and owned by any person older than 18 years old. Only pistols with muzzle energy exceeding are not allowed. There is no maximum muzzle energy limit for rifles.


title: Air gun laws

text: Open carry of airguns is not allowed. The use of air guns is restricted non-public places, being shooting ranges, inside a house or a backyard that is not easily accessible from the street.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Bulgaria anyone over the age of 18 can obtain an airgun if its muzzle energy is below that of 24 Joules. If is over 24 Joules the airgun subject to notification regime in the Police. Cannot be bought online, but some gun shops deliver them with their own supplier legally.


title: Air gun laws

text: Air guns with both a muzzle velocity greater than 152.4 meters per second (500 feet per second) and a muzzle energy greater than 5.7 joules (4.2 foot-pounds) are firearms for purposes of both the Firearms Act and the Criminal Code. Usually the manufacturer's specifications are used to determine the design muzzle velocity and energy. Air rifles that meet these velocity and energy criteria are generally classified as non-restricted firearms; however, some are classified as restricted or prohibited, depending on the exact design of the air rifle. Air pistols are classified as restricted if their barrel is longer than 105 mm or prohibited if their barrel length is 105 mm or less. The lawful possession of these airguns requires that the owner have a valid firearms licence and that the airgun be registered as a firearm.


title: Air gun laws

text: Air guns that meet the Criminal Code definition of a firearm, but that are deemed not to be firearms for certain purposes of the Firearms Act and Criminal Code are those that have a muzzle velocity of less than 152.4 meters per second (500 feet per second) and/or a maximum muzzle energy of 5.7 joules (4.2 foot pounds). Such air guns are exempt from licensing, registration, and other requirements under the Firearms Act, and from penalties set out in the Criminal Code for possessing a firearm without a valid licence or registration certificate. However, they are considered to be firearms under the Criminal Code if they are used to commit a crime. Low velocity replica air guns (under 366 feet per second) that are designed to resemble with near precision a firearm are considered a prohibited device and not permitted for ownership or purchase. Under the newly proposed Bill C-21, mid-velocity (366–500 feet per second) air guns that are designed to resemble with near precision a firearm will also become prohibited. The simple possession, acquisition and use of these air guns for lawful purposes is also regulated by provincial and municipal laws and by-laws. For example, some provinces may have set a minimum age for acquiring such an air gun. These air guns are exempt from the specific safe storage, transportation and handling requirements set out in the regulations supporting the Firearms Act. However, the Criminal Code requires that reasonable precautions be taken to use, carry, handle, store, transport, and ship them in a safe and secure manner.


title: Air gun laws

text: Air guns in Chile are unregulated and can be acquired by anyone. Hunting with air guns is allowed, but only small game such as rabbits, hares and birds, and a permit obtained from Chile's Agriculture and Livestock service is necessary.


title: Air gun laws

text: In the Czech Republic, anyone over age of 18 can acquire air gun without a limit of muzzle energy. Children over age of 10 have to be supervised by an adult when shooting. The only restriction on shooting place is requirement of public safety. Since firearms can only be used at officially licensed shooting ranges, air guns became popular to practice target shooting at or near the home.


title: Air gun laws

text: Anyone over 18 can freely buy and possess an airgun with a caliber not exceeding 4.5 mm (0.177) and there is no restriction on muzzle energy or velocity, however bigger caliber airguns requires a FAC or a hunting license. An expired hunting license is valid for bigger caliber airguns, as long as the license holder legally would be able to renew it. An airgun with a caliber over 4.5 mm (0.177) must be kept in a locked, approved gun cabinet. Airguns with the caliber of minimum 5.5 mm (0.22) are legal for hunt.


title: Air gun laws

text: The acquisition and ownership of air guns is unrestricted unless they meet the definition of an effective air gun as defined in the 2015 amendment to the Firearms Act of 1998. Any air gun that has a barrel diameter exceeding 6.35 millimeters or .25 inches, shoots metal projectiles, and was not manufactured before 1950 is considered an effective air gun. Some provisions of the Firearms Act apply to effective air guns in addition to firearms, including the requirement to obtain a separate licence for each such gun.


title: Air gun laws

text: The possession of air guns in a public place without a valid reason is prohibited under the Public Order Act, as is shooting in a manner that disturbs public order or endangers public security. Additionally, to permanently hand over air guns to a person under the age of 18 without the permission of their guardian is prohibited.


title: Air gun laws

text: Under the Hunting Decree of 1993 as amended in 2019, air guns may not be used to shoot animals except inside a building to kill crows, common magpies, jackdaws, rock pigeons, and unprotected mammals other than feral cats.


title: Air gun laws

text: Since September 2013, air rifles with a muzzle energy less than 20 joules (14 ft lbf) can be acquired by persons over age 18 and no licence is required. (Previously the limit was 10 joules.) For air rifles of 20 joules muzzle energy or more, a hunting licence or club shooting licence is required. However, hunting or pest control with air guns is illegal in France.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Germany, air guns producing a muzzle energy up to 7.5 joule (J) (5.53 ft·lbf) can be owned by persons from the age of 18 years and freely acquired provided they bear the "F-in-pentagon" mark that indicates a muzzle energy not exceeding kinetic energy. Carrying air guns in public necessitates a carry permit (§ 10 Abs. 4 WaffG), extremely rare as such and never granted for air guns. Only the transportation of unloaded and non-accessible air guns (or carrying unloaded during biathlon) is considered a "permissible carry" (§ 12 Abs. 3 Nr. 2, Nr. 3 WaffG).


title: Air gun laws

text: Shooting is permitted on licensed ranges (§ 27 Abs. 1, § 12 Abs. 4 2 Nr. 1 WaffG), and on enclosed private property if it is assured that the projectiles can not possibly leave the shooting area (§ 12 Abs. 4 Nr. 1a WaffG). The minimum age for air gun shooting in Germany is 12 years under supervision (§ 27 Abs. 3 S. 1 Nr. 1 WaffG), but exceptions may be granted to younger children upon request, supported by suitable references from a doctor and by a licensed shooting federation (§ 27 Abs. 4 WaffG).


title: Air gun laws

text: Air weapons exceeding 7.5 J muzzle energy, e.g. field target guns, are treated like firearms and therefore require a relevant permit for acquisition and possession. Proof of need, a clean criminal record and the passing of a knowledge and handling test are required (§ 4 Abs. 1 WaffG) to gain the permit.


title: Air gun laws

text: A purchase authorization is not required for air guns that were manufactured and introduced onto the market before 1 January 1970 in Germany or before 2 April 1991 on the territory of the former East Germany (WaffG, Appendix 2, Section 1, Subsection 2, 1.2); they can, regardless of their muzzle energy or the absence of an "F-in-pentagon" mark, be freely acquired and possessed.


title: Air gun laws

text: The storage requirements for firearms do not apply to air guns (cf. § 36 Abs. 1 S. 1 WaffG); they must only be stored inaccessible to minors.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Japan, gun laws are quite strict. A Japanese civilian may apply for a license to possess an air rifle, a low-power gun powered by carbon dioxide, not gunpowder. The licensing procedure is not easy, and ownership of air rifles is becoming less common, in part due to how difficult it is to get through the licensing process. The process is time-consuming, and if you wish to own an air-gun, you must attend classes, held by the prefecture's Public Safety Commission. An applicant must be at least 18 years of age.


title: Air gun laws

text: The manufacturing, usage, and selling of air weapons (air rifles and air guns) in India are covered under the Arms Rule 2016, enforced through a gazette notification on July 15. Before the rule got enacted, India lacked any regulatory framework on the production and distribution of air guns. Earlier, even toy shops could sell air weapons. Schedule I, Category III, Clause f of Arms Rule, 2016 classified air weapons into two categories.  Weapons having muzzle energy exceeding 20 joules or bore exceeding 4.5 mm (0.177-inch) belongs to category III(f)(i). Holders of weapons in this category require special licenses for possession and usage. Category III(f)(ii) weapons have a muzzle energy under 20 joules and bore below 4.5 mm. There is no license requirement for category III(f)(ii) weapons.


title: Air gun laws

text: In the Isle of Man, air guns are treated in the same manner as conventional firearms and require a relevant firearms certificate.


title: Air gun laws

text: It is illegal to hunt with air guns. Carrying air guns in public is illegal in Italy and it is a criminal offense to plink. Air guns under 1 joule of power are considered toys and are unregulated. Air guns between 1 joule and 7,5 joules are considered low-power firearms and so they are quite regulated but only require ID to buy. Air guns above 7.5 joules require a license and are heavily regulated.


title: Air gun laws

text: In the Netherlands, air guns can be owned by persons from the age of 18 years and can freely be acquired. Until 1997, there were limitations on muzzle velocity and kinetic energy, similar to the German law, but these restrictions were lifted for practical reasons. Carrying air guns in public and the possession of air guns (and toy guns) that resemble firearms is prohibited. The expression "to resemble" is nowadays given a very broad interpretation so that just about any airgun can be considered to resemble a firearm. Whether an airgun is considered to resemble a firearm too closely is decided by the police or, when it comes to that, by the court. It is impossible to predict the outcome of such court cases.


title: Air gun laws

text: Commercial sales of airguns may only take place in licensed gunshops. It is illegal to own an airgun that was "produced or modified so that it can more easily be carried concealed". Generally this is considered the case when the barrel has been shortened or the weapon has a folding or telescoping stock.


title: Air gun laws

text: In New Zealand any member of the public over the age of 18 may own and fire most air rifles without a firearms licence, provided they use the air rifle in a safe environment with a responsible attitude.


title: Air gun laws

text: Minors 16 and over, but under the age of 18, require a Firearms Licence to possess an air rifle – however, they may use an air rifle under adult supervision without this licence.


title: Air gun laws

text: "Specially dangerous airguns" require a firearms licence for possession and use. Such weapons are specified under the New Zealand "Arms Acts", and currently include only some pre-charged pneumatic rifles. The change was made as a consequence of two fatal shootings by .22 calibre semi-automatic air rifles.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Norway, air guns can be owned by persons from the age of 18 years and can be freely acquired as long as the caliber is not greater than 4.5/0.177. There is no limit on bullet speed or energy. For larger calibers, such as 5.5 and 6.35, a permit obtained from the police is required. This type of permit is easier to obtain than a firearm licence. Hunting with an air gun is not permitted; target practice is a common reason for a permit application.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Poland it is possible to freely acquire air guns with a muzzle energy not exceeding . Air guns with muzzle energy over 17 J are considered FAC and must be registered at a local police station no later than 5 days after purchase (a gun licence is not needed). FAC air guns can only be used at officially licensed shooting ranges. Hunting/shooting animals with air guns is illegal and can lead to prosecution.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Russia, according to Federal Law #150 "On weapons", any person who is older than 18 years old is eligible to buy an air gun in caliber 4,5 mm (.177) with muzzle energy up to 7.5 J without obtaining a gun permit and its registration in Federal Service of National Guard Troops. Hunting air guns with muzzle energy from 7.5 to 25 J are needed to be registered in aforementioned service and require to obtain a gun permit. Air guns certified as sport weapons can have muzzle energy more than 25 J and also require these procedures.


title: Air gun laws

text: Air guns in any caliber with muzzle energy less than 3 J (e.g., airsoft guns) are not considered as weapons and may not correspond aforementioned law restrictions related to civil weapons.


title: Air gun laws

text: 4.5 mm air guns modification to acquire muzzle energy more than 7.5 J is an administrative offence according to the article 20.10 of Administrative Offences Code of Russia and is punished by a fine from 1000 to 5000 rubles with confiscation of an air gun.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Singapore, airguns are classified as 'arms', in the same category as firearms utilising gunpowder as propellant among other weapons. It is necessary to obtain a licence from the Singapore Police Force before one can import, export or own an airgun.


title: Air gun laws

text: a) of a calibre of less than 5.6mm (.22 calibre); or b) at a muzzle energy of less than 8 joules (6 ft-lbs), by means of compressed gas and not by means of burning propellant;.


title: Air gun laws

text: Airguns that shoot projectiles over 5.6mm (.22) in calibre and shoot at energies greater than 8 joules (6 ft-lbs) are classified as firearms in the FCA of 2000 (Firearms Control Act). All classified firearms are required to be licensed in terms of the act.


title: Air gun laws

text: An airgun that shoots projectiles under 5.6mm (.22) in calibre has no maximum energy restrictions placed on it in the FCA (Firearms Control Act). Airguns in this category are exempted from licensing in the provisions made in Chapter 3, Section 5 of the FCA (Firearms Control Act)


title: Air gun laws

text: Airguns still count as firearms if used in a crime, and can't be fired in public areas. Airguns may be carried on one's person concealed/openly. It is an offense to shoot animals and human beings, except criminals and animals which are attacking you. This is defined in Chapter 16 of the FCA (Firearms Control Act).


title: Air gun laws

text: SAPS put out an internal circular to clarify the law with regards to Airguns and the current Firearm Amnesty. (Circular regarding the understanding when an airgun is considered to be a firearm - Implementation of the Firearms Control Act 2000)


title: Air gun laws

text: Legality and ownership of air gun weaponry depend on the power of the air rifle/pistol. If the power of the air weapon is under 24.2 joules, the owner must be at least 14 years of age. In such a case, the owner must obtain a legal document known as "Tarjeta de Armas" (Firearm Card) issued by the municipality in which the owner resides.


title: Air gun laws

text: If the air weapon's power is over 24.2 joules, the owner must be at least 18 years of age. Or, if they are 16 years of age, the owner must possess parental consent. In this case, the owner must register for a "Licencia de Armas Tipo E" (Firearms License E Class) and obtain the "Guía" (Register of the Firearm). The application and procedures are followed along with the "Guardia Civil" regulation covering age of consent.


title: Air gun laws

text: Furthermore, the use of air weapons for hunting game is strictly forbidden. Air weapon shooting and activity can only be used for sports shooting in clubs and regulated shooting events with adequate installations and safety measures in place.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Sweden, airguns are regarded as firearms and generally require a license. However, limited energy weapons, defined as having a muzzle energy not exceeding 10 joules measured four meters from the muzzle, such as airguns and paintball guns, do not require a license. They may not be used by a minor under 18 years of age unless licensed or the minor is under adult supervision. Fully automatic limited energy weapons may not exceed 3 joules.


title: Air gun laws

text: Hunting small animals such as rodents and birds for pest control purposes is legal. The requirements for hunting are that the shooter has a hunting license, the rifle has at least 180 m/s muzzle velocity, the projectile is at least .22 caliber, is designed to expand, and has at least 16 joules of impact energy.


title: Air gun laws

text: Air pistols generating more than 6 ft·lbf (8.1 J) and air rifles generating more than 12 ft·lbf (16.2 J) of muzzle energy are legally termed "specifically dangerous firearms". As a result, ownership of these air rifles requires the possession of a Firearm Certificate (FAC); however, ownership of such air pistols is prohibited as they are defined as "Prohibited Weapons" under Section 5 of the "Firearms Act 1968". (Section 5 Authority is usually only granted to members of the Gun Trade.)


title: Air gun laws

text: Pistols and rifles below these energy levels are still termed firearms and are dealt with under the "Firearms Act", but do not require licensing in England and Wales, and may be purchased by anyone over the age of 18. Pistols and rifles under 0.737 ft·lbf (1 J), including airsoft guns, are not included under firearms regulations in the UK, but do fall under The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006. In Northern Ireland, any air rifle or air pistol generating more than 0.737 ft·lbf (1 J) is considered a firearm and as such requires a FAC.


title: Air gun laws

text: In Scotland, the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 introduced an Air Weapon Certificate (AWC), which anyone owning or possessing an air weapon, the component parts of an air weapon and/or a sound suppressor/moderator is now required to hold. The application process for an AWC is broadly similar to that of a FAC and includes backgrounds checks.


title: Air gun laws

text: The "Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006" prohibits online or mail-order sale of air guns by way of trade or business in the UK. UK transactions for items from retail UK shops must be finalised face-to-face, either at the shop where purchased or through a Registered Firearms Dealer (to which an item may be posted and the transfer completed). Since February 2011, The "Crime & Security Act 2010" (S.46) made it an offence ""...for a person in possession of an air weapon to fail to take reasonable precautions to prevent any person under the age of eighteen from having the weapon with him..."". This legislation essentially relates to the storage of air guns and the requirement of owners to prevent unauthorised access by children. Failure to do so renders owners liable for a fine of up to £1,000.


title: Air gun laws

text: Possession of an air gun while trespassing, with or without ammunition, loaded or unloaded, is armed trespass and is considered a serious criminal offence subject to heavy penalties.


title: Air gun laws

text: Although the federal government does not normally regulate air guns, some state and local governments do; the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has compiled a list of states and selected municipalities that regulate air guns, finding that 23 states and the District of Columbia regulate air guns to some degree. Two states (New Jersey and Rhode Island) define all non-powder guns as firearms; one state (Illinois) defines certain high-power and/or large calibre non-powder guns as firearms; three states (Connecticut, Delaware and North Dakota) define non-powder guns as dangerous weapons (but not firearms). The remaining states which regulate air guns impose age restrictions on possession, use, or transfer of non-powder guns, and/or explicitly regulate possession of non-powder guns on school grounds.


title: Air gun laws

text: New York City has a restrictive municipal ordinance regulating air guns. Air guns were previously banned in San Francisco, but a state preemption statute struck down the ban, and the San Francisco District Attorney declared them legal as long as they are in compliance with state law.


title: Air gun laws

text: Along with state laws, local county laws or ordinances may be relevant to users of air guns. Generally, state laws do not mention air gun laws, but local counties do.


title: High card by suit

text: High card by suit and low card by suit refer to assigning relative values to playing cards of equal rank based on their suit. When suit ranking is applied, the most common conventions are:


title: High card by suit

text: Most poker games do not rank suits; the ace of clubs is just as good as the ace of spades. However, small issues (such as deciding who deals first) are sometimes resolved by dealing one card to each player. If two players draw cards of the same rank, one way to break the tie is to use an arbitrary hierarchy of suits. The order of suit rank differs by location; for example, the ranking most commonly used in the United States is not the one typically used in Italy.


title: High card by suit

text: Cards are always compared by rank first, and only then by suit. For example, using the "reverse alphabetical order" ranking, the ace of clubs ranks higher than any king, but lower than the ace of diamonds. High card by suit is used to break ties between poker hands as a regional variance, but more commonly is used in the following situations, as well as various others, based upon the circumstances of the particular game:


title: High card by suit

text: During the play of the cards, the trump suit is superior to all other suits and the other suits are of equal rank to each other. If there is no trump suit, all suits are of equal rank.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Discovery, in the law of common law jurisdictions, is a pre-trial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the other party or parties by means of discovery devices such as interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions and depositions. Discovery can be obtained from non-parties using subpoenas. When a discovery request is objected to, the requesting party may seek the assistance of the court by filing a motion to compel discovery.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Discovery evolved out of a unique feature of early equitable pleading procedure before the English Court of Chancery: among various requirements, a plaintiff's bill in equity was required to plead "positions". These were statements of evidence that the plaintiff assumed to exist in support of his pleading and which he believed lay within the knowledge of the defendant. They strongly resembled modern requests for admissions, in that the defendant was required to plead only whether they were true or false. At some point between the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and the late seventeenth century, positions were gradually replaced by interrogatories: written questions which the defendant was required to truthfully respond to under oath in his answer to the bill, based on information within his own personal knowledge as well as documents in his possession. But back then, interrogatories could only elicit admissible evidence (not the broader modern standard of "reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence") and could only request evidence in support of the plaintiff's case, not either side's case (that is, they could not ask for evidence which the defendant intended to use in support of his defenses and was otherwise entirely irrelevant to the plaintiff's case). Even worse, this was purely a one-way procedure, because interrogatories could only be pleaded as part of a bill (a pleading "initiating" a suit in equity). A defendant who needed to obtain evidence in support of his defenses had to file a cross-bill against the plaintiff to plead his own interrogatories.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Discovery did not exist at common law, but its availability in equity attracted litigants in actions at law (legal proceedings in the common law courts). They began to file bills in equity to obtain discovery in aid of actions at law. This led to another innovation in the mid-15th century: the bill to perpetuate testimony of a potential witness. This was for witnesses whose advanced age or poor health implied they would not survive to testify at the trial of an action at law.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In this type of proceeding, the parties merely pleaded written interrogatories which were read out loud to the witness in a closed proceeding without parties or counsel present. The witness's attendance was secured by service of a subpoena ad testificandum at least 14 days before the date of the examination. In London, the examinations took place before a master or an examiner in Chancery Lane. Outside of London, the parties' attorneys were supposed to jointly stipulate to a group of lay commissioners (typically four, though only two were needed for a quorum) who could not be interested persons (i.e., parties or their lawyers) and were usually country gentlemen. Once agreed upon, the court would grant them authority to examine witnesses by way of dedimus potestatem.


title: Discovery (law)

text: The person(s) examining the witness would appoint a clerk, who under their supervision would write down the witness's oral answers under oath in summary form on paper as if they had been spontaneously delivered as a single continuous third-person narrative, rather than as responses given in the first person to discrete questions. In other words, the actual sequence of questions and answers was not transcribed verbatim like a modern deposition. In London, the witness usually signed or marked the narrative at its end (and occasionally would sign at the bottom of each page), while outside of London, the clerk engrossed the narrative on parchment (in plain English, copied the text from paper to parchment in clearly legible handwriting). Either way, the resulting document (paper in or near London, parchment outside London) was filed under seal with the court, and was not revealed or "published" (in the terminology of the time) to parties or counsel until shortly before the trial in which it was to be used. An 1899 treatise on evidence law explained the rationale for this method of examining a witness in equity: it allowed a witness "ample time" for "calm recollection" as they answered questions read by a neutral person and an opportunity to correct the record at the end before it was submitted to the court as evidence. In contrast, at trial in a common law court, the witness might be subject to "severe and rapid cross-examination" without sufficient time for reflection or deliberation, thereby causing them to "misrepresent facts, from infirmity of recollection or mistake".


title: Discovery (law)

text: This procedure for "ex parte" out-of-court pretrial examinations under the authority of courts of equity came to be called a "deposition". It continued to be used as an evidence preservation device in aid of actions at law, but it also became the standard method for developing the factual record to be used in courts of equity as derived from the knowledge of third-party witnesses (not merely those who were old or dying). The process of summarizing testimony in narrative form, to be relied upon by the Lord Chancellor in lieu of live testimony in open court, was a kind of factfinding process in its own right. As implied by the secret nature of the proceedings and the absence of parties and counsel, equity's factfinding process was fundamentally inquisitorial (i.e., driven by the court), and not adversarial (i.e., driven by the parties). It is generally believed that this came about because the early Chancellors and the masters who assisted them were clerics with training in Roman and canon law, and therefore had some knowledge of the inquisitorial system as it functioned in ecclesiastical courts. The secrecy of the proceedings was thought to be absolutely essential to prevent perjury and witness tampering; the witnesses would thereby be forced to testify from memory alone, and the parties could not use the facts disclosed in testimony to guide their discovery or litigation strategy. Consistent with these inquisitorial views, there were also prohibitions on repeat testimony and on additional testimony after publication. Rather, the witnesses would testify independently of each other before publication, then at the moment of publication, all would be revealed, and the parties would make their arguments to the Chancellor on that cold record. It is this procedure to which the United States Congress was referring in an 1802 law providing that "in all suits in equity, it shall be in the discretion of the court, upon the request of either party, to order the testimony of the witnesses therein to be taken by depositions."


title: Discovery (law)

text: The next major development (which would remain a unique feature of American and Canadian discovery) occurred under the supervision of Chancellor James Kent of the New York Court of Chancery during the early 19th century. He was trying to respond to the obvious defect of traditional depositions: since parties could not adjust their questions on the fly, they had to propound broadly drawn interrogatories, and in turn elicited "long and complicated accounts" of the facts that were difficult for masters to summarize in writing. Therefore, Kent allowed New York masters to actively engage in oral examination of witnesses (in the sense of formulating questions in real time and narrowing their scope based on the witnesses' answers), and he also allowed parties and counsel to be present when such examinations were conducted. Kent's innovations spread into American federal practice in 1842 when the U.S. Supreme Court amended the Federal Equity Rules to allow masters in equity suits in federal courts to conduct oral examinations of witnesses. However, with the parties and counsel now present to help guide the course of the master's oral examination of the witness, it was inevitable that counsel would insist on taking over the examination itself. Also, their presence meant the proceedings were no longer secret.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Major reforms enacted in New York in the late 1840s and in England in the early 1850s laid the foundation for the rise of modern discovery by imposing a clear separation between pleadings and discovery as distinct phases of procedural law. Discovery devices could now be invoked independently of the pleadings. The New York reforms went much farther, by directly merging common law and equity procedure (which would also happen in England in the early 1870s), and by expressly authorizing pretrial oral examinations of both opposing parties and third-party witnesses, the basis of the modern deposition. (Up to that point, discovery from able-bodied opposing parties was still limited to interrogatories.) In fact, the New York code of civil procedure (brought about by David Dudley Field II) went so far as to abolish written interrogatories. A major flaw, though, of the New York code of civil procedure was that it only allowed parties to seek discovery on issues on which they would have the burden of proof at trial. This caused lawyers for defendants to plead fictional defenses in answers, because they still could not directly pursue discovery into the plaintiff's claims.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In 1861, Rule 67 of the Federal Equity Rules was amended to make deposition by oral examination the regular method of taking evidence in equity in federal courts; taking witness testimony by written interrogatories was now the exception. Although depositions were still taken in front of court-appointed examiners, their role had been reduced to the preparation of summary narratives to be relied upon as evidence by the court. In 1892, Rule 67 was again amended to require the preparation of an exact transcript. Subsequent amendments in 1893 and 1912 eliminated the deposition's traditional role as an equitable factfinding device by first allowing and then requiring oral testimony in open court in trials of federal suits in equity, thereby reducing the deposition to its modern role in American civil procedure as a discovery and evidence preservation device.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In England, discovery finally became available in the common law courts by the mid-1850s, after Parliament enacted the Evidence Act 1851 and the Common Law Procedure Act 1854. The right to discovery in the common law courts was "exercised somewhat more narrowly" than in chancery, but the point was that a litigant at common law no longer needed to file a bill of discovery in chancery just to obtain any discovery. The Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 merged together various trial courts, including the Court of Chancery, to form what is now known as the High Court of Justice. Although discovery by then had been available at common law for almost two decades, the new court generally looked to the older and broader form of discovery in chancery as the basis of its discovery rules.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In 1938, the promulgation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) (pursuant to the Rules Enabling Act) created for the first time a comprehensive discovery system in U.S. federal courts. The FRCP authorized broad discovery into "any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject matter in the pending action, whether relating to the claim or defense of" either party. Due to the influence of progressive law professor Edson R. Sunderland, an enthusiastic proponent of broad discovery, the FRCP expressly authorized the complete family of discovery methods familiar to American litigators today. What made the FRCP so revolutionary was that although many state governments had regularly allowed one or more methods of discovery, no one state nor the federal government had ever attempted to allow litigators to use "all" of them, as Sunderland frankly admitted to the Advisory Committee that drafted the FRCP. As a result, the United States has the broadest discovery system in the world.


title: Discovery (law)

text: After American discovery became the subject of harsh criticism for many decades (as separately summarized below), the United States retreated somewhat from broad discovery in the federal courts by expressly incorporating a proportionality requirement into the scope of discovery in the version of the FRCP that went into effect on December 1, 2015.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Electronic discovery, also known as ediscovery, involves the discovery of electronic data and records. It is important that data obtained through ediscovery be reliable, and therefore admissible.


title: Discovery (law)

text: (1) where physical access to the organisations network is possible - agents are installed on each custodian machine which push large amounts of data for indexing across the network to one or more servers that have to be attached to the network or


title: Discovery (law)

text: (2) for instances where it is impossible or impractical to attend the physical location of the custodian system - storage devices are attached to custodian machines (or company servers) and then each collection instance is manually deployed.


title: Discovery (law)

text: New technology is able to address problems created by the first approach by running an application entirely in memory on each custodian machine and only pushing responsive data across the network. This process has been patented and embodied in a tool that has been the subject of a conference paper.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In relation to the second approach, despite self-collection being a hot topic in eDiscovery, concerns are being addressed by limiting the involvement of the custodian to simply plugging in a device and running an application to create an encrypted container of responsive documents.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Under the law of the United States, civil discovery is wide-ranging and may seek disclosure of information that is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. This is a much broader standard than relevance, because it contemplates the exploration of evidence which "might be" relevant, rather than evidence which is truly relevant. (Issues of the scope of relevance are taken care of before trial with motions "in limine" and during trial with objections.) Certain types of information are generally protected from discovery; these include information which is privileged and the work product of the opposing party. Other types of information may be protected, depending on the type of case and the status of the party. For instance, juvenile criminal records are generally not discoverable, peer review findings by hospitals in medical negligence cases are generally not discoverable and, depending on the case, other types of evidence may be non-discoverable for reasons of privacy, difficulty or expense in complying and for other reasons. (Criminal discovery rules may differ from those discussed here.) Electronic discovery or "e-discovery" refers to discovery of information stored in electronic format (often referred to as Electronically Stored Information, or ESI).


title: Discovery (law)

text: In practice, most civil cases in the United States are settled after discovery. After discovery, both sides often are in agreement about the relative strength and weaknesses of each side's case and this often results in either a settlement or summary judgment, which eliminates the expense and risks of a trial.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Discovery is also available in criminal cases. Under the rule set forth in "Brady v. Maryland", the prosecutor is obligated to provide to the defendant any information that is exculpatory or potentially exculpatory, without any request by the defense. Further discovery is available if initiated by the defendant. For example, a discovery demand might be for production of the names of witnesses, witness statements, information about evidence, a request for opportunity to inspect tangible evidence, and for any reports prepared by expert witnesses who will testify at trial.


title: Discovery (law)

text: If a defendant in a criminal case requests discovery from the prosecution, the prosecutor may request reciprocal discovery. The prosecutor's right to discovery is deemed reciprocal as it arises from the defendant's request for discovery. The prosecutor's ability to obtain discovery is limited by the defendant's Fifth Amendment rights, specifically the defendant's constitutional protection against self-incrimination.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Discovery in the United States is unique compared to other common law countries. In the United States, discovery is mostly performed by the litigating parties themselves, with relatively minimal judicial oversight. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure guide discovery in the U.S. federal court system. Most state courts follow a similar version based upon the FRCP, Chapter V "Depositions & Discovery" .


title: Discovery (law)

text: According to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the plaintiff must initiate a conference between the parties after the complaint was served to the defendants, to plan for the discovery process. The parties should attempt to agree on the proposed discovery schedule, and submit a proposed Discovery Plan to the court within 14 days after the conference. After that, the main discovery process begins which includes: initial disclosures, depositions, interrogatories, request for admissions (RFA) and request for production of documents (RFP). In most federal district courts, the formal requests for interrogatories, request for admissions and request for production are exchanged between the parties and not filed with the court. Parties, however, can file motion to compel discovery if responses are not received within the FRCP time limit. Parties can file a motion for a protective order if the discovery requests become unduly burdensome or for purpose of harassment.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In federal criminal prosecutions, discovery rights originate from a number of important Supreme Court decisions and statutes, the most important of which are,


title: Discovery (law)

text: The formal discovery process for federal criminal prosecutions is outlined in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 16.


title: Discovery (law)

text: The District of Columbia follows the federal rules, with a few exceptions. Some deadlines are different, and litigants may only resort to the D.C. Superior Court.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Forty interrogatories, including parts and sub-parts, may be propounded by one party on any other party.


title: Discovery (law)

text: There is no requirement for a "privilege log": federal Rule 26(b)(5) was not adopted by the D.C. Superior Court.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Where above is stated "litigants may only resort to the D.C. Superior Court" upon correction is found according to the District of Columbia Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure Section 73(b)Judicial Review and Appeal which states: "Judicial review of a final order or judgment entered upon direction of a hearing commissioner is available on motion of a party to the Superior Court judge designated by the Chief Judge to conduct such reviews...After that review has been completed, appeal may be taken to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals." This rule basically implies that in a civil action, if a hearing commissioner is authorized by all parties to conduct the proceedings instead of a judge, upon a request for a review or appeal, the motion must first be reviewed by a Superior Court judge to the same standard as a motion for appeal on a Superior Court Judge to the Court of Appeals, but the right to appeal to the higher courts still remains.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Many states have adopted discovery procedures based on the federal system; some closely adhere to the federal model, others not so closely. Some states take an entirely different approach to discovery. Many states have adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act to provide uniform process when discovery is to be done out of state.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In Alaska criminal courts, discovery is governed by Rule of Criminal Procedure 16 (Cr.R.16). The scope of discovery is broad and includes much more than is required by "Brady v. Maryland", 373 U.S. 83 (1963). The discovery process is intended to provide adequate information for informed pleas, to expedite trial, minimize surprise, afford an opportunity for effective cross-examination, and meet the requirements of due process. To the extent possible, discovery prior to trial should be as full and free as possible, consistent with protection of persons, effective law enforcement, and the adversarial system.


title: Discovery (law)

text: A prosecuting attorney is required to disclose to the accused the following material, and to make it available for inspection and copying: (i) names and addresses of witnesses, (ii) written or recorded statements of the accused, (iii) written or recorded statements of a co-defendant, (iv) any books, papers, documents, photographs or tangible objects with the prosecutor intends to use at trial, (v) any prior criminal convictions of the defendant or any witness. In practice, this means that criminal defendants in Alaska are able to review any police report, lab report, audio/video recordings, witness statements, and more, before they proceed to trial. Most defendants will also have this material far enough in advance to have reviewed it before making a decision about any possible plea deal.


title: Discovery (law)

text: In California state courts, discovery is governed by the Civil Discovery Act of 1986 (Title 4 (Sections 2016-2036) of the Code of Civil Procedure), as subsequently amended. A significant number of appellate court decisions have interpreted and construed the provisions of the Act.


title: Discovery (law)

text: California written discovery generally consists of four methods: demands for inspection (the formal statutory name for requests for production of documents), form interrogatories, special interrogatories, and requests for admissions. The duty to respond to California discovery requests is not a continuing duty: the responding party only needs to respond with the facts as known on the date of the response, and is under no obligation to update its responses as new facts become known. This causes many parties to reserve one or two interrogatories until the closing days of discovery, when they ask if any of the previous responses to discovery have changed, and then ask what the changes are. Historically, California depositions were not limited in length until the Legislature enacted reforms in 2012. Another key difference is that most objections "must" be made in detail on the record at deposition or they are permanently waived. A party may only propound thirty-five written special interrogatories on any other single party unless the propounding party submits a "declaration of necessity". No "subparts, or a compound, conjunctive, or disjunctive question" may be included in an interrogatory. However, "form interrogatories" which have been approved by the state Judicial Council do not count toward this limit. In addition, no "preface or instruction" may be included in the interrogatories unless it has been approved by the Judicial Council; in practice, this means that the only instructions permissible with interrogatories are the ones provided with the form interrogatories.


title: Discovery (law)

text: The use of discovery has been criticized as favoring the wealthier side in a lawsuit, by enabling parties to drain each other's financial resources in a war of attrition. For example, one can make information requests that are potentially expensive and time-consuming for the other side to fulfill; respond to a discovery request with thousands of documents of questionable relevance to the case; file requests for protective orders to prevent the deposition of key witnesses; and take other measures that increase the difficulty and cost of discovery. In 1983, the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules attached a Committee Note to Rule 26 of the FRCP that cautioned federal courts to "prevent use of discovery to wage a war of attrition or as a device to coerce a party, whether financially weak or affluent," then had to repeat and stress that exact same text in the 2015 Committee Note.


title: Discovery (law)

text: It has been argued that although the goal of discovery is to level the playing field between the parties, the discovery rules instead create a multi-level playing field that favors the party that is in control of the information needed by the other party. Instead of encouraging discovery, the rules are described as encouraging lawyers to find new ways to manipulate and distort or conceal information.


title: Discovery (law)

text: Some tort reform supporters make a similar accusation, that discovery is used by plaintiffs' lawyers to impose costs on defendants in order to force settlements in unmeritorious cases to avoid the cost of discovery. However, others argue that discovery abuse is an exaggerated concept, that discovery works well in most cases, and exaggeration of American litigiousness and its cost result in confusion within the justice system.