Did they even check their records to see if Daryl was a registered passenger?
Monster Cruise needs to fire these lawyers and buy some new ones.

Ah, now the plot is suddenly, and interestingly, approaching the Michael Crichton novel Next..!

There is a loop hole, as sexual reproduction mixes random parts of genes and random mutations within DNA occur during reproduction the resulting DNA mix of Daryl would be different enough from any copyright-able law. Also if we allow for a very broad area of copyrighting genomes we would then have problems between different species with very little difference in DNA on the molecular scale but vastly different physical appearance, IE: Humans and Apes.

...Huh...the fact that he was actually hatched might actually save their hide here...

Kinda anxious to see how this turns out. I mean, I know things will work out in the end, but...yeah. The wait is the worst part.

I doubt they'll have to...I guess "humanize" Daryl, though.

Ah, so the required de-monsterizing isn't to protect the public from rampaging monsters, it's to protect Monster Cruises monopoly.

Daryl was BORN a monster, so either Monster Cruise dropped the ball by not quarantining the egg until it hatched, then demonsterized the infant, or else they dropped the ball by not making the monster forms sterile. Either way, it's all the corporation's fault, and demonsterizing Daryl after he has spent his entire life as a dragon would be considered torture and mutilation. It would be akin to a corporation forcibly amputating a 3 armed turtle's third arm because reasons.

Information is a non-rival resource: If I give you a dolor you have a dolor more and I have a dollar less; if I give you an idea, you have a new idea, and I still have it too.

Information wants to be Free!

(Runs to his basement lab to work on OpenSourceMonsterization.org)

...HANGON.

There's a contadiction here...

Isn't Monster Cruises in negotiations with Nassau to dock there?
So unless the property issues are part of the negotiations, something's up.

Also, I DO hope things end well - this is kinda souring my view of Monster Cruises sadly, and, well, I'd rather not have that... *sigh* But yeah. I know it'll work out in the end. Probably with Daryl staying a dragon - I don't exactly see why you'd force him to go human for good.

The Nassau thing may well have been quietly canceled, if it was ever even a real thing beyond some marketer's pie-in-the-sky proposal.

Why?

Because corporations pull shit like that all the time.

Maybe. But it was still mentioned in one of your comics, so I figured that'd have to be mentioned.

I guess one GOOD thing to come from the verdict (spoilers for page8) is that they CAN widen their port-of-call list some. Don't chuck Monster Island entirely (I mean, Disney Cruise Line has Castaway Key or however it's spelled), so a private stop is a valid option.

Freaking double-posted comment...fixed it though.

RIAA style touble?! RUN AWAY!!

Now I'm thinking of the implications that Monsterizing would have. The military applications would be obvious (turn soldiers into armored super-beasts, assassins with color-changing skin/poison darts, spies with super hearing/vision, etc), but pretty much every job could be specialized with the right kind of monster. You'd hardly need special training or physical skills; just turn any willing person into a monster that would be suited for lifting heavy cargo, tunneling through mountains, laying bricks, sorting mail, disposing garbage... and at the end of the day you could just turn back. Of course, there could also a darker side- criminals who want to hide their identity could have their whole bodies changed into someone completely unrecognizable.

Of course, you're the one who made it up to begin with so I imagine you've probably already thought about all this. Your thoughts?

Well, none of that's going to be possible as long as Monster Cruises has a monopoly on the necessary software.

In that case, it's probably for good reason.

"You have two choices: You can either give the military and intelligence agencies full access to your systems voluntarily, or we can tie you up in a years-long investigation into the leak of classified technologies that will start with you being required to hand over a copy of all of your software and a full set of your hardware."

These guys are having a rather big moment of fail here. As has been said earlier, they're going to have to prove Daryl was monsterized by them and how he was snuck off the ship without being de-monsterized for their approach to work.

Now on purely IP grounds, they might have a case. But that would require the monsterization process to be filed with the appropriate patent offices (you've got to give the details and a working device) and would allow the government to have access to it -- they can slap a National Security tag on almost anything if they want to use it.

OF COURSE
COPYRIGHT LAWS
HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO BLIND
NOTHING ELSE COULD BE SO EVIL AS TO DENY HUMANITY THE OPPORTUNITY TO GROW PAST THE LIMITS OF NATURE