1. I can't grasp the meaning of "A believes that B who pretends to be C is not B (whether
C exists or not)". How can B, who pretends to be C, be not B?
2. Again "B is not B" doesn't make sense to me! I'm asking this separately because here, if I understood the boldened quote, B isn't necessarily pretending to be C.

Mindy Chen-Wishart. [*Contract Law* (2018 6 edn)](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Contract-Law-Mindy-Chen-Wishart/dp/0198806353/ref=dp_ob_title_bk). p 262.

>
> 6.2.5 Non-existence of the identity assumed
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
> According to this rule, A’s mistake as to B’s identity will only void their contract if
>  A mistook B for another existing and identifiable party, C. If A merely believes that
>  B is C who is non-existent or unidentifiable, the contract is only voidable. In *King’s
>  Norton Metal Co Ltd v Edridge, Merrett & Co Ltd* (1897), K sent goods in response to an
>  order from the fictitious ‘Hallam & Co’, written on headed stationery with a picture
>  of a large factory and a list of overseas depots. The fraudster then sold the goods
>  to E. Although the contract was in writing, the contract was only voidable for fraud
>  because K intended to contract with the writer of the letter, being mistaken only as to
>  his attributes; namely, solvency and respectability. The contract was not void for K’s
>  mistake that it was contracting with ‘Hallam & Co’ because ‘Hallam & Co’ was nonexistent.
>  ‘If it could have been shown that there was a separate entity called Hallam &
>  Co . . . then the case might have come within the decision in *Cundy v Lindsay*.’
>
>        It is difficult to see why A and D’s rights should depend on whether A mistook B for
>  another real entity or not. Furthermore, why was it not enough in King’s Norton that K
>  believed that ‘Hallam & Co’ existed, when it did not?
>  This supposed rule is subject to two exceptions, which require impossible distinctions
>  to be drawn:
>
>
> (i) A contract may be voided if A makes the additional mistake that C exists, even
>  if C does not exist. But is there a meaningful difference between A believing ‘B to be
>  not B’, and by implication someone else (contract not void); and A believing ‘B to be
>  C, mistakenly believing that C exists’ (contract is void)? After all, in *Lake v Simmons*
>
>
>

p 263.

>
> (1927), the mistress of a wealthy customer, a widower, purchased some items from L,
>  and then persuaded L to let her take away valuable pearl necklaces for her ‘husband’s
>  approval’. L’s loss was only insured if no valid contract was made with the mistress.
>  The court so found, although she was posing as a non-existent wife.
>
>
> (ii) A contract is void when **[1] A believes that B who pretends to be C is not B (whether
>  C exists or not)**, **[2] as long as there is an implied term that B is not B** (*Said v Butt* (1920)),
>  as where:
>
>
> • an offer is made only to persons fitting particular descriptions which excludes
>  B (eg ‘current students of a particular university’, or being ‘over 18 years’ to
>  buy alcohol); or
>
>  • B may know from previous dealings that A is unwilling to contract with
>  them (eg B is barred from a pub or a soccer match).
>
>
> If the rationale is merely that B cannot accept an offer known not to be meant for
>  her, then why did this not apply in *King’s Norton Metal* when the fraudster must have
>  known that K had no intention of contracting with him?
>
>
>

"as long as there is an implied term that B is not B"


It is well known that some software products "call home" to inform their distributors how the software is used and whether it conforms to their licensing terms.

When someone pirates that software, this method might be used by the copyright holder to gather information about the user, and send the user a warning/threatening letter about the fact, and ask for payment, threatening legal action in case of non-compliance.

However, **what is considered sufficient evidence for that legal action to have any standing at all?** Would the word of the copyright holder (and their server logs, which in theory could be faked) be enough to prosecute the supposed copyright infringement?

My misunderstanding might come from the problem of what this evidence consists of. It is just a message sent by a software to their server. It's just data somewhere on a machine, under full control of the copyright owner.

**A)** Is the copyright owner implicitly believed? In this case it would be easy for such a company to go rogue, and make up copyright claims. For example, they might allow a free (as in beer) software to be downloaded, but having an expensive, non-free software too. The user installs the free one, it "phones home" with information to identify the user with, they edit the logs, and sue the user for using the non-free version.

**B)** If the data gathered by the copyright owner is not implicitly believed, then how can they press their claim if the user denies everything? By the time they obtain a warrant and show up with the police to search the premises of the supposed pirate, the evidence might have long since been destroyed. (and usually it's in a different country, making the process even more difficult and expensive)

If it's (A), how are users protected from frivolous lawsuits? If it's (B), then how can copyright owners exercise any of their rights? I would guess it's mostly (B), and the copyright owners just scare users into paying, and if a users refuses, there is not much they can do against him, besides threatening to start a lengthy and expensive lawsuit which the copyright owners have no real hope of winning, but would be so costly and time-consuming for the user (especially if the user is a private person or a much smaller company than the copyright holder) that he rather pays than to be dragged into it.

Is my understanding correct, is this how it works? The copyright holder has little to no chance of winning, but proposes a settlement of a few hundred or few thousand $, and threatens a lengthy legal process for maybe millions if not complied, and the users are scared of that lengthy process and they rather pay the smaller sum instead of going for the very low risk of having to pay millions in legal fees?

What is considered sufficient evidence to prove the usage of unlicenced software?


I am not very knowledgeable in the matters of international trademark law so I was hoping to get some insight here. I am considering a development of a computer game and the best name I came up with is **Galactica**. However, I am unsure whether I can use this as the name **Battlestar Galactica** is obviously a trademarked name.

The game shall fall into the genre of so called *grand strategy* games which are essentially large empire simulators with a single game playing out for many hours and deep game mechanics. The game would be situated in galactic environment, the player would explore star systems colonize planets and make diplomatic connections and wage wars with other species in the galaxy.

Could I get into trouble for naming such a game **Galactica**?

Trademark on name "Galactica"


This is a tax law question.

I portray Mark Twain in a one-man performance I conceived, wrote (predominantly based on Twain's words, of course), and "direct."

I would be willing to appear at times to raise money for "charity," IOW without charging for my performance. Is it legal (according to the IRS) to count these gratis performances as "contributions" that I could thus subtract from my income so as to reduce my tax burden?

If so, what do I need from these organizations for which I provide a free performance? Would it be a document that says, in effect, "Clay Shannon donated $\_\_\_ to us by providing his performance free of charge" (where the monetary amount is the amount of their ticket sales) or what?

A side question is, can I require these organizations to pay my expenses (travel, lodging, meal[s]) so that I need pay nothing out of pocket to provide the performance, or would these costs have to be borne by me and only be deductible as a further charitable contribution?

Are Performances provided for charity a valid tax deduction?


"[Justice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice) is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered." In the Justice system a person is reprimanded for an act committed.

However the punishment of any given person is a function of more factors than the act committed in a nontrivial way. It varies, not insignificantly, with race, gender, wealth, attractiveness, and so on... You can, for instance, take the average difference of sentencing between a white person and black person for murder. This difference will be the punishment assigned to a person for the act of being a certain race. This punishment is not insignificant and cannot be considered to satisfy the condition of fairness in any approximation.

Is the Justice System flawed in it's most fundamental principle? If so, how can this be corrected?

Is the Justice System Fundamentally Flawed?


I was just wondering if it is legal for a restaurant to lock the doors of a kitchen where food is being prepared. The door can be opened from the inside

It would seem that in case of a fire in the kitchen, the door would not open from the outside, creating a safety hazard.

Thanks for the info.

Can the door to a kitchen be locked?


I am aware that being the author of a work entitles you automatically to its copyright however, is it illegal to use the copyright sign and claim the copyright openly without registering it?

Copyright Claiming


Is there copyright on sporting results? For example Tour De France results have the rank/position of each cyclist, the cyclist's name, and the cyclist's finish time/result.

1, Thibaut Pinot, 3:17:21;
2, Nairo Quintana, 3:17:39;
3, Ryder Hesjedal, 3:18:02;
4, Alejandro Valverde, 3:18:59;
5, Chris Froome, 3:18:59;

This data is factual so can copyright be applied? This data is not original so can copyright be applied? There's an argument that finish times are an original work because they originated from the Tour's timing equipment. The counter argument is finish time could alternatively be sourced from mainstream media, social media, or from the cyclist themselves and so are not an original work.

Is there copyright on sporting results?


Concerning the question in title

>
> What do international laws say about using a software which is free only for non-commercial purposes?
>
>
>

I am talking about software which are free for students or in general for non-commercial use.
Of course I understand the meaning of such statement and I believe it's fair.

My question is basically: **what does according to International laws happen when use certain tools for professional purposes even if you have a non-professional license?**

What do international laws say about using a software which is free only for non-commercial purposes but used otherwise?


As a follow-up/clarification to [this question](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/33113/are-you-allowed-to-transcribe-a-copyrighted-manuscript/33137#33137), I would like to ask with a little bit more detail.

There are several groups of "ancient" manuscripts and inscriptions which I would like for this to take into account. Here is a list of some of them:

* Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs (>3000 years old)
* Ancient Olmec Inscriptions (>3000 years old)
* Ancient Mayan Glyphs
* Ancient Aztec Glyphs
* Old English Manuscripts (>1000 years old)
* Old Runic Inscriptions (>1000 years old)
* Old Irish Manuscripts (>1000 years old)
* Ancient Chinese Manuscripts (>1000 years old)
* Ancient Chinese Inscriptions (>3000 years old, like the [oracle bone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone))
* Ancient Latin Manuscripts (>1000 years old)
* Ancient Greek Manuscripts (>1000 years old)
* Etc. There are many other cultures such as Finnish, Tibetan, etc.

Some of these are owned by places like the Catholic Church, others by places like the British Library, or other Libraries or Museums, even others are held by Universities, and still others are held by private individuals who may post an image online of the artifact for a variety of reasons, like [this person did](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/4t9kop/book_written_in_geez_ancient_ethiopic_unknown_age/). Also, some artifacts may have been *created* in one place (like in China), but *hosted* in another place (like at the British museum).

So the question is about looking at an online image of one of these artifacts, which is provided by one of the owners, and then either drawing a picture to replicate the object (like the image below), or copying it into text form, such as [this](http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/sacr-cor/), which was transcribed from [an image of a manuscript](http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/manuscripts/cp/?tp=ob), into [electronic text](http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/sacr-cor/view/#edition/translation).

Specifically, all of the things I am talking about are pre-copyright era, the actual objects themselves. So then someone finds/discovers the item (either they found it pre-copyright era, like 1000+ years ago finding something and putting it in the king's library), or it was discovered post-copyright-starting era. So somebody owns it. I am not concerned with that part. But then they take a picture of it and put it online. Some of the pictures (like the reddit image) are just quickly shot with an iPhone. Others require significant cost, care, and tooling, such as taking a picture of a fragile ancient manuscript, while others require that much cost/care/tooling to startup, but then can be automated for thousands or millions of artifacts (like the Google books project). But in the end, an image of a natural, copyright-free artifact (since it was created pre-copyright era) is online and publicly available.

What you see in this situation often is "this image is copyrighted". To me that means that you can't directly sell the image, or host it on your site/product for commercial gain. But given the *content* of the image is in the public domain (again, the content from all those cultural resources listed at the beginning) because it was created thousands of years ago, I wonder what you are allowed to do with the image.

I wonder if you are allowed to:

* Make a drawing of it (like the sketch below).
* Transcribe the text contained in the original document (which you could *see* because of the copyrighted image).

Obviously the drawing wouldn't be a straight copy of the *photograph*. It would draw the essence of the content instead. So the content is public domain, but the image is copyrighted and the artifact is owned. I wonder if you are allowed to essentially write down in electronic form what is in the manuscript artifact, or in the case of glyphs, to write down the glyphs.

What this would mean is that one could go to a museum website and view their manuscripts, and transcribe them, and then do what you want with the transcription. If that's not allowed, I would be interested to know the reason.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rl7Pn.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Rl7Pn.png)

Transcribing Ancient Manuscripts from Around the World


For instance, if there were a product that takes a variable amount of time to mature, could a business take pre-sale orders (clearly marked as such) without giving the customer a deadline? If so, what keeps a business from tying up customer funds indefinitely without ever delivering?

Can a business offer a product pre-sale without specifying when the product will be delivered?


I was recently watching TV, when lo and behold, I saw a picture of my side entry french door in a commercial. The company airing the commercial did install windows in my home 7 years ago, but never asked permission to take a picture of said door or air it in a commercial. Do I have any basis for compensation concerning this?

I am sorry if this is not the proper place for this type of question. I just needed to start somewhere. I read over every inch of the contract and nothing in it mentions permission to take photos. I had to reinstall the french door that was improperly put in by a family member and the stucco job that I did around the door served its purpose but is unsightly. The commercial is stating that structural improvements have to be done when using windows or doors that are pre-fabricated rather than ones that are measured for the specific opening. The picture is not close up and because of the stucco job I did it is completely identifiable as my property. I feel that if the company is making money off of the image shown in a bad way, and it is my residence which they had no written permission to photograph, then yes, why wouldn't I want compensation?

Photograph of side entry french door used in commercial, compensation?


There's a maker of toys on the market and they only produce physical toys which are quite peculiar, unique and distinct from everything else. Suppose I have an idea to buy several toys from them, make photographs and drawings of those and sell that art on my website. Is there a general law (in the US) that could prohibit me from doing that or is it decided strictly by the producer of the original product?

Could a copyright even apply to works like these? And is it enforceable? There may be different variations of it, such as: a specific toy appearing amongst other objects in a busy image, or a very stylized type of art that is only broadly reminiscent of the original object that inspired it.

My question is not "how different can it be before copyright kicks in...", it's about two different representations of a product, different mediums. I.e. I'm not comparing a painting to a painting reproduction, rather I'm trying to understand the relationship between a physical three-dimensional object intended for play and leisure and its representation in 2D intended by me as "art".

How broad can a copyright be in case of a graphical representation of a physical object


On youtube, can i do the following whilst collecting ad revenue?

`Teach someone to play a copyrighted song on guitar (i.e. ed sheeran)?`

Is this an infringement of copyright? I have found some research that suggests it may be ok:

* The NMPA [National Music Publishers Association](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Music_Publishers_Association) seem to enforce artist copyright rights.
* It appears Youtube have an agreement with NPMA to royalty share [link](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/17/idUS115394738920110817)

Youtube Ad Revenue + Guitar tutorial video - Can I make ad revenue from teaching copyrighted guitar songs?


I found the OFL font [Sarabun](https://www.f0nt.com/release/th-sarabun-new/) on the web and I want to use it on my web site. The ttf file is quite large because it contains letters of the thai language.

I removed the unnecessary characters using the pyftsubset command of fonttools.

According to the OFL a modified version must have a different name so I renamed the new font to PaperStroke.

It would also be possible to use the original name if [Function Equivalence (FE)](https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL_web_fonts_and_RFNs) is given. But because the font name doesn't play a big role for me I prefer to rename the font.

According to the [OFL-FAQ](https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=OFL-FAQ_web#43cecb44), a font should contain a FONTLOG which lists the original version and the modifications. The original font (Sarabun) has no FONTLOG. Should I create one?

On my website I want to create a credits section which tells the user that the PaperStroke font is licensed under the OFL and is based on the Sarabun font.

Is this the right way?
I modified the ttf version of the font. Is this ok or should I rather look for the source code?
I also don't want to use Google Fonts because i prefer to host the font on myself.

Remove characters from an OFL font and use it on a web site


This is a cross-post, originally posted in [Webmasters.Stackexchange.com](https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/104798/necessity-of-collecting-ssns-for-1099s-re-affiliate-programs?noredirect=1#comment133111_104798) but it was suggested I post here instead:

My question is basically this: I have an idea for a web service that would potentially allow affiliates to earn money. What I'd really hope to avoid is actually having to collect things like their Social Security Numbers, EIN's, etc, let alone any of the other compliance type issues that could arise.

I'm wondering a couple of things.

First: The need to issue 1099's doesn't actually arise until you're paying out $600 or more in a given year. Could I feasibly just let the program run, but only make the requirement of providing an SSN for tax purposes kick in when the affiliate is going to go over the limit? Ie, for the first $550, no SSN checks required, but after that, they need to provide this info to receive additional payments?

Second: If I only make payments through a service like PayPal, who I presume has crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's, does this alleviate my need to do any additional checks on people (not that I even know what checks would be made).

Third: Going hand in hand with the only making payments through PayPal idea - If i accurately record payments to affiliates as Services provided, does PayPal take care of 1099's as part of their role? In that I would only have to report payments made to PayPal, and it would be on them to report payments made to the ultimate beneficiary?

This isn't a business that's been launched, but I'm trying to think out issues beforehand, and this is the biggest one I can think of - I would personally rather not have myself or anyone one on my team even be able to access anyone's SSN's, but if it moved forward, I would obviously want to do so in a way that was compliant with the IRS and any other regs.

Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated, unless it's "contact an Accountant" - I already know that's the most correct answer, I'm simply wondering if anyone else has gone down this road and can save me a little time and money on this, as this is still just idea phase, not operating business phase.

Many thanks!

necessity of collecting SSN's for 1099's (re Affiliate programs)


I am planning to provide an internet service that accepts payments through

1. Bit coin
2. PayPal
3. Visa

For now, I have not legally registered this as a company or planning to pay tax for the income.
Is it illegal to do this? And what do I need to do before starting to earn income?

What is the legal requirements of earning money on the internet


I have been searching in several US contract law textbooks and on the web and I am unable to find the answer to this question.

As background, I understand minors (those under 18) generally have full capacity to contract for necessities and if something is not a necessity the contract is voidable by the minor. So, **a contract for food, housing, etc. is fully binding on the minor but a contract for a solid gold panda is voidable by the minor.**

The books go on to say that if a minor is from a "high station" that is, from a rich family, then an expensive necessity may still be a necessity. For example, **expensive clothes can be a necessity to a rich minor** while expensive clothes would not be a necessity for a minor or more moderate means.

The **books, unfortunately, do not refer to the origin of this rule.** Is it from a case? Is it in the Restatement? Is there legislation on this point? Everyone seems to talk about it like it is a given like the sun rises in the east.

What is the origin of rule that expensive necessities are necessities for minors with proper socioeconomic status?


I've Googled this question but I haven't found any exact details or reliable sources.

I'll keep this as broad as possible so the question isn't specific to my situation but I will answer any questions that are needed to give context if the answer depends on situation.

If a client were to pay a business $X for a service can the business pay the employees a percent of the clients payment if the employees only duties involve providing the service the client payed for?

I know that each employee would need to be paid minimum wage so if the minimum wage is $10 and they spend 10 hours providing the service the business would need to pay no less than $100.

I ask becuase not all contracts are even for a service based business. A small project could charge $2,000 and a large project may charge $6,000 but an employer may want to pay the employee more for that large project.

For example:

20 hours at the $10 rate would be $200 for that contract but if the employer could pay per project then the employer could pay something like $500 which would average out to $25/hour which may be too much for an employer to pay for smaller projects.

Can a business legally pay employees per project?


I am trying to make a computer program that simulates another computer. I want to simulate something called the Scott CPU (from [here](http://buthowdoitknow.com/)). Could I change a small thing about it and not have to ask for permission to use it?

Could I get around a copyright by changing one small thing


This question is related to this one [Copyrights of material that would be used for both commercial and non-commercially](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/38824/copyrights-of-material-that-would-be-used-for-both-commercial-and-non-commercial).

I am developing mobile app that contains ads and premium paid option. In short, it is a commercial app. I want to give the ability to my user to download and listen to materials that was licensed as non-commercial use.

My question is:
Is giving the ability to the user to download those materials from their original source via the app and listen to them via the app violate the non-commercial use condition? I mean I will not include them by default and will not advertise that the app contains those material when downloading/buying it.

If it was OK, does hosting the files on my server change the answer? (Keeping in mind that I will put all information about the original materials and to who it belongs and the original link)

Based on the answer to my previous question ([Copyrights of material that would be used for both commercial and non-commercially](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/38824/copyrights-of-material-that-would-be-used-for-both-commercial-and-non-commercial)), I suppose that this question will get the same answer. However, my concern is that why it is OK, for example, for commercial web-browser to be used to navigate, download and listen to such non-commercial materials but it is not allowed for the app I am developing to do the basically the same. The materials are not included by default and the app does a lot of other things that is not related to those material. However, downloading and listing to those materials is optional and up to the user request.

I just want to be clear that I am not trying to avoid buying a commercial-license but I found no way to get in touch the owner/owners. Furthermore, there are tons of app and websites that are redistribution those material freely and putting ads or charging the user for the traffic. The owner/owners seem not interested in suing anyone but in the same time did not clearly stated that the materials are for Public Domain and I want to stay in the safe side.

Enable downloading non-commercial use material from a commercial app


Before anyone asks this is part legal curiosity, part proving for 'loopholes' that I could have villains in a story exploit, I don't need 100% accuracy so much as general guidelines, and any unique situation or known 'loophole' is also interesting.

I'm curious about how the US handles travel to other countries to activities crimes that are illegal within the US but legal in the country they travel to. At first I thought that this would be legal, but I know sex tourism at the least is restricted, They actually make us take a training at work about how sex trafficking is bad in case we couldn't figure that one out on our own.

A quick scan online tells me that the sex tourism thing is specific federal law. Outside of sex tourism of individuals under the age of 18 are there other situations where one can be punished for traveling to another country to commit a crime? If so are these specific laws that address only a few unique situations, or is there some general law that addresses many crimes committed by traveling to another country?

I can think of a number of theoretical odd situations as fodder for story telling, I'll likely ask a few of them in more detail in later questions depending on the answer in this one. If someone wants to touch briefly on a few odd situations below in their answer I would be interested, but if any of these situations is too complex I'll ask them as a later follow up question.

1. how does dual citizenship work in situations where it would be illegal for a US citizen to travel to country X to do activity Y, but the individual in question is not only a US citizen but also a citizen of X?
2. How much does 'premeditation' apply to these rules? For instance my quick scanning of sex tourism law refers to an individual traveling to a country "with the intent to ...", does that mean if someone travels to a country and only then decides to do an activity it would be legal (ignoring the difficulty of proving it wasn't premeditated)?
3. Is a non-US citizen within the US (for instance with a visa, or even an illegal alien who lives in the US) still subject to these sort of laws if they leave the US with the intent of doing something illegal within the US and then return?

Edit: ...also Id love at least *one* other instance of an activity that would be a crime if someone travels elsewhere to do it. I'm thinking of potential loophole abuse questions I could ask, but I *really* don't want to ask them in context of the sex tourism law. Rather or not it's just a theoretical question to explore legal oddities I really don't like even hypothesizing the sort of situation that leads to someone trying to violate that particular law.

If one leaves the US to commit an act illegal in the US but legal in the country they travel to are they guilty of a crime?


Let's say we are in California and I have a dispute with my employer. My employer has, or so I believe that it has, breached our employment contract and caused me damages. I then talk to my employer about possible remedies, or possible legal remedies through litigation if none provided.

Now, the employer decides that this rebellion is not to be tolerated and demands that the employee enter a new contract that specifically prohibit the employee from seeking such remedies, either directly or otherwise, regarding said dispute. If the employee does not sign the contract, then he or she will not be continually employed.

I understand that "at-will" employment can be terminated for virtually any reason except in the case of protected classes, activities, etc.

* Is it within the company's right to make such request, such that further and continued employment is contingent on the employee not bring about litigation against them?
* If it is illegal for the company to ask such a thing, what kind of law covers this? Or rather what do people call this? My search for employer retaliation and protected activities mostly return with results about EEOC, and I do not know which direction I should go search for.
* If the employee leaves the company because he or she do not want to sign the paper that "you will not ask for remedies...", is this wrongful termination?

Is litigation against one's employer protected?


I've recently gotten into a fairly obscure band that a lot of people describe as a "one hit wonder". Nobody is making merchandise for them anymore as the band stopped making music long ago. There aren't any available listings for shirts online as far as I know. I had the idea that I would make a shirt for myself using an image of the lead singer and text (the band's name and one of their song names). Every site I went on mentioned copyright rules, and so I haven't tried creating the shirt as I am worried about possibly getting in trouble for it. I don't even know who I'd contact to get permission to use the image (especially since the band is no longer active and the lead singer doesn't have social media as far as I know).

Would I get in trouble with the law if I created the shirt with absolutely no intention of profiting from it? If so, who could I get permission from to use the image?

If I were to make a custom band shirt for personal use, could I get sued?


I'm an entrepreneur who wants to capitalize on the wild success of the mobile game Pokemon Go. There are three teams within the game that have distinctive logos, see the bird icons in the image below. My question is, if I wanted to take those logos and modify them and print those on clothing and other items for sale, would I be able to do so? How could I protect myself from litigation if I wanted to go through with this plan? Would modifying the original icons, or created brand new stylized version of the icons suffice? Would I have to put that this is unlicensed merchandise on my sale page, and would that protect me?

![pokemon go teams](https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.dailydot.com%2Fuploaded%2Fimages%2Foriginal%2F2016%2F7%2F8%2FPokemonGo_teams.jpg&f=1)

How much do I have to change a logo from an Video game IP (pokemon go) to create items and sell them?


I've tried googling for this, but haven't been able to come up with a definitive answer. How do I cite in a footnote in Bluebook format a contract between party A and party B signed in 2008?

How to Cite Contracts


I'd like to make a contract with my associate to buy something from them at a future time. In the financial world, options like these (for stocks and commodities) are traded all the time. I'm looking for something very similar, but because the thing I'm trading is not a traditional financial instrument, I won't be going through a broker.

Where can I find some reference material for how to write such a contract with proper legal language? The purchase is also very small so I would rather not hire a specialized lawyer just for this, as the lawyer's fee would be many times more than the purchase amount.

You can assume I have read <https://law.stackexchange.com/a/6264/19001>. I am still asking this, because I am wondering specifically about appropriate language for an option contract, pertaining to:

* Timing (expiration, early exercise, European vs. American style)
* Responsibility (how to specify which person has right to exercise, is it possible to make exercise mandatory)
* How exactly the article to be traded must or can be described (for example commodities specify a baseline quality for the commodity)
* Whether the price of the contract is specified in the contract
* How to proscribe automatically voiding the contract in certain situations (such as if exercise becomes impossible)

To be clear about my situation, I'm actually planning something similar to a [covered call](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covered_call). However, it might be nice if I could set it up so that at expiration, the contract MUST be exercised unless certain conditions are met, while before expiration it MAY be exercised if the relevant party wishes. The subject of the contract would also be a unique item rather than a commodity, so it would be nice if exercise could be satisfied by trade of only that specific item rather than any item of the like kind.

The goal here is that:

* It's detailed enough that we're unknowingly assuming legal risk because it doesn't cover some weird corner case
* It's not so complicated that we're unknowingly assuming legal risk because we can't understand it
* That I do not have legal ownership of the item until such time as I choose to officially exercise the contract

How to write a contract for a future purchase


Is there a general worldwide rule for who you approach for [public screening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_and_private_screening) rights if a film has not been released in your country?

Is it some middleman local motion picture association or the copyright holder in the home country of the film?

Public screening rights


Like many consumers these days, I now depend on home delivery for many of my 'non-essential' items.

I have been shopping online for a steel product which is often counterfeited (mostly from China), and have managed to weed out the more obvious fakes. Unfortunately, the very manufacturer that produces the item has contributed to the confusion by either importing the prime material and assembling it in the USA, or has exported the American-made parts to be assembled in China.

In this case, the product is recognized world-wide as superior when made of US steel and assembled in the USA, and may in fact be considered undependable in a critical situation (read "your life depends on it")

I think possibly this issue is being avoided by [advertising the product as "USA Made".](https://www.gerbergear.com/en-us/search-results-page?searchterm=lmf)

In the past, "Made in U.S.A." meant something.

Is "USA Made" just a weasel-word, or is it actually another way to say "Made in the USA"?

How to interpret "USA made"


Let's say I have propriety software which I recreate using solely my observations of its user interface, input and output.

I recreate this software to near-perfection leaving out only trademark icons and symbols.

Then, I publish the source code of my rewritten version of the software, under a different name to the original program, on GitHub (or something similar).

Does the owner of the original software have grounds to sue me or make me take my code down from GitHub? Is this still considered reverse-engineering even though I haven't disassembled the original binary or accessed the original source code in any way?

Can software be legally rewritten if the original source code is not used?


Let's say there's Hyperion Cantos, a novel by Dan Simmons. I'm planning to use that novel's plot as a basis for my video-game plot/script.

No character names or place names would be used (basically anything that could violate copyrights, etc).

Question is, how legal it is to re-use **ideas** from that novel in my video game?

(e.g. some fictional events/special abilities of a protagonist, basically everything that doesn't have name on it, but it has some properties/features that are related to original novel's fictional properties/features)

Can I use novel as a basis for the plot of video game?


A person is falling into a pool of lava. If another person were to shoot them as they're falling, would the killer be charged for murder?

Is it murder to kill someone who's just about to die?


I am looking specifically for how the U.S. taxes businesses that originate from another country, but are doing business within the U.S., with or without operations taking place at a permanent address in the U.S. The source for this information should preferably be a .gov website.

How are businesses based outside, but doing business inside of the US taxed?


If I upload a copyrighted file "c.file" *for which I am not the copyright holder* to Dropbox, no one cares. If I share it, then it becomes an issue (and of course Dropbox has things to prevent this). However, if I put c.file on my own webpage, with no security of any kind, this is file sharing, which is illegal for copyrighted files. If I want to use my server as a personal cloud storage like Dropbox, what do I need to do in order to be within my legal rights to serve copyrighted material? Is a simple password protection enough? Or do I need to achieve some particular level of security?

How to legally upload copyrighted material to a server?


I want to use a couple of lines from "What is life?" by Erwin Schrödinger as a quote on the front of my thesis. Would I need permission from the publisher or would that be covered by fair use? Also, do I need to attribute the quote properly?

In my thesis, I have:

>
> The quote from Erwin
>
>
> -- Erwin Schrödinger - What is life?
>
>
>

I reside in Germany so EU laws would apply.

Is permission needed to put an extract from a book in thesis as a quotation?


I've created a company, and I am using unregistered trademarks in my documentation (and soon, products). I've already checked the USPTO and these words are not already trademarked. I am using the (tm) mark after them.

Q: How should I document that I am using these, and when I started using them?

Document unregistered trademark?


A friend recently received two job offers. He accepted one and rejected the other. The employer he accepted subsequently withdrew the offer because of what came up during a background check. He has asked the employer for the substance of the background check that was grounds for withdrawing the offer, but has not received any response. Is there any requirement that this information be shared, since it was the basis for terminating a contract?

Furthermore, if one rejects an offer to accept another, does the withdrawal of the other offer constitute a tort, e.g., violation of promissory estoppal?

Is an employer required to tell you why they withdrew an offer based on a background check?


Let's say company A has 100 equal shareholders (company worth $100 million).

B is a competitor.

B wants to buy A for $60 million

A (obviously) refuses.

B buys 51 shares of A for $51 million.

B appoints it's CEO as CEO.

A's other 49 shareholders protest.

B's shareholders insist on a vote.

B wins 51 to 49.

A's new CEO signs away all the company property to B (for a great low price of $9 million).

A's 49 shareholders protest

B insist on a vote and wins.

A is worthless.

---

Even if such a blatant plot seems unethical, one can implement this in a more stealth manner (proxy companies, B's CEO making "strategic" sales).

Are there any legal protections for A's shareholders?

Does owning more than 50% of a company give you full rights to it?


[Here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condition_precedent) is a Wikipedia definition, of something that must happen before something else happens, but I'm not sure how to apply it to the law.

Let's say that there is an angel investor that meets a company with an interesting technology, and proposes to invest an amount, X, in the company for a certain percentage. The contract says something like, "a condition precedent for the investment of X is a demonstration of the company's technology to the investor's reasonable satisfaction." The company delays in doing the demo, but asks for the money. The investor says, "no demo, no money." Is this what "condition precedent" is meant to say?

If there is no express time limit written into the contract, is there an implied, or "reasonable" time limit after which the investor is off the hook? For instance, if the demo took place six months later, can the investor reasonably say, "your technology sounded interesting six months ago, but I fear that it has been made obsolete by now."

What is a condition precedent?


I consider my questions brilliant and I want to reserve my rights to publish them in other forums.
Am I allowed to do that or do I need permissions?

Does StackOverflow own my questions?


I work for a hospital in Alberta, Canada.

As part of our job, we're required to use a walkie-talkie-like device called a [Vocera Badge](http://www.vocera.com/product/vocera-badge). Over the course of the last few years that we've been using them, we've lost 5 badges, and they cost about $500 each.

Recently we got a new batch of the latest model to replace our old ones and were informed by management that if any of us lose one, we'll be responsible for the cost of replacing it.

Is it legal for an employer to require the use of equipment and make employees financially responsible for it?

Is it legal for an employer to charge an employee for lost equipment?


1. I put money in financial product A.
2. The fine prints say that I should be able to do a lump-sum withdrawal within X days.
3. I tried to do withdrawal.
4. Then the financial institution says that "although it is denoted as A on the webbpage, it is actually not A but B. B does not allow a lump-sum withdrawal. So you cannot do a withdrawal."
5. Please advise what will be the next step.

Erroneous information on cancellation policy


We are using some of my pre-existing, personally copyrighted open source software libraries at my employer. Recently they have asked me to "fix" the copyright so that it is theirs.

I have no objection to them owning a version of the code, i.e. that they own the copyright to, however I want to retain the ownership and copyright of the original code as it existed before I came here.

Is there a reasonably painless way to achieve this?

Thanks.

Cross-posted from Open Source, per a commenter's suggestion.
<https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/6230/can-i-assign-a-2nd-copyright-to-my-employer>

Can I assign a 2nd copyright to my employer


I'm not a citizen of the EU, nor do I reside in the EU. But as a consumer, I welcome GDPR. It gives me some limited rights even though I'm not in the direct interests of the regulation.

Anyway, if I understand the regulation correctly, I'm covered by it if I visit / reside in a country in the EU (even if I'm not a citizen). Does this mean I can request companies to give me a copy of *all* the data they have on me when I visit, for example, France on vacation?

Can I request companies to give me all the data they have on me when I'm visiting a country in the EU?


If I find a meteorite do I get to keep it? Does it make a difference if I find it in my own lawn or on public land? I am especially interested how law is in European countries.


I'm just curious if there's ever been any case law on the kind of writs a court can write in reference to the 13th amendment?

As a layperson, it sure seems to me that ordering a company to develop a new piece of code (As opposed to merely handing over existing data), seems to fit my understanding of the term "involuntary servitude".

All Writs Act (Apple case) vs the 13th amendment?


How can I protect the personal information contained within my C.V., cover letter, letters of recommendation from unauthorized sharing?

I have been a victim of identity theft, so I seek to now find ways of limiting the exposure of my personal information to any entity I come across, including employers.

I thought it would be to my benefit to have a confidentiality disclaimer page stating that I do not consent to the sharing of this information without my prior approval. I've heard of employers selling applicant information, or sharing it, and I just want a way to protect against that; if that's even possible.

How to protect privacy vis-a-vis sending resume to potential employer?


I'm trying to make some dragons for my game and I'm wondering how far I can go with inspiration before I get in trouble.

Obviously, I can't just take a picture and make a 3D model that looks exactly like the picture. But what about taking ideas? For example [this dragon](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/hbz-got-dany-drogon-1505228283.jpg) has these iconic red fins on his neck and his tail and now I'm wondering if I could use similar fins on my own dragon or if that's getting me into legal hell.

I tried to google for Creature Design copyright but I could not find anything. Maybe someone here got some resources where I can find more info about that?

How far does copyright go in creature design?


I am interesting if penal codes in US or UK allows a convicted person to obtain release on parole after only one third of jail time, although the person never admitted the crime nor most of the prejudice is not recovered.

My question stems from a real case in Romania where an important businessman and politician [was convicted to 10 years](http://visegradplus.org/dan-voiculescu-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison-in-the-ica-case-institute-of-food-research/) for "money laundering and prejudices to the state of 60 million Euros in the case of ICA privatization" (more details [here](http://www.fairpress.eu/blog/2014/10/09/dan-voiculescu-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-media-mogul-ten-years-prison-for-the-broker-of-governments-and-artisan-of-presidential-impeachments/)).

However, he was released [only after one third of jail time](http://www.romaniajournal.ro/businessman-dan-voiculescu-serving-a-10-year-prison-sentence-released-on-parole/), in spite of never regretting what he did and also in spite of the fact that most of the prejudice is not recovered:

>
> “Voiculescu had no deserving behavior, but a normal one typical to any
>  convicted person. The defendant has not paid the prejudice in the file
>  and not even the judiciary expenses to the Romanian state,” the
>  prosecutor pointed out.
>
>
>

**Question:** does the law within US or UK allow parole so soon for a person in a similar context (no regrets, major prejudice).

Is it possible to be released on parole only after serving 1/3 of jail time without admitting the crime and the prejudice not being recovered?


Here is a hypothetical situation:

1. A person worked in company A for first 9 months in a year. They paid income tax for him.
2. The remaining 3 months he worked in company B. This company assumed that the person didn't have any income before he joined them, and didn't pay any income tax for him (because his income in company B didn't reach the threshold of taxable income).

Now company B claims that the person has to pay this tax himself because it's his responsibility. As I know in many countries companies are obliged to withhold and pay income tax on employees' behalf. So it's company's responsibility to pay the tax. Who has to pay the tax in this situation? In case no one pays the tax will Revenue Department inquire this tax from the person or from the company? Assume the USA Law.

Does a company or an employee have to pay income tax?


In the following video, the narrative is that the police asked the young man to switch off his phone. He refused. They asked him to sit down. He refused. They then used violence to put him on the ground: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-QLZNTjqOQ>

Do people have to comply with a policeman's order to sit on the ground?

Can the police require you to sit if you are not under arrest


I was wondering about the phrase ["time is of the essence"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_is_of_the_essence). This compares to other time constraints such as "reasonable time" and "time at large."

My understanding of "time is of the essence" suggests that all the deadlines set forth in the contract must be met, that ordinarily, extensions will not be allowed. Is this a correct understanding?

Can "time is of the essence" be inferred from surrounding circumstances, even though it was not "stated" in the contract? For instance, if a "recital" to a contract said that one party needed to complete the deal by December 31, in order to obtain a tax advantage (or avoid a tax loss), would that imply "time is of the essence?

What are the different time requirements under law?


What prevents companies like Uber to draw up contracts, which both the riders and drivers have to `sign` / `agree to` if they want to use Uber?

This is in light of recent events related to [Uber drivers being ruled as employees by Californian Court.](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33171508) And also [the ban of Uber in Delhi due to incidents of rape and sexual assault by the drivers on women riders](http://www.wsj.com/articles/indian-court-leaves-ban-on-uber-in-place-in-delhi-1434533438).

Would companies like Uber not benefit by drawing up contracts, stating that drivers are contractors, if a driver has a problem with that they may not sign up.

Similarly can they also not draw contracts for riders stating a limited liability and again if the rider has an issue with that they may not use Uber.

Can such contracts be voided by the courts, even if they are signed by both parties?

If they can do it, and it would help, why aren't they doing it? Or are they, then why is it not working for them?

**P.S:** I am not saying that Uber has no responsibility of doing a background check on drivers (and making sure that Uber rides are completely safe), so that the safety of women as well as men and children can be ensured. Also if we are coming to it, some sort of verification of the rider will encourage women cab drivers to also operate an Uber.

What prevents uber to draw up end user contracts?


Paul Davies. [*JC Smith's The Law of Contract* (2018 2 ed)](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smiths-Law-Contract-Paul-Davies/dp/0198807813/ref=dp_ob_title_bk). p. 69.

>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nyYyb.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nyYyb.jpg)
>
>
>

1. Is the Best Answer from [Yahoo Answers](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110707063743AAwVmAD) beneath wrong? I'm assuming that the rogue, Fletcher, didn't have a solicitor.

>
> One solicitor is accepting a duty to make sure the transaction is completed before title transfers..that's all.
>
>
>

2. How could Grey induce "the defendant to detain the sugar and indemnified him for doing so" (gold), if the "the sugar was held to Fletcher’s order" (red)?

What does "hold to order" mean?


If a person discovers a vulnerability similar in scope to the recently disclosed Spectre/Meltdown (CPU design flaws that affect nearly all existing server infrastructure), could they legally explain this vulnerability to the vendor and offer non-disclosure for a fee, in the realm of $100,000 per month of delayed publication?

Failure to pay only results in immediate publication of the vulnerability, which is in itself a legal activity.

Would this be construed as extortion? The design flaw itself exists already, and information regarding it isn't withheld from the vender, they are paying solely for delayed disclosure to the public.

Is offering non-disclosure of a vulnerability in exchange for payment legal?


I wanted to create a search box on my website that would allow the user to directly search another site. It works like this:

* The user types in "facebook" in the search bar
* The app generates the link: <http://instantlogosearch.com/?q=facebook>
* And upon clicking "Search" navigates to that url (which shows the results on the other site in a new tab

By adding the search query after `?q=` it navigates directly to the results page. It is technically just a link to another site, but because it's generated like this I wanted to make sure if that's allowed.

The ToS of [Instant Logo Search](http://instantlogosearch.com/) only refer to the use of images on the site and don't mention anything about any kind of integration. The reason why this might be a problem is the additional traffic that Instant Logo Search might experience which could lead to higher costs for them. Although my app is just a small side-project and I don't expect the traffic to be high.

Using url parameters to search a different website


Suppose you have this scenario:

Company AA is an automotive manufacturer that needs to upgrade the IT system that lasted for 10 years. It asked the same supplier of old IT system to provide a feasibility study on how the system could be improved in terms of speed and efficiency. Company AA recevied a report that the system can be upgraded. Then, Company AA issued a formal invitation to tender for the work involved on the basis of Company AA 'Standard Terms for IT Services'. The supplier produced a tender with detailed information like cost and duration, however the tender made several modifications to Company's standard contract terms for IT services.

Then, A formal notification of contract award was issued by company AA to the contractor, but ignored the Clauses modifications and included a reference to the original standard terms of contract for IT services.

The contractor did not agree with the original terms, so refused the contract award. Is the contractor obligated to start working on the project as they have reached the contract award stage. In other words, is there any legal obligations or **can a contract award can be resufed if the contactor did not agree on terms ?**

P.S following common law in US & UK

Is it possible for a contract to refuse a contract award


If and counterparty and I agree to a contract through WeChat, is that contract enforceable?

Is an agreement made through WeChat enforceable?


From my understanding, all calls to 911 in the United States are recorded. How does 911 legally record calls in states where consent to record is required?

From [Reporter's Recording Guide](http://www.rcfp.org/reporters-recording-guide):

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BSQdp.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BSQdp.png)

I know that some states where consent of all parties simply requires a [recorder warning tone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder_warning_tone), such as the State of California:

[Air Transport Association of America v. Public Utilities Commission of the State of California, Defendants, 833 F.2d 200 (9th Cir. 1987)](https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/497058/air-transport-association-of-america-v-public-util/?)

>
> G.O. 107-B defines disapproved monitoring of telephone calls as the use of equipment which allows a third person to overhear or record a telephone conversation without any indication to the conversant parties that they are being overheard, or without allowing the conversant parties to communicate with the third person. **A person wishing to listen in on a conversation without violating the regulation can provide notice by using a beep-tone warning device audible to all parties to the conversation** or by announcing to the parties that the conversation is being monitored. The order requires utilities to file tariffs prohibiting monitoring unless notice is given to the parties to the conversation, or their consent is obtained. If a telephone company learns that a customer is monitoring conversations in violation of the tariff, the order requires the utility to discontinue service if the customer does not refrain from such monitoring within five days after notice from the utilities. The customer can file a complaint with the CPUC if discontinuance is threatened, and the customer's service will not be discontinued pending resolution of the complaint.
>
>
>

but how the other states where consent is required and a beep isn't enough?

E.g. from [laws on recording conversations in all 50 states](https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LAWS-ON-RECORDING-CONVERSATIONS-CHART.pdf):

>
> Maryland All Parties Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402 (a): The Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act holds that it is unlawful to take or record a communication without the consent of all parties.
>
>
>

How does 911 legally record calls?


(I need to ask this question again since I did not have enough information last time. Now I have access to full set of documents I signed including: NDA, Assignment of inventions etc....)

If I create a product-idea outside of reasonable office hours using my own resources (Money, computer, code-base etc...) will assignment of inventions I signed with my employer prevent me from claiming full rights to my invention?

I also want to make sure that I can use this code-base later to productionize my invention and sell it to enterprise customers later when I leave my current employer.

If it helps the following section applies and is mentioned in my agreement:
CALIFORNIA LABOR CODE SECTION 2870

However I have to mention that I work from GA

How will my "Assignment of Inventions Agreement" harm me? I am happy to provide more details on request...

Creating products and inventing during employment and assignment of inventions


Say Matt has been sentenced to perform 10 hours of community service by a judge. His dad encourages him to be a good boy by offering him $1000 if he completes the hours. Matt accepts the offer. There is a text message record of this exchange. After Matt completes his community service, his dad reneges and doesn't give him the $1000.

Does Matt have a valid claim that he has a contract with his dad? Or does the community service not constitute sufficient consideration for a contract?

Is community service sufficient consideration for a contract?


Customer gives me an e-book or a document, I record audio of that document and send it to the customer. I am not redistributing that work, I only charge the customer. Will this infringe the copyright law? The customer could be giving me an e-book that he bought.

Convert document/e-book to audiobook


In the past, I had interactions via email with various boards of my town government. I recently noticed that printouts of these emails were scanned and added to the "meeting package" - a PDF document that is available on the town's website. The printout contains my name, email address, and in some instances my address and home phone number. Google OCR'd the PDF documents and finds them when I search for my email address.
(e.g. <https://www.town.medfield.net/DocumentCenter/View/2309/BOS-Meeting-Packet-January-29-2019-PDF>)

I asked for these documents to be redacted or removed, but I did not get a response and I don't expect any action. Is there a legal basis for this request, or can the town take the position that the correspondence is public record in its entirety?
And what entity could help me enforce a request for removal (other than a paid lawyer)?

Comment/Explanation:
The initial couple of answers don't seem to address my concern, so here is another attempt to explain. My question is primarily about the level of protection that PII should get from local governments, not about public records. I do contract work for a federal government agency. I have to undergo training annually for Title-9,13,26 protection of citizen data. It appears to me that local town governments should adhere to the same standards, but I was wondering what the legal basis is.

Public record or PII


A family member works for a large consulting / outsourcing company and has been permanently employed by them for many years, working for multiple different clients over this time. When one client assignment comes to an end he uses the employer's internal jobs board to find a new assignment.

Late last year he started a new assignment, but a few weeks in the client decided that his skills were not well matched with the tasks they wanted him to do and requested that a new person be assigned to the role. He was withdrawn from the role and his employer provided the client with a new person instead.

At that time he was given written notice by his employer that he was now "in a Consultation process" and if he could not find a new assignment within some period of time (as far as I know, no set time frame was given in writing, but verbally he understood that he had about 6 weeks) then his employment would be terminated "on the grounds of skills mismatch with the current role."

They also verbally used the word "redundancy" but have subsequently retracted this and stated in writing that the role (with the specific client that he was withdrawn from) is not redundant, the work is ongoing and another person whose skills are better matched has filled that role.

He then continued looking for alternative assignments and spent time doing various training courses to broaden his skillset. Unfortunately he was not able to find another assignment that matched his skills within the time frame, and his employer has now given him notice.

To my mind (and from <https://www.gov.uk/dismissal/reasons-you-can-be-dismissed> ) there are two ways they could have done this:

- redundancy (not redundancy from the specific assignment he was withdrawn from, but redundancy from his outsourcing role in general if they no longer have any roles that need his skillset) - which would entail a redundancy payment

- dismissal due to "Not being able to do your job properly" - in which case he should have been through a disciplinary process etc., which he has not.

I also work for a (different) consultancy firm and in my company we would definitely class this as redundancy and would pay a redundancy payment. The issue would be ours in that we would not have any suitable work for someone with his skillset, not that he was unable to perform the specific role we had originally allocated him to.

Is my understanding correct? Assuming that he would be happy with an outcome of either a) having his job back and waiting until a role that matches his skillset comes along, or b) being paid a redundancy payment, what should be his next steps?

Dismissal versus redundancy from a consulting / outsourcing role


I am thinking of running an algorithm on TV shows which will output a written account of each show's contents. An example would be a written copy of the recipe used in a cooking show, which would be almost verbatim, but not a complete transcript and probably without any overall synopsis; just a few parts of the show. That being said, the algorithm would have to "watch" the whole show to discover the relevant parts.

Would I need a license from the owner of the show's copyright before doing so?

Would the answer be different if I watched the show myself, copied down the recipe by hand, and put it on a (commercial) website?

Commercial "natural language processing" algorithm on TV shows


A few months ago I decided to leave a company whose CEO engaged in a lot of questionable practices. ([1](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/100750/how-to-convince-ceo-that-giving-real-projects-to-candidates-is-a-terrible-idea), [2](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/23883/is-it-illegal-to-continue-using-oauth-tokens-after-a-user-asks-to-remove-them))

It has come to my attention that this CEO is using my name, title, picture and current company on the company's page as a "Testimonial"

He's also still using my name, picture, and e-mail address to deceive leads and customers into thinking that they have access to the "technical lead" of the platform itself.

I have texted, e-mailed and called him multiple times asking him to take down my picture, my name and my testimonial from the page. I have also asked him to stop impersonating me. He hasn't replied.

Is there anything I can do to force him to stop? I don't care if I burn a bridge with him. It's not a bridge worth keeping. I'm concerned about my reputation and my supervisors might think that I'm still associated with my former company. Can an individual issue a Cease and Desist letter?

I am in the US if that matters.

Is it legal for a company to continue using my name and picture on their site, despite not being an employee anymore?


I'm going to a local gym in my town for about half a year. At the time I signed the contract I didn't have a car and bus or train is terrible where I live, so I had no other gym to choose from. The contract states terms of 1 year with a 1 month notice period to terminate it.

Now, after these 6 months of training there and educating myself over a lot of weightlifting topics, I started to notice a lot of flaws in the gym. For example, I'd love to do Squats or Military Presses. Unfortunatly the gym doesn't have such a rack to take the barbell out and picking a heavy loaded barbell off the ground is pretty hard (even impossible when trying to lay the bar across my neck to squat with it). Also there are some machines I'd like to use, which are also missing.

I read about extraordinary termination when the gym removes a machine (or other equipment) or does fail to replace broken ones, so I came to this question:

Am I able to extraordinary terminate this contract due to missing equipment, although I technically should have know that it was missing before I signed?

Gym Membership Extraordinary Termination when Flaws were already present before signing?


I'm building a site that aggregates food delivery services in my region. I show all the companies I collected as a list of cards, where each card contains the logo of a company, company name, link to the site of the company and other information.

I have one problem though. Some companies use white logos on a transparent background. My site's background is white, therefore those logos are invisible. Is it legal to invert the logos (make them black) without asking each company?

Can I invert other companies' logos and use them for advertising them on my site?


I made an ebook from a 1936 publication (country of origin: UK) and preparing to sell it on my website with the help of a credit card processor. The book is under copyright in the United States but public domain almost everywhere else. I am not a US citizen, not located in the US, and not doing business through a US legal entity.

1. Is there a standard course of action in this situation to avoid copyright infringement?
2. What determines copyright infringement here, the buyer's US citizenship or the buyer's country of residence?
3. Am I responsible for verifying the buyer's US citizenship/residence and if so, what are the minimal requirements? Would it be enough to simply ask the buyer to select from a dropdown of whitelisted countries before placing the order?

Selling public domain ebook, how to avoid copyright infringement in the US?


Legally speaking (legal consequences), is it wrong to spike someone's drink? No dangerous or health-threatening substances, just a very mild pill that gives beneficial insomnia-curing effects.

Also, is there anything wrong with spiking your own drink? (And someone else came along and drank from your cup, of her own accord.)

Is it an offence to spike someone's drink?


If I have a proof that someone has (*or has had*) an illegal copy of my work how much time do I have in order to sue for copyright infringement?

How much time do you have for sueing someone for copyright infringement from the moment you have the proof?


If Brand X creates a merit pay pool to give out merit bonuses or bumps in salary related to merit, can it be decided to use that pool of money for other purposes? For example, if a market study determines that they have to bring a segment of the workforce in line with market pay -- can they use the merit pool to do that?

merit pay accounts


If I write a story about an alien time traveller from a dying race, with encyclopedic knowledge, who sporadically visits London, travels with young companions, occasionally saves Earth and other planets, and appears to change bodies periodically. Would this be a breach of copyright?

Would this breach copyright on Dr Who?


Many employers, typically those offering minimum wage jobs, have applicants fill out a personality quiz. They usually probe whether the applicant believes stealing is justifiable, if they value their job above their own well-being, if their outlook on the world is bleak, and other personal questions.

It's generally accepted that you put in what the employer would value, and not your true values. However, once employed, if you revealed in conversation your true beliefs, and they ran counter to what you wrote down, could this give the employer just cause in termination?

Can employers fire someone for "lying" on personality questionnaires?


My new contract states that
"Effective... you will begin accruing vacation time at a rate of 6% of your annual earnings. This is equivalent to three weeks (120 hours) of paid vacation entitlement on an annual basis."

Being an hourly employee who is not paid overtime, all work time is subject to the 6% accruing rate, and as a result not representative/equivalent to 3 weeks, as my work days can greatly vary (20-84 hours a week). On average, I end up at the end of the year working more than the average 40 hour work week. By giving me 3 weeks, I do not accrue vacation pay at a rate of 6%.

By signing the contract did I agree to wave that it will be accrued at 6% and instead representative of the 3 weeks?

Contract Conflict


Granted, they screwed up: yesterday was the deadline for filing income tax returns, and the IRS web site for e-filing crashed for half a day. Because of that crash, the Secretary of the Treasury has announced that the deadline has been extended by one day.

Does the IRS have the legal authority to make this change?

Does the IRS have authority to extend the filing deadline?


Some corporations have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, and some may allow their employees to take their laptops home for usage. What if an employee takes the code and develops something outside of their employment scope?

An organization may be able to file a patent infringement lawsuit if their code is used, but what if a malicious employees steals non patented or patent pending code and sell it to someone else? How do the organizations handle these cases?

EDIT:

I agree with the copyright answer. I will search it further on the law Stack exchange site as suggested in the answer and the comments.
This is different from [the other question](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/109087/how-do-large-companies-protect-their-source-code) because there they OP is asking about ways to protect the source code. I am interested in impact of code theft and ways to handle it.

How do organizations with BYOD policy handle code theft?


I see that the [International Organization for Standardization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization) has the following disclaimer in some of its standards (example: <https://web.archive.org/web/20200503214211/https://people.engr.ncsu.edu/jwilson/files/mathsigns>):

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ahtkn.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ahtkn.png)

>
> PDF disclaimer: This PDF file may contain embedded typefaces. In accordance with Adobe's licensing policy, this file may be printed or viewed but shall not be edited unless the typefaces which are embedded are licensed to and installed on the computer performing the editing. In downloading this file, parties accept therein the responsibility of not infringing Adobe's licensing policy. The ISO Central Secretariat accepts no liability in this area.
>
>
>

What's the point of adding a disclaimer in a PDF file to respect Adobe's licensing policy when editing the PDF? I would have guessed that even if ISO didn't have this disclaimer the same licensing policies would apply.


In quantitative finance SE, there is [a question asking](https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/3556/generating-or-tracking-the-djubs-commodity-index) for help calculating an index. If someone writes a program that performs the calculations described in the handbook and shares that program publicly, would it violate the index copyright? Or does the translation from English to computer program make it ok?

What counts as redistribution of copyrighted calculation?


Do criminal prosecutors, or judges and juries, view charges or sentencing for fighting and/or injuring someone in public differently if the person facing the charges is a trained fighter like a professional boxer?

Do boxers have a different legal status if they get into fights in public?


i have learned that " Contrary to patents, trade secrets are protected **without registration**, that is, trade secrets require no procedural formalities for their protection. A trade secret can be protected for an unlimited period of time, unless it is discovered or legally acquired by others and disclosed to the public. For these reasons, the protection of trade secrets may appear to be particularly attractive for certain companies. There are, however, some conditions for the information to be considered a trade secret.
[source](http://www.wipo.int/patents/en/topics/trade_secrets.html)

So, if a competitive company stole an idea from another company and says it has discovered such idea, what the original company have with them to demand the Intellectual property, as they haven't registered or disclosed certain idea.

how intellectual property can be protected while it is undisclosed?


For my PHD I will do an academical research study about the English Premier League. Therefore I created a database out of several online databases - namely the ea sports fifa ultimate team scores, and official data by the premier league like name, nation, age and the players profile picture by the british premierleague.

The participants can only take part in the study via a personalized invitation URL.

The main purpose of the study is to understand the impacts of different player combinations in fantasy teams (known players, but in unreal teams) on team likings based on ethnic influences and other facts.

So from my understanding this should be not a copyright infringement because of the following criteria:

* (1) academic use ([Exceptions to copyright: Research](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/375954/Research.pdf))
* (2) non-commercial use
* (3) closed user group (non publically published)

The terms and conditions of the EPL can be viewed [here](https://www.premierleague.com/terms-and-conditions)

I will of course cite the original data sources and state their ownership of the data / images. I will explicitly state, that none of the players or clubs are involved in the experiment.

Is this a legal use of the data by ea sports and the premier league in the uk?

thanks for any hints or insights on this topic!

Using premier league data for academic resarch


As far as I understand, a person has the right to a "fair trial" in most countries. This is considered a human right and a constitutional right in many countries. Now in relation to this, there are different types of trial systems. 2 of them are jury trials and bench trials. In my country is always being used a jury trial. Now in some cities/provinces, it's being optional to have a bench trial. This could become mandatory someday. In my personal opinion, this type of system which is used in countries like United States I believe, it's flawed and unfair. In my opinion, common people dont have the knowledge to make a fair judgement and most of them judge according to prejudices and beliefs. Apart of this, when you take a bunch of random people to judge, who are never going to judge again, and which they dont have judging as a source of labor income, they dont have a reason to be responsable other than their own moral which in some people is unexistent, they arent in the spot if they take a bad decisition because they are part of a group of several people and they havent been formed to judge, they dont have a job to lose, and they dont have a record of bad jugdments if they are bad at judging, so bad people judging arent removed of the system as bad jugdes in jury trials are. So my question is, have ever a trial in the world have been appealed and succesfully reverted the judicial decisition, because of the court system used being considered "unfair"?

have ever a trial been appealed for the court system used being considered "unfair"?


I know that making, or preparing to make, counterfeit bills is illegal. I also know that if you use counterfeit currency you can have problems whether you were aware of it or not.

I would like to buy or acquire counterfeit bills to keep for educational research purposes. Is there a legal way to do this?

I am interested mainly in Polish Złoty as well as Euro and Dollar bills.

Is it permissible to collect counterfeit currency?


Sites like IMDB as well as Rotten Tomatoes and countless other websites or mobile applications (such as flixter, etc.) all use movie posters and images from movies as part of their content which is more or less the selling point of their business *(or maybe more accurately how they convince users to keep using).* How do companies get away with using images or movie posters for free, does that mean movie posters and content are fair use for commerical use?

How do websites (or apps) that use pictures or posters of movies not infringe on rights and still make a profit?


**Company X** is an online betting app for Football (soccer). They want to advertise on twitter or facebook for upcoming matches between certain football clubs and tell their users that they can start to place their bets for that match.

Is **company X** allowed to use the logos and names of these clubs for this advertisement?

Can you use other company's brand or logo in your own marketing campaigns?


I have an image on my website, which I created myself.
I have not added any license. The photo is just there.

Google is showing the image in their image search.
They also modified it by creating a thumbnail in reduced quality.
The thumbnail seems to be stored on their servers.

When you click on the image, Google shows the hint
"Images may be subject to copyright."

I know it's possible to write a robots.txt file to forbid Google to show my image. It's also possible to write them a message.

But why is Google allowed to use images without asking for permission?
I always thought you need a license or permission to redistribute and modify an image of someone else.

I am registered to the Google Search Console. Maybe I granted them the right to use my image there, but I don't know.
I cannot find the image on bing, yahoo or duckduckgo.

Why can image search engines use all images without asking for permission?


Almost finish with writing a business book - and am going through some of the illustrations to make sure I have copyright permissions and attributions. Here's a problem I've encountered:

There are a few photos that are from World War 2 era (battlefield photos in France, for instance), that are generally very common on the web - and I cannot find any attribution - let alone license information for these photos. Another photo or two is very specific (Cargo Cults) and the few photos available also have no source or attribution - but are used just about everywhere.

I'm pretty good at searching, and diving deep. I've also checked AP, Getty images, other commercial sites and also the Smithsonian archives. Nothing.

So - what do I do? I don't want to get sued after the book is published, or charged extortion after-the-fact, or worse, have to reprint the book without the photos.

REWORDING the main question for clarity (and so others don't think I am asking for legal advice:

My question is not generally not "how can I search online to find the original image".

The question is - how can I properly use and attribute a photo inside my book - when no official attribution or copyright can be found?

Note: 1) this is a writer's question tagged under the "copyright" tag. in all of stack exchange there is no place more appropriate than here.

Old Photo copyright


Assuming that a reporter from country B called Bob has somehow got a video from country A. He then puts in on a news page that is open to the whole world. Later, A citizen called Cob from Country C watches the video. There is a warning sign and a message in the video but it is written in Country A's language and Cob doesn't understand. What consequences would Bob and Cob have? (Bob and Cob don't know each other, it is unknown if Bob understands or has read the warning. But it is known that countries B and C might have similar laws related to the warning)

Violating a country's law outside that country


It is settled that natural justice is guaranteed under Article 14 of the Indian constitution. However article 14 explicitly mentions that "The **State** shall not deny to any person ...".
Thus if a person is subject to arbitrary discrimination on grounds of religion or has been denied natural justice, he/she may not be able to invoke article 32 to seek remedy unless the violator is 'State' within the meaning of article 12.
However the jurisdiction of High courts under article 226 is much wider and includes any society/corporation which is performing 'public function' even if it is not controlled by the state. To rephrase, the test for determining amenability under article 226 is the 'function test' which is much wider than the more restrictive 'control test' for article 32.

Now my question is

>
> Suppose a person has been discriminated on grounds of religion or has been denied natural justice by an authority/society which is amenable to writ jurisdiction under article 226, but not under 32, then what is the analog of article 14 which shall be invoked in a writ petition under article 226 ?
>
>
>

My understanding is that even though the body is amenable to writ jurisdiction under 226, it could argue that article 14 does not place any obligation on it to not discriminate on the grounds of religion or to follow the principles of natural justice since it is not **State**.

>
> Which public remedy is available to a citizen in such a situation ?
>
>
>

Justiciability of a case involving violation of natural justice by an authority other than 'state'


I was recently made redundant after working at the company for just over a year.

I was given no indication before hand that I personally might be made redundant (although other departments in the company had just gone through redundancies, but this was over a month before) and did not go through a consultation period, I was called into a room with HR and my manager and basically told I was being made redundant and that while given a months notice I was not expected to work it and made to leave the building.

My question is that it was my understanding that the process of redundancy was the employees had to be notified about the potential redundancy or at least have a consultation period so they can ask questions or raise any objections?

This was in the UK.

Redundancy with no consultation


How do we identify the requirements of determining what a factual matrix is in relation to answering problems in contract law?

What is a factual matrix?


My friend is facing the following problem:

Her boss left the computer open and she then looked at his screen, where the salary of a coworker at her level (who since has left the company) was displayed. As his salary was considerably higher than hers; she was shocked and told a coworker about it, and also to her boss who left the his computer open. In a preemptive strike he reported it to the management but says that she went through his email, essentially accessing his computer without consent.

Now human resources has written her an email, asking her to answer some questions next week. Her answers would then lead to a decision whether disciplinary actions would follow.

The questions are:

* How did you find out about the salary?
* Who did you share the information with?
* Why did you think it is ok to discuss this with the colleagues you discussed it with?
* What you expect to gain from discussing third-party salaries with colleagues

It is hardly illegal to look at somebody's screen. But is there an obligation not to disclose that information to colleagues? She is working for a company in the UK.

Seeing a co-woker's salary on his screen


I recently heard that in 2013, Germany banned out-of-hours working. This [article](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10276815/Out-of-hours-working-banned-by-German-labour-ministry.html) says:

>
> Germany's employment ministry has banned its managers from calling or emailing staff out of hours except in emergencies, under new guidelines intended to prevent employees from burning out.
>
>
>

As a PhD-student, I've got several deadlines throughout the year and sometimes I need to work after the regular working hours and in the weekends. I could work at home, but I am always more productive at my workplace.

The thing is, no one is asking me to stay, I am staying out of my pure will. I can simply tell my supervisors that I am not willing to consider the following conference deadline and they would not mind it, it's my decision.

Would it still be illegal if I spend extra time at work or go on weekends?

Although I have the status of a student, "PhD student" in Germany (and many places in Europe) is a paid job. Your employer could be the institute/university, or you could be funded through a scholarship.

Working after-hours and in weekends in Germany


The HR department at my company is concerned about what can and cannot be asked in a technical interview for a software position. We are being told that under Title VII we cannot do the following:

1. Have candidates perform a simple coding exercise where they write some code to solve a general problem we provide
2. Ask technical questions on a phone screening (e.g. ask the candidate to explain what a particular technical term means or how that technology is used), without the questions being vetted by an IO psychologist and administered by a trained professional

I have been a part of hundreds of interviews as both the interviewer and interviewee at many different companies. Technical questions and tasks have always been a part of the process. I have spoken with friends about technical interview questions they were asked when interviewing at Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc.. If these large companies are able to ask technical questions, I feel that our company must be mis-applying the law somehow.

Can we legally ask technical questions of candidates and/or ask them to complete a coding exercise?

What types of questions can I legally ask in a technical interview without violating Title VII


I was astonished by the news that Warren was silenced by the Senate for "impugning a senator" because in my eyes the rule itself seems to conflict with democratic principles of the USA as well as the 1st amendment. It seems incredible that:

1) A rule that prevents criticism of politicians during political debates in Senate because that would allow the majority to prevent minority from criticizing majority, therefor cementing perpetual rule by the current majority. In particular, this rule would prevent quite rightful impugning of senator MacCarthy in 1950s.

2) A rule that dictates what somebody can or cannot say about the conduct of a public person seems to violate the 1st amendment.

Can anybody clarify how this rule can even exist?

Is the Senate rule against "impugning a senator" constitutional?


I'm the original author of a project that was made on company time and resources. While waiting for this project to come to life it just died without any support on marketing it and not using it at all.

Now I'm wondering if I can use this as my own releasing it for proprietary purposes or as an open source project. Are there legal outcomes when in the case of the company taking it back as their own proprietary product?

I'm no longer an employee on said company.

Philippines

Original author of project that a company abandoned


If a public rental space allows for different groups, acts, and performances to rent the space, and is defined as a "public accommodation" for purposes of the law, can the space legally deny a group, act, or performance from renting out the space based on disagreement with the content of the performance?

Does this change if the rental space is owned by the government?

I have been thinking that an artistic performer is not technically a protected class, but it seems that not allowing anyone to rent out the space based on disagreement with the content poses a constitutional issue.

Does the lessor of a rental space have standing to deny an act or performer from renting the space?


I have a legal case that would impact a large number of people. I wish to raise money from them to appeal the case. If I do, will that be considered income for me if I provide it to the lawyer? Would it make a difference if I have the funds given directly to the lawyer?

Is crowd funded income used to pay legal fees taxable?


What are the laws regarding Copyrights pertaining to copying of website templates ( which is an intellectual property )?

Website Copyright Laws under Intellectual Property Laws?


Somewhat "hypothetical" question:

I priced something for a customer, a total of 500 pcs, each **individually** listed, on an **invoice** for $100.00 each, for a total of $50k.

This customer then sends me a purchase order, which I sign for a price of $50K. This purchase order shows the total amount of the order, but not he amount of pieces.

Since then, he has placed 5 orders of 50 pieces each (250 pcs total).

Now, he never sent payment or **placed** an order for those 500 pcs. He's called everytime, given me payment for 50 pcs and placed the order for 50 pcs.

Obviously, **the price is different for 50 pcs**, because it takes longer to make 50 pcs then 100 pcs (time per pc) and material prices have increased (we are now 10 months after his original order / purchase order). So for every piece in these orders, he has paid $55.00 per pc.

Its one thing if I quote a service for something and I myself delay manufacturing or installation, so then I have to deal with the increase in costs, but we never got paid for the original scope, so we never purchased that material, for example.

He now calls me saying that we have overcharged him in every order. I've explained to him that he ordered in small batches, not a bundle as quoted (actually invoiced) and that the material cost has increased. He believes that because I signed the Purchase Order we are bind to sell him these items for those prices.

**My questions are:**

1 - Do we have to sell for those prices? The Purchase order was for 500 pcs, so was the original invoice (which he never paid, instead placed small orders). Since he sent a PO for 500 pcs, that means technically he should have placed an order for 500 pcs correct? So these small orders technically do not match his original PO, and could be considered different orders, correct? (if he wants to get technical).

3 - I am myself not overly worried about this, I can take the easy way out with less headache and just make the remainder of the pieces for less money to have the final price be the same $50k. I'm not gonna lose that much in what the cost of the material is for me, but it is gonna cost me more in labor and reduce the profit on the material. I can see how I should've protected myself better, by perhaps not pricing by item, by writing "priced as a bundle", but ultimately, who is right and who is wrong?

Just to give an example, these are custom made items. Things that don't lose value as new, lets say like a metal chair. You can purchase the same chair today for $50, but next year, the same model, made later on, costs $60 because of the increase in costs.

If it also makes a difference, this took place in MA.

If I can clarify things better, let me know and I'll edit the question.

Please don't be harsh, I'm not a lawyer, I'm trying to learn to be able to back myself up better in the future.

Price quoted vs Purchase Order


Due to the coronavirus outbreak, my university has tentatively canceled all live forms of live education, including exams. Instead, they have decided to hold exams through an online proctoring software (third-party), which requires access to the computer webcam, microphone, screen, and browsing history to work.
This is the first time the university is doing an examination in this manner, and there are no official guidelines for how these exams are to be conducted.
I am concerned about my data privacy in the context of these exams, and am wondering what my rights are and how I can exercise them. Specifically, I am wondering whether I can refuse the collection of my personal data through the online proctoring software, and whether the university may reprimand me for doing so. If both are the case, how can I truly say that I 'consent' to data collection and processing when I am coerced, so to speak, by the threat of failing my courses if I do not use this novel software?

Online Proctoring, Exams, and the GDPR?


The International Boundary Commission is a permanent international organization headed by two commissioners: a Canadian and an American. In 1924 it distributed to the public its Report, which contained many photographs that were its own work. The report contains no copyright notice.

The Commission's web site [contains this paragraph](http://internationalboundarycommission.org/en/privacy.php):

>
> Permission to reproduce Commission works, in part or in whole, and by any means, for personal or public non-commercial purposes, or for cost-recovery purposes, is not required, unless otherwise specified in the material you wish to reproduce.
>
>
>

I'm wondering about usability of these photographs in Wikipedia articles. As nearly as I understand it, Wikipedia's policy says works uploaded to Wikipedia that are not in the public domain must be subject to a license allowing anyone to use them subject only to the condition that authorship and copyright ownership must be acknowledged. [Here is Wikipedia's policy on this.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_use_policy)

* Are any claims to copyright forfeited by public distribution without a copyright notice?
* Would copyrights have expired?

PS: [Here](ftp://ftp.nrcan.gc.ca/pub/outgoing/IBC_CFI) is the 512-page report.

**Postscript on August 23, 2021:** The one current answer does not seem to take into account that the U.S. federal government is not the author, but is merely one of the publishers, of this work (the International Boundary Commission is the author) and also does not explain how Canadian law does or does not apply here. That is why I have started a bounty here.

Copyright status of photographs published in 1924 by, and created by, the International Boundary Commission