Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Law/Archive 1

message: I probably did a poor job on Visual Artists Rights Act.  Anyone care to fix it up.  I'm an artist, not a lawyer. :)
This might be a good place to mention what other laws previously and now apply to artists.  Perhaps link to similar laws in other countries.  There's a lot of confusion on the web where images now pass freely. --Sketchee July 2, 2005 15:45 (UTC)
*Strictly speaking, there is no field of law called "art law" - rather, the area is a mix of intellectual property, freedom of expression (First Amendment in the U.S.), and contracts. I shall have a look at your article after the long weekend, tho. Cheers! -- BD2412 talk July 2, 2005 15:49 (UTC)
::Yeah, I know there was no legal term as "art laws" that was just the topic for the header.  The wordy text of "laws previously and now apply to artist" should definitely have been the header instead. =) --Sketchee July 2, 2005 18:46 (UTC)
===Fan fiction===
Hello! I've been working a lot lately on the fan fiction article. Unfortunately, it still suffers from a lack of sources and cites. While I will probably (when I finally get enough time free to do a proper search) be able to find sources for theories on the origins/exact definition of the term/genre, terminolgoy, etc., I honestly think that I suck at the kind of stuff necessary to writer a proper Legal Issues section.
Frequent mention is usually made to the Berne Convention, for instance, amongst fan fiction readers and writers but nobody ever seems to explain how the heck it connects to fan fiction very well, even in this article and I do not know enough about it or law in general to explain it myself; many times vague references are made to U.S., European or Asian copyright conflicts, but many times, especially with non-U.S. cases, these are barely even a reference, and almost always have no citation whatsoever.
In short, since "fan fiction" usually refers to unauthorized dervitive works, what we need are lawyers knowledgeable in copyright law, preferably international as well as U.S. law, to go in there, beat the section into submission, force it to behave and add a few of the conspicously absent citations.
Pretty please? Runa27 23:04, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Art Laws 

message: Hello! I've been working a lot lately on the fan fiction article. Unfortunately, it still suffers from a lack of sources and cites. While I will probably (when I finally get enough time free to do a proper search) be able to find sources for theories on the origins/exact definition of the term/genre, terminolgoy, etc., I honestly think that I suck at the kind of stuff necessary to writer a proper Legal Issues section.
Frequent mention is usually made to the Berne Convention, for instance, amongst fan fiction readers and writers but nobody ever seems to explain how the heck it connects to fan fiction very well, even in this article and I do not know enough about it or law in general to explain it myself; many times vague references are made to U.S., European or Asian copyright conflicts, but many times, especially with non-U.S. cases, these are barely even a reference, and almost always have no citation whatsoever.
In short, since "fan fiction" usually refers to unauthorized dervitive works, what we need are lawyers knowledgeable in copyright law, preferably international as well as U.S. law, to go in there, beat the section into submission, force it to behave and add a few of the conspicously absent citations.
Pretty please? Runa27 23:04, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Fan fiction

message: *POV problems I've just read Easement and the description of an easement is a very long way from the kind of easements that I am used to and deal with. I suspect the article is straight US law and nothing else. Can someone help me sort it out. I've put something on the discussion page. In particular are we (in England) unusual in having no public easements (public rights of way being quite different) or is it a US development? Are there easements other than easements of way in the US (eg of fencing)? Francis Davey 20:07, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Property

message: *Next up: :Template:Criminal law. -- BD2412 talk July 8, 2005 13:28 (UTC)
**Does american criminal law distinguish criminal defences as excuses or justifications? Also, what is the criteria for the types of offences that should be included on the list? I could imagine that the list could get quite big. PullUpYourSocks 02:22, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I noticed Police caution was not yet in any category, so I was looking for something related to Criminal Law, and Law Enforcement.  If I figure it out, I will fix the article. User:AlMac|(talk) 11:38, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

text: Never mind, I figured out how to work Search for Category, and put in the best I could find. User:AlMac|(talk) 11:50, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Criminal Law

message: You can link to the USPTO's US patent listing by using: Template:US patent as follows for patent number 5123456:

--Mmmbeer 00:46, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: U.S. Patent template

message: This probably exists somewhere, but I created a CFR template to link directly to the current US Regulations by title and section (section is actually in part.section format).  It works like this:

And returns the following: 
There's probably a way to link directly to the GPO Access website... like if we did Title|Part|Section but that might be a bit more tedious. Mmmbeer 23:54, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: US. Code of Federal Regulations

message: I have started a general Law and Legal Systems template.  It could use revision, especially the addition of non-U.S. law. (I have added this to the main page - hope that's ok!)Chart123 21:26, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: General Law & Legal Systems template

message: I will attempt work on this, and would appreciate suggestions. Chart123 21:26, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Legal Theory template?

message: Would it be considered useful by yon members of WikiProject Law for me(and others who may happen by) to list law-related articles needing work with you all?  Just to start off, Legal research is a very nice essay, but seriously needs tone cleanup (like moving the inline external links to the end).  Would having such articles listed here be useful to you? Thanks for all the work you do. JesseW 07:36, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cleanup submission? 

message: Subsidy is currently nominated to be improved by Wikipedia:This week's improvement drive. If you are interested in contributing, you can vote for it.--Fenice 13:28, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Improvement drive

message: I created an infobox template for U.S. federal legislation, at Template:Infobox_U.S._legislation. For an example of how this looks in practice, see User:Saucy_Intruder/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act. Any comments? --Saucy Intruder 20:45, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  U.S. federal legislation infobox 

message: I've been busy creating a whole bunch of entries for missing legal articles, but as I've been snooping around, there are a number of really bad--and I mean really bad--or poorly written existing articles. Some perhaps have never even received a cursory look by a contributor with legal skills.
I mention this because of my ongoing work on Jury nullification.  The article was somewhere between POV and a mess. It was (and somewhat still is as I haven't touched history or case law) sloppy, disorganized, and heavily influenced by pro-nullification advocacy groups.  So I started a top-down rewrite.
I realize there aren't many of us in this group, but we could improve the quality of important, existing articles by all focusing each week, or every other week, on one, in addition to other things that we're contributing.  It can be informal, like by simply by adding an article to a list.
We can also use it to draw attention to law articles in real need of attention by someone with legal experience.
Mmmbeer 13:08, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  WikiProject Law's Own version of an Improvement Drive 

message: Hello,
Please notice this project.
I hope that a new List of publications in law will be created and adopted by the lawproject.
Thanks,APH 06:45, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: My definition to "publication" is very liberal ;-). I think that your definition to publication is the suitable one for law. APH 14:03, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Science pearls| Science pearls]]

message: I've made a request to the CFD to change the name of the category "civil law" into something that better deliniates the type of "civil law" being referred to (eg. "civil law (private law)" or "civil law (common law)"). I don't think it's fair to treat the common law-type of "civil law" as having any sort of precedence - hence no disambiguating bracket - over the civilian system, which is far more prevailent in the rest of the world. Whether you'll agree or not, I hope that you'll make some comments on the CFD page. Thanks --PullUpYourSocks 19:05, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Sadly, the request has been revoked. I am little disappointed, actually. Especially, as the "no" voters either to gave no reason or they showed signs of a lack of understanding of the topic. One mentioned that "civil law" meant "non-criminal law", and another seemed to not even be aware of the existence, let alone vast prevailance, of the civil law system. Rather than challenge it again, I think it will be necessary to rewrite the civil law article in order to better reflect the distinction between the two types of "civil law", so that it may be easier to convince non-law people sometime in the future.PullUpYourSocks 03:44, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Good idea, I think. It might also be worth dropping a note to legally-minded Wikipedians next time around, so we can vote and inform the ignorant. Ambi 14:48, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

text: Yes, I should have. I thought it would be a no-brainer, so I didn't make much of an effort to argue my case or try to find support. The mistake was mine. --PullUpYourSocks 22:33, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Category:Civil Law