One area I'm interested in is a legally binding verification of content at a specific point in time - for example: tracking changes to a breaking news article on CNN.

I'm not sure what technologies would be required to implement something like this, but I feel like the Internet Archive would be important and BitCoin might be away of encouraging verification from a globally distributed network of 3rd-party verifiers.

You should check out zeronet: https://zeronet.io You should also check out 21's new pay-per-call api features:https://21.co/features/

This idea has already been explored, here's one implementation: https://proofofexistence.com/

Hmmm, I'd say not quite. That's a precursor though, sure.

Thanks for the pointer; this might work if it had a vetted API for grabbing content online and signing it.

People use the Wayback Machine like that in court cases all of the time, mainly for patent prior art.