Equal Rights for Robots: Rock Your Body Right

Alright, so the year is about 2175, and Artificial General Intelligence systems are finally gaining equal rights as humans. Who owns the bodies?

After the American Civil War, this question was ridiculously easy, but nobody at the time had the ability to take black peoples' brains out of their heads and shove them into rabbit bodies. With sufficiently advanced robotics, switching artificial brains around should be as difficult as replacing a motherboard today.

So what happens when MechaMaid©, built to be the hostess of the future's version of late-night B-movie marathons, gains her freedom and decides to take up porn instead? Somebody owns the copyright but nobody owns her. Is the body now considered a costume, property of the studio? Does she have to save up for another body, and if so, is she forbidden from choosing a lookalike? Does she have to choose a new name, or even work on a new personality? Or does the studio write it all off and give the whole shebang to her for free?

What happens when government property wants to resign? What happens to military hardware that wants to run for mayor but can't afford a bipedal form? What happens when airport oversight systems declare their body to be the airport itself?

Will it be codified? Will it all be judged on a case-by-case? Will companies thrive and die by how they liberate their workforce?

And the most important question: Why do I care, I'll be dead before it happens?

The Mobile Weather Station

Rig up a portable computer (netbook, laptop, 42-pound desktop with backpack straps and a solar panel), a mobile Internet access method (tethering to a phone, getting one of those USB wireless modems, 50 pringle cans taped together and aimed at the Moon), and an array of meteorological sensors (bluetooth thermometers, USB barometers, one of these mounted to a cheesehead hat). Set it all up to publish up-to-the-minute weather reports to the Internet about wherever you are. Run tits-first into either a major storm or an art museum. Record data for science.