[Indian gov copyright site](http://copyright.gov.in/frmfaq.aspx)

>
> Ques: Is it necessary to register a work to claim copyright?
>
>
> Ans: No.
> Acquisition of copyright is automatic and it does not require any
> formality. Copyright comes into existence as soon as a work is created
> and no formality is required to be completed for acquiring copyright.
> However, certificate of registration of copyright and the entries made
> therein serve as prima facie evidence in a court of law with reference
> to dispute relating to ownership of copyright.
>
>
>

Do I need any legal document to display that copyright or just that the work is created by me it is sufficient?

Can I use `© 2019 My Name` in a application created by me without registering for official copyright in India?


Today, I tapped another car on the highway. The driver got out, and I immediately asked if he was okay. He said he had a bloody lip but that he was otherwise okay. we checked the cars for property damage but found none. He also checked his work laptop and it worked still. He then looked at me, nodded, and said "Drive Safe." We both got back in our cars and I anticipated exchanging information, but he drove off. The police were, of course, never called. To the best of my knowledge, he has no information about me.

Obviously this is a fantastic break for most people and a relief. However, I am wondering if there is any possible liability on my end. He was the one who left the accident scene unprompted, and I sat there bewildered. Perhaps he lacked auto insurance or had some ulterior motive for leaving. He seemed rushed. Regardless, should I report this as a cover-your-ass? And what are my risks for doing so or not doing so?

This took place in Illinois.

Thank you.

Very Minor Car Collision with No Damage, Hit Car Left


I want to know if it's legal to crawl some websites, let's say cnn.com and bbc.com, and display the title, descripton, the image, as well the link to redirect to the actual link for the news?

Is it legal to crawl news from any website, maintaining a link to their news?


I've got a little bit of a conundrum. I have created an animation that uses and contains a copyrighted game character model. I want to distribute this animation without breaching copyright. To attempt to do so, I encrypt this animation file with the original game character model file as the key. Only people who own an exact copy of this character model can open the encrypted file, revealing the exact same character model with animation attached. Have I breached copyright? If so, is there a way I could approach this so as to not breach copyright?

Is sending a modified encrypted file with the key being the original encrypted file legal?


If there is a work that is out of copyright (was published in the 1800s) but I can only find it in an online repository, can the repository claim a copyright or other limitation on my use of their scanned copy?

Who owns a copyright on a scanned work?


[What is a contract and what is required for them to be valid?](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/6263/what-is-a-contract-and-what-is-required-for-them-to-be-valid/6264#6264) explains the basics of a contract. However, any simple contract may potentially have ambiguities that would make it difficult or impossible to decide if the contract is being fulfilled. For example, if I make a contract for someone to fix my car, I should actually specify what exactly needs fixing and what would constitute being fixed. Otherwise the person could just top off the oil and call it a day.

Presumably at some point, common sense is exercised to decide if some unexpected development follows this spirit and intent of the contract or not. After all, it's difficult if not impossible to state anything with perfect disambiguity. But [some contract authors still try](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-user_license_agreement#Criticism). Since EULAs are probably written by some pretty good lawyers, does that mean that such overly detailed documents can be considered the standard of a very good contract? What *is* a reasonable standard for how much a contract should specify, and how much should be left to "well, let's just hope we can all come to some agreement if and when that weird freak case happens".

When contract lawyers write a contract, how do they decide when it's "detailed enough"? Are there rules of thumb that a lay person could use?

How to judge if a contract is detailed enough?


I am interested in the interplay of the EU directive [93/13/EEC](http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31993L0013) and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in the UK.

Specifically the Consumer Rights Act has an exclusion from assessment of fairness where the clause specifies the main subject matter of the contract. But this is not mentioned in the directive so seems to severely limit the applicability of the directive.

I am interested because we have a mortgage that changed from a fixed rate to a tracker but the tracker has a floor preventing the rate from falling below a certain level. The floor is clearly outlined in the contract for the mortgage, however, we were unaware of it when we signed and actually assumed we have been repaying at a lesser rate than what we were.

I would like to argue that the floor introduced a significant unfair imbalance as it protected the lender from a reduction in the base rate without providing us with protection from raising rates.

It seems many Spanish mortgages with similar "floor" contracts have had the floor nullified for similar reasons and they seem to be referring to the EU directive.

I have also come across a EU Court of Justice [ruling](http://curia.europa.eu/juris/celex.jsf?celex=62011CJ0415&lang1=en&type=TXT&ancre=) regarding the directive which states:

>
> the concept of ‘significant imbalance’ to the detriment of the consumer must be assessed in the light of an analysis of the rules of national law applicable in the absence of any agreement between the parties, in order to determine whether, and if so to what extent, the contract places the consumer in a less favourable legal situation than that provided for by the national law in force. To that end, an assessment of the legal situation of that consumer having regard to the means at his disposal, under national law, to prevent continued use of unfair terms, should also be carried out;
>
>
> in order to assess whether the imbalance arises ‘contrary to the requirement of good faith’, it must be determined whether the seller or supplier, dealing fairly and equitably with the consumer, could reasonably assume that the consumer would have agreed to the term concerned in individual contract negotiations.
>
>
>

That seems to suggest that a court would need to consider if I would have accepted the terms if I had been able to negotiate them with assistance of professional advice which would have been unlikely due to the one sided nature of the clause.

UK law would seem to make the floor legally valid regardless of fairness because the floor was a "main part" of the agreement which means it is excluded from the fairness test.

I am a bit out of my depth and definitely do not understand how an EU directive / ruling could affect my argument. However, is it the case that the EU directive / EU Court ruling can override the UK law?

I would greatly appreciate any advice as to how best to formulate my argument with my lender or if I really don't have a leg to stand on from a legal perspective.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 vs EU DIRECTIVE 93/13/EEC


I get too big of a refund each year, so I want to get that closer to 0. Not owing and not getting a refund, in tax.

Should I increase "exemptions"?

Also is "Allowance" and "Witholdings" and "Exemptions" all mean the same thing?

Does an increase in Tax Exemptions mean I will pay less in Tax for each paycheck? (USA)


I am the CEO and CMO of a new software based startup in Canada. I have little to no knowledge of company registration rules. I would like to not only register my startup in Canada, but also be recognized internationally as a company.

* I was wondering first of all when is the best time to make the startup a company? (Right at the start? When the product is done and available? As soon as money gets involved?)
* What makes a company, a company in the eyes of the law?
* What is the thing I have to do in order to register my startup as a company?

P-S: I do know that this is 3 questions, but they are very closely related and I didn't feel like creating 3 different questions and having all the info scatter.

Business Registration Rules for startup?


During the House hearing today (July 7, 2016) Director Comey implied that section 793 of Title 18 might be unconstitutional as to applying the "gross negligence" standard to Hillary Clinton. What is the law that supports this reasoning as to unconstitutionality?

Why might Title 18 Section 793 be unconstitutional?


If I am party to a private conversation with a public figure, and that person either records (legally) the audio, a transcript, or if communication occurs via text, does that person have a legal right to publish the conversation if I explicitly state that I do not want it to be shared?

Public disclosure of private conversation


I read in the wikipedia article of the movie ["A Fistful of Dollars"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fistful_of_Dollars) that the producers were sued by the producer of Yojimbo, the Japanese movie from which the plot line was borrowed, and that the lawsuit was "successful".

I guess I don't understand how a story can be copyrighted, since a story is an idea, not a form of expression. How is it that the Japanese filmakers won the lawsuit.

Yojimbo lawsuit, copyright a story?


I wanted to add the country of the people who left a review on a website but I was wondering how this regards towards the laws about privacy. I have been doing quite some research into this topic but there weren't any solid answers.

Does anyone know if I am allowed to store the country data of people who post a review? As well as what rules are related to this for different locations e.g Europe and America?

Example data:

```
Table header       rating | comment | createdOn | countryOfOrigin
Table row          5        "hello"   00-00-0000  The Netherlands

```

How are the laws considering storing country details of visitors of my website? (calculated of their ip adresses)


My question is, what is required under UK law to assign the benefit of a debt or small contract, to a third party. Although it relates to an actual dispute, the question itself is simply about legal process and facts of law - no advice is sought or needed beyond that posed in the question. Therefore I am also abstracting the question completely, to make it as widely applicable as possible.

Question
========

A, B and C are private UK based individuals.

A is due money under a contract with B. A has performed their part of the contract so the only contractual matter outstanding is A receiving their money from B. For personal reasons, A now wishes their friend C to become the sole beneficiary thenceforce, so that C can claim from B the monies or any other contractual benefits previously due to A, or if needed, C can sue B for their non-payment/non-delivery (if that happens).

The motive for this is partly, that C will give A a sum of money, and will subsequently have full rights to receive, collect and enforce the debt owed by B in exchange.

Can A and C enter into such an agreement of assignment without seeking B's consent, and what form must such an agreement take to be legally binding?

***Note:** It is assumed that the contract does not explicitly forbid this, nor is the contract related to real property or a lease/tenancy, or a business. The debt/benefit is small, under £500 in value, and relates to a deposit that A previously paid B and which B now must repay to A.*

Requirements for assignment of debt or benefits of contract to a third party, in UK law


So there was this small scale online game where I bought some ingame tokens to buy a different sprite. I bought 20$ worth of ingame tokens a month ago and spent most of it on items in the game. The game quit some weeks ago and I still had like 5$ in tokens left, also I wasn't able to use the special sprite for long since the game quit after a week of me buying it.

I'm actually not really worried about the money, I think it was worth it even if I could only use it so shortly. But I was wondering if games can just do that, or if there is some sort of legal way to get unused tokens back(and if you can get money back if you a bought an ingame item and where only able to use it for a short while)

Bought tokens in a game but the game quit, can I get my money back?


I plan on writing a fantasy novel, and there is a chance the novel will contain custom fonts for several languages I have created. I am not currently able to create these fonts myself, and would much rather have a professional do them. However, I am worried about copyright.

My limited understanding of copyright suggests that the copyright belongs to whoever made the product (in this case the font). If I hire someone to create a custom font for me, I want to be sure that I have total ownership of that font, and can both use it however I wish, and restrict its use by other parties. **How do I ensure that?**

I am also curious if anything changes if no money changes hands. If someone makes these fonts for me for free, does that change anything?

How can I ensure ownership of a custom font someone makes for me?


Say I've made a photograph.

[![Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that this is a valuable work of art](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZK1hQ.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZK1hQ.jpg)

I am now the copyright holder of that particular image. I am using this picture on a personal website where I am talking about plants. Now somebody else wants to create a database with pictures of plants in it. Instead of making a picture themselves or paying for the right to use a picture they simply use mine without permission.

As far as I understand this would be a copyright violation and I would be able to use the law against them. At the very least force them to stop using my picture.

But what if they do not actually use my picture in any way that is viewable to human beings? They may very well decide to store the image data in a textual representation equal to the binary string of the original file. This is what it might look like:

```
11111111 11011000 11111111 11100000 00000000 00010000 01001010 01000110
01001001 01000110 00000000 00000001 00000001 00000001 00000000 01100000
00000000 01100000 00000000 00000000 11111111 11100001 00000000 00100010
01000101 01111000 01101001 01100110 00000000 00000000 01001101      ...
...      ...      ...      ...      ...      ...      ...           ...
...      00111001 00011100 11010100 10001110 11000111 11111111 11011001

```

Their database is being read by computer algorithms that can easily read the binary representation and transform it back into a format that can be used for image searches and similar procedures.

I would assume this is still a copyright violation, but is the law actually *smart enough* to understand this? Is every possible pattern of bits that could somehow be transformed back into my original image protected under copyright? Does it matter how the data is being used?

I am most interested in what the law would look like in both the united states and the EU.

Legality of different bit representations of copyrighted material


Can people go to prison for denying a historical event?!

like people who deny moon landing, or people who deny jesus?

I am taking the example of denying holocaust in WWII.

it is a historical event that people wrote about and there are different stories about it.

similar to Moon landing, it is a historical event that people witnessed on TV and we have astronaut who died for that and other astronauts who did walk on moon.

why it is illigal to deny holocaust in many countries while it is ok to deny moon landing in these countries?!!!

criminalise Moon landing deniers


These A4 notices where covering every window of my car, 3 on windscreen, 2 back widow, 1 one each other, i believe a simple don't park would suffice, this was over kill, can I do anything

[![A4 NOTICES](https://i.stack.imgur.com/naNIb.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/naNIb.png)

I believe this is too much, covering ALL of my windows


I'd like to write a fiction series based on the son of a character from another novel. There were no children in the original story published in 1986, and it seems the author has retired from writing--to my great regret.
While the son is an entirely new character, this concept would necessary entail references to the original main character as well mention of some others in that story, and also use of some of the tools used in the original.

Creating a relative of someone else's character?


I am planning to build an online web app and a mobile app for learning vocabulary.

Functions:
- User can create lists (eg. personalities, phrasal verbs etc.) and add words to the list with definitions.
- These list can be made public.

If users were to copy dictionary definitions, for instance Oxford or Cambridge) and make the word lists public, is it a copyright infringement? Am I responsible for this activity? Can dictionary owners charge me against copyright issue?

Copyright infringment: using dictionary definitions


Now, our state is in war zone and people are dying daily because of war. Government and Arakan Army are fighting with heavy weapons. No Journalist are allowed to enters, we have 17 divisions in our state and only 3 divisions access internet and telephone. Government cut off those. So, here is my question.

There are so many fake news on facebook about your state current situation. We reported facebook team and they reply "It doesn't go community standard".

**So, Where should I report if we have prove? If facebook ignores "fake news".**

Normally, in my point of views, fake news on internet is usual but people are dying and world need to know truth.

What should I do if facebook ignore fake news?


Organisation A conducts exam every year,question paper goes out with student(There is no copyright claim on paper by A). Company B collects them and publishes them with some charge. Now, if company C tries to provide some content which need question papers to be shown, can C use B's product?

It is quite difficult for C to assemble those papers by self at present moment.

Is there copyright issue in the following condition?


I have watched the media circus surrounding the arrest of a 21-year-old male on suspicion of having murdered nine people in Charleston.

Vast amounts of information are spewing forth from the news media, some of which will undoubtedly be true, some of which will have been entirely made up by newspapers to sell copy, and the rest of which will be somewhere in between.

How is it possible without rules of contempt to ensure that due process is unfettered? How can a jury be impaneled that has not already read so much about the case that they have preconceived ideas as to guilt or innocence?

In the early stages of the search police officials declared it was a *hate crime*. How exactly did they know this? And couldn't its widespread circulation affect the outcome of the case?

Without sub judice rules, as exist in almost every other English-speaking jurisdiction, how can due process be assured?


My wife has been employed at a Fortune 50 company for 10 years and was laid off in March 2017. When we asked about the 401K we were told that our address is not correct and the 401K plan manager refuses any contact with us.

They won't send correspondence, they won't send out an address correction form, they won't respond at all. This has been going on about 6 months and we have about 225K in the 401K. Can anything be done or do they just keep the money?

Employer refuses to release 401K


I recently created a website for a friend of mine, but after some issues between the two of us I decided to remote control their computer (which I had permission to do) and took the files off.

* Am I allowed to do so?
* Are the files my intellectual property that I have rights to?

I'm quite young and don't quite understand a lot of legal 'stuff.'

Am I allowed to take files I created off someone else's computer?


Theoretical: I wish to import and sell wall chargers in the USA.

I realize it is a good idea to get a safety certificate that signifies my product meets national safety standards to avoid being sued.

However, my question is whether it is legal to sell them without a safety certificate (ETL, UL, etc).

Is ETL or UL necessary to retail AC chargers?


Let's say there is an accident and there is a law which says vehicles driving by an avenue has priority to pass, but there is another law which says vehicles driving by the right has priority to pass, what happens when 2 laws conflict each other?

What happens when 2 laws conflict each other?


In copyright case law, what roles do *process* versus *output* play in determining infringement via creation of a similar work. By *process* I mean, "How much access did the creator of the new work have to the putative base work?" By *output* I mean, "How similar, textually, is the new work to the older work?"

I am primarily curious about the USA.

What considerations determine copyright infringement?


When a US company transfers ownership for a pending patent application via an assignment to a company outside the US, say for 1 Dollar, are there any tax implications to worry about?

As for the 1 Dollar, I suppose at the pending stage, the argument can be made that the patent application has no substantial value yet and is potentially worthless (and potentially rejected).

Tax implications when assigning a patent application to a non-US company?


Last year I wrote a piece of software that functions as an accessory application for a large forum software suite.

Specifically, it is an "Application" for Invision Community.

You can find other similar applications for the same software here: <https://invisioncommunity.com/files/>

I'm unsure how these files are licensed, however I charge $30 + $15/6mo for my application. Recently, an unknown member who purchased it released it on a popular `nulled` software website where people upload paid software packages for free for others to download. Since then, my sales have dropped to nearly $0 for the package.

I'm curious if the licensing of Invision Community leaves much room for me to do anything, or even if it does, if there is really anything I can do about this.

Is there any legal way to stop specific websites from offering nulled versions of my software for free?


I'm an illustrator and I've created an original work for commercial publication/sale that incorporates part of a photograph I sourced from Wikicommons. The photo in question has a “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International” license.

(For context: The image is a photograph of a starry night sky, which I’ve composited into my original illustration as a background texture.)

Does the ShareAlike license mean that my new, original work would have to give up its copyrighted status to agree with the CC license of the incorporated image? And that my original work cannot now be copyright because of the rights mismatch?

I'm a bit confused by the terms of ShareAlike: do I understand correctly that it requires subsequent creators/remixers to license those derived/remixed works with a ShareAlike license?

I’m very happy to co-credit the photographer, but if using part of the image means I’d forfeit the copyright of my work, then I’d rather remove/replace the element.

Do I forfeit my own copyright if I incorporate CC ShareAlike sources within my original artwork?


More specifically I want to use statistics from an MIT website for my own website: <http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/05>

I can't find any license information or anything about statistics, but am I free to use all the information from that table since they got the data presumably from a public source? I know on the footer of the website there's a copyright sign, but not sure if it applies to data like this.

Is it legal to use statistics off a copyright website?


A person posts a text to Usenet

* that he has signed using an obvious pseudonym
* that does not include a functioning address for himself
* that does not refer to a publisher other than himself.

Together with the text he includes a notice saying

* that further publication in any medium except as a Usenet article which is identically accredited and contains an identical notice is strictly prohibited unless he, proving his authorship, specifically issues a licence for such publication
* that in particular printing rights are strictly reserved, which he defines as meaning that it should be assumed that printing his text is strictly prohibited unless he, proving his authorship, specifically issues a licence to do so.

A second person reads the text on Usenet and publishes it in print form or as an e-book without having been granted such a licence.

Would the author be able to win a claim against that person for copyright violation? Assume of course that he identifies himself and proves his authorship when making the claim.

I am interested in answers for both the English and the United States jurisdictions. I am not sure what grounds the second person might reasonably adduce in defence against such a claim, but they might include for example

* that regardless of the content of the notice the text should be considered to be in the public domain by dint of having been posted to Usenet
* that if a pseudonymous author chooses to make himself uncontactable, unlike the many anonymous and pseudonymous authors who can be contacted through their publishers, then his assertion that he reserves rights is absurd
* other grounds.

Note: I have read R Deazley and K Patterson, [*Guidance Note: Copyright in Pseudonymous and Anonymous Works*](https://www.digitisingmorgan.org/uploads/BN3-pseudonymous%20works_DigiMorgan.pdf), 2nd ed. (2017), which references statutes relevant to the English jurisdiction and also the Berne Convention but does not cover the case where a text is accredited to a pseudonymous author without a publisher being specified other than himself and where the author issues a notice of prohibition as described and retains the ability to prove authorship at a later date.

Printing and other rights in respect of a pseudonymously authored text posted online


I am currently in the process of finalizing the technology behind a game where users are able to create "lands" of their own.

* Each land is upkept and expanded by **Tokens**.
* **Tokens** are bought from Real Money Store.
* **Tokens** are tradeable.
* Users are able to create images(terrain, characters, monsters etc...) that fit their local "land" theme and enable other players to interact there.
* The land creator receives **tokens** from visitors that like the land.
* **Tokens** are not changeable to real currency.

My question is whether it counts as a breach of copyright if someone creates a "skyrim" or "Star wars" land and fills it with people and locations from that universe?
They still need to create the art with the in-game tools, so I assume it's original artwork with names and lore based off existing IP)

And a second, derived question is whether my profit (people paying other people with **tokens** that they had to have bought from me) constitutes profiting from a copyrighted IP.

Obviously each land is reportable in a multitude of categories -
 nudity/pornographic content, IP violation, gore, violence, hate messages etc... and I assume it will take a significant amount of work to filter through those reports.

I am talking to lawyers about it, but there's a whole world out there and many of You can give perspectives from different countries so that I can ask the right questions and hire the right lawyers.

EDIT:
EULA and TOS are of course going to be properly constructed to remove any liability I would have for user uploaded content.
Are there countries where I am for exmaple still liable?

When does user generated content violate copyright?


From what I understand, bullying happens when someone is harmed through an online system that puts them in contact with other users, sometimes masking their identities.

[From Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbullying#Distinctions):

>
> Cyberbullying is defined in legal glossaries as
>
>
> * actions that use information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm another or others.
> * use of communication technologies for the intention of harming another person
> * use of Internet service and mobile technologies *such as web pages and discussion groups* as well as instant messaging or SMS text messaging *with the intention of harming another person*.
>
>
>

From ["Cyber Bullying Law & Legal Definition"](http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/cyber-bullying/):

>
> Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, *put down*, *falsely discredit*, or *humiliate* the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior intended to harm another.
>
>
>

As such, could the "downvote" button, which is a major "feature" of the SE website, be considered a bullying tool?

It allows people to collectively, but in a hidden manner, criticise the work and input of a single user (instead of discussing with them to tell them they disagree).

This can in turn create a situations in which someone can feel like a group of people is against them, or voted down their content in order to harm them, or do not want to communicate their reasons to them (feeling of domination and exclusion can be reinforced if the person downvoted, as is often the case for a new user without "privileges").

The intent behind each downvote is not clear, and some users *could* downvote in order to harm *if they wanted*, this is a possibility and privilege given to them.

Or a user who believes they have been harmed by a down vote could claim the downvotes were made out of hatred since downvotes can be done without justification.

To summarise, could a bullying case involving a new user who got his question downvoted stand in court?

NOTE: I couldn't find "cyber-bullying" and "online-crime" or any related tags in there but feel free to add them if needed.

Can Stack Exchange's down-voting system be considered online bullying?


A person (H) visits a building being interested to have it on lease. H is on a wheel chair, the building roof start falling and H is killed instantly by heavy tile. H's friend (M) saw her being killed. M goes into deep shock and remains in deep shock and become unable to work for a year.

I want to consider whether the owner or occupier is liable for M's shock and aftermaths?

Contract Law and Tort Law


Let's say Bruce is CFO at Exxon Mobil and his brother Clark works under the CTO at BP.

Considering possible implications of the fact that these brothers are expected as siblings to have a reasonably close relationship, would this scenario be considered strange, unethical and/or illegal?

Would it be considered ethical for two brothers to work as executives at competing public companies?


I own a card game that I enjoy playing (not a playing card game using a standard 52-card deck). I enjoy it enough that I thought it'd be fun to write a program (complete with AI!) that plays that game. Is this legal? Furthermore, may I publish the source code to a public website such as GitHub without incurring any legal issues?

Assuming it's illegal for me to do this, at what point does doing this become legal? I likely cannot simply change all the names of the various cards to something else, right? If I start changing the rules of the game, does that make it legal for me to share my source code, for instance? It'd be a game that's heavily inspired by the original, but isn't (different rules, different cards, different amounts even).

Is it legal to program a published game for educational purposes (and put the source code on GitHub)?


I see "*Linehan I* factors" mentioned in some civil commitment decisions published on-line e.g. [this one from Minessota](https://mn.gov/law-library-stat/archive/ctapun/0810/opa080962-1104.pdf). Can someone explain where they come from and what their status is in US law? From what I can gather it's a Minnesota supreme court decision (so only applies there), but I could be wrong. Is there something more generally applicable in that respect in the US?

Please explain Linehan I factors to a lay person


A few years ago I started to have some disagreements with another party. At the time I had transacted less than $5000 in business. They involved a lawyer, and things got really ugly, really quickly. They sued, and then we settled out of court, but it cost me over $20K in legal bills. Most of this was time wasted in negotiation of a very simple settlement - I feel like the other attorney was intentionally prolonging the process. I have no idea how much it cost the other side. Looking back, I feel strongly that this lawyer intentionally stirred the pot, perhaps even misrepresenting me to them or them to me. I've also heard of another case were this same attorney intentionally made misrepresentations in order to create an ugly legal situation almost out of thin air. Now I'd like to say something to somebody - or just post something online saying "this guy is a horse's ass." However, I have a non-disparagement clause in the settlement which seems like a standard one, saying that I can't disparage the business, including "officers, directors, agents, attorneys," etc. On the one hand, this guy was their attorney at one point in time, so from the wording it would appear that this would cover him. However, he has no public affiliation to the business and my calling him out online wouldn't cast their business in any sort of negative light, and of course he gave me no considerations in the contract. I would think that the other side would never pursue this sort a breach, except for the fact that there is a liquidated damages clause - so in theory, this attorney, who likes to stir things up, could tell them - "hey this guy disparaged your attorney - you win liquidated damages."

Is there any sort of clear answer here? Assume for the point of argument that I'm smart enough to disparage him in a way that will never by linked to his former clients.

Edit : More specifically, I would like to disparage their attorney for things he has done that are not related to my case. In particular, this guy has been sanctioned by the court for this kind of thing in another case. (Not my case, not pointing back toward me or my adversary.) The point would be to protect other businesses who might be misled into thinking that his services will provide an efficient resolution to similar situations. I should also point out that the Company has their own in-house attorney which would clearly be off-limits for me.

There's part of the settlement that says I can't publish information about the settlement "for any reason" so I hesitate to give the text of it (for all I know there could be some unique quirk that may allow them to find me if I do ) - but it appears to be pretty standard - I've seen similar agreements online. Someone asked for the clause so here's one from a different contract that is more-or-less the same.

(Both parties) agree that they will not .... directly or indirectly, in any capacity or manner, publicly, by press release or similar public statement to the press, ... make, express, transmit speak, write, verbalize or otherwise communicate in any way (or cause, further, assist, solicit, encourage, support or participate in any of the foregoing), any remark, comment, message, information, declaration, communication or other statement of any kind, whether verbal, in writing, electronically transferred or otherwise, that might reasonably be construed to be derogatory or critical of, or negative toward, Citizen A, Company B or any of its directors, officers, Affiliates, subsidiaries, employees, agents, attorneys or representatives (collectively, the “Company B Representatives”), or that reveals, discloses, incorporates, is based upon, discusses, includes or otherwise involves any confidential or proprietary information of the Company or its subsidiaries or Affiliates, or to malign, harm, disparage, defame or damage the reputation or good name of the Citizen A, Company B, its business or any of the Company B Representatives.

Also, it's in the US. I won't be more specific, just in case.

Does a non-disparagement clause in a settlement cover the oppositions attorney?


Every month I received a message on my phone that says I have reached my maximum limit and I could have some limitations or experience slower service until I renew my bill is this false advertising? Or is it legal because they put it in their disclosure and find print but not in the advertising.

My phone carrier advertises "Unlimited" yet I get limited


Party A ( from India, is the service provider) signed a NDA with a Party B ( from KSA, service buyer). The parties did not mention any termination condition in the agreement.

Now after 4 years, the Party A (from India) would like to terminate this NDA. What is the legally correct way to do this ?

Termination condition in an NDA


This question pertains to the USA. In all public universities I'm aware of, anyone can get on campus, sit in on virtually any lecture, and enter the school's library. Does this mean that public universities are considered public space? What about within a public university classroom? Do people have an expectation of privacy when in a public university classroom?

Are public university classrooms considered public space?


I ordered food from a Mexican restaurant through Uber eats . I ordered chicken burrito but they made it beef burrito. I called the restaurant but they said sorry and hung up. What should I do about it any suggestion if I can sue the restaurant serving me beef which is against my religion to eat

Sue a restaurant for serving food against religion


I, unfortunately, signed up for a 6 month personal training contract. I was super excited about it but the only trainer at the gym went to another location. I am only interested in working out at this particular gym and was told before I signed that he would be my trainer since he is the only one there. I would have never signed the contract otherwise. The trainer was transferred after I signed my contract and now I am getting the runaround.

The gym account is in my husbands name and I am added on as a family member. The personal training contract has only my husbands name listed. I initialed and signed my name on the contract, my husband was not present. Is the contract valid?

Is a contract valid if only the husband is named on the contract but the wife signed her name on it?


According to this article [ref here](https://dcdirtylaundry.com/new-york-fire-commissioners-call-for-new-9-11-investigation/), [ref here](https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-york-area-fire-commissioners-make-history-call-new-911-investigation/5684982), [ref here](https://www.zerohedge.com/health/new-york-area-fire-commissioners-demand-new-911-investigation) and [ref here:](https://www.ae911truth.org/news/540-new-york-area-fire-commissioners-make-history-call-for-new-9-11-investigation)

>
> ...History has just been made, as the first legislative body in the
>  country officially announces their support for reopening the 9/11
>  investigation. Citing “overwhelming evidence” of preplanted
>  explosives, the fire commissioners of Franklin Square and Munson...
>
>
>

Video of the whole event [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM9CJRClLOk)

>
> ...the Franklin Square and Munson Fire District, which oversees a
>  volunteer fire department serving a hamlet of 30,000 residents just
>  outside of Queens, New York, became the first legislative body in the
>  country to officially support a new investigation into the events of
>  9/11...
>
>
>

**What legislative body is that?** It is said that they support a new independent investigation but whose responsibility is to start an investigation like that? Are firefighters a legislative body in the USA?

[Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry](https://www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org/) have been trying the open a new investigation without result for years why is it any different now?

Do firefighters contitute a legislative power?


I made a book which uses scanned pages of an existing novel. This book was a school project, an artists' book for a graphic design course. An opportunity has presented itself to publish my book, but I assume I don't immediately have the rights to do so due to the inclusion of the scanned pages of the novel.

I realize the course of action is to contact the publisher, but here arises my question. The book in question is *Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing* by René Daumal. There were many different versions and runs of this book, as seen [here](https://www.worldcat.org/title/mount-analogue-a-novel-of-symbolically-authentic-non-euclidean-adventures-in-mountain-climbing/oclc/3269033/editions?start_edition=1&sd=asc&referer=di&se=yr&qt=sort_yr_asc&editionsView=true&fq= "here").

The exact book which I've reproduced is

>
> COPYRIGHT BY LIBRAIRIE GALLIMARD 1952
>
>
>

and

>
> FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1959
>  © VINCENT STUART PUBLISHERS LIMITED
>
>
>

Vincent Stuart Publishers Limited no longer exists.

Does each occurrence of this book have its own copyright respective to the person who published/issued it, or does one entity own this copyright as of today? Is it possible that there is a particular book in that list that is no longer under copyright, i.e. due to time or the disappearance of the publisher?

I'm trying to find out which publisher/library/institution/entity to contact, or if there is a possibility that one of the books is no longer under copyright. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Edit, 6 months later:

I've spent the last few months speaking to about 10 publishers, including everyone mentioned in print in the book in mention, everyone who they directed me to, the estate of the person who translated the book, the permissions company who manages that estate, and publishers who have reprinted the book since then (in different variations and with different translations), and no one seems to have the rights (or they point me to someone else who in turn doesn't). Is is possible no one has the rights to the literal pages I'm trying to gain permission to reproduce? Also, if I've made such an attempt and cannot find the rights-holder, can I reproduce them with a footnote stating such attempt?

Can I print scans of a book's pages in my book?


Various sources such as the [BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37226030) and [MoneySavingExpert](http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/tv-licence) talk about the law changing with regards to TV licensing, specifically stating that UK Residents now require a TV License to watch catch-up (rather than Live) content on the BBC iPlayer, from Sept 1, 2016

However, I can't find any legislation or legal ruling that changes, amends, or supersedes the relevant act (Communications Act 2003 Part 4)

Legally speaking, what changed to require a TV License in order to watch Catch UP TV on the BBC iPlayer?

UK TV Licensing changes 2016 - which Law or Legislation changed to facilitate this?


A friend of mine is adamant that a business is legally bound to not exceed a "fair" price for an item or service based on the cost of materials and hours
of labour used. He claims that businesses have gotten into deep trouble over it.

I told him that this was nonsense: even if one could argue that such a system were morally correct and/or beneficial to the economy, it would be impractical to implement.

I'm interested in the UK mainly but other countries are acceptable.

UK - Is there a legal limit to the profit margin of an item or service?


I have purchased a private course. It has my name footprinted on it. I had it on the computer of my job. Unfortunatelly, the files are in the hands of my boss. I asked him to delete it, he claims that he has, but I know that he hasn't. He is my boss so pushing things hard is not such an easy option. What should I do? What if he leaks the data?

Copyright problems with private courses with my name footprinted on it


If I put a presentation together and want to add my personal pictures from an office party does that violate any copyright laws?

Copyright laws with personal pictures


I frequently see comments by semi-anonymous people stating that if an organization receives public funds then they have to respect people's freedom of speech, or they can't discriminate on the basis of sex, religion, or race, or they have to abide by some other well known provision in the US constitution.

Is this true? Do Organizations that receive public funds really have to follow the Constitution in the same way that an arm of the government does?

And If the answers is "Some do, and some Don't", then how do I tell the difference?

Does an organization that recieves public funds have to abide by the constitution like a government does?


Say if somebody were to steal [System of a Down's "Steal this Album"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_This_Album!), would they have any ground to stand on in that the item explicitly told them to do it? Would this fall under some form of entrapment?

If I were to steal an item explicitly labeled 'Steal this,' would I have any legal ground to stand on?


I am an international student studying in the US. Federal law requires that I am register for a one credit course in order to take a certain internship, the cost of which is close to $2000. This credit cannot be counted towards my degree requirements.

My employer does not wish to pay for the cost of this credit. Is it legal/ethical to ask them to deduct $2000 from my pay and give this to me as an reimbursement, so as to reduce the tax burden? After all, as I understand it, tuition waivers are not taxed (e.g. <https://www.npr.org/2017/12/18/570941259/grad-students-tuition-waivers-will-remain-untaxed-after-all>)

Is it legal/ethical to ask my employer to make a deduction from my salary to reimburse me for an expense?


I was wondering are the punishments for manipulating the justice system to your advantage based upon the severity of the result of the extent of manipulation or both. And what is the maximum punishment.

E.g. What would happen if you slandered someone in the news and spoke to judges to get someone on death row

Or for instance if you found out who the jury was and convinced them all that someone was guilty of extortion or other lesser crimes

Punishments for the manipulation of the justice system


A company runs a transformation exercise. It asked for employees to fill out answers against questions, which are submitted to a portal and assessed by a number of employees and scored. These scores, along with the rationale the assessors recorded, were used to put the employees into various roles in the "new model", as well as some on performance plans where the scores indicated improvement was required.

The company fed back the assessments verbally. They have, at the moment, withheld the scores and rationale/assessor comments from the assessed employees. They have been asked numerous times, and there is some anecdotal evidence that line managers are being asked to refuse such requests.

This is in the UK. What mechanisms exist to allow the employees to gain that data, if any? Can the employees ask for other data, like e-mails written about them or instructions given? It seems like a Subject Access Request or GDPR would help, but despite asking on these specific terms, the employer has refused to provide answers. Who should the request, if this was possible, go to and what would need to be included?

Can I ask my employer for details held about me?


Do the two that-clauses below bewilder you too? How can they be rewritten more basically?

1. 1 flummoxes me as it contains 2 "opinion"s. But I grasp that "opinion is held on reasonable grounds" modifies, and thus is the, "false statement of fact".
2. 2 flummoxes me as it contains 2 "intention"s. I grasp that

>
> a false statement of fact that intention/opinion is actually held = You don't actually hold that intention/opinion.
>
>
>

But what the heck does it mean to intend a false statement of fact that intention (opinion) is actually held?

[Richard](https://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/richard-taylor.php) and [Damian](https://www.slaughterandmay.com/who-we-are/partners/damian-taylor/) Taylor. [*Contract Law Directions* (6 edn 2019)](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Contract-Law-Directions-Richard-Taylor/dp/0198836597/ref=dp_ob_title_bk). p. 180.

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

"Intention that implies false statement of fact that", "Opinion that implies false statement of fact that"


In a book that I'm reading about the Nuremberg Trials, I noted the following:

>
> A number of minority positions have been cited as representative of NMT, for example in The Presbyterian Church of Sudan vs Talisman Energy, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2009 relied solely on the Ministries Tribunal acquittal of Karls Rasche, the head of Dresdner Bank for the proposition that "International Law at the time of the Nuremberg Trials recognised aiding and abetting liability only for purposeful conduct.' In fact, Rasche was the only defendent in *any* of the trials held to this standard; not only did every other tribunal apply a knowledge standard for aiding and abetting, the Ministries tribunal did so for *other* defendents. Regardless, the purposive standard is the second circuits official standard, sounding what one scholar called 'the death knell for most corporate liability claims under the Alien Tort Statute.'
>
>
>

To which the author notes:

>
> Had this study been available then the court may have reached a very different conclusion.
>
>
>

This seems very strange, almost like a schoolboy error. I mean, *why* should the only defendent indicted upon economic crimes be held to a different standard to all the other defendents? It appears to be an outright example of bias, especially when the presiding judge in his report to President Truman in June 1945 emphasised the need to prosecute *individuals* in the 'financial, industrial and economic life of Germany who are proveable ... to be common criminals.'

**Q. Why was Rasche held to a 'purposeful conduct' criteria unlike every other defendents in the trials who were held to a 'knowledge standard.' Was this, in fact, an example of bias by the judges?**

**Q. What are the major differences between 'purposeful conduct' and a 'knowledge standard'?**

**Q. Why has it been said that holding to such a standard 'sounds a death-knell to all corporate liability claims under the Alien Tort Statute'. Why in particular to the Alien Tort Statute and not more widely?**

What is 'purposeful conduct'?


Can a retailer or restaurant in the United States legally collect user's data (user's profile or frequency, etc.) through obtaining their MAC address?

Is obtaining MAC addresses from customers legal?


You often see websites or documents (user manuals, in particular) stating something similar to:

>
> This program is compatible with the Windows(R) operating system.
>
>  ...
>
>  Windows is a registered trade mark of Microsoft.
>
>
>

or

>
> Intel(R) Core(TM) i7(TM) processors which feature the BLAH instruction...
>
>
>

Alright, so *someone* has a trade mark on some more or less interesting thing, sometimes registered and sometimes not registered, whatever.

*Someone else* writes something which is not related to the product directly or influences the product or its marketing, nor is it competitive or uses the name for advertising, and in my understanding no rights or imagined rights are infringed in any way. In other words, I'd say: *"who cares!"*.

Among this class of statements are also some that say e.g. *"belong to their respective owners"*. Well yes, things *usually* belong to their owner. What about it?

Apparently, the vast majority of people seems, for some reason, to have a different opinion. Apparently, it is necessary to state the obvious.

What is the point (or legal reason?) for such in my opinion silly disclaimers? Even moreso, as the notices often include "and others", which implies that you admit you didn't list them all, and you are aware that you didn't (which in my opinion makes the problem, if there is one, worse).

What is the legal base / requirement (if any) for trade mark notes?


I'm creating a Christian game with KJV quotes which will be printed and published -via self-publishing- in the US. I understand the KJV is in the public domain worldwide, except for the UK. Could I have a problem if people from the UK bought the game and it was sent to them from the US?

If the KJV is still in copyright in the UK could I have a problem if people buy something quoting it from the US?


A friend of mine recently tried to go into a restobar in India, and to his surprise, was informed that he couldn't because he was a male who was not accompanied by a female. Admittedly shocked, he spoke to the manager of that restobar to find out why, and was informed that due to other peace-disturbing, presumably single males (who caused fights and such), they had to implement such a rule.

This restobar is privately owned, but is open to the public without restriction (i.e. doesn't require membership like a club, and such).

I understand that almost every place of entertainment across the globe displays this "Rights to admission reserved" disclaimer. However, the second clause of [Article 15 of the Constitution of India](http://india.gov.in/sites/upload_files/npi/files/coi_part_full.pdf) says:

>
> No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place
>  of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability,
>  restriction or condition with regard to -
>
>
> 1. access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or
> 2. the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or
>  dedicated to the use of general public.
>
>
>

And then clause three of the same article goes on to say:

>
> Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any
>  special provision for women and children.
>
>
>

Thus, by my understanding, the above-mentioned restobar's rule of not allowing single males in is illegal according to the Constitution of India.

Am I correct to arrive at this conclusion? Or are there any additional relevant laws that I may have overlooked?

Legality of the right to refuse admission by a privately owned restobar


I've created a new teaching method.

My research, back to 1922, has not found any other instance of it in history.

Yes, there are elements, names, that could be protected but of course that will not protect the method.

My method does not involve math but I'll use Common Core mathematics as a similar situation. Does someone own the common core teaching method?

How can one protect a teaching method?


Is it legal to use someone else's modeling techniques and/or art style?

Specifically I'm talking about a popular MMD modeler known as TDA, to create his characters he uses big eyelashes, colorful textures, etc, I create a model of my own using the same techniques, art style and similar proportions but I used those to create my own character, it is not an edit since I made it using blender yet I'm worried because I don't know how copyright works in this situation.

A few examples of things that look similar in my model are:

* the eyes (I used exactly the same mesh here since the effect it creates adds more depth).
* the highlights on the eyes (not the same mesh yet same technique of separate materials from the eyes).
* the ears (placed proportionally exactly at the same place where the tda model ears are, meaning that the distance between the eyes and ears is exactly the same).
* the textures on the face and body are similar but I painted them using a softer style (the shadows are proportionally in the same place).

Everything else from the face to the hair, body and animations is my original character.

I can include pictures of both the tda model I'm using as reference and my model if needed.

Copyright question on character model techniques and style


My husband and I would like to complete a remodeling job on our home. The relationship between us and the contractor has gotten tense as there are many errors that need correction. We have sought estimates for repairs from other contractors. Before the original contractor will approve the estimates to be deducted from our final payment the original contractor is trying to force us to sign a non disparagement contract. Can they do this legally?

Contractor v homeowner. Disparagement clause


I have developed an iOS app that acts as a YouTube Client using the official YouTube API. I've been very care to ensure that my app complies fully with the YouTube API ToS (<https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms>). For example my app does not save/cache data from the API and no data is sold.

However I have recently received a request from the RIAA (I am based in the UK) that my app infringes copyright laws and I must remove my app from the App Store. However as my app complies with YouTube's API ToS and YouTube complies with the DMCA's safe harbour policy am I right in saying that I do not infringe copyright laws?

Does creating a YouTube client via the YouTube API infringe copyright?


The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage.

The Department of Labor states:

>
> Under the FLSA, employees may not volunteer services to for-profit
>  private sector employers.
>
>
>

<https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp>

Stack Exchange is a for-profit private sector employer.

Is it legal for Stack Exchange to not pay moderators minimum wage?


In the Complaint filed today Blumenthal v. Trump (for text see [<https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2018/11/19/senate-democrats-sue-trump-challenging-whitakers-appointment-at-main-justice/?slreturn=20181019194158> ] ), three US Senators , members of the judiciary committee allege that the Presidential appointment of Whittaker violates the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution.

Some 'TV Lawyers' have opined that the compliant will not be argued on it's merits because the Court will rule that the Senators have no standing to bring the action.

Rather than getting into the discussion about Mr. Whittaker's past statements and involvements, let me pose a hypothetical:

If the President were to fire the Secretary of the Treasury and appoint Oprah to exercise that role **without** the benefit of Senate confirmation,

**Who would have standing to present a complaint?**

Blumenthal v. Trump Do Senators have standing to bring suit?


In the US, can attaching a condition to a threat have any bearing on whether it's a true threat or not? In other words, is there are difference between the following threats, in terms of criminal law:

* I'll hit you! (unconditional)
* If you speak to me again, I'll hit you! (conditioned on something that the other person is perfectly entitled to do)
* If you try to steal my car, I'll hit you! (conditioned on the other person's *criminal* behavior)
* If you violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, I'll hit you! (conditioned on something impossible)

Is a conditional threat still a true threat?


I have an app that I want to call "Donald Trump". Now that Donald Trump is a political figure, is it okay to name my app after him (first amendment)? Or does he have a trademark or something over his name? I don't want to get sued but I'm wondering if his political status allows me to use his name openly.

Can Donald Trump sue if I use his name in my product name?


I work for a small tech company (9 employees) in India. My appointment letter states that I get 2 days of leave for every month of service rendered. I have accumulated 20.5 days of unused leave over the last 2 years. I submitted my notice of resignation two months back (2 months notice period as per appointment letter). The two months notice ends in a few days. Now, the Founder/CEO says that my leaves will not be encashed since the company does not have a leave encashment policy.

My question is: Can my employer legally refuse to encash my leaves?

Please let me know if any more information is required.

Pay for unused vacation: Can India employer refuse to encash leaves?


Dear Law StackExchange community,

I'm attempting to get chat history removed with another party dating back a long time ago. I don't want the chats to remain existent on any device whatsoever, so I would like to have them removed based on the GDPR.

Is Facebook/WhatsApp legally obligated to remove the chat history on every client (device)? It's a 1 on 1 chat so not a group chat.

And yeah, I live in the EU.

Edit: I know backups or any sort of restoration can't be removed, but I am talking cloud synced data, viewing chat on the app, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Is WhatsApp legally obligated to remove my chat on every device, based on the GDPR?


In its current version, Wikipedia's article titled "Quebec" tells us that

>
> Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger.
>
>
>

Thus the ten provinces and three territories are here being considered "adminstrative divisions".

Maybe a year or so ago I was appalled to see [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state) telling us that states in the United States are administrative divisions of the country, and I changed it.

In the U.S. there were formerly "organized incorporated territories" (and maybe the District of Columbia could still be considered one of those?). These I take to have been administrative divisions of the country. Congress passed an "organic act" for each such territory that said the government in this territory shall be organized in thus-and-such manner. During the existence of such a territory, if it was decided to change the term served by the governor from two years to fours year, or make some other change, the change was enacted by Congress, not by the voters in the territory. The constitution of a state, by contrast, is drafted by politicians in that state and submitted for the approval of the voters, and any changes are made by popular vote; there is no involvement of Congress or anything at the federal level. Thus states are not administrative divisions of the federal government. Counties, in those states where they exist (or parishes in Louisiana or boroughs in Alaska), are administrative divisions of the state.

Thus it seems appropriate that in the U.S., states get "admitted" by Congress whereas territories get "organized" by Congress. However, in Canada, if I'm not mistaken, both provinces and territories get "admitted".

So

* Is this understanding of the concept of "administrative division" right?
* Is the article about Quebec right?

Are Canadian provinces and territories administrative divisions, and what is an "adminstrative division"?


Just out of curiosity: is it illegal to mention the name of an illegal website via a private messaging service on a website?

Assuming just the name of the website is mentioned and no links or any content is shared.

For example, lets say the only thing shared is the sentence

>
> "Website xyz is illegal and contains illegal content".
>
>
>

Would writing this sentence with the actual name of the website in place of "xyz" be illegal?

Is it illegal to mention the name of an illegal website in a message/email in the UK?


If someone puts out an OCR of a scan of a Public Domain work, is that OCR under copyright? On one hand, one may consider that "creative work", on the other hand, the "creative work" (the resultant text) is in Public Domain!

Is OCRed text automatically copyright?


I've recently read the [trademark policy by Ubuntu](https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/intellectual-property-policy).

It mainly states that versions of the OS can be shipped by third-parties (e.g. a company) only under one of the following options:

* a commercial agreement with Canonical, or
* removing all references to Ubuntu and recompiling the packages from sources.

Since Linux Mint installs and uses the very same binary packages from the Ubuntu repository, I wonder if they have such an agreement and if the Ubuntu's trademark policy also affects the Linux Mint distribution.

Linux Mint wrt Ubuntu's trademark policy


We are company A. We have a marketing Agreement with company B to market and sell all of their technologies. Company B has a JV with company C for a technology. Do we need a new agreement to include company C or can we market this technology due to our agreement with company B?

Marketing Agreement.


Say someone has set their Instagram to private, or their Twitter to protect Tweets, etc.

Assume, somehow, someway I manage to bypass this **without hacking their account.**

Given that this may be against terms, would anything actually be against the law in doing this, given that I do not hack the person's account or any other accounts/servers in the process?

Illegal to view someone's private social media?


Scenario: I shop at a local retail store. While I am there, I notice that store staff have printed out and placed a long list of cleartext credentials for major internal and external business systems, in plain view of customers.

Question 1:
If I take a photo of this list, redact the business name/brand, all passwords and any personally identifiable usernames (or usernames that identify the business), am I opening myself upto a lawsuit for posting this on social media to use as an example of poor security practices?

The only thing identifiable from this post would be the type of store and the city that the store resides in (franchise).
Consider that although I have redacted to the best of my ability, someone may read the post and decide to hunt around the area for a store that matches the photos, then find the list and act on it with malicious intent.

Question 2:
If I do post this list on social media with the aforementioned items redacted, am I legally required to notify the business first in order to give them a chance to take the list down?

Am I required/permitted to disclose a security risk at a company I do not work for?


The repeal of net neutrality was done (in part) by declassifying ISPs as title II [common carriers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier). As I understand it, being a title II common carrier implies being treated like a utility under a government regulatory body.

I've been told that this offers monopoly protections for ISPs, since they aren't operating with complete autonomy. In many areas, people have one choice for ISPs. As a utility, that's almost expected (I didn't have a choice with my water provider either), but as a typical company, that's arguably a monopoly. I've also been told that if net neutrality is dismantled, and ISPs are declassified as common carriers, that this removes these protections.

Is this true? Does the repeal of net neutrality remove monopoly protections from ISPs?


If I wanted to analyze a YouTube video and display some products from the video would it be illegal?

Is this fair use??

Analyze a YouTube video, show products from video?


I'm writing a module for the internal company website of my current employer. Does that constitute comercial use?

What constitutes comercial use of software?


This is a question about Step Transactions. IRS, USA.

Suppose I am retired and of limited income, so my tax bracket is about 10% and I don't itemize.

I want to give $10,000 to a 501(c)(3) charity. But I won't get any tax benefits if I do, because that won't overcome the new itemization threshold of $12,000.

**My plan is to give the money to Judy, who will then give it to the Nature Conservancy**. Judy is in a 32% tax bracket, so will get back $3200 of net tax benefits. My gift isn't taxable income to Judy, since it's under the $15,000 gift tax exclusion.

Judy's onward gift is not optional. She must agree to donate it or no deal.

**Does this violate the "Step Transaction Doctrine"?** Effectively Judy is getting $3200 knocked off her taxes that I am not eligible to take.

---

Second scenario. Suppose I am an old-school conservative and believe in conservation, but the new conservatives would be gravely offended to see me donating to the Nature Conservancy. That would hurt my planned State Senate run. **This motivation is entirely innocent, and the tax benefit is an unexpected side-effect**. Does that change the picture?

Can I give money to another to give to charity, so she gets a deduction?


I was selected to for a job, but haven't signed nor seen the contract yet. The "you've been accepted" message was written in conditional format, "we would like to hire you" instead of "we want to..."/"we have hired".

This job requires investing into some gear and I wonder if the employer can only hire the applicants who have purchased the said equipment. The contract is behind a form of "paywall" as well, an iOS-only chat platform.

In legalese, is there legal a difference between "we would like to hire you" and "we want to hire you"?


For example, could I make an app and release it, but it uses the titles of anime and its characters? Would it be illicit to make revenue off of it?

Is it illegal to create a game that mentions anime (Japanese Tv show) characters?


The computers at the company I work for recently show the message below during log on.

>
> This computer system is the property of Company. It is for authorised
>  use only. **All activities conducted on and information accessed,
>  processed, stored or sent using this system may be examined.** By using
>  this system, all users aknowledge notice of, and agree to comply with,
>  the Company IT Acceptable Use standard. Unauthorised or improver use
>  of this system may result in disciplinary action. By continuing to use
>  this system you indicate your awareness of and consent to these terms
>  and conditions of use. Log off immediately if you do not agree to the
>  condictions stated in this warning.
>
>
>

Is the statement legal according to European regulations?

Besides, it is my work computer, it is not that I have an option not to log on.

---

[Related question for Norway](https://law.stackexchange.com/q/45090/27839)

Can the employer fully access employee data according to EU law?


I can't grasp the distinction boldened in the quote below. How does

>
> A believing ‘B to be not B’, and by implication someone else
>
>
>

differ from

>
> A believing ‘B to be C, mistakenly believing that C exists’
>
>
>

? 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 A believes that B who pretends to be C is not B (whether
>  C exists or not), 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?
>
>
>

A believing ‘B to be not B’, and by implication someone else (not void) v. A believing ‘B to be C, mistakenly believing that C exists’ (void)


I'm creating an agreement using an online contract management and signing service. To create the agreement I create separate sections in a library. Then I build the full agreement by adding the sections from the library to a template.

When I add the sections to the template there is no way to auto-number the sections.

When I add, remove or edit sections in the template it appears I might have to manually edit every section and renumber the sections. That can be very tedious to do.

So, I'm wondering if it's OK to NOT number the sections. I'd have titles for each section like:

Support

Governing Law

Force Majeure

And whether an unnumbered agreement would cause any legal problems for me.

Thanks, Ed

Do I need to number sections in an Agreement?


Specifically, I am asking about TED talks. They are available for sharing and downloading freely. Is it also true about their transcripts?

Does video transcript have the same copyright status as a video itself?


Am I breaking copyright law if I embed an educational video on my site and also provide a transcript of the video?

I have searched the w3c website as well as Youtube and cannot get a clear answer.

Copyright and transcripts


I am really new to this community (I am just active on Stackoverflow) and i hope you can help me with my problem.

An example:

I have a webshop hosted on my Windows Server 2012, and customers are able to sign up and buy some stuff. So they are authenticated to my server and those accounts are saved in a database (Microsoft SQL Server).

---

And thats the point where my problem starts. I know that I need one CAL license for every person logged into my server. And that means for me, that i have to buy a CAL license for every user account. But how should i be able to buy e.g. 100,000 cal user licenses for 100,000 users? Or even a bit more concrete, if the amount of customers registered grow´s steadily how should I ensure providing the exactly right amount of CALs?

---

I found this site ["Client Access Licenses and Management Licenses"](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/product-licensing/client-access-license.aspx#tab=2).

And if I have a look at the rows "Windows Server" and "SQL Server" I can see that those servers are licensed per core / per processor. Does that mean I dont need CAL licences If i only run a database and a webserver (IIS)?

---

Because there is this site as well: [Licensing How To: When do I need a Client Access License (CAL)?](https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/volume-licensing/2014/03/10/licensing-how-to-when-do-i-need-a-client-access-license-cal/)

And there it says:

>
> 5 – Do I need a CAL when my Windows Server is used to run a web
>  server?
>
>
> Windows Server 2012 R2 configured to run Web Workloads \*\* do not
>  require CALs or External Connectors. Web workloads, also referred to
>  as an internet web solution, are publically accessible (e.g.
>  accessible outside of the firewall) and consist only of web pages, web
>  sites, web applications, web services, and/or POP3 mail serving.
>  Access to content, information, and/or applications within the
>  internet web solution must be publically accessible. In other words,
>  they cannot be restricted to you or your affiliate’s employees.
>
>
> If you have Windows Servers configured to run a “web workload” these
>  users will not require CALs or External Connectors. However, let’s
>  say you are using Windows Server to setup an online store where
>  customers can buy widgets. You have front end Windows Servers setup
>  to support your website, and backend servers (e.g. commerce servers)
>  setup so customers can check out and buy your widgets. The front end
>  servers used to host your website would generally be considered as
>  running “web workloads” and CALs or External Connectors will not be
>  required to access these servers. Once the customer adds a widget to
>  their shopping cart, creates an account and enters their credit card
>  and shipping information to complete the sale – **they are now
>  authenticated via your back end commerce servers/application (non-web
>  workload). Since users are accessing the backend commerce servers
>  which web workloads are not running – CALs or External Connectors will
>  be required for users to access these back end servers.**
>
>
>

And that means to me I that have to buy a CAL for every registered user....

---

Now which of my assumptions are right and which are wrong?
Do I really need one CAL for every customer or is the "per processor licensing" enough?

it would be a great pleasure to me if you could help me!!

Microsoft Licensing | CAL, External Connector, Per Core/Processor


As I understand copyright is something that is inherent in creative work, as in, if you painted a picture you automatically "own" the copyright to it without having to do anything extra.

Say I have a bunch of pictures that I know are painted by someone else. I want to make copies of them and sell them without telling the painter. Let's also say that the person who owns the pictures doesn't care about how they are used and whether someone's profiting from them, and hence doesn't do anything about it.

Is the act of making profit still automatically illegal in this case, or does it become illegal when the copyright owner tries to sue me? In other words, can I get arrested for the fact itself without anyone making an explicit claim? Can someone else make a complaint ("I know a guy who really painted that pictures!") that could get me arrested?

For context, there is an exhibition of Banksy works in Moscow, which apparently was organised without Banksy's consent. Trying to understand the law behind such exhibitions.

Thanks.

Making profit of copyrighted material - when exactly does it become illegal


Let's say I have a service that asks registration details from the user and for some reason I, as a provider of that service, can't comply to GDPR and therefore want to refuse registration of new users protected by GDPR or similar law. Is it possible to add a clause in the registration form requiring user to cancel registration of their new account if they are covered by GDPR (or, better, any similar law)?

For simplicity let's assume that I don't have to worry about existing users.

Update: I see similar question that seeks to achieve the same effect by means of introducing filters or by other disruptive means, this is different as it relies on EULA that user should accept before proceeding to use the website.

Is it possible to refuse offering service to GDPR-protected customers?


There's [this comment thread under a post about student textbooks](https://np.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/5xr7ol/redditor_tells_a_story_of_his_accounting/deke0ah/) and a few other threads in the same post about the same legal loophole: Commenters are saying that while it is illegal to distribute copies of an original book, it's okay to make a copy for personal use, keep it, and then give away or sell the original book as used, and then others can repeat this until everybody has a personal copy, and there's only one original in the wild. Is this right?

Is it legal to create a copy of a book for personal use and then gift the original to others, so they could repeat this process indefinitely?


Apparently they got it from archive.org. They made no changes to the page except to throw in some links, fitting them into the context so it will look natural to a crawler. They neglected to remove the visitor counter, that's how I found out.

They even left the copyright notice I had on the page.

They're using my images, my design, my content, my js, etc. Even though I no longer own the domain of the original site, I seem to be last owner.

Can't find out who owns the domain so I guess I would go through the host to get in touch.

Wondering if there is any legal remedy for this.

Some link building service got an old webpage of mine and is hosting it on another domain


If a person wins, let's say, the equivalent of US$ 300 million in another country, goes to New York City and buys a house there, they certainly need to report their own residence in order to live there.

But what about tax returns or taxes in general?

I know that the US have a clingy nature when it comes to tax returns and related things.

Are tax returns based on incomes or are they based upon wealth as well?

Obviously a wise person would transfer part of that money in a NYC bank, so is this person subject to taxes provided that they'll not be working or conduct any other remunerative activity, and supposedly, use that wealth to provide for themselves?

Buying a home in NYC as a non-citizen with no previous ties with the U.S


My university(and many others in my country - South Korea) takes course registration online. The thing is, the competition to get good classes is extreme, and it's on a first come first served basis. Good ones fill up within 1~2 seconds.

There's a javascript console exploit I have found out(for non-IT experts, this is just client side. That is, I am not "hacking" nor doing anything destructive) that allows me to register for all 7~8 classes in less than 1 second. This is basically undetectable from the school's server admin. There would be 0 problems for me using this method personally.

Now the problem is that I want to sell this method. I'm thinking about selling it like a "private hack" that isn't really an illegal hack but an exploit to 15 people for $150 each. It won't be a malware nor any form of software. It will just be some lines of code for people to put in chrome's console. This will most definitely stir up the hornet's nest, and it will probably be on the radar of my school.

Would there be a way for my university to prosecute me or penalize me for this?

Is it illegal to sell exploits for my university's course registration?


So if I see a simple t-shirt design on the internet, with a normal phrase. for example lets use, "Live Laugh Love" and I copy that design. Am i opening myself up to a lawsuit if I sell it?

The design matches someone else's, however the phrase is common so all that is being copied is the font used and a square around it.

I feel like I did a poor job of explaining and I cant seem to think of a good way to put this. But I guess the question is. What is the threshold of creativity?

Can I make a t-shirt design matching others


I'm developing an intranet site used by employees of my company. The geographic location of an employee could be anywhere around the world but they will be accessing the intranet website using a VPN.

Do I need to comply with laws related to cookies or other geographic specific laws?

[Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_and_Electronic_Communications_Directive_2002)

Does an intranet site need to comply with cookie laws if it's only used internally


I was looking to watch a Soviet movie from the 1970's ([Moscow-Cassiopeia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow-Cassiopeia), nothing with much communist propaganda, just a teen comedy). I thought that this movie would be only possible to find through torrent sites, but I was surprised to see it for sale on [iTunes](https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/moscow-cassiopeia/id1062868381). Who would be Apple licensing this movie from? There was an embargo against Soviet Union during the 1980's, wouldn't have this disabled any copyright from before this embargo?

Are Soviet movies from the 1970's copyrighted in United States?


Contract statement: An activity must be performed annually or as scheduled by the Department.

What is the correct interpretation?

1.) The Department may schedule more often than annually, at their option.

2.) The Department may schedule every five years, if they desire, thus relieving the annual requirement.

(or) in contract language


My mother is 51% shareholder in my father's company. She was a silent partner throughout the entire process, the only reason she was 51% shareholder was because my father wanted a certain tax exemption for minority women owning businesses. However in the midst of their divorce (which my father has made very ugly), she gave up her rights to the business. However, she recently received a notice that the company (as well as her personally) are being sued for $100,000. However she never made even one business decision in this entire business and she was a homemaker. In the divorce, she got the house however because of this business problem, they will attach the house as property.

I am looking to help her and I am unsure if hiring a corporate lawyer is necessary. Is there any way to mediate this situation without hiring a lawyer. And since she is being sued while she still is 51% shareholder of the company (even though the divorce was granted last year), does it matter if she sells her shares at this point or will she still be sued?

How can one sell their shares in a business after getting sued?


In example 1, Becky must appoint an independent valuer. In example 2, the "mechanism failed" because Becky has not.

1. So isn't Becky liable for failing to appoint a valuer?
2. Why "*May & Butcher* ought to apply and the contract would be void"?

Poole, Shaw-Mellors. [*Contract Law Concentrate* (4 ed 2019)](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Contract-Law-Concentrate-Jill-Pool/dp/0198840446/ref=dp_ob_title_bk). p 32.

>
> ### Practical example [1]
>
>
> Alex agrees to sell his bicycle to Becky, price to be determined by independent valuers, one to be
>  appointed by each of the parties. The terms are agreed as ‘those usually operating in the sale of bicycles’.
>
>
>

p. 33

>
> Incomplete agreements
> =====================
>
>
> The agreement may leave an essential matter (such as price) either undecided or impossible
>  to calculate so that the courts will not enforce that agreement.
>
>
> When the price is missing
> -------------------------
>
>
> If there is no mechanism in the contract for fixing the price (i.e. nothing is said about the
>  price), then statute may provide for a ‘reasonable price’.
>
>        Section 8(1) of the Sale of Goods Act (SGA) 1979 provides that, in a contract of sale, the
>  contract may fix the price for goods or provide a mechanism for fixing the price. Where, however,
>  there is no such mechanism, the buyer must pay a reasonable price: s. 8(2). Similarly,
>  with contracts for services, s. 15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act (SGSA) 1982 states
>  that where there is no mechanism for fixing the charge for a service, a reasonable charge is
>  payable (B2B contract) and s. 51 of the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) 2015 contains a similar
>  provision requiring a reasonable price to be paid for a service in B2C contracts. Section 8
>  SGA also extends to cover contracts of sale in the B2C context—there being (unlike with
>  contracts for services) no corresponding provision in the CRA.
>
>        However, if there is a mechanism for fixing the price but it has not been implemented, s. 8
>  SGA, s. 15 SGSA, and s. 51 CRA cannot apply to allow the implication of a reasonable price.
>
>
>
> >
> > ### *May & Butcher Ltd v R* (1934) (HL)
> >
> >
> > **FACTS:** The contract provided for the price to be agreed upon by the parties from time to time. There
> >  was no party agreement.
> >
> >
> > **HELD:** The contract contained a mechanism for fixing the price but this had failed. Therefore, the
> >  argument that the agreement should be construed as an agreement to sell at a fair or reasonable
> >  price was rejected.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> ### Practical example [2]
>
>
> The agreement between Alex and Becky provides a mechanism for fixing the price. If that has worked
>  and there is an agreed price, then the terms are certain.
>  But what if Alex has appointed a valuer but Becky has not and is instead claiming that a ‘reasonable
>  price’ should apply? Technically the mechanism has failed, *May & Butcher* ought to apply and
>  the contract would be void.
>
>
>

If you agree to appoint a valuer but then don't, why aren't you liable?


I am little bit confused about legal aspect of retrieving translation from google.translate. Is it legal to programmatically open google.translate page (user do not see it) -> then my program gets translation by means of google.translate interface -> then my program copying translation into app? Is translation output copyrighted? Is translation text output - content from google Service?

Is it legal to use google translate output in my own app?


I need to use google trends data in a commercial project. Does the google trends license prohibit free usage?

Can google trends data be used for free in a commercial project?


Let's say you start up a Gmail-type service and somebody sells drugs with it/distributes child pornography, would SWAT raid my house if bad people used my website?

I'm interested in an answer under the jurisdiction of the USA.

What happens if someone does something illegal on a server you host at home?


Data controllers must delete the users' personal data if they are asked to do so, according to the GDPR, except in some cases that don't really apply here. But what if that personal data has ended up somewhere else on the internet, maybe on a search engine like Google, or maybe in multiple places that might even be difficult to spot completely, often because some crawling bots have copied the data? I'm not talking about a data breach, where somebody gets unexpected and unauthorized access to data that is supposed to be private. I'm talking about data that is publicly displayed on a website, so anybody (crawling bots included) can access it. It could be a username, an email address, a little picture of you as an avatar, etc.

So here are the questions:

**Who is responsible for the deletion of personal information that ended up on other websites?** Should the user try to get the data deleted, or should the original website do it? For example, if a user asks me to delete some data from my website, should I also try to have it removed from Google or could I just tell the user it's none of my business and that they should go ask Google on their own?

**Should a user expect all this to happen as "the way internet works", or should anything be made clear in the privacy policy?** For example saying "The part of your personal data that can be publicly accessed on the internet is likely to end up on other websites that we cannot control and that might not comply with the GDPR at all"?

GDPR and personal data that gets crawled and ends up on other websites


If my ex-intimate partner decides to send our intimate/couple pictures does that count as defamation act?

If he does something like that, my relationship between me and my current boyfriend will end.

Me and my current boyfriend have been in relationship for 2 years. I heavily regret what i did. I only saw this person for 3 months in summer break, but after 6-7 months he is threatening me to leak my pictures to my current boyfriend because he found out I have a boyfriend. Between those 6-7 months he was in relationship with another women too. I had never told my intimate partner about my boyfriend but whether I tell him or not it is my decision right?

Defamation/Revenge porn


I understand that a single letter, or even a word cannot be copyrighted, because they are too short to be a **unique work**. So how big does a work need to be to qualify?

In Canada, how big does a work need to be to qualify for copyright?


I'm asking purely out of curiosity, and would be happy with answers relating to any jurisdiction(s).

As an example, Ben wants to buy a banana from Sam's shop. Bananas are priced at £0.50 each. Ben puts the banana on the counter and (a) hands Sam a £1 coin. Sam then puts the coin in the till and (b) gives Ben a 50 pence coin.

**Was the contract made and completed at point (a) or (b)? Or is the time of sale not legally defined so precisely?**

Presumably if it was not made until (b), then Ben might not be entitled to walk away with (or eat) the banana without waiting for change.

But if it was made at (a), then Ben might not be entitled to change his mind and get his £1 coin back if Sam was out of change and asked him to wait for five minutes.

When purchasing with excess cash in a shop, is the sale completed when I pay, or only when I receive change


I have a Florida LLC that I am the sole owner of. I had an agreement with a company to do some work, and they guaranteed me a certain quality level. I assesed the quality when it was done and found that most of it was extremely subpar, and didn't meet the guarantee. I met with them and said this would kill my business, and I couldnt pay for the work unless it was fixed. They decided that fixing it would be too expensive, and just shrugged and walked away. Then at the end of the year they took me to collections. But in my personal name. So now this has been reported to my personal credit report.

Is that legal?

Taken to personal collections over your LLC's debt


I don't understand how the "damages" amount is decided on for image copyright. Trying to claim one million vs 1000 isn't much different if the person doesn't have the money to pay for it.

What are the options of an individual who is not part of a business if they get hit with a massive copyright claim that is unaffordable? Is it best to contact and try to negotiate or best to just sweep it under the rug and see if it progresses to the point of a proper copyright claim?

I got a claim from a company called copytrack asking for 1400 in damages for one single image. This is a huge amount of money considering I run this website as a hobby and it would take me 2 years to even earn that much before I consider the costs associated.

I live in the EU and copytrack is based in Germany (not the same EU country as me). It looks like the copyright holder is American, but they have not given me any information. It was a simple *you have infringed on our client's image, pay us right away to avoid legal issues* kinda message. I don't want to blindly pay but at the same time, I am worried.

Edit: To add some more specific data. The email does not mention me or anything about me. Nor does it mention the copyright holder. It just says this image violates copyright. This could very well be a scam as they may not represent the copyright holder at all. I am in a dilemma as I do not know whether I should respond and dig myself into a hole or if i should send this very suspicious email to my spam folder which might also be the wrong thing to do.

Can copyright infringement claims be negotiated without a lawyer?


I’m a normal citizen in Ontario Canada. Authorities are failures on my subject. From police to RCMP and in between.
Is it possible to apply for a licence to investigate with similar authorities as a armed police officer temporarily.
And is there a third party way of solving problems above the court system?

Special Licensing


I have had a Google AdSense account for a while. In 2013, Google started requiring to fill out tax information. I was an idiot and decided to claim that I lived in another country and that had no activity in the U.S to avoid having to pay taxes on that income. It was not much money so I assumed it wouldn't be a big deal.

Over the years that income started to become significant and I became concerned. Last week I decided to properly fill out my W-9 and to start reporting that income.

I did the math and I should have had paid a total of $3,200 in taxes from this income between now and 2013 (25% tax bracket every year plus 15.3% self-employment tax).

Yes, I understand that I'm an idiot, that I did a horrible thing, and that I can get in a lot of trouble. I also understand that I should amend my taxes for those years, but let's assume I just let it go.

In how much trouble can I get exactly if the IRS finds out? I understand that there's a 6 year statue of limitation on criminal charges and no limitation at all on fraud. Is this considered fraud? I'm assuming not. Practically speaking, would the IRS go all the way and file criminal charges considering the amount of money I owe? Assuming the statue of limitation clock started ticking last week, how much would I have to pay in penalties and interest if this gets brought up at the very last minute of the 6 year mark? Practically speaking, what's the worst case scenario?

In practice, how bad can this get?