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Law-StackExchange

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[ { "answer_id": 6549, "body": "<p>There is no such thing as an \"implicit\" out clause in a contract like this. The onus was clearly on them to consider all the facts before agreeing to lock in an interest rate. The facts have not changed since the lock and you did not misrepresent the facts so they should honor their agreement or pay you damages. Your options are to take the deal, get a new deal elsewhere or take them to court to enforce the deal or recover damages. Those aren't particularly great options but that's the situation.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "texas", "fraud", "finance" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5568, "body": "<p>Here's one way to avoid the issue altogether: Wikipedia, or anyone for that matter, can't copyright information (only its expression). You can reword (automate the process?) the content (ie, w/out doing \"independent research\") and it's yours! Of course, I'm not a lawyer so consult one of those.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 6541, "body": "<p>Yes, the license means what it says. CC BY-SA is a <em><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft\" rel=\"nofollow\">copyleft</a></em> license. The point of these licenses is that anyone is free to do whatever they wish with the content, except put restrictions on its use.</p>\n\n<p>You're better off writing your own material, or using public domain or more permissively licensed content, like <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/\" rel=\"nofollow\">CC BY</a>.</p>\n\n<p>To address the other answer: be careful when transforming copyrighted content to evade copyright laws. Yes, information (or more generally, ideas) can't be copyrighted, but if you fail to change the content significantly enough, it could be deemed a derivative work and thus subject to restrictions.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6534, "body": "<p>Yes. The images of the game are a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use\" rel=\"nofollow\">fair use</a> because they are a derivative use in which the images are incidental to the primary purpose: educating a viewer about the cheat.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, a game manufacturer might still attempt to intimidate a cheat poster by suing them anyway.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6527, "body": "<p>Despite the fact that bankruptcy is controlled by federal law, there are a variety of exemptions to property and holdings that DO differ from state to state and can significantly impact your bankruptcy. These (state) exemptions are oftentimes more beneficial than the standard exemptions available federally. There are also cases where the federal exemption is better. Depending on where you file, your bankruptcy attorney will advise you which exemptions (your state or the federal) are most advantageous to your individual situation. <a href=\"http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/bankruptcy-information-your-state\">This link</a> will allow you to click on the state you are in and will give you the state exemption to compare to the federal. </p>\n\n<p>When you file for bankruptcy, you don’t just lose all that you own. Exemptions, like the homestead exemption, can allow you to protect a certain amount of property in bankruptcy, like your home. These can sometimes be doubled if married. Most exemptions are specific to certain types of property (such as your house or car) while others can be used to exempt any type of asset (called wildcard exemptions). The average lower-middle class person filing will keep nearly all assets, since they will typically have very little equity and this is usually covered by exemptions. Sometimes, you can even keep new cars or various other property, by getting the trustee to allow you to reaffirm the debt (not bankrupt it) thereby keeping the asset and the payment.</p>\n\n<p>Exemption laws and amounts vary significantly from state to state and can sometimes depend on whether you're filing a 7,11, or 13. For example, in Chapter 7, the trustee has the power to sell all nonexempt assets (see why determining best exemption by filing jurisdiction so important) to pay your creditors. Exemptions shield some to all of your property from the trustee. If you can exempt the entire value of an asset, you can keep it. If you can’t fully exempt an asset and the trustee sells it, you will be paid the full amount you were able to exempt.</p>\n\n<p>In Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you get to keep all of your property even if it is not exempt; however, in a Chapter 13 (repayment plan bankruptcy) you must pay your unsecured creditors an amount equal to the nonexempt value of your assets. In general, the more property you can exempt, the less you will have to pay unsecured creditors in your bankruptcy. </p>\n\n<p>Since you refer to Trump, I thought I'd mention that if you have a business that is incorporated or an LLC, LLP, or other limited liability type set-up, it can go bankrupt (usually a repayment 13 but not always), stay in business while liquidating debts and some assets, and not impact personal wealth. Your bankruptcy lawyer will fill you in on all issues pertinent to your situation.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 6068, "body": "<p>Bankruptcy Law is Federal Law. This means as a practical matter that your bankruptcy will be conducted according to Federal bankruptcy statutes and case law. However, various aspects of a bankruptcy case may depend upon State Law questions, and as to those issues State Law will apply.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "bankruptcy" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6528, "body": "<p>California has a ballot initiative process that can be used to amend statute:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_ballot_proposition\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_ballot_proposition</a></p>\n\n<p>The proposal would need to say what specific amendments to California statute would be made. i.e. What sections would be repealed, what sections would be added, what sections would be amended, etc.</p>\n\n<p>Here's an example: <a href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Text_of_Proposition_14,_the_Top_Two_Primaries_Act_(California_2010)\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://ballotpedia.org/Text_of_Proposition_14,_the_Top_Two_Primaries_Act_(California_2010)</a></p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "civil-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6526, "body": "<p>user662852 has a good point -- whoever own the property has the right to make the rules.</p>\n\n<p>Is the property, land+construction in fact your's or does it belong to the HOA who just grant you access as a lease holder?</p>\n\n<p>Different states has different rules, but in my state it is illegal to maroon a property and there must be a access to public streets even when this necessitate passing over somebody else land. However that is irrelevant if the HOA owns the land your house is build on. </p>\n\n<p>I think you will have to look at your HOA agreement and see what it says.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "civil-law", "property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6525, "body": "<p>I think you can look at how archive.org does the capture and mirror of the internet. They have a fairly long and detailed <a href=\"https://archive.org/about/faqs.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">FAQ</a> discussing lots of theses issues.</p>\n\n<p>Crawling websites is generally not a problem, and it is the basis for how the internet works -- you would never be able to use google if it was not for the fact that they had crawled all the information already.</p>\n\n<p>However material is still subject to copyright -- so the usage of the information is key. Just like with google, nobody will object if you pull the site content assuming that you are not just trying to republish the content in breach of their copyright. They will however object if you are trying to pull a copy every minute as that would considered an attack on their servers.</p>\n\n<p>There is however information which website owners explicitly state they don't want automated crawlers to access. This is by convention declared in a file on the website called <a href=\"http://www.robotstxt.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">robots.txt</a>. You will see in the archive.org FAQ that they do not crawl those pages.</p>\n\n<p>Likewise, archive.org is removing content from website owners who give legal notice of not hosting their content - They will have to in order to comply with the DMCA.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "reference-request" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6499, "body": "<p>In law there are two different concepts: admissibility of evidence and the weight of that evidence.\nYour question concerns both. I will begin by discussing a little bit about what both these two terms mean.</p>\n\n<p>Admissibility means that this evidence may go before the trier of fact. Typically the trier of fact is the jury, however, if both parties have waived their rights to jury trials (particularly the defendant) the judge is the trier of fact as well as the law. When documents or testimony by witnesses is admissible, the trier of fact can consider it in reaching a decision.</p>\n\n<p>Weight of evidence is a different concept. The weight of evidence is what someone believes. For example if two witnesses who were bystanders testify that the light was red, but the defendant testifies that the light was green, most people would believe the bystanders. However, in this case the evidence by the defendant that the light was green is admissible, but the trier of fact may not afford it much weight.</p>\n\n<p>Now let's consider these logs. In the United States all statements made out of court, whether verbal or written, are considered hearsay (with some exceptions, a couple will be discussed later). Hearsay is generally inadmissible; however, there are many hearsay exceptions.</p>\n\n<p>One exception is a record of a regularly conducted activity. The requirements are (summarized, you may refer to the federal rules of evidence 803-6.) for the full text):\n(A) the record was made at the time of the event by someone who knew about what happened\n(B) the record was kept in the course of this regularly conducted activity\n(C) making the record was a regular practice of that activity\n(D) all these conditions are shown by the testimony of the custodian or another qualified witness\n(E) neither the opponent does not show that the source of information nor or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate a lack of trustworthiness.</p>\n\n<p>Now if these logs fit these requirements you can most likely use them in court. If they don't you probably will not be able to use to in court, unless one of the following applies:\n1.) you are being sued by someone (or you are suing them) who made the logs and you are offering the logs against them (this is referred to in legal settings as party-opponent statements) OR\n2.) the other party has offered evidence that you are lying and you are offering this logs to show you are telling the truth.</p>\n\n<p>Most likely the only admissible evidence would be the testimony of the employee and the employer. This leads to a he said she said scenario and the legal results will be highly ambiguous. The credibility of both witnesses will be likely assessed by the trier of fact and the trier will consider who has a higher incentive to lie. If there are more witnesses saying one thing versus another, it is likely they will be believed unless there is a reason all of them are lying.</p>\n\n<p>Although this is not legal advice, my suggestion for an employee in such a situation is to gather evidence that an employer asked you to commit a crime as part of your job. Print out emails, get written requests from the employer, and have witnesses present at the time of the request. Then the employee should refuse to perform the act. If as a result the employee is fired, one can sue. All these statements of the employer can be admitted as party-opponent statements. </p>\n\n<p>Additionally I suggest that you advocate for your company to adopt policies which require record keeping, which will satisfy the hearsay exception given above.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 6520, "body": "<p>How hard is it to commit a crime? </p>\n\n<p>That is not the question - the question is what are the consequences. The first consequence is that instead of thinking of yourself as a decent person, and being proud of being yourself, you will forever be thinking of yourself as a cowardly criminal. For many people, that's enough reason. The second consequence is that there is a huge risk. If you have a decent job then the financial consequences of being caught committing a crime would be absolutely disastrous. </p>\n\n<p>In your case with the forged evidence, it's not just he said / she said. A judge or jury would think about how much reason each person would have to lie. The employer may have huge financial gains from forging some evidence. The employee has nothing to gain from falsely telling the court that the evidence is forged, quite the opposite. And then of course there is the other side of the court case. Say I was supposed to pay a bill on the 1st of March. I say I paid on time. The boss says \"here is the log file showing you paid on the 20th of April\". The employee says \"that evidence is forged\". That's two people saying the evidence is false, and one saying it is correct. </p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "evidence", "hacking" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6518, "body": "<p>First, copyright only protects literary and artistic works - the name of a company (or anything else) is neither - it is a fact and facts are not subject to copyright. Similarly, URLs, street addresses and phone numbers are all facts. In addition, even if these weren't facts; they lack the required threshold of creativity to qualify for copyright protection.</p>\n\n<p>A logo <em>is</em> an artistic work and does get copyright protection.</p>\n\n<p>I think you are confusing the IP concepts of copyright and trade mark.</p>\n\n<p>A trade mark is a name, symbol, colour etc. which someone uses to identify their goods and services - think \"brand\" if you will. You are not allowed to use a trade mark if your use would create confusion that your goods and services are associated with or endorsed by the trade mark owner or in a way that is defamatory to the trade mark owner. You can use a trade mark to identify the owner of the trade mark or their goods and services.</p>\n\n<p>Your proposed use appears to be a fair use/fair dealing for copyright and so long as your links are not defamatory the trade mark usage is fine.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "intellectual-property", "trademark" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4764, "body": "<p>What you are referring to is a Rule 68 (FED. R. Civ. P. 68) offer of judgment (OOJ). Thus far, nearly every jurisdiction's court of appeals has refused to construe these as being binding on the Plaintiff if the offer is denied, even if it offers complete remuneration, especially in a putative class action. The underlying reasons when applied to a certified class differ fairly substantially from an individual plaintiff or a non-certified class. However, there are some kinds of cases where a Rule 68 offer could <em>never</em> fully compensate (as with cases where subjective or non-substantive forms of damage have been requested).</p>\n\n<p>A Rule 68 offer is a cost-flipping mechanism, often used by defense attorneys when they are making what they believe is a fair offer (very rarely is the offer one that is equal to the Plaintiff's demand, which is why this issue rarely arises). If a defense attorney makes an offer of judgment, and then the Plaintiff doesn't accept the offer, they need to get a jury verdict in an amount greater than the offer, or the costs are flipped. So, typically, if there is no OOJ and the Plaintiff wins even a nominal judgment (it can be a dollar) the Defendant always has to pay their costs, which can be substantial. When a Rule 68 offer is made, it's a carefully calculated amount that the defendant thinks the plaintiff can't get in a jury verdict, even if they win, but it's typically less than the demand. </p>\n\n<p>The reason a Rule 68 offer is <strong>almost never</strong> \"full compensation\" is that a Plaintiff's demand for settlement will typically be somewhere in the area of 3x the amount the Plaintiff's attorney estimates the case to be worth. The Plaintiff is informed of this by their lawyer, so they don't have unreasonable expectations. If you think about it, this makes sense from an <em>ability to negotiate</em> perspective, with the logic being that the Plaintiff wants to get as close to full value as they can, and the defense needs their client to think they've saved them from some huge judgement. If a plaintiff demanded only what the case was worth, it would have no chance of settling for true value, or if the case were to settle, the Defense lawyer wouldn't be able to move the Plaintiff down off their number in any substantial way. This way, the lawyers can play their game negotiating the case down to a fair value. Plaintiff gets what their case is worth and Defendant feels like their lawyer saved them from catastrophe. It's all illusion.</p>\n\n<p>The First Circuit recently joined the Second, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits in holding that a Rule 68 offer made prior to class certification and rejected by Plaintiff does not moot the Plaintiff’s claim. The Plaintiff, a private high school, brought the action against the corporate developer of a college-entrance exam, alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and an analogous state statute related to unsolicited faxes it received. Prior to Plaintiff’s deadline to move for class certification, the Defendant made an Offer Of Judgment, offering Plaintiff the amount it could receive under the two statutes for each fax. Plaintiff did not respond within 14 days, rendering the offer withdrawn under Rule 68, and instead moved for class certification. Defendant then moved to dismiss, arguing that the withdrawn offer rendered Plaintiff’s claims moot and divested the court of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court denied the motion, holding that Plaintiff’s claim was not moot, but certified the question of whether an unaccepted Rule 68 offer, made before certification, moots the entire action and deprives the court of jurisdiction.</p>\n\n<p>Generally speaking, aside from very specific types of cases involving contracts, or specific types of statutory relief, a Plaintiff typically includes counts for things like NIED (negligent infliction of emotional distress), pain and suffering, loss of consortium, loss of future earning capacity &ndash; these are a few of the types of counts whereby there is no specific value a defendant could ever point to being \"fully satisfied\" &ndash; the reason being, a jury needs to determine the legitimate value of these claims unless the Plaintiff accepts a settlement award whereby he/she/it feels as if it's fully satisfied.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 6517, "body": "<p>The Supreme Court took up this question in <a href=\"http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-857_8njq.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Campbell Ewald Co. v Gomez</a>.</p>\n\n<p>They held that:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>An unaccepted settlement offer or offer of judgment does not\n moot a plaintiff’s case</p>\n</blockquote>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 4605, "body": "<p>It moots the case as to Josephine if she accepts the offer and settles.<br>\nAs long as it's during the period when Josephine is an individual plaintiff and not a class, her individual settlement doesn't settle the case with regards to the other plaintiffs (members of the class) who could still sue, but would have to find a different lead plaintiff. </p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-states", "class-action", "standing" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6503, "body": "<p>Recording of 911 calls and the confidentiality of those recordings is often handled explicitly by statute or under the umbrella of \"public record\" statutes.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/confidentiality-of-911-call-recordings.aspx\">http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/confidentiality-of-911-call-recordings.aspx</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&amp;Search_String&amp;URL=0900-0999/0934/Sections/0934.03.html\">Florida Statutes section 934.03</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It is lawful [...] for an employee of [...] an agency operating an emergency telephone number “911” system [...] to intercept and record incoming wire communications...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>About your specific Maryland example, check out the <a href=\"http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmStatutesText.aspx?article=gcj&amp;section=10-402&amp;ext=html&amp;session=2015RS&amp;tab=subject5\">Code of Maryland, Section 10-402(c)(5)</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It is lawful under this subtitle for an officer, employee, or agent of a governmental emergency communications center to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication where the officer, agent, or employee is a party to a conversation concerning an emergency.</p>\n</blockquote>\n", "score": 14 } ]

[ "united-states", "privacy" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6471, "body": "<p>There probably isn't any basis for legal action, as news paper columns fall under free-speech and everybody have a right to their own opinion and articulate such under free-speech.</p>\n\n<p>While you have the right to your own opinion you don't have any rights to your own facts -- but as a critical reader you have figured out that the news paper were communicating opinion and not fact simply because they failed to cite any scientific references.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6487, "body": "<p>If you were harmed by the advice, that could give you a reason to sue. A weak reason, in this case, but at least you could link the advice directly to damages. Reading a magazine is not the same as obtaining professional advice, however, so your chances of winning any significant damages are minimal at best. </p>\n\n<p>If you don't agree with the opinion, then that's not a basis for a lawsuit. Especially in a situation where the advice is dubious, but not explicitly harmful. The advice is not that you should avoid calcium. It's that you should source it from somewhere other than dairy products. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "civil-law", "medical" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6508, "body": "<p>They didn't \"get away with it\".</p>\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20060729/news_1m29bumfight.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">a July 29, 2006 article in the San Diego Union Tribune</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Two producers of the infamous “Bumfights” video were jailed yesterday, more than three years after pleading guilty to staging illegal fights between homeless people.</p>\n \n <p>Zachary Bubeck and Ryan McPherson were taken into custody after Superior Court Judge Charles W. Ervin reaffirmed a 180-day sentence he issued in February 2005.</p>\n \n <p>Bubeck, 28, and McPherson, 23, were originally sentenced to perform community service work instead of serving jail sentences. However, they failed to do so and then lied about it, prompting Ervin to revoke their probation. Both men unsuccessfully appealed the judge's decision. </p>\n \n <p>[...]</p>\n \n <p>The two men pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight. In June 2003, they were ordered to perform 280 hours of community service work. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It looks like their convictions were for violation of <a href=\"http://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-412.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">California Penal Code Section 412</a>.</p>\n\n<p>There were other charges that didn't stick:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Previously, a judge dismissed felony charges of battery and soliciting a felony in connection with the production of the video. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>And on the civil side:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Earlier this year, the four producers settled lawsuits filed by three men who appeared in the video. </p>\n</blockquote>\n", "score": 9 } ]

[ "criminal-law", "assault" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6500, "body": "<p>For regular firearms you only have to comply with the laws of the state to which you are moving. Since Utah (presently) has no state-specific restrictions on ownership or possession of AR-15 rifles that means in this case, as you say, \"no problem.\"</p>\n\n<p>(The only exception would be registered NFA items &ndash; e.g., machine-guns, suppressors, SBR, SBS, DD, AOW &ndash; for which the BATFE typically requires notice when you are moving them interstate. But if you have gone through the trouble of registering such an item, you probably already know that.)</p>\n\n<p>Finally, you have to exercise some care in the actual interstate transportation of firearms: <em>If you are passing through a jurisdiction where possession of them is restricted</em> then you have to follow the rules provided in the <a href=\"https://www.nraila.org/articles/20150101/guide-to-the-interstate-transportation\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Firearms Owners Protection Act</a>. In particular:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Under FOPA, notwithstanding any state or local law, a person is\n entitled to transport a firearm from any place where he or she may\n lawfully possess and carry such firearm to any other place where he or\n she may lawfully possess and carry it, if the firearm is unloaded and\n locked out of reach. In vehicles without a trunk, the unloaded firearm\n must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or\n console. Ammunition that is either locked out of reach in the trunk or\n in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console is\n also covered.</p>\n</blockquote>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "utah", "washington", "firearms" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6493, "body": "<p>Of course it is illegal. You are attempting to access somebody's data without their knowledge and certainly without their consent.</p>\n\n<p>In the U.K. it is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Police and Justice Act 2006 and the Serious Crimes Act 2015.</p>\n\n<p>The clue here should be in the term <strong>Serious Crimes</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>The Human Rights Act, and indeed the ECHR, should never come into it unless it was state sponsored or corporate spying. And even then certain states have given themselves Orwellian totalitarian authority to do as they please.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 6492, "body": "<p>I really doubt that from technical point of view such thing be possible, but anyway, yes it is illegal indeed. Right to privacy is a fundamental right in western legal system and violating it is a crime in most legal systems. For instance refer to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "hacking" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6482, "body": "<p>In this case, Service refers to Google Maps and Content refers to the contents served via the Google Maps Service.</p>\n\n<p>This section exists to explicitly reserve Google's proprietary rights with respect to these. In allowing you to use their Service and Content, they do not cede any proprietary right to them.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6484, "body": "<p>No, it's not saying that Google owns your app. It's saying that Google owns Google maps. You'll find that the capitalized terms <em>Service</em> and <em>Content</em> are defined earlier in the terms of service.</p>\n\n<p>In particular, it seems to mean that Google continues to own Google's stuff even when users get to that stuff through your app. If you started making millions from the app, you could expect that they'd want some if that, but the parts of the app that done rely on Google's stuff remain yours. If you make millions from a recipe app in which the maps component plays a very minor or even ancillary role, they would have a claim on much less of your revenue than they would if you were selling a travel planning app.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "contract-law", "intellectual-property", "terms-of-service", "legal-terms" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6476, "body": "<p>Assuming that age is not a factor in the crime in the case, two offences come to mind:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sexual Assault (section 271 of the Criminal Code)</li>\n<li>Aggravated Sexual Assault (section 273 of the Criminal Code)</li>\n</ul>\n<p>The primary question that you put forward is the question of consent. This is defined in <a href=\"http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-63.html#docCont\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">section 273.1 of the Criminal Code</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Meaning of “consent”</strong></p>\n<p>273.1 (1) Subject to subsection (2) and subsection 265(3), consent means, for the purposes of sections 271, 272 and 273, the voluntary agreement of the complainant to engage in the sexual activity in question.</p>\n<p><strong>Where no consent obtained</strong></p>\n<p>(2) No consent is obtained, for the purposes of sections 271, 272 and 273, where</p>\n<p>(a) the agreement is expressed by the words or conduct of a person other than the complainant;<br />\n(b) the complainant is incapable of consenting to the activity;<br />\n(c) the accused induces the complainant to engage in the activity by abusing a position of trust, power or authority;<br />\n(d) the complainant expresses, by words or conduct, a lack of agreement to engage in the activity; or<br />\n(e) the complainant, having consented to engage in sexual activity, expresses, by words or conduct, a lack of agreement to continue to engage in the activity.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Written consent is not the only form of consent accepted in a Canadian court of law. I would also expect such form to be rare. That being said, Section 273.1(2) communicates that consent is not valid if:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>A person other than the one engaging in the act provided the consent</li>\n<li>The person is incapable of providing consent. Such factors generally include age, mental or physical disabilities, or consent under duress (fear caused by another person)</li>\n<li>The person demonstrates by speech or conduct a removal of consent to engage in a sexual activity</li>\n</ul>\n<p>The question of whether consent was obtained is something to be found in a court of law. You may have fun reading <a href=\"http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-63.html#docCont\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Section 276</a> which deals with disclosure and admissibility of evidence.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "criminal-law", "canada", "sexual-assault", "consent" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6473, "body": "<p>The first thing that people need to do <em>is to quit over thinking it.</em></p>\n\n<p>That being said, I'm going to see if I can tackle your problems one by one, before summarizing and providing my own opinion:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Many users don't care if their code is copied.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'm like that. I left a <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/272956/a-new-code-license-the-mit-this-time-with-attribution-required/273020#comment886948_273020\">couple comments on Shog9's post that read this:</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Good point: Licensing does not prevent careless or malicious use. I'm surprised about how many people are thinking that this license will let them steal their code, because it's already happening right now. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but when thousands of people break a license/law/contract, it's a bit of a lost cause. You're not significantly damaged in a direct way, so honestly, let it go. <strong>All I want is to make sure that no one can come up to me if something of mine screwed something on there side. Aside from that, I don't care about people who don't attribute me: chances are, they have no moral sanity, and I will appreciate the people who do, and help me out. As it is, I'm 16, I share what I know with a good heart, and in a well-spirited manner, and at the end of the day, knowing that I was able to help someone out makes my day.</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't mind if my code is copied. I know that people will copy my code whether I like it or not, but I also know that there will be people in the world who will say \"thanks\", and will try to attribute me where possible. I feel good about that.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, I don't care. But the person who uses my code does. The license that affects all Stack Exchange posts are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, or CC BY-SA. Code contributions don't fit well with this. <a href=\"https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/1717/why-is-cc-by-sa-discouraged-for-code\">This excellent post on Open Source</a> explains why it's discouraged for code.</p>\n\n<p>What these people want is a code-friendly license, so that they can stay in the clear when it comes to copyright issues. The next thing they want, is for someone to come after them over some licensing issue. You may think that people are good, but you never know the world around you. They can be evil.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>For other users, they don't mind their code being copied to another post, as long as there is a link to the post and a mention of the original author.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Most people post with good intention. There's not that much of an issue from a legal perspective either: The license allows people to copy and paste into answers of their own, and since the license remains the same, there's no issue to get into. The license allows it, and contributors kind of have to acknowledge it.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I don't think anyone cares what happens to code that is less than 3-4 lines at least.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I can probably agree. Such code probably wouldn't be eligible for copyright anyway, since it's so trivial. Many jurisdictions have a \"Threshold of Originality,\" which means that simple things can't be under copyright.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Stack Exchange does not probably want people to own the code they submit. For example, Stack Exchange has (and probably wishes to retain) the right to keep even deleted posts in the visibility of the high rep users (even if the author is against it).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Wait what? You may be right that it is in Stack Exchange's interest to host content. After all, they get hits, which helps them as a business.</p>\n\n<p>It is illegal for companies to host illegal content. If somebody sees objectionable, copyrighted content hosted on Stack Exchange that they would like removed, <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/114007/289845\">then they need to file a DMCA Takedown Request</a>. This is also why moderators, like myself, cannot process legal requests.</p>\n\n<p>The reason why Stack Exchange doesn't act themselves, even if they see something that is copyrighted and objectionable, is because it's a form of liability. When YouTube began removing copyrighted content themselves, they received a wave of lawsuits (<em>If you remove some, you need to remove all. Why didn't you remove mine?</em> being the argument). The plaintiff's won those, and when YouTube did nothing, they weren't liable at all.</p>\n\n<p>If a user wants to have their content taken down, it's tricky. You need to look at the <a href=\"https://stackexchange.com/legal\">Terms of Service for Stack Exchange</a>: (quoting Section 3)</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>You agree that all Subscriber Content that You contribute to the Network is perpetually and irrevocably licensed to Stack Exchange</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>When Stack Exchanges gets your content, you grant them an irrevocable license to your contribution. This is pretty standard across a lot of sites: it's just a way to secure data and stay in the clear of licensing issues.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>At the same time, it doesn't seem fair for SE to acquire complete ownership of the content. The user must still have the final say, if the content is to be used for purposes not already agreed upon in the licence.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They don't.</p>\n\n<p>What users have done is that they have provided a license of their content to Stack Exchange. This is done, again, through their Terms of Service: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>You grant Stack Exchange the perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use, copy, cache, publish, display, distribute, modify, create derivative works and store such Subscriber Content and to allow others to do so in any medium now known or hereinafter developed (“Content License”) in order to provide the Services, even if such Subscriber Content has been contributed and subsequently removed by You.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The user grants a license to their content to Stack Exchange, <em>but they do not assign or relinquish copyright</em>. The code still belongs to them.</p>\n\n<p>It's important not to conflate the user contribution policy, with copyright assignment. You are still free to add an additional license to your content (known as dual or multi-licensing), and have a copy for your own use. Stack Exchange will always host a copy licensed under the CC BY-SA license.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Stack Exchange can expect a high level of decorum and respect for laws from its users. At the same time, it cannot expect redundant attributions anywhere and everywhere, because one of its main aims is to not waste the users' time.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not only Stack Exchange expects it, but many copyright laws in various jurisdictions <em>require it</em> too.</p>\n\n<p>There's a concept known in many jurisdictions known as moral rights. These are rights that are irrevocable, whether you like it or not. Generally, these include attributions, disclaimer of liability, and other rights as well. Even if your work is in the public domain, you still retain these moral rights.</p>\n\n<p>If memory serves me right, the right to be attributed is revokable under United States copyright law. Therefore, attribution becomes more a courtesy, <em>when the right is revoked</em>. Licenses such as CC BY, and CC BY-SA still require attribution as a part of their licensing terms. What defines attribution is generally up to the person who uses the content. If memory serves right again, one can not demand how to attribute.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>There should be a clear-cut way to determine what is code and what isn't. The code formatting indicators on SE may not be adequate because some users simply use backticks, or 4-space indented text for other not-so-codey text.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Personally, I feel like making the entirety of a post under both the Creative Commons license and whatever proposed code license they use is the best option, and allow people to use moral judgement to determine the most appropriate license. The concern comes about people who lack such judgment. I bet these same people don't follow the existing license anyway - <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/2163/how-is-it-possible-for-millions-to-use-pirated-software-at-home-and-never-get-ar\">and are a lost cause</a>.</p>\n\n<p>_{We made it through!}</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>There will always be debate on the license of choice. Some people want the GPL, a license that's apparently closer to the status quo of Creative Commons license (I disagree that it's a good match), while other's want permissive licenses, such as the MIT or the Apache licenses. I'd prefer the permissive type, since it allows use in closed-source applications, and grant more rights (i.e. less restrictions) to the people that use them. I'm not going to right much because my hands are tired, but I'm sure if you've got more questions about the open source licenses themselves, you can probably ask on <a href=\"https://opensource.stackexchange.com\">Open Source Stack Exchange</a>.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "internet", "licensing" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6472, "body": "<p>There are lots of US laws related to privacy and protection of minors. Your question is possibly too broad.</p>\n\n<p>Which laws are applicable probably depends on what you are trying to do -- so just mentioning a few things which I can think of as relevant:</p>\n\n<p>You generally cann't track and advertise to people you believe are minors. <a href=\"http://www.dglaw.com/images_user/newsalerts/AdvMktngPromo_new_maine_law.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Maine was one of the first states making this explicit</a>, but there may be others. The age limit varies from state-to-state. Communication probably also needs to be secured in ways were every communication is privileged and walled from any usage outside the intended purpose. You may also consider that since minors have no authority to enter into a legal agreement that the child itself cannot agree to the use of the application but will need a parent to do so on their behalf.</p>\n\n<p>Depending of what your app consider a teacher, you may also need to do something to make sure that teachers are in fact trusted and authenticated people. If anybody can be a teacher what will prevent a pedophile in create a \"teacher account\"?</p>\n", "score": 0 }, { "answer_id": 6474, "body": "<p>One thing that may apply is the collection of personal information.</p>\n\n<p>To put this into perspective...</p>\n\n<p>Stack Exchange does not allow anyone under the age of 13 because of personal information laws. In particular, Stack Exchange cannot knowingly collect personal information from minors without the consent of their parent or guardian.</p>\n\n<p>I could imagine the same thing applying here.</p>\n\n<p>If your application were to collect personal information from your students, you would need to have the consent of the parents or guardians. There may be some exceptions to this however: if the school board were to adopt the software, they could draft it as a part of the technology policy and agreement that students generally sign (with their parents) at the beginning of the year.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-states", "education", "disclaimers" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6475, "body": "<p>The default &quot;license&quot; in this case would probably be All Rights Reserved.</p>\n<p>When you say <em>no license is enforced</em> in your quote, general copyright laws would likely apply. I haven't looked into JSFiddle, but here's something in the <a href=\"https://help.github.com/articles/open-source-licensing/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Github Help Center</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>You're under no obligation to choose a license. It's your right not to include one with your code or project, but please be aware of the implications. Generally speaking, the absence of a license means that the default copyright laws apply. This means that you retain all rights to your source code and that nobody else may reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from your work. This might not be what you intend.</p>\n<p>Even if this is what you intend, if you publish your source code in a public repository on GitHub, you have accepted the Terms of Service which do allow other GitHub users some rights. Specifically, you allow others to view and fork your repository within the GitHub site.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Generally, additional rights are provided to the site to hold your code and repository, as well as basic user operations within the app.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>jsFiddle are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any kind during the usage of provided code.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This is mostly a disclaimer of liability. JSFiddle is just trying to say that they will not act on behalf of you in relation to copyright claims or the like. They don't want to be held accountable for anything that arises.</p>\n<p>The impression that I get is that you can have an All Rights Reserved repository on JSFiddle, while acknowledging that they will not be responsible for anything to do with copyright or licensing, nor will they act on anyone's behalf.</p>\n<p>In response to your bounty message, I'm not sure how much authoritative you can get after your quote. That quote seems to be from the jsfiddle.net site itself.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "software", "open-source-software" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6470, "body": "<p>First off, you need to determine whether the code is even eligible for copyright. Something like this probably doesn't cut it:</p>\n\n<pre><code>public class HelloWorld \n{\n public static void sayHi() \n {\n System.out.println(\"Why hello there!\");\n }\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I use Stack Overflow answers all the time. I don't copy the code directly, but I take the ideas and rewrite them for use in my own implementations. </p>\n\n<p>With Creative Commons, it's tricky. <a href=\"https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/1717/why-is-cc-by-sa-discouraged-for-code\">It's known that CC BY-SA is highly discouraged for code</a>, and this is the reason why Stack Exchange is having this licensing drama: to help end users, and contributors to stay in the clear.</p>\n\n<p>To answer your question, you need to look at a few key components:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Are you implementing your own version of the snippet?</li>\n<li>Is your entire program based on that code in the SO Answer?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you answered \"yes\" to the first question, then no. You probably don't have to worry about licensing. While you could have a section in your program to attribute them (I keep a comment, or a little section in a file to say Thanks), that's just about as much as you need to do.</p>\n\n<p>If you answered \"yes\" to the second question, then you've probably got a problem. Remember that snippet I made above? Suppose it was somewhat more complex, and it was a full, working problem. If you make changes where without my code, your program wouldn't be running, then you're probably creating an adaptation based on my work. You'd probably have to license that under the Attribution Share-Alike license.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>To summarize, your over thinking it. Just say thanks, be sane and don't directly cope code, and you're in the clear. Happy coding :)</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "creative-commons" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6468, "body": "<p>In the UK, depending on the company size, the boss will not be able to just give you notice. There may be a consultation process legally required, to determine who will be laid off. </p>\n\n<p>Some details here: <a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights</a></p>\n\n<p>If you read about \"statutory rights\", that is the minimum rights that you have no matter what your contract says. If your contract has better conditions, then the contract counts. </p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "employment" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6417, "body": "<p>The version field of the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent\" rel=\"nofollow\">HTTP 'user-agent'</a> header is used to communicate compatibility level, not the provenance of the source code. Almost every browser around claims compatibility with Mozilla. In fact <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Silk\" rel=\"nofollow\">Silk</a> is based on the BSD licensed <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)\" rel=\"nofollow\">Chromium</a> browser, which doesn't impose a requirement on source distribution.</p>\n\n\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "licensing" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6464, "body": "<p>If you have as much money as Apple, and the famous person is Carl Sagan, then you change the name of your internal project instead of risking a law suit. The difference is probably that Sagan is alive and can sue you, while that is no problem with Kafka, Django etc. </p>\n\n<p>Dead or alive is not the real distinction; don't try to to call your project \"Disney\". The question is whether there is someone who is going to sue you for it. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "software" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5410, "body": "<p><strong>tl;dr:</strong> Statutory preambles are typically non-binding, and some states have laws to this effect (<em>e.g.</em> Florida, Illinois, Iowa, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>The most consistent interpretation I've found is that when the body text isn't clear, the preamble might be helpful in determining context and legislative intent. </p>\n\n<p>For example, in Shea v. Clinton, 850 F. Supp. 2d 153 (D.C. 2012), the district court said that where statutory text is ambiguous, courts may look to the preamble and legislative history for clarification. </p>\n\n<p>This extends beyond the realm of statutes. In Catalina Marketing v. Coolsavings.com, Inc., 289 F.3d 801 (Fed. Cir. 2002), the court found that considering limitations in the preamble of a patent should be context-specific.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 6456, "body": "<p>There is the case of the preamble of the constitution of the French 5th Republic. The constitution was adopted in 1958 and, until 1971, the Conseil constitutionnel (\"CC\" hereafter; more or less the equivalent of the Supreme Court, and rather less than more as it is not really a court) had only a minor role: it was a judge of national elections and referendums, and it also had to decide what were the respective domains of the parliament and of the the executive. Initially, the preamble was not thought to be binding, but in 1971, the CC invoked it to strike down a parliamentary law. </p>\n\n<p>Actually, the preamble is rather empty but it refers to the following texts:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the Revolutionary (1789) \"Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen\", which states individual and political rights like those in the US Bill of Rights;</li>\n<li>the post-2nd World War (1946) preamble of the constitution of the 4th Republic, which proclaims some collective, social and economical rights. The latter itself mentions the existence of \"<strong>fundamental principles recognized by the</strong> [ordinary] <strong>laws of the Republic</strong>\", but does not provide a list of them.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The Conseil constitutionnel decided that the freedom of association was one these fundamental principles, and it has discovered (invented?) many others since. To be recognized as constitutionally binding, a principle has to appear in a law voted under the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Republic; it must also be stable and general. </p>\n\n<p>It is on this fragile basis and through a very indirect reasoning to vague principles that the CC stroke down the law of 1971. Their power has however been validated and reinforced afterwards: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>since 1974, a small minority of the members of Parliament can ask the CC to examine whether a law is constitutional, just after it has been adopted and before it is promulgated (<em>a priori</em>; initially, only the president of the Republic, the prime minister and the presidents of the Assemblée nationale and of the Sénat could do this); </li>\n<li>and since 2008, courts may request the CC, after some filtering by the top courts (the Cour de cassation and the Conseil d'État), to do the same, even years after a law has been adopted by the parliament, so <em>a posteriori</em>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>A reference in English:\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Council_%28France%29#History_and_evolution\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Council_%28France%29#History_and_evolution</a></p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "constitutional-law", "statutes" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6453, "body": "<p>If there is a history of this the plaintiff can be declared a <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexatious_litigation\" rel=\"nofollow\">vexatious litigant</a></p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "rules-of-court", "small-claims-court", "charge-dismissed", "harassment" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6448, "body": "<p>If this claim were made in Australia it would most certainly have to be materially correct. Australian Consumer Law prohibits \"false or misleading statements in trade or commerce\"; action may be taken by individuals or the federal government through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and/or the Fair Trading (or similar) departments of each of the states or territories. The Australian Consumer Law is \"harmonised\" legislation meaning that it is the same in each Australian jurisdiction except for necessary administrative differences.</p>\n\n<p>It is worth noting that this is an objective test: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The information provided by the defendant is tested by\n reference to the reaction of hypothetical ordinary, reasonable readers as to what was the\n dominant message conveyed to them. It is enough for relief to be granted that the statement or\n advertisement has a tendency to lead such persons into error. It is not necessary for the court to find that it is more likely than not that the readers were led into error, and it is enough that there\n is a real and not remote possibility of the reader being misled or deceived.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://barristers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Misleading-or-Deceptive-Conduct-Cases-Western-Australian-Developments-Paper.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://barristers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Misleading-or-Deceptive-Conduct-Cases-Western-Australian-Developments-Paper.pdf</a> (Note that this refers to Sections of the Trade Practices Act - these have now been subsumed into the Australian Consumer Law).</p>\n\n<p>This means that it doesn't matter if there was an intention to deceive or mislead or even if the statement was objectively \"true\" or not.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "internet", "claims", "advertisements" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6444, "body": "<p>No I don't think so, if by tabular form you mean a book. I've read papers that have that information (famous study on weight of the carrier laws and one on crack sentencing disparity between federal and state charging mechanisms. At least not one that i've ever seen. This would not be a very useful database or book to compile, as it would need to be constantly updated as laws change. You'd have to look at each state's (and the federal) criminal code that you want to compare and go from there. They are all searchable databases though, on the flip side, so this is fairly easy data to compile. Try findlaw if you don't have Lexis or West. Or, if you want to use lexis or West, any law library will have computers that have it on there for free public use. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "criminal-law", "reference-request", "sentencing" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6277, "body": "<p>Absolutely it is.</p>\n\n<p>If a contract contains void provisions then, in general, the contract itself is void for uncertainty. A void contract <em>never existed</em> so you couldn't use this to terminate a contract because there never was a contract.</p>\n\n<p>Contracts of employment are typically heavily regulated and the regulations may tell you to deal with void provisions in a different way. However, for common law contracts a void provision can sink the whole thing.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 6443, "body": "<p>It is necessary for any contract that is complex, interstate, or not drafted by an attorney. A <em>severability</em> or <em>savings clause</em> is critical in those situations, because without it, a contract that has a clause found to be either unenforceable by law, or unenforceable because it is one sided, unfair, unethical or illegal. In those cases, without a savings clause, you will find more often than not, that in times of dispute the entire contract can be found invalid. If you have that clause (the savings clause) you will be able to argue that it was foreseen by the parties that in the event some cause is found to be illegal, unjust, or unenforceable for whatever reason, that the remainder is saved. It protects both parties.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6439, "body": "<p>It depends. Some companies, like Warner Music and Universal Music, have licensing agreements with You Tube. For example, here is what Warner says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Q) I want to use a song in the WMG catalog in a YouTube video for my\n personal use. Can I use it for free?</p>\n \n <p>A) Warner Music Group works with YouTube to enable the use of WMG\n content on YouTube for personal, non-profit use only. However, please\n bear in mind that the rights holders and YouTube reserve the right to\n block or remove this content without notice. WMG Licensing is not\n involved in these decisions. If you post WMG content on any site other\n than YouTube, you will need to request a license through us and can do\n so through clicking \"Need To License a WMG Master?\" at\n www.wmgmusiclicensing.com. If the video you post on YouTube containing\n WMG content is a film or documentary, promotion or advertisement for a\n company, or any other type of non-personal project, then you will also\n need to acquire a license. Request the use by clicking \"Need To\n License a WMG Master?\" at www.wmgmusiclicensing.com.</p>\n</blockquote>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright", "internet" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6438, "body": "<p>Any of these terms has a very specific legal meaning. In another country, there may be no legal thing with exactly the same meaning. You can translate as much as you like, but the closest matching word will not have exactly to same meaning. </p>\n\n<p>For example, instead of trying to translate \"prosecutor\" you might try to translate \"US prosecutor\". For example in a French translation, combining \"American\" with the word closest to \"prosecutor\" would quite clearly exactly express a US prosecutor. </p>\n\n<p>Another example, try translating \"First degree murder\", \"second degree murder\", \"manslaughter\" into German. There they are different classes of illegally and non accidentally killing a person, but the definitions of each class won't match exactly the US definitions. I'd translate \"First degree murder\" als \"Mord ersten Grades nach US Gesetz\", making up a term that doesn't legally exist in Germany (there is nothing matching \"first degree murder\"), and add \"US law\" because that way the exact meaning is clear. </p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6420, "body": "<p><a href=\"http://iate.europa.eu\" rel=\"nofollow\">IATE</a> lists official EU translations, including their sources. For \"trial\" in French, 350 references are given. Narrowing the search to domain 12 (law), we still have 130 references. These are certainly not unique translations, mostly minor contextual differences. It's fairly obvious that the primary translation is \"procès\".</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "legal-terms", "comparative-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6432, "body": "<ol>\n<li>Yes</li>\n<li>Yes</li>\n<li>Yes</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>They are all copyright violations.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "software" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6423, "body": "<p>Very interesting question!!!!!</p>\n\n<p>Of course, one of the answers is that there have been many, many laws drafted and passed over the intervening century, that affect the agency of a privileged intermediary in electronic communications. If we just stopped at the 1885 act however, and imagined that it applied in full to today's communication, we would have to FIRST bow to the drafters and sing praises to the \"legal beauty\" of their definitions and language...they seem to have anticipated 2016, have they not?</p>\n\n<p>It would be interesting and exciting, if only as an exercise, to bring suit before a federal judge, over whether keyword matching of personal, private communications, for the benefit of third-party advertising, was a violation of the act.</p>\n\n<p>Without taking any time to delve into it myself, I would hazard a guess that the bright legal minds at google and facebook have crafted EULA agreements for their messaging apps, that expressly elicit agreement for what they do. (Did YOU read the 79 page agreement for gmail when you signed up?)</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, telegraph and telephone were slightly different than today: for the most part, the lines traversed public ways, via right-of-way lease. So there was very much a \"public utility\" aspect to this stuff.</p>\n\n<p>check out this link: <a href=\"http://www.durenberger.com/documents/ATTEBOOK.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.durenberger.com/documents/ATTEBOOK.pdf</a></p>\n\n<p>This has an absolutely fascinating engineer's history of the phone/telegraph system, and how it shaped our lives.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "internet", "privacy", "india" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6422, "body": "<p>There's a long and solid history around \"demo\" recordings. Demos are...well...for demonstration. For shopping. For a work-in-progress reality check. The session musicians get a different, lesser scale for \"demo\" work than they do with \"master\" work. (\"master\" being a track intended for release/distribution). It has of course happened many times that a demo ends up being better than the master, and gets released. </p>\n\n<p>In a formalized contract situation (read: union), what would happen is that the session would be retroactively upgraded to a master session from being a demo session, and the players would get a bump. Those hired players would not typically get royalties though. In today's world, the notion of back-end royalties is essentially moot, or even (not)amusing. </p>\n\n<p>Mind you, I'm talking USA...UK is not quite the same kind of animal, though it's similar.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright", "licensing", "music" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6413, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>Many legal systems protect the rights of legal owners of copies (of copyrighted works) to backup these copies.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Licensed use of a DVD, book or other media may vary not just by legal jurisdiction but also by the specific license granted with that specific DVD/book/media. In addition, some licenses restrict the format of backup copy allowed, for example they may allow a book to be photocopied in hardcopy format but not scanned, or they may allow a CD to be copied to another CD but not extracted to MP3 files or other electronic music formats or used from mobile devices other than portable CD-players. </p>\n\n<p>The original copy must be kept by the rightsholder (i.e. you can't buy a DVD, copy it while you own it, then sell the original while retaining the copy), and in order to avoid any doubt about legality of the copy, it should be marked as a backup copy including details of the rightsholder (name, purchase date etc) written on it (i.e. it should not be printed to appear like a counterfeit).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I own a DVD or a book, I can* rip that DVD and scan that book to a PDF. But what if you where not an expert on video codecs, or did not want to buy an expensive scanner and a professional image to text software to do a scan of the book justice? You could theoretically pay someone else to copy your book or DVD.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Generally speaking with media such as film DVDs or music CDs it should be cheaper to buy a second copy than to pay someone for their time/effort to go through the hassle of making a usable (similar quality) copy. Depending on the license you may not have the rights to pass the originals or any copies onto any third party for any purpose.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But considering that your copy is identicle to millions of other copies of the original copyrighted work, what if technically your backup was a copy of one of these identicle other copies? If 100 people sent in a book to a company to copy it to a pdf for them, could that company just copy one of the books and send everyone the file? Or would the law require them to individually copy each book, creating identicle pdfs every time, and send the specific pdf to the corresponding customer? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>How would the customer be able to proove to this company that they legally own a copy themselves without sending it? For the company to store a copy legally after returning the original, it would surely also need to purchase an original, otherwise they are just storing up copyright material without having purchased any licenses in the material nor obtained the permission of the copyright owners.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Expanding this, if I own a book or dvd, can I just download a backup someone else made?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The person who made the first backup has not been granted the rights to publish or distribute the copyright material by the copyright owners so they would likely be breaking the law by making it available to you, and this would likely be considered an illegal copy even if you also own an original because of how it was obtained (i.e. you didnt not exercise a right to take a backup copy from the original, you transferred an illegal copy over the Internet).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>*Some of this can be a legal grey area, but that is outside the scope of this question.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, other issues might include bypassing or circumventing copyright protection technologies, computer misuse laws, counterfeit laws etc.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright", "canada", "online-piracy" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5221, "body": "<p>Doctors are obliged to act in the best interest of their patients. If it would be in your best interest to see another doctor (due to the doctor being out of practice for that particular diagnosis), your current doctor would be obligated to tell you and refuse treatment.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The physician‑patient relationship is fiduciary in nature and certain duties arise from that special relationship of trust and confidence. These include the duties of the doctor to act with utmost good faith and loyalty[.]</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1992/1992canlii57/1992canlii57.html?autocompleteStr=McInerney%20v.%20MacDonald&amp;autocompletePos=1\" rel=\"nofollow\">MvInerney v. MacDonald</a></p>\n\n<p>Now, onto your question about the counselors assessment; probably not worth it's weight in salt. They likely have little to no training regarding diagnostic medicine and are by no means an expert. </p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "canada", "health", "mental-health" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6404, "body": "<p>In general, it means the word has a special meaning in the context of the contract, often as a shorthand for a more complex term. For example, from the <a href=\"http://stackexchange.com/legal\">Stack Exchange terms of service</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The Stack Exchange Network (the \"Network\") is a set of related Internet sites and other applications for questions and answers, owned and operated by Stack Exchange Inc. (\"Stack Exchange\"), a Delaware corporation.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This means that anywhere in the ToS where you see \"Network\" with a capital \"N\", it means \"the set of related Internet sites and other applications for questions and answers, owned and operated by Stack Exchange Inc., a Delaware corporation\" -- but it's much easier to simply say \"Network\".</p>\n\n<p>You'll find the meanings of these words defined somewhere in the contract, usually in a section labeled \"Definitions\". If they're not defined, they don't have any special meaning.</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6400, "body": "<p>Broadly speaking, the difference is the \"sharealike\" clause of CC-BY-SA. Any derivative of a CC-BY-SA work must itself be licensed CC-BY-SA, whereas a derivative of an \"MIT with attribution\" work can be under any license the author wants.</p>\n\n<p>There are a number of other differences in the fine print (eg. CC forbids DRM, where MIT doesn't), but that's the big one.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "licensing" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6390, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>The Twelfth Amendment states that \"no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States.\" Thus, to serve as vice president, an individual must: Be a natural-born U.S. citizen; Be at least 35 years old.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States</a>\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution</a></p>\n\n<p>Because the age requirement for President is 35 years old, the Vice President must also meet that requirement.</p>\n", "score": 15 } ]

[ "united-states", "constitutional-law", "us-constitution", "vice-president" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6201, "body": "<p>First \"everything in the legal system\" is much, much more than \"police lineups and a unanimous decision by 12 of your peers\". For a start, police are rarely involved in civil litigation and even in criminal matters lineups are unusual - in most criminal cases there is no doubt who should be charged. However, this is tangential to your questions.</p>\n\n<p><strong>I am curious what kind of an impact a talented attorney could have with this kind of material?</strong></p>\n\n<p>File it as a historical curiosity. Ancient Jewish law has much less relevance to modern US law than modern North Korean law does; and since that has two tenths of bugger all I guess about one tenth?</p>\n\n<p><strong>How flawed are we really?</strong></p>\n\n<p>Incredibly flawed. </p>\n\n<p>Even setting aside the possibility of corruption; court decisions are influenced by things like when the judge last ate, how long it has been since juror number 4 had sex and if the defence attorney fought with his wife that morning.</p>\n\n<p>Focusing on the relatively simple matter of guilt or innocence; that is simple when compared with sentencing or damages, it is <a href=\"http://www.thenation.com/article/how-many-innocent-people-have-we-sent-prison/\" rel=\"nofollow\">estimated</a> that the error rate for false conviction is about 6%. Some of the proximate causes of false conviction are discussed <a href=\"http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>. Root causes go to misaligned incentives for police and prosecutors; they want to close cases and get convictions; In the words of Terry Pratchett, \"If there was a crime, there should be punishment. If the specific criminal should be involved in the punishment process then this was a happy accident, but if not then any criminal would do, and since everyone was undoubtedly guilty of something, the net result was that, in general terms, justice was done.\" <a href=\"http://www.azquotes.com/quote/473109\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.azquotes.com/quote/473109</a></p>\n\n<p>The error rate for false acquittals should be considerably higher because of the presumption of innocence and the burden of beyond reasonable doubt, however, most defence lawyers would agree that the mere fact that their client is sitting in the box has them half convicted before the jury is empaneled. </p>\n\n<p>However, none of that is something you can argue in court. The system is what the system is. How it is and why it is is a matter of politics (and historical inertia) not law.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6210, "body": "<p>The ancient Jewish law you mention is about judges, not ordinary citizens. The judges on that panel were supposed to be extraordinarily brilliant. This is hardly comparable to our modern day jury of your peers. </p>\n\n<p>The ancient Jewish court is more comparable to higher courts in the USA. How many <em>major</em> decisions by the US Supreme Court are unanimous?</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "criminal-law", "jury", "witnesses" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6384, "body": "<h2>Liability of a Person</h2>\n\n<p>LLC means \"Limited Liability Company\"; in the absence of such an entity (or equivalent) there is no \"Limited Liability\". A partnership, which is what you are describing, or an individual has <em>un</em>limited liability.</p>\n\n<p>What this means is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>An individual (operating alone or as a member of a partnership) is liable for their actions. They are responsible for the debts the business incurs (including those arising from legal liability) and must pay for them from their personal assets.</p></li>\n<li><p>A company is liable for its actions, however, the members of that company are liable only to the extent of the money that they have invested.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2>Contractual protection</h2>\n\n<p>A person (which includes individuals and companies) can attempt to limit liability by contract, however, there are limitations to this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Your liability is only limited against people who are bound by the contract; third parties (like an aggrieved copyright holder) are not</li>\n<li>Most jurisdictions restrict limits to liability that can be made in consumer contracts and some B2B arrangements</li>\n<li>You can't contract outside the law: if the law says you are liable then your contract that says otherwise is not worth a pinch of s***.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2>You are only liable for what you are liable for</h2>\n\n<p>To have a liability, you have to have done (or not done) something that created a liability under statute, tort or contract. There are legal means in many jurisdictions that protect content hosts from copyright claims: <strong>but you have to do what the law says you have to do to avail yourself of them</strong>.</p>\n\n<h2>\"we\" or \"us\" will refer to ...</h2>\n\n<p>... <strong>has</strong> to be the person(s) that are running the business - if that is Bob and Terry Jones then that's what you write, if it is ExampleWorks LLC, write that. It cant be \"example.org\" because that is a domain name; not a legal person. It can't be \"ExamplePedia\" because wtf is that anyway?</p>\n\n<h2>Get real advice</h2>\n\n<p>You are running a business and exposing yourselves to liabilities and losses that you know about and probably a bunch that you don't know about. When you learnt to drive a car, or ski, or play soccer you got instruction from people who knew how to do what you wanted to do: running a business is <em>exactly</em> the same: get proper advice from people who know what they're taking about and pay for it if you have to.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "internet", "liability", "terms-of-service" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6383, "body": "<p>Labour law and unionism vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction so a blanket claim that \"labor unions don't exist for lawyers\" cannot be so cavalierly thrown out.</p>\n\n<p>I also think \"... working hours far beyond what's usually expected in other professions\" needs some elaboration. A 60+ hour per week workload is not atypical for lawyers in Australia. Professional engineers would have similar workloads and intern doctors will often be given 48 hour shifts, albeit they will be allowed to sleep during quiet times (if any). Hmm ... maybe these guys <em>do</em> need a union?</p>\n\n<p>Speaking specifically for Australia, there is no specific union for lawyers, however, depending on their industry, role and employer lawyers are eligible to join a large number of unions who will represent their interests.</p>\n\n<p>As to why this is the case in Australia, that has to do with the historical development of unionism in this country. The first evidence of collective bargaining occurred almost immediately after British settlement in 1788 with convicts negotiating progressively lower daily furrowing quotas from the military governor. The fact that the colony almost failed due to food shortages may or may not be related.</p>\n\n<p>The true birth of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_labour_movement\" rel=\"nofollow\">unionism</a> was in the late 19th and early 20th century and was primarily based on manual labour trades and industries; not professionals. The creation of the Australian Labor Party, which remains one of the two major parties in Australian democracy, as a union controlled party alienated upper- and middle-class professionals who tended to identify with the conservative side rather than the progressive side of politics - it is generally not wise to kick away the ladder that got you to the top; particularly when you are still standing on it.</p>\n\n<p>Since that time unions in Australia have generally been trade/industry based or public sector unions - they are also less of them than there were as it has been bi-partisan policy to reduce the overall numbers by amalgamation. A full list is <a href=\"http://www.actu.org.au/about-the-actu/affiliates-and-tlcs\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "lawyer", "labor-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3328, "body": "<p><strong>If</strong> the facts are that it was intact when UPS took if from you and it was damaged when they delivered it to Microsoft then the problem lies with UPS.</p>\n\n<p>UPS are a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier\" rel=\"nofollow\">common carrier</a> and are responsible for damage in transit. If you engaged UPS then you need to seek compensation from them; if Microsoft engaged them you need to seek compensation from Microsoft (who, in turn, will seek it from UPS).</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "small-claims-court" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6379, "body": "<p>Last question first: there is <strong>only one</strong> secret or trick to exceling in any field of human endeavour; work your guts out. Having established this then the best thing to study are subjects that interest you so that working your guts out is more enjoyable than it would be with subjects that bore you.</p>\n\n<p>I can see where philosophy would be complementary to lawyers who wish to be litigators or jurists as legal argument and philosophical argument are somewhat similar but that is a <em>tiny</em> fraction of the practice of law. Anyway, litigation is a lousy way of resolving disputes; generally, if you are heading to court you are sweeping up the debris of a failed relationship.</p>\n\n<p>In contrast, a lawyer with skills is psychology may be worse at winning arguments but better at gaining consensus. A lawyer with technical expertise like engineering, science or medicine may be better positioned to work in areas of the law that affect those industries. A lawyer with HR knowledge will generally do better in employment law. And so on ...</p>\n\n<p><strong>Do what you like!</strong></p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "legal-education" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6376, "body": "<p>There's the question whether something is lost property or abandoned property. You'd be allowed to keep abandoned property, but keeping lost property without looking for the owner is in many places considered theft. </p>\n\n<p>A car on your land is quite likely abandoned by the last driver (people don't usually lose cars). But the question is whether it is abandoned by the owner; if the car looks like it has some value then it is unlikely to be abandoned by the owner and more likely that it has been stolen. </p>\n\n<p>I'd report the car to the police; then it's up to them to find the owner or not. If they can find him, and the car was not abandoned, but actually lost (unlikely) or stolen (more likely), you have the satisfaction of being an honest person helping either a very stupid car owner or a crime victim to get their property back. If they can't find him, usually the property will then belong to the finder. </p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "property", "vehicle", "ownership", "south-carolina" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6370, "body": "<p>As per the <a href=\"http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies/during-a-tenancy/sublet-and-assignment\" rel=\"nofollow\">province's website</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Sublet</strong></p>\n \n <p>When the original tenant allows someone (the sub-tenant) to live in\n their rental unit and pay the rent for all or part of the term of the\n tenancy agreement.</p>\n \n <p>In this situation, a new tenancy agreement (a sublease), must be\n signed by both the original tenant and the sub-tenant. The original\n tenant then becomes the sub-tenant’s landlord – both this relationship\n and the one with the original landlord involve enforceable rights and\n responsibilities. The sub-tenant only has the same rights and\n obligations outlined in the original tenancy agreement – the agreement\n with the sub-tenant cannot contradict the original tenancy agreement.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Assignment</strong></p>\n \n <p>When the original tenant finds someone to take over the tenancy\n agreement – usually to get out of a fixed-term tenancy early or when\n transferring ownership of a manufactured home. In these cases, the new\n tenant assumes all of the rights and responsibilities under the\n original tenancy agreement – unless the landlord and new tenant agree\n to new terms or a sign a new agreement.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>TL;DR sublet is where original tenant continues to pay the landlord, but the person who now lives in the dwelling pays the original tenant. Original tenant is still responsible to the landlord in subletting. Assigning is where original tenant is completely excused, and the person replacing him takes over all responsibilities and deals directly with the landlord.</p>\n\n<p>I think in BC subleasing is considered the same as subletting. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "canada", "rental-property", "british-columbia", "legal-terms" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6362, "body": "<p>I can't give you a jurisdiction specific answer but at common law the situation is as follows.</p>\n\n<p>You had a contract, the basic terms of which were that they promised to do X &amp; Y and you promised to pay them about $1,000. <strong>If that is all there is</strong> then you are obliged to pay for X &amp; Y and it should cost about $1,000. The fact that they did Z is what is legally known as a \"gift\" and colloquially as a \"f*** up\".</p>\n\n<p>However, it is far more likely that you signed a piece of paper with a long list of small-print terms and conditions that you didn't read. One of those probably gives them the right to do work that they reasonably consider necessary and for which you agreed to pay for. In which case you must pay them for the work; this is also called a \"f*** up\" except its yours not theirs.</p>\n\n<p>In either case, they are not entitled to withhold your car as leverage in the dispute; this is legally called \"blackmail\". They must take you to court and prove your debt.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "vehicle", "virginia" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6358, "body": "<p>Portable signs are legal and you have to obey then.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/section/65\">http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/section/65</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482498/2-11.pdf\">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482498/2-11.pdf</a></p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "traffic", "england-and-wales" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6355, "body": "<p>It would be a violation of the contract and you could sue for damages; but you would not be entitled to terminate the contract unless the guy was <em>unreasonably</em> late. If he does it on February 2 your damages would be ... $1.99? Maybe?</p>\n\n<p>However, \"time is of the essence\" makes time a <em>term</em> of the contract, rather than a warranty. If he doesn't do it by Friday you can <em>terminate</em> the contract. Oh, and sue for damages which could include the difference in price charged by the next repair man.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6344, "body": "<p>This would appear to be fine: the name of the club and its address are facts - there is no intellectual property in facts.</p>\n\n<p>It would be even better if you adopted a procedure allowing the clubs to request their removal from the list if they want. Not a legal requirement but good customer service.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "intellectual-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6347, "body": "<p>Indeed, rent stabilized apartments aren't subsidized, and neither is Mitchell-Lama. See <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell-Lama_Housing_Program\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell-Lama_Housing_Program</a>, the first sentence of which reads</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The Mitchell-Lama Housing Program is a <em>non-subsidy</em> governmental housing guarantee in the state of New York.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So Mitchell-Lama was designed specifically to be distinct from subsidized housing, even though subsidies are available to the property developer. Furthermore, Mitchell-Lama buildings are privately owned, so one can conclude that the roommate law does indeed apply in Mitchell-Lama buildings.</p>\n\n<p>The roommate law applies to all of New York State, not just NYC.</p>\n\n<p>Rent stabilization is a program that limits the amount of rent that can be charged for certain apartments. Neither the landlord nor the tenant receives a subsidy.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "new-york-state", "fair-housing-acts" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6342, "body": "<p>You cannot use a trademark in a way that may cause confusion that your goods and services are associated with or endorsed by the trade marked goods and services. If you are clear that they are not then you shouldn't have any problems on that front.</p>\n\n<p>You also cannot defame the brand: that is make derogatory comments that are not true.</p>\n\n<p>On a practical note, when Pepsi (for example) sends you a cease &amp; desist notice, what are you going to do? They can go to the petty cash tin for $2 million to make your life a legal hell for 18-36 months: how much do you have to defend your rights?</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "new-york-state", "corporate-law", "libel" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6336, "body": "<p><strong>Yes</strong></p>\n\n<p>In the first instance, what you are doing is probably illegal which would make the license void: you cannot contract outside the law. In addition, consumer law in many jurisdictions requires non excludable warranties as to merchantability and fitness for purpose, <em>even for goods and services provided for free</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Notwithstanding, the license would only limit your liability to the licensee; they are the only one who agreed to it. Anyone else who was damaged could sue you for negligence.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "canada" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6329, "body": "<p>Performers have \"performers right\" in any recordings of their performance. It is a \"related right\" (a kind of copyright just like authors rights). This gives them the exclusive right to distribute recordings of their performances. You are prima facie infringing their copyright by distributing recordings of their performances. In the US, the act of recording a performance isn't an infringement.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/text.jsp?file_id=289757#P97_7400\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/text.jsp?file_id=289757#P97_7400</a> (the US is not a signatory)</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/114\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/114</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/11/24/us-courts-recognise-new-performers-rights/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/11/24/us-courts-recognise-new-performers-rights/</a></p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "copyright", "fair-use", "music" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6293, "body": "<p>(For a definitive answer, consult an employment attorney).</p>\n<p>According to the federal <a href=\"http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Equal Opportunity Employment Commission</a>, in general,</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>An employee cannot be forced to participate (or not participate) in a religious activity as a condition of employment.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This requirement comes from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.</p>\n<p>Answer 14 on <a href=\"http://eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_religion.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">this page</a> elaborates:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Some private employers choose to express their own religious beliefs or practices in the workplace, and they are entitled to do so. However, if an employer holds religious services or programs or includes prayer in business meetings, Title VII requires that the employer accommodate an employee who asks to be excused for religious reasons, absent a showing of undue hardship.</p>\n<p>Similarly, an employer is required to excuse an employee from compulsory personal or professional development training that conflicts with the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. It would be an undue hardship to excuse an employee from training, for example, where the training provides information on how to perform the job, or how to comply with equal employment opportunity obligations, or on other workplace policies, procedures, or legal requirements.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>So the questions would be:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Is the activity in question a &quot;religious service or program&quot;? This might be ambiguous, and you might have to consult an employment attorney for a more informed opinion.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Does it &quot;conflict with your sincerely held religious beliefs or practices&quot;?</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Would it be an &quot;undue hardship&quot; for the employer to excuse you?</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Note that this law might not apply to employers with fewer than 15 employees. It also doesn't apply if you work for an employer such as a church, or a religiously affiliated hospital or educational institution, or the like.</p>\n", "score": 6 }, { "answer_id": 6254, "body": "<p>At common law, an employer can require their employee to follow any lawful and reasonable direction. I can't give you US case law on this but in Australia it has been held (R v Darling Island Stevedoring &amp; Lighterage Co Ltd; Ex parte Halliday (1938) 60 CLR 601, 621–622) that this means employees are obliged to comply with a command that ‘relates to the subject matter of the employment’, ‘involves no illegality’ and is ‘reasonable’.</p>\n\n<p>What you are being asked to do appears to 'involve no illegality' and be 'reasonable'. However, it appears that it might not 'relate to the subject matter of the employment'. You <em>may</em> be within your rights to refuse to attend.</p>\n\n<p>However, on a practical note: put up and shut up. One of the core tenets of being a successful employee is to do whatever the boss wants even if you think it's stupid.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "employment", "religion", "utah" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6318, "body": "<p><strong>Yes</strong></p>\n\n<p>The presentation of an artistic work such as a conference presentation is covered by copyright. The copying by means of audio or visual recording is subject to the normal rules of copyright, either you need the presenter's/organiser's permission (copyright probably vests in multiple people) or the usage must be fair use (USA) or fair dealing (other jurisdictions).</p>\n\n<p>Still photography would be OK provided you did not capture any Powerpoint slides etc. which are also copyright. </p>\n\n<p>Notwithstanding, see other questions on this site regarding photography/video/audio recording. I won't list them since you can do your own search.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "privacy", "academia" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6284, "body": "<p>IANAL but in the absence of any explicit exemptions, the license applies to everything you are making available.</p>\n\n<p>For an infringement to matter enough to be actionable, though, the infringer has to copy a <em>substantial</em> portion of the work.</p>\n\n<p>Most of us don't create commit histories with any value outside of the context of the source code they relate to, but if you have a collection of commit message haiku poems you would like to assert intellectual property rights to, maybe it's not impossible to imagine a situation where this would matter.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6300, "body": "<p>To make sure that we talk about the same thing: If I use a source code control system (for example a git repository), and I add a changed version of a work to that source code control system, then it is a good idea to write some information about the changes that I made, so that people know what the difference between say version A and B is, and why the changes were made, and so on. </p>\n\n<p>The collection of all this information for one source code control system is given different names, in the documentation of the \"git\" source code control system, it is called the \"commit history\". </p>\n\n<p>Clearly the commit history is a work that falls under copyright protection. It is <em>not</em> derived from the original work. If there is no license attached to it, then there is no license and copyright law applies - others are not allowed to copy it. </p>\n", "score": 0 }, { "answer_id": 6315, "body": "<p>what we're discussing here is META-DATA about the code in the repository. If a work in a repository is classified and licenced as \"open source,\" then the public acts of contributing to the open source are also themselves, \"open source.\"</p>\n", "score": 0 }, { "answer_id": 6317, "body": "<p>This answer assumes you only care about the timestamps. Additionally, I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.</p>\n\n<p>I do not believe the timestamps carry any copyright. Thus there is no need to follow the license. The reason for this is, facts cannot be copyrighted. However, their presentation may be copyrighted. So if the timestamps are presented in a unique way that presentation may be copyrightable, but the fact a commit was made at a certain time is not copyrightable. If you make your own presentation of these facts, you are most likely not bound by the license.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "licensing", "software" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5521, "body": "<p>Does this demonstrate the landlord wishes to be legally bound?</p>\n\n<p>Yes</p>\n\n<p>Therefore it is valid.</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6314, "body": "<p>When you're walking into civil court, any paper signed by some third party must have some kind of attestation. i.e. it should be notarized or witnessed by some recognized authority. A faxcimile of that is typically acceptable...i.e. the original document is good to have, but if everyone agrees that the copy is of a valid attested document, then it's all good.</p>\n\n<p>The practices of the courts are in transition with this, as we move into a paperless society.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "canada", "rental-property", "british-columbia" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4207, "body": "<p>In the U.S, at least for some time in our not too distant history, there were a substantial number of jurisdictions that allowed people to \"read in\" to a law degree, meaning exactly what @cpast said in his comment - that people who were so inclined and with the intellectual aptitude to understand old english common law and modern <em>stare decisis</em> (essentially, appellate precedent), as well as statuary and regulatory texts, could simply study their way to a law degree. It was assumed (quite rightly) that if one could manage to pass a 2-4 day bar examination that they should be <em>considered</em> eligible to apply for a license to practice through admission to the bar just as legitimately as those people who earned their juris doctorate. This is keeping in mind that passing the exam does/did not guarantee licensure/being sworn in, as in depth background checks and ethical fitness analysis are also conducted which form the final determination for fitness to be admitted.</p>\n\n<p>California was, for a long while, known as the most challenging state's bar exam to pass. For a long while, it was a <em>true</em> \"read in\" state, meaning anyone had the right to take the bar exam. Because of this, the California Penal system actually turned out quite a few amazing street-smart criminal lawyers; men, who spent years in prison reading the law, who came out to take and pass the bar exam. It is also true that in CA, as well as other states, conviction of crime (even felonies) does not <em>necessarily</em> mean exclusion from licensure based on failure to pass the background/fitness inquiry (it can, but it isn't automatic if you can establish rehabilitation). Excluding crimes of moral turpitude, such as perjury, embezzlement, certain thefts where a fiduciary duty existed (those were the only crimes that were considered automatically exclusionary), one could be allowed to make a plea of rehabilitation to the Board of Bar Overseers (\"BBO\"). Crimes that account for the bulk of prison sentences, like aggravated violence, drug dealing/trafficking, etc. are not crimes of moral turpitude.</p>\n\n<p>However, there are no longer any states in the U.S. where you can truly \"read in\" to the law. <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/a/126/10\">@Jason Aller</a> is exactly right, that in the early 80's the ABA, as well as the association of accredited legal institutions (not to be robbed of their mortgage of the mind) lobbied and cajoled the practice right away. There are still the states that allow an education of apprenticeship, whereby rather than being self-taught, you are allowed to be mentored by a senior attorney with a certain level of experience, where they would attest that you worked a certain number of hours (usually each week or month &ndash; typically something akin to full time) under their tutelage. Each of the states Jason Aller cites has some form of this. After a certain number of years, those individuals are allowed to sit for the bar. However, that does not mean they can be lawyers ... even if they pass. </p>\n\n<p>I recently read a journal article discussing how each year more and more states seem to further delimit who can be lawyers, for the sole purpose of not wanting to create too much competition in the profession. Background analysis now puts a great focus on financial responsibility: meaning if one's credit score isn't up to par they can be shut out of the practice because it's argued that if they cannot be financially prudent with their own finances, they cannot be trusted to manage client funds. About a quarter of all people who take the bar on the first shot fail. Those who don't pass by the 3rd try usually never do, and if they do, they are unlikely to practice as they are unlikely to get jobs (unless they hang out a shingle, so to speak). Most states require having graduated from an accredited law school. Massachusetts has at least one unaccredited law school (it was two, but I believe one just got accredited). A grad of that school can <em>only</em> be licensed in MA, nowhere else, except maybe one or two other states. More and more states are also deciding not to let lawyers from other states practice in their jurisdictions by \"waiving in\", which is where you can pay to get licensed and transfer your scores (instead of experienced lawyers having to take the bar again) from reciprocal states. It is a club where membership is purposely limited and continues to be more and more exclusive (and not in a good way). You can probably see from all these trends that there is a big push to keep people out, for no other reason than fear of competition. If this trend holds, it seems likely that the apprentice's right to \"read in\" will sooner, rather than later, become altogether a thing of the past too. </p>\n\n<p>Law school education is undoubebly valuable in that it <em>teaches you how to learn</em> in a socratic way. It shows you how to spot issues and understand archaic text, and helps you to understand the rules of procedure in a theoretical and comprehensive way. However, for most, what it does <strong>not</strong> do is teach you how to <strong>practice law</strong>. When I was in law school, I was lucky enough to go to a school with the choice of a clinical semester or year (I also broke the rules and worked full time as a law clerk, year round, from year one). Many schools had no clinical programs. Students who weren't able to do these things didn't know what a pleading was or how to draft one, had never seen a motion for summary judgment, had no idea how to take or defend a deposition &amp;ndash all things lawyers must be good at doing and that are not taught in law school. At that time, over a decade ago, the machination of legal scholars had contemplated adding <em>yet another</em> year to law school curriculum, to require a clinical year, so that graduates did have a clue what practicing law was all about. Opponents argued that instead the 3L elective year should just be traded from classroom to clinical (rather than adding another year and another 40-70 thousand tuition dollars). Neither side could agree so neither has become the norm. But what <em>has</em> happened since then is that more and more states have limited the right to take the bar exam by right, from having learned the law thru the practice of \"reading in\", which had <em>already</em> become the highly regulated practice of \"documented apprenticeship\". My guess would be that those persons who learned by apprenticeship may not be as adept at picking apart cases or legal research as a law school grad (but may be), but they would <em>almost certainly</em> be more informed in the actual practice of law.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/08/02/states_that_allow_bar_exams_without_law_degrees_require_apprenticeships.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Here</a> is a fairly comprehensive article about the U.S. states that allow it, and what their rules are for completing the apprenticeship \"degree\". It cites that of nearly 90k people taking the bar, 60 took this route. From the perspective of a practicing lawyer with what I like to call \"a mortgage of the mind\", I find this trend pretty disheartening. One shouldn't need to pay a quarter-million dollars to gain the knowledge and right to sit for the bar. </p>\n", "score": 8 }, { "answer_id": 126, "body": "<p>In common law countries there was, and in some areas still is, the practice of \"Reading the law\" which was similar to an apprenticeship. A prospective lawyer would work for an established one until they were ready to practice on their own.</p>\n\n<p>In the United States California, Maine, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington still have processes that permit this practice. The American Bar Association worked to limit access to this method starting in the 1890s.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 137, "body": "<p>The (ancient) Romans had schools of rhetoric, which was largely informal when compared to the current legal education system. Consul Tiberius Coruncanius gave legal classes in the 3rd century, but they would have been small.</p>\n\n<p>Over one millennium later - more like 1500 years - universities in Europe began studies in law, mainly ancient. This wouldn't have been a huge problem, as the legal systems at the time were often based in part on the Roman system(s).) This formed the basis of the university legal education system still in use today. \"Modern\" law - the law of the day - would not be taught for several hundred more years.</p>\n\n<p>The university system, in which law was concentrated on, developed in full about two to three hundred years ago.</p>\n\n<p>^{<a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/721897/legal-education\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Encyclopedia Britannica</a>}</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Edward I, in 1292, made an effort to start a small legal education system to find people to staff the courts. The training was sometimes informal, but there was an underlying system, centered around the Inns of Court. These became the basis for the legal system in England, keeping their eminence into the 18th century. They became meeting places for judges and lawyers, not just students.</p>\n\n<p>Oxford and Cambridge, not wanting to be outdone, started serious law programs at about this time, which led to the decline of the Inns of Court, and the start of the system I discussed earlier. the programs were at first informal, and not designed for pure legal training, but eventually became the center for legal education in England.</p>\n\n<p>^{From <a href=\"http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1227&amp;context=lawfaculty\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>.}</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 6311, "body": "<p>To add to the above, there is a growing gap between academic law and real law/practice of law. In the old days, people practiced law for a number of years, then they became law professors. The current law professor path is to go to Harvard or Yale, clerk for a federal judge, then go into teaching. A significant case can take a decade from start to finish. A law professor with even two years working at a law firm does not have real experience.</p>\n\n<p>When I was in law school, there were two clear groups of professors. There were the generally older professors who had practiced and had real experience. There was a growing number of the idiot savants who had no real legal experience whatsoever but are now teaching. The first group is dying out and the second group is growing.</p>\n\n<p>There is growing talk that there needs to be a change in legal education because of the growing gap between practice and law school.</p>\n\n<p>And I am not just talking about the mechanics of law. Law school has never taught mechanics, such as all the paperwork you need to file when you make an appeal. Increasingly, it is not even teaching the actual law (when I go back to the school to listen to lectures by [new] faculty members, I leave scratching my head).</p>\n\n<p>There is something to be said for the \"reading the law\" approach. As the disconnect between law school and law grows, this old very path to law will become more attractive and probably a better way to become a good lawyer.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "legal-education", "legal-history" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6267, "body": "<p>The best place to find intent is the legislative history, and you're right, the session laws' text or even its bill numbers are not printed in the history of the statute (and are titled and chartered differently). They are much more difficult to research than statutes. In the notation after the statute, sometimes, in some states, it will list the session laws in order from the first enactment through all of its legislative changes to its current form. And then you can backtrack.</p>\n\n<p>That said if you're not using a professional search site, there is nearly no way to just find them through a Google or Findlaw search. Some states may assign an archaic system to their indexing. I've seen, where it will have state abbreviation, say MA, the year, 2012, then the actual numerical filing order, then the session &ndash; e.g., MA12-3694-1. However, to find the legislative session, you need to use a Boolean logic search on Lexis or West, or use your local law librarian. Also, many states legislative webpages now have them. You can use Lexis and Westlaw at the law library, for free.</p>\n\n<p>If you don't have a professional search engine, you can use one at any local law library.</p>\n\n<h3>BASIC RESEARCH STEPS</h3>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Identify the state Code section you wish to research.</li>\n<li>Find which session law created the language.</li>\n<li>Determine which bill created the law.</li>\n<li>Trace the procedural history of the bill during its passage.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Then, at the law library, you can read the various discussions on the floor relating to intent, as well as listen to the hearings on audio for more recent enactments (past 50 years or so). This is especially useful if it was a contested bill or if it was brought about by some sort of social or political climate at the time. In some places, for instance where I live, if you call your court's law library the librarian will compile it for you if you know the statute for which you want the legislative history searched. I've done that many times and they don't mind doing it.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6309, "body": "<p>It depends upon the year range that you are searching for. If you want federal laws enacted within the past few decades, you can search on the GPO site. It's the best and easiest.</p>\n\n<p>If you to search older stuff, you need to switch to a pay service (which you can usually get for free at a [law] library). The Maine state courts have law libraries.</p>\n\n<p>In Federal Law, the code is officially unofficial for most titles. The U.S. Code includes endnotes that identify the statutes the codifiers incorporated for each section.</p>\n\n<p>You can search the code then either search statutes for matching phrases or look at the endnote annotations. Keep in mind when you are search that the text can change between the statute and the code (which is why it is unofficial); especially references.</p>\n\n<p>If you are looking at the WHY, major federal acts will usually have a compilation of materials created by an editor. For something like the Immigration Act of 1990, a good law library will have a multivolume set of such compilations on the shelves.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise you have to search.</p>\n\n<p>The best source for searching secondary material like this is HEIN, most law libraries and many large libraries have access to it.</p>\n\n<p>If you're looking for changes of many years, the best starting point is the printed code volumes. Sadly, on-line services do not do this even though it would be easy for them to do and it would bring a lot of added value.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "legal-research" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6302, "body": "<p>Different jurisdictions have different attitudes and histories. The difference is probably more cultural than legal and both leases are quite likely legal in both jurisdictions.</p>\n\n<p>In general, US jurisdictions tend towards laissez-faire capitalism and contracts have a buyer beware slant. Civil-law European countries are much more collective and have very strong consumer protection. Canada and other Commonwealth countries fall somewhere in the middle.</p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 6307, "body": "<p>In many jurisdictions, the law is overwhelmingly in favor of the tenant. Just getting a tenant evicted to non-payment of rent is a major exercise (for a graphic illustration, watch the movie Pacific Heights). Landlord compensate by using contractual provisions.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "canada", "rental-property", "residential-lease" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6298, "body": "<p>No, they can't legally update it without your consent. </p>\n\n<p>(This includes consent in the form of a document you agreed to such as usage documents by AT&amp;T, as well as the stuff Google has you accept before you use their property (like the Android OS, for example).)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>_Sources:\n_{<br>\n<a href=\"http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/a-property-owners-rights.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">A Property Owner's Rights for Dummies</a><br>\n<a href=\"http://www.iep.utm.edu/prop-con/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Property Concepts (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)</a><br>\n<a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_property\" rel=\"nofollow\">Personal property (Wikipedia)</a>\n}</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6297, "body": "<p>You entered into a license with the phone OS provider when you started using the phone. They can do whatever it says.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "software", "consumer-protection" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6246, "body": "<p>You are not clear where that motherboard / CPU comes from. Did you buy <em>one</em> cooling system consisting of a watercooler and various other parts, including a motherboard and CPU? In that case, since you don't care what parts that system is made of, just that it works, the cooling system that you bought needs to be fixed. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if your PC was running in the same room as the cooling system and water from the leak dripped onto your PC and damaged it, I suspect that they are not responsible unless the leak was caused through gross negligence (but this is just an opinion). </p>\n\n<p>But in that second case, your home insurance will probably cover the damage to the PC. Not the damage to the water cooler. </p>\n\n<p>Edit: I had got the complete wrong impression what a \"water cooler\" was - I had thought it was some part of a home cooling system that keeps your home cool in a hot summer :-) Got it now...</p>\n\n<p>Tricky question this. Your water cooler is clearly designed to be put into a computer, and it is quite obvious that a leaking water cooler will inevitably create awful damage to your computer. In other words, this kind of damage when the water cooler is used as intended and breaks is inevitable. </p>\n\n<p>Therefore I would think that a company making such a cooler must take outmost care that it cannot possibly leak. \"Not leaking\" would be ten times more important than for example \"working\". Like buying a power supply; the priorities for the maker would be \"doesn't kill anyone\", \"doesn't destroy the computer\", \"powers the computer\", in that order. </p>\n\n<p>I think what happens is outside consumer protection law, but damaging your property through negligence is a tort and they will be liable, because in your case there is a very strong connection between the problem and the inevitability of damage. On the other hand, if you bought a defective vase, and it broke and the water from the vase destroyed your computer, that would much more likely just tough luck (of course they would have to replace the vase). </p>\n\n<p>You probably should first tell the seller and the manufacturer that the computer damage is directly caused by their water cooler, and they should have never sold a water cooler that could leak, and they should pay for the damage. If they refuse to pay up, you'd need to go to small claims court, citizen's advice bureau, or take a lawyer. </p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6235, "body": "<p>Having had a similar problem back when I was living in Spain what I can say is:</p>\n\n<p>If a piece of equipment is faulty you can ask not only a compensation for the equipment itself, but also all the damages it caused. So yes, if the watercooler has broken your motherboard you can get a compensation.</p>\n\n<p>Now, that said, companies will try to make everything possible to blame it on you and not in the equipment. If you installed by yourself they might say that you did something wrong while installing it. They might say that you did a bad usage of it. They might even send a technician to determine the cause of it and definitely will do everything they can to blame it on you.</p>\n\n<p>About regulations as far as I know they are the same in the UK as in Spain, so you can ask for compensation, just good luck dealing with the company.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "liability", "consumer-protection" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6274, "body": "<p>I very much doubt that you have any legal way to stop this. That employee is very unlikely to have signed an NDA and is unlikely to have any legal obligations towards <em>you</em>. </p>\n\n<p>His only risk is that the bankrupt, out of business company might sue him. Which is very unlikely to happen. And unlikely to be successful. You'd have to first sue the bankrupt company, somehow get money out of them which would be hard, and then they would have damages and would have to convince whoever oversees the bankruptcy proceedings that suing the ex-employee is likely to recover money. </p>\n\n<p>And at some point a bankrupt company will get dissolved. That means it ceases to exist. At that point you have no chance. Once dissolved, all obligations of the company and all possible obligations of its previous employees towards the company disappear. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "employment", "england-and-wales", "libel", "defamation", "settlement" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6266, "body": "<p>Check the terms stipulated in their terms and conditions. It will include their policy on exactly this. </p>\n\n<p>Usually you can return the item without an issue unless there was a discount applied.</p>\n\n<p>If there was a discount applied then it would be more than likely that you will receive some of the payment back effectively knocking off any discount on the item you keep.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6299, "body": "<p>With few exceptions, the law doesn't say that a seller must take back a sold consumer item for a refund at all. Unless the item is defective, or has been purchased online very recently, there is no legal obligation for the seller to refund an item at all. Of course if the seller told you that they would under certain conditions make refunds, then you can rely on that. If I buy \"a pair of shoes that can be returned for a full refund within four weeks\" and the shop refuses that refund, then the item is not as advertised and I can return it. </p>\n\n<p>Since other reasons are unlikely to reply, the university has to give you a refund if their terms and conditions say so. More precisely, if reality matches one of the cases in which they promised you a refund. </p>\n\n<p>Now their terms and conditions seem to say: If you buy A, you can return it. If you buy B, you can return it. If you buy C, which consists of A and B, then you can return C, but not one of the components A and B. It seems there is no specific mention of buying A and B separately. </p>\n\n<p>I'd expect that you have an invoice. That invoice hopefully states what exactly you purchased. If it says \"You bought A for £1,000 and you bought B for £1,000\", then they need to refund. If it says \"You bought C, which combines A and B\", then they don't need to refund B. And <em>if</em> their terms and conditions say \"if you buy both A and B, then we won't give you a refund for one product only\", then you are out of luck. </p>\n\n<p>Again, what the law says: Whatever their terms and conditions say, applied to the reality what actually happened, that counts. </p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "consumer-protection" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6296, "body": "<p>A terminated agreement is over and done for all time.</p>\n\n<p>The same people can always enter a new agreement on the same or different terms.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "licensing", "hacking", "eula" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6292, "body": "<p>The criminal justice process begins when a crime is committed and ends when corrections are presented to the individuals involved. Everything that happens in the courts up to sentencing is all part of the criminal justice process. <a href=\"https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/victim_assistance/a-brief-description-of-the-federal-criminal-justice-process\" rel=\"nofollow\">According to the FBI</a>, pretrial hearings in front of a grand jury are, in fact, part of the criminal process. Grand Juries are not always used; however, it is important to know they are not part of determining guilt or punishment. </p>\n\n<p>The grand jury has quite an important role in the criminal process: prosecutors will usually work with a grand jury to decide whether to <a href=\"http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/how-does-a-grand-jury-work.html\" rel=\"nofollow\"><strong><em>bring criminal charges or an indictment against a potential defendant</em></strong></a> -- usually reserved for serious felonies. In summary, a Grand Jury will determine if there is enough evidence to convict an individual for a crime.</p>\n\n<p>To abstractly respond to your question, Grand Jury hearings are in fact part of the criminal justice procedure. Although everyone will surely have their own opinion on the matter, just know that if it is part of the process in furthering a court case, then it is part of the criminal justice process.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "comparative-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6252, "body": "<p>Worst case:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381\" rel=\"nofollow\">18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>More likely:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383\" rel=\"nofollow\">18 U.S. Code § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and/or:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384\" rel=\"nofollow\">18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Of course, there is a really, really good chance that your friend and his companions would be lawfully killed by law enforcement officers as part of their response to the insurrection.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "united-states", "criminal-law", "oregon" ]

[ { "answer_id": 403, "body": "<p>Civil litigation involves general causes of action that are available to anyone, including both private parties and the government. Civil courts are designed primarily to provide restitution to the injured party.</p>\n\n<p>Criminal courts exist for governments to exercise their police powers: specific, limited authority held only by the government. The principal purposes of criminal law are...well, they're debated, but broadly speaking, it's to punish and/or rehabilitate the criminal and deter future criminals.</p>\n\n<p>Because criminal conviction can result in jail time and even the death penalty, there are more stringent procedural protections accorded to criminal defendants than there are to civil defendants. So when the government's goal is to recover damages, it's easier for them to use the less burdensoome civil procedures, just the same as anyone else would.</p>\n\n<p>Let me give you an example. Someone steals your identity and runs up $100,000 on your credit card.</p>\n\n<p>You call the police, and they find someone they think is the guy. To convict him, the police must convince an entire jury panel that he did it, beyond a reasonable doubt--a high standard. He pleads the fifth, and without his testimony, the police may not succeed. If they do, he will be sent to jail, and he may also be ordered to give part or all of your money back. If the case is weak, however, the police may not want to spend their limited time on it--and that's their call, not yours. (This also applies to government agencies; only law enforcement can bring a criminal case, not any government agency.)</p>\n\n<p>However, you can also file a civil lawsuit. In that lawsuit, depending on the jurisdiction, you may only need to convince some of the jury--civil verdicts don't always have to be unanimous. You may even just face a judge, with no jury. And the legal standard is a \"preponderance of the evidence,\" which in layman's terms just means \"more likely than not\"--a much easier thing to prove. Because the Fifth Amendment doesn't apply to civil litigation, you may even be able to argue before the jury that the defendant's refusal to testify suggests he's guilty.</p>\n\n<p>In summary: civil lawsuits use different rules and procedures, which may make it easier to recover money (or get other civil relief, such as an injunction) in cases where that's the goal. These courts are open to anyone, including the government. But if the government wants to use its special police powers to put someone in jail or get other criminal relief, they have to use the stricter criminal rules and procedures.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "united-states", "criminal-law", "civil-procedure" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6281, "body": "<p>Assuming the dictionaries are copyright (which, unless they are very old they almost certainly will be) what you are doing is creating a derivative work. You need the permission of the copyright holder to do this unless you have a fair use/fair dealing defense. You probably don't.</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6288, "body": "<p>If you take a substantial amount from the works (as you describe), then you follow the licence, or breach copy-write. </p>\n\n<p>Have you considered sources with a licence approved by the Free Software Foundation <a href=\"http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html</a> or the Open Source Initiative <a href=\"https://opensource.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://opensource.org/</a> Or maybe Creative Commons <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/</a> but beware the non commercial licenses (they can cause a lot of unexpected trouble).</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "intellectual-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6280, "body": "<p>A contract should cover the contingencies that you think of and make provision for the ones that you don't.</p>\n\n<p>As noted in <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/6272/is-it-necessary-to-state-in-a-contract-that-if-one-part-is-found-unenforceable\">Is it necessary to state in a contract that if one part is found unenforceable, the rest still is?</a> a void provision may make the entire contract void. This is why contracts often deal with conflicts with the law explicitly: \"To the extent permitted by law ...\"</p>\n\n<p>Of course, this only matters if the parties go to court: if they handle the discrepancies and contingencies in a way that avoids a dispute escalating to that level it isn't a problem, is it?</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6268, "body": "<p>In your example, nobody said anything false.</p>\n\n<p>The list <em>does</em> include movies from 2003. The movie studio admits this. The person says it too. The person doesn't say the studio tried to hide it.</p>\n\n<p>Nothing is wrong with what the person has said in your example.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 6278, "body": "<p>For defamation, the statement must be untrue and it must damage the person's reputation; it does not have to be malicious, even an innocently made untrue statement can be defamation.</p>\n\n<p>It is important to note that making true statements about Jim Smith, 43 year old civil servant in Kentucky <em>can</em> be defamation against Jim Smith, 45 year old civil servant in Tennessee if it was made in such a way that a reasonable person could assume you were referring to the latter person. If you are going to make a true statement about a person that could damage that person's reputation, take great care to identify that person uniquely.</p>\n\n<p>There are other laws in the business and consumer protection sphere in most jurisdictions that make it unlawful to make \"deceptive and misleading\" statements. In that event, incomplete information may be \"deceptive and misleading\".</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "constitutional-law", "libel", "slander", "first-amendment" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6276, "body": "<p>Of course, you can ask the bank (or more precisely, one of its officers) to sign such a contract. But I strongly suspect they won't.</p>\n\n<p>The bank's standard deposit contract will have been drafted and carefully reviewed by their legal counsel. It would be irresponsible of the bank to agree to be bound to any additional contract, especially one that was drafted by a customer, without similarly having counsel review it. Given the hourly rate that the bank's lawyers likely get paid, the cost of this almost certainly will far exceed the value of having you as a customer (particularly as, by your own admission, you are intending to be a rather unprofitable customer). </p>\n\n<p>So if you insist on them signing any contract of yours as a condition of you opening an account, I expect they will just politely suggest that you look for another bank to do business with.</p>\n\n<p>I think most people would instead handle this situation by just carefully reading the bank's standard deposit contract, and verifying, to the best of their ability, that it really does obligate the bank to pay out the bonus and let you close the account without further fee. Then, if the bank doesn't do so in the end, they might complain to the bank's management, or to the regulatory agency which oversees the bank. In an extreme case, they might consider suing the bank, but the amount of money at stake here is probably not enough to make it worth the time and expense of a lawsuit.</p>\n\n<p>There may also be applicable laws in your jurisdiction that forbid the bank from charging a fee to close an account; but you haven't said what your jurisdiction is, so I can't address that.</p>\n\n<p>I personally wouldn't think it likely that there is any \"catch\" here. The bank is probably expecting that most people, once they have had the account open for six months, won't bother to close it. And now that they have a relationship with this bank, they may think of it in the future when they want a mortgage, CD, investment advice, etc. So the bank may not mind if a few customers take the bonus and leave after six months, since this will (they hope) be compensated by the larger number of customers who stick around.</p>\n\n<p>All that said, if you really don't trust the bank, then perhaps you are better off not doing business with them at all. Your peace of mind is worth more than $1000.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "contract-law", "banking" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6259, "body": "<p>You have 4 years from when you paid.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.moga.mo.gov/mostatutes/stathtml/40000207251.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.moga.mo.gov/mostatutes/stathtml/40000207251.html</a></p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "statute-of-limitations", "missouri" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6258, "body": "<p>A blockchain to transfer title in a security is permissible, at least in the US (assuming that the company is incorporated in DE and the company has adopted bylaws that permit <em>uncertificated</em> securities) -- although there are some nuanced points that need to be thought through. See <a href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2649441\" rel=\"nofollow\">the paper from, Jeanne Schroeder</a></p>\n\n<p>It also should be permissible, at least in the US, to use a blockchain to record title in other forms of intangible assets (such as chattel paper). <a href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2657551\" rel=\"nofollow\">See this article from Juliet Moringiello</a>.</p>\n\n<p>These articles touch on questions about insolvency. At least in the US, perfected security interests help govern issues of bankruptcy, insolvency, etc. Both of these papers presciently note that a blockchain would be great way to update the aging registration systems for security interests in the US.</p>\n\n<h3>Intellectual Property</h3>\n\n<p>In terms of title to IP, recording authorship information on a blockchain will likely be useful but will not convey full legal benefits. In the realm of copyright, recording title in a blockchain may be evidence of ownership and could be used to encode information related to licensing, etc. However, to enjoy the full benefits of copyright law, there must be affirmative documents filed with the Copyright Office.</p>\n\n<p>A similar conclusion holds for trademark. Registering evidence of trademark use could help solidify common law trademark rights, but to enjoy nationwide rights there would need to be formal filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.</p>\n\n<p>Many of these title questions are going to be resolved by closely examining existing laws and by working with governments to update these laws, as necessary.</p>\n\n<p>*<em>this wonderful answer by <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/user/awrigh01\" rel=\"nofollow\">awrigh01</a></em></p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "contract-law", "property", "ownership", "cryptography" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6251, "body": "<p>Software doesn't infringe any patents. Creating a product that includes the software may infringe the patent, and may infringe that patent because the software is included, but the software itself doesn't. Software on its own doesn't have any effect that could be patented, only as part of some machine. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if you want to distribute software that is under the GPL v3.0 license, then a requirement is that you give everyone a patent license for all patents that would be infringed by using the software (as part of some machine), and if you are not the patent holder, then in practice that means you are not allowed to distribute the software. </p>\n\n<p>With your grand plan that you write software and then let the end users do the patent infringement, that will backfire in two ways: First, you'd be likely sued for contributory patent infringment, because it is you who enables the patent infringemnt. Second, you can be sued for copyright infringement because you have no license that allows you distribution of the software, depending on the Open Source license used. </p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "patents", "open-source-software" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6241, "body": "<p>By downloading it you agreed to the terms of the licence. If those terms require activation then by not activating it you are in breach (i.e. acting illegally).</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "legal-terms" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6240, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>The use of the icon must be specific to the function of the icon within the Microsoft software.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>... is pretty specific. What you have described isn't so it is not permitted by the licence.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "copyright", "intellectual-property", "trademark" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6239, "body": "<p>A disclaimer of warranty is integral part of GPL. I don't think you need another. Just follow the instructions for licensing under GPL, they include where you should put the disclaimer.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "licensing", "gpl", "eula" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6237, "body": "<p>This answer is based on <a href=\"http://www.reedsmith.com/files/uploads/miscellany/A_Guide_to_Contract_Interpretation__July_2014_.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this primer on contract interpretation</a> from Reed Smith LLP.</p>\n\n<p>They include a helpful flowchart:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZcjrP.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZcjrP.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<p>These are the main takeaways:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><em>Whether</em> a provision is ambiguous is judged without reference to the actual interpretation claimed by either party.</p></li>\n<li><p>In determining whether a provision is ambiguous, courts look to the context of the provision within the contract in its entirety. Courts use many standard canons of statutory interpretation in contract interpretation. This is generally a question of law not fact.</p></li>\n<li><p>If the court determines that a provision is unambiguous, then the text of the contract controls.</p></li>\n<li><p>If the court determines that a provision is ambiguous, then the parties can present extrinsic evidence to support their interpretation and the court decides based on the balance of probability, sometimes deciding ambiguity against the drafter or party with the stronger negotiating position as a rule.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<h3>Further reading</h3>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Gregory Klass - Contract Law in the USA</p></li>\n<li><p>John McCamus - The Law of Contracts</p></li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6226, "body": "<p>Sadly, in the case of insolvency, yes. Insolvency is when a company is unable to pay its debts as and when they fall due. When the directors believe their company is in this state it is their duty to apoint an administrator.</p>\n\n<p>Dick Smith passed into external administration a few days ago. At that point all creditors (including people who have gift cards/paid deposits as well as suppliers and employees) are no longer entitled to payment except in accordance with the insolvency provisions of the Corporations Act.</p>\n\n<p>From that date the administrator is responsible for any <em>future</em> debts but not anything in the past. The administrators have indicated that Dick Smith will continue trading while they look for a buyer of the business. </p>\n\n<p>Let's assume (and these are purely hypothetical) that Dick Smith owes $50m, say $10m to employees (leave, severance, superannuation etc.), $20m to secured creditors (banks etc.) and $20m to unsecured creditors (including gift card holders and the tax office). If Ferrier Hodgson are successful in selling the business for say $36m then the money gets distributed like this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>$1m (say) to the administrator for doing their job</li>\n<li>$10m to employees</li>\n<li>$20m to secured creditors</li>\n<li>$5m to unsecured creditors or 25c in the dollar.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This would be an <strong>extremely</strong> good result for unsecured creditors. A far more likely outcome is nothing or fractions of cents in the dollar.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, this dividend, if it comes, will be 2-5 years from now and only to people who have proven their debt.</p>\n\n<p>The moral is: don't lend money to people who can't pay it back. Oh yeah, buying a gift card is lending money, didn't you know?</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "customer-service" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5087, "body": "<p>I'll take an Australian perspective on this. State law will refer to the law in New South Wales.</p>\n\n<h2>Workplace surveillance law</h2>\n\n<p>An employee does not generally have the right to surveil other employees in their place of work, as such surveillance must be agreed to and the subjects must be informed as per the <em>Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW)</em> (\"the Act\") <a href=\"http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/wsa2005245/s10.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">s 10</a>. </p>\n\n<p>Generally, employees will agree to some kind of surveillance as a term of their employment contract. These contracts are generally drafted without reference to the entity conducting the surveillance (\"you to electronic monitoring, including video, keystroke logging\", etc). While it's omitted, a court is almost certainly going to find that this agreement extends only to surveillance conducted by or with the permission of the employer.</p>\n\n<p>Essentially, you're going to violate Section 10 of the Act unless you are permitted by the employer to conduct surveillance <em>and</em> the employee has agreed to such surveillance.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol>\n <li>What could be done with the recordings?</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You could most likely <em>not</em> use them as evidence, as Section 138 of the <a href=\"http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ea199580/s138.html\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Evidence Act 1995</em> (NSW)</a> explicitly exclude evidence obtained illegally. However, there is judicial discretion in admitting such evidence, subject to specific tests.</p>\n\n<p>This would turn on the specifics of the case, the evidence, and the exact nature of the wrongdoings you uncover.</p>\n\n<p>Blackmail is illegal, so while you could do that, it's not really something you should do.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"2\">\n <li>If the recordings are not permissible as evidence, how else would you prove the wrongdoings by X?</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Advise the employer of your concerns and ask them to conduct the surveillance.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"3\">\n <li>In the worst case, how strong a legal defense would it be for A and B to </li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol>\n <li>deny they were aware I was even there in the chat room with them or operated the WebRTC service</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, you've said that they are both aware of and welcome your intentions, so denying that you were there in the chat room after you direct them to leave the chat windows open would be <em>perjury</em>.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"2\">\n <li>claim they cannot be held responsible for a third party's actions</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They can, and will be held responsible for your actions if they're aware of your intentions and welcome them. Also, they're probably responsible for activity on the work device by company policy.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"3\">\n <li>claim they were not even aware their chats could be remotely recorded</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is going to be likely to be subjected to a <em>reasonable person test</em>. I'd say that a reasonable person would know that the internet can always be recorded, and at the very least that their employers can and probably do monitor their internet usage.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"4\">\n <li>claim they were just chatting because it was fun and saved them from leaving their desks</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's not really a defence to assisting someone in violating the Act.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>In summary: this is a <em>bad</em> idea, you <em>probably won't</em> be able to use the recordings as evidence in court, and you'll probably be found in violation of the Act.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "evidence", "employment" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6203, "body": "<p>I am unclear as to whether you mean <a href=\"http://www.wearepeepl.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">peepl</a> or <a href=\"http://forthepeeple.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">peeple</a>; the first is what you wrote but the second is what you described. Both allow reviews to be left but the former is a B2C commerce site and the second is a social network. </p>\n\n<p>Whichever you mean, the method of operation you describe is not right for either; reviews can only be left on users that have already registered - a third party cannot create a user and then leave a review.</p>\n\n<p>As such, much of the privacy issues are moot; if you choose to disclose private information about yourself then go for it. In both cases the companies you disclose it to are obliged to handle it in accordance with relevant laws - probably the law where they are located as this is something the user agrees to in the T&amp;C. Peepl's privacy policy is <a href=\"http://www.wearepeepl.com/privacy-policy/\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a> and indicates that it is subject to UK law. I couldn't find similar information for Peeple but it may be in the app itself.</p>\n\n<p>To defame (which includes both libel and slander) someone you have to: Make an untrue statement that could damage the person's reputation to a third party. So, yes you can defame someone on any social media platform and would be held liable for it. Generally, the media company is not liable <em>provided</em> that they have a mechanism that allows the defamed person to have the defamatory reviews removed promptly and that they actually do this.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-states", "privacy", "libel", "slander" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6174, "body": "<p>You can refuse to pay.</p>\n\n<p>The doctor can either accept your refusal or pursue the debt in court. If he pursues the debt you will probably lose.</p>\n\n<h2>The Common Law position</h2>\n\n<p>Your contract with the doctor was for him to do whatever he did and you to pay for it. Your contract with your insurer is for you to pay the premium and them to reimburse you for whatever they cover.</p>\n\n<p>The fundamental question is why you were taking the doctor's (via his secretary) advice on your contract with your insurer? The advice was wrong, however, it is difficult to see that there is a case for negligent misstatement; you would have difficulty showing there was a duty of care and even if you did showing what damage flowed from it since it is quite likely that you would have had the procedure notwithstanding the absence of cover, unless it was purely cosmetic.</p>\n\n<h2>The Consumer Law position</h2>\n\n<p>California probably has consumer protection laws regarding misleading and deceptive conduct - I have no idea what they are. If this is so then your doctor's statement was misleading - consequences may flow from this.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "california", "health-insurance" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6218, "body": "<p>The root of the question is what was agreed to. The written contract is just evidence of that agreement. Both plain meaning and context can be used to help interpret that written evidence.</p>\n\n<p>You say that what happens in a boxing gym \"has nothing to do with the contract\". If everyone agrees that is the case, then the tenants and the landlord training at a boxing gym is not related to the lease.</p>\n\n<p>Beating up a recent guest on the street outside the house might be a violation of the lease if the agreement prohibited fighting guests in or near the house. In some jurisdictions, if the language of the written contract is unambiguous, it doesn't matter what people <em>thought</em> they were agreeing to. If anyone is not sure, they can ask the others what exactly was meant to be prohibited and they can work together to re-write the sentence so that it is clear evidence of what they agreed to.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6189, "body": "<p>I don't think there is any legal requirement to cite any of it at all.</p>\n\n<p>In most situations, content that you'd cite in your own work probably constitutes fair use. Any citation would be purely for the benefit of your readers and/or to maintain a level of good will or professionalism with the original author.</p>\n\n<p>Of course you may be violating any agreements you've made not to use that material without proper citation, but in such cases the requirements for citation would be specific to the agreements which stipulated them.</p>\n\n<p>Also, this probably works differently for trademarks.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, consider the source. Even if you're in the right, a large publisher can sue you into financial ruin for slighting them.</p>\n\n<p>Practically speaking, if you are at all concerned, you should contact the original author and/or publisher and ask them how they prefer you cite them in your work. They may ask you to agree to some terms or pay some fees or something, in which case it's up to you to decide how to proceed. They may happily respond with their preferences. They may not respond at all. They may say you can't cite them. Etc.</p>\n\n<p>If you are less concerned, simply use any of a variety of standard citation styles. Some popular options are APA, MLA and Chicago. Plug your information in at the <a href=\"http://www.citationmachine.net/\" rel=\"nofollow\">citation machine</a>, for instance, and go with that. Just remain consistent.</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6193, "body": "<p>Citation is not a matter of law; it is a matter of academic rules. That is, you cannot be sued for failing to cite or citing incorrectly (you can be sued for copyright breach), however, failing to cite in accordance with the rules of your university is academic misconduct (plagiarism).</p>\n\n<p>As for copyright law, you need to comply with the law in every jurisdiction where your book will be published/sold. And yes, that means if you are distributing to any country via the Internet it means <strong>every</strong> jurisdiction. However, this is not as onerous as it sounds because most countries are parties to the <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention\" rel=\"nofollow\">Berne Convention</a>.</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6213, "body": "<p>The problem in quoting arises when you quote enough of another's work to reduce the worth of that other work. So, quoting a few sentences from a thick book is unlikely to be a problem, unless you are quoting something so extremely important and unique that it is the reason that a person might buy that thick book. Also, academic reviews are treated leniently. (I am not a lawyer but I am an author.)</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6200, "body": "<p><strong>No</strong></p>\n\n<p>Let's consider a similar scenario. If you made a beverage which poisoned a number of people, would you be absolved of liability because you gave it away for free? Of course not.</p>\n\n<p>As there is no contract between you, they would have to bring an action against you in the tort of negligence or negligent misstatement OR under consumer protection law.</p>\n\n<p>To succeed at tort they would need to prove that you owed them a duty of care; from <em>Donoghue v Stevenson</em> \"You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonable foresee would be likely to injure ... persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably have them in contemplation ...\". Most cases will founder on your inability to foresee the use to which your software may be put.</p>\n\n<p>Consumer law is jurisdiction specific but they generally contain warranties that what you provide (gratis or otherwise) is fit for purpose, merchantable and that you do not make false and misleading statements. There is a chance that a case brought under this sort of law could succeed as you have not limited the purpose, specifically declared that it is not of merchantable quality and have (presumable) said what it does so that, if it doesn't do what you said, you have been misleading and deceptive.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "copyright", "licensing", "public-domain" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6198, "body": "<p><em>Prima facie</em> all flags would be artistic works with copyright vesting in their creators; either the designer or the designer's employer. The copyright is probably owned by the government of the relevant country either by virtue of the creator being an employee or by transfer.</p>\n\n<p>However, a significant number would be in the public domain because:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>They were created before the legal concept of copyright existed (e.g. Denmark - 1219)</li>\n<li>The term of copyright protection has expired (e.g. United Kingdom - 1801)</li>\n<li>It is government policy that government works are public domain (e.g. United States)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Notwithstanding, it is <em>extremely</em> unlikely that you could be successfully prosecuted for copyright breach for using a national flag design as you would have a near watertight fair use/fair dealing defence for public policy reasons.</p>\n", "score": 6 } ]

[ "copyright", "public-domain" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5836, "body": "<p>Unless you received an order from the court prohibiting contact, it might be legal; but it's probably not the best idea.</p>\n\n<h3>Let the lawyers handle it</h3>\n\n<p>Attorneys have far better, more effective means of dealing with this situation than the course of action you describe. Lawyers have productive tools to accomplish the job and they know how to use them.</p>\n\n<p>For example, assume the best-case-scenario results from your idea and you get the other side to admit their affidavit is fallacious in some way. </p>\n\n<p>\"Aha!\" you shout. \"Success! Daylight!\"</p>\n\n<p>But then what?</p>\n\n<p>It's not on record. You can't testify to the admission because that's hearsay. Now imagine they next share this information about your little conversation with the counterparty that had them sign the affidavit in the first place. After first being alerted of your concerns, they both now act in concert to shore up their stories and you never see that \"daylight\" again.</p>\n\n<p>Contrast that outcome with one where your guy or gal's attorney deposes the witness under oath, gets them to concede to your version of the facts then introduces the deposition as favorable evidence at trial. That's a much better outcome for \"your side.\" Wouldn't you agree?</p>\n\n<h3>Be wary of unintended consequences</h3>\n\n<p>Generally speaking, such direct contact between the parties is often problematic and rarely helpful. (Except, in some cases, when direct contact between the parties leads to a negotiated settlement. Which happens far less often than the direct contact going sideways making the situation even more intractable.)</p>\n\n<p>Before you launch off on your own and do something that might be counterproductive. First, identify the areas of the affidavit that you think are inaccurate. Give that information to the party you support, then have them run it by their attorney to figure out the best way to handle the situation.</p>\n", "score": 13 }, { "answer_id": 5840, "body": "<p>Legally speaking, yes, witnesses can talk to each other unless the judge has told them not to. The problem is that it can create the appearance of improper influence, or improper motive, and judges don't like that stuff. The last thing an attorney wants is a judge grilling her about why her witness has been calling the other side's witness</p>\n\n<p>Witnesses have different versions of the facts. That's why we have them (witnesses). Of course the two witnesses will disagree about facts, that's why they are chosen to testify! If a party suspects an affidavit to be false or fraudulent they can formally attack the credibility and try to impeach the witness. At that point it comes down to credibility, which is weighed by the fact finder.</p>\n\n<p>If you're trying to set the record straight for non-legal reasons, like something more social in nature, it's still a good idea to run it by the attorney if you care about the outcome of the matter and the person you seem to be advocating for. </p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 5847, "body": "<p>Remember, when 2 people are witness to an event there are 3 sets of facts:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>What Person A believed happened,</li>\n<li>What Person B believed happened, and</li>\n<li>What actually happened.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Courts are the appropriate forum for taking 1 &amp; 2 and deciding what 3 was. There may be no legal impediment to witnesses discussing the issues <strong>but</strong> every single time a human being accesses a memory they change that memory; our brains are <strong>not</strong> like computer hard drives. It is equally likely that what you remember is further from the actual facts then their recollection. Leave it alone.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "rules-of-court", "witnesses" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6123, "body": "<p><strong>No, the first mate does not inherit</strong></p>\n\n<p>If the first mate is an employee then his employment contract is terminated by the death of the principal and he would be entitled to be paid his accrued wages and entitlements only. If the Falcon was Han's only asset, the estate would have to liquidate (sell) it to meet this obligation. In most jurisdictions there would be legal and administrative costs to be settled too.</p>\n\n<p>Even if there was a legal partnership between the captain and the first mate that included ownership of the ship; the captain's share would pass through normal inheritance rules. The same would apply to shares in any holding company interposed between the captain/first mate and the ship. In either case Chewie would have a new partner.</p>\n\n<p>Where the ship is registered is irrelevant; the law governing the inheritance would be that of where the estate is domiciled. For a person of no fixed address like Han this would probably be based on his citizenship; AFAIK Corillian.</p>\n\n<p>If their laws are the same as NSW Australia see <a href=\"http://www.legalanswers.sl.nsw.gov.au/guides/wills_estates/inheritance.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.legalanswers.sl.nsw.gov.au/guides/wills_estates/inheritance.html</a>. On this basis the ship passes to his spouse Leia Organa or spouses if Chewie is a de-facto spouse (there's a lot of down time in space travel). </p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 6124, "body": "<p>I've conducted this analysis as requested by the poster, under the laws of California.</p>\n\n<p>The owner of the Millennium Falcon is Leia Organa if</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Han Solo left no will; and,</li>\n<li>We follow California's intestacy laws.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/intestate-succession-california.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nolo's</a> summary of California's probate laws (and referencing the actual code available <a href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=prob&amp;group=06001-07000&amp;file=6400-6414\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a> when the summary was not appropriate), When a person has a spouse and children, the spouse inherits all of the community property and 1/2 or 1/3 of the separate property, while\nchildren inherit 1/2 or 2/3 of the separate property.</p>\n\n<p>The Millennium Falcon is clearly separate property, as it was clearly in Solo's possession prior to the start of Episode IV, which means it was his before the marriage.</p>\n\n<p>Since Han Solo has one known child on record, Leia would ordinarily get half of the separate property, which means she would only own half the Millennium Falcon. However, California has the slayer doctrine in its intestacy inheritance laws (Probate Code 250). This means if someone \"feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent\", the property \"passes as if the killer had predeceased the decedent\". This would normally mean the intestacy heir of the slayer, would get the property. However, Kylo Ren, has no children, which means his parents would inherit his property. This inheritance takes place before the death of Han Solo (an act of legal fiction), thus the estate of Han Solo is left with only a spouse. And since there are no parents of record for Han Solo, Leia Organa inherits everything.</p>\n\n<p>Leia Organa is thus the owner of the Millennium Falcon.</p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 6160, "body": "<p>Lando Calrissian should sue for ownership. He was the owner before Han Solo, but lost it in a poker game. It has always been claimed that Han Solo cheated in that game. So the transfer was void.</p>\n\n<p>But none of it matters, since the Millennium Falcon has so many illegal modifications(dual hyperdrives, hidden storage, customized weapon firing system, etc), once the courts saw it, it would be stripped or scrapped outright. Would be like who owns a WW1-era battleship? It is legal, but all the guns would be removed, the steam engines are out of code and would be removed, etc.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "estate-planning" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6182, "body": "<p>I don't think any appellate court has given an opinion on whether encryption creates a reasonable expectation of privacy. This is not surprising as only recently has it come to light that the government may have weakened encryption protocols and asked for backdoors in order to aid in decryption.</p>\n\n<p>However, <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orin_Kerr\" rel=\"nofollow\">Orin Kerr</a>, professor of Law at George Washington University School of Law wrote <a href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=927973\" rel=\"nofollow\">this article</a> in 2001. He argues that encryption <em>does not</em> create a reasonable expectation of privacy.</p>\n\n<p>He says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>the Fourth Amendment regulates access, not understanding</em>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Once you introduce your communication into third party systems (or the garbage :P), they may give it up to the government. If the government happens to be able to understand that communication, so be it.</p>\n\n<p>He shows how this conclusion is consistent with how the courts have ruled on \"reassembly of shredded documents, recovery of deleted files, and the translation of foreign languages\".</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Note that the reasonable expectation of privacy test is only one of the tests used to determine whether a search or seizure is reasonable. Another test is the \"trespass\" test which deems an interaction to be a search <em>per se</em> if there is a trespass on a person's personal effects. It was used before Katz and was reiterated recently in US v Jones (2012). Regardless, your question is still meaningful because the two tests are used alongside each other.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "privacy", "fourth-amendment", "encryption" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6177, "body": "<p>Judgements in a common law jurisdiction are based on reasoning about how the law applies to the facts. It is a fiction to believe that there is a clear delineation between law and fact - the facts inform the law and vice-versa and the means by which they do so is the reasoning of the judge(s); that is how precedent works.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, theoretically (see above) an appellate court does not make findings regarding fact; an appeal can only be based on a mistake <em>in law</em>. That is, an appeal is an argument that the lower court made a mistake in reasoning about how the law applies to the facts.</p>\n\n<p>So, on that basis, <strong>the report is being used as a legal source</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>I will venture to suggest that the way the report was used was to inform the reasoning process that court used. The justice is effectively saying: \"These learned people who have looked into <em>the general expectation in the USA regarding privacy of communication</em> and have said this; I agree with what they say so I will use that as the basis for my reasoning.\" This serves two purposes: it shows us what the justice was thinking when he built the links in his judgement and it shows us why he was thinking this way.</p>\n\n<p>When you think about it this way it becomes easier to understand how and why multi-judge appeal courts can have split decisions. The facts are the same to each judge, the law in the form of statute and precedent is the same to each judge but each judge's reasoning process is different. A different process leads to different results.</p>\n\n<p><strong>A judge can consider anything a legal source, in the sense that it informs their decision making process.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Judges can and do look to many things to inform their reasoning process. They will often look to:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>dictionaries</li>\n<li>textbooks</li>\n<li>speeches made in legislature</li>\n<li>cases in other jurisdictions </li>\n<li>commissions of enquiry</li>\n<li>academic papers</li>\n<li>etc.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>A judgement must be based on the law and the facts and decided on a basis that the parties argued (deciding on a basis that was not raised can be a failure to afford natural justice). Furthermore it needs to set out the reasoning process in sufficient detail, that:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the parties can see why they won or (especially) why they lost</li>\n<li>an appeals court can consider if the reasoning was sound. It is worth noting that while a case decided in the Supreme Court is not subject to appeal; the precedent created may be overturned by the Supreme Court latter on and so it is vital that that group of Justices knows what the hell the previous group was thinking. (Is there a collective noun for judges?)</li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "common-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6153, "body": "<p>You are allowed to ask browsers to render text in the font. But, if their computer doesn't have that font installed, the browser will not be able to.</p>\n\n<p>See <a href=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/fonts.html#font-family-prop\" rel=\"nofollow\">the CSS specs</a> for how this works.</p>\n\n<p>However, you are not allowed to <em>distribute</em> the font, as that would be considered reproduction, and a copyright violation.</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6172, "body": "<p>As Dawn said correctly, the first hurdle you have to skip is technical and not legal: It's not a trivial matter to make the computers of other people use a font for your website that they most likely don't have. </p>\n\n<p>You are not allowed to distribute the font <em>if you don't have a license that allows it</em>. Licenses for many fonts are not <em>that</em> expensive. If you cannot find any license, then it is foolish to assume that you have a license, and if you make that foolish assumption and then get sued for copyright infringement, a judge will not be happy if you tell him or her that you assumed you could just use the font. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6170, "body": "<p>Likely they both are right.</p>\n\n<p>Your solicitor is stating what he believes to be the correct legal position. He is making sure that if you have to turn to the courts for any reason you are protected.</p>\n\n<p>The builder probably has sold many properties this way. The fact that it may not be strictly legal has never been an issue because there has never been a dispute.</p>\n\n<p>I personally can't see a problem with drafting the contract so that settlement on the leased part is a futures contract, contingent on the registration coming through.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "real-estate", "residential-lease" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6169, "body": "<p>A credit card debt is generally unsecured i.e. There is no property put up as collateral for the loan. In particular, goods purchased with the facility are not collateral.</p>\n\n<p>If you default on the debt then the creditor can sue you and obtain judgement. With that in hand they can seek to enforce that judgement. There are two methods that involve seizure of property: direct seizure of whatever the court officer can get and bankruptcy which places all property in the hands of the trustee. This <em>may</em> include stuff bought with the card but not necessarily.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "united-states", "ownership" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6150, "body": "<p>Probably not.</p>\n\n<p>The legal doctrine here is <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_immunity\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sovereign Immunity</a> which basically states that you can't sue the government unless the government agrees either by a general piece of legislation (e.g. the Federal Torts Act, an Investor State Dispute clause in a treaty) or in the specific case being brought.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 6141, "body": "<p>It's not coming to mind right now, but I think there is a precedent in agriculture, where a change in laws that alters the method of practicing business can act as the basis for a valid suit. </p>\n\n<p>The suit, in this case, would be on the grounds of compensation for time needed to adjust business practice</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>This is not a full-enough answer, but given it is one position I want to provide it here, and I will add more as I research for the related precedent. Anyone is welcome to edit with the same.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "weapons" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6149, "body": "<p>US law as well as English and other Commonwealth countries don't recognize contracts as \"legal\" or \"lawful.\" The issue to be addressed in any contract dispute is whether the particular clause is \"enforceable,\" meaning that a court would choose to enforce the clause. The clause you have quoted would likely be enforceable in a US court, presuming that the judge or jury had determined the party against whom the clause should be enforced was competent to freely enter into an agreement with the other party (the one seeking enforcement). </p>\n\n<p>\"Data audit\" would be interpreted based on the mutual understanding of the parties. This sort of contract term is interpreted based on how it may be used by similar individuals within the particular professional field the agreement covers, eg computer coders, AI designers, scientists etc. If there were a court dispute over what this meant, each party would call expert witnesses from the field to establish what the standard professional interpretation of such a phrase would comprise. </p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 6148, "body": "<p>You can contract to do anything so long as it is not illegal. AFAIK nothing in this clause is illegal.</p>\n\n<p>As for how a data audit works, that is not a legal question: try stack exchange.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "contract-law", "corporate-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6145, "body": "<p>You don't need a lawyer or a company, but you need to know what you are doing. </p>\n\n<p>About posting on GitHub: You need to check carefully the terms and conditions of the GitHub website. It may be that by posting on GitHub you give people rights that you don't want to give them. </p>\n\n<p>If you publish under a GPL license, you need to decide which version of the license to use, and read the license carefully. Each license version describes quite well how you should go about publishing under that license version. I believe you must include a copy of the license within your source code, but you should check that yourself. The different license version give users more or fewer rights, which may make a version more or less attractive for you and for users, so pick the version that is best for your purposes. </p>\n\n<p>If anyone copies code for which you have the copyright, without having a license, then you can absolutely sue them and ask them to stop making copies and/or pay actual damages (money that you prove you lost) or statutory damages (amounts of money set by the law as punishments). </p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "internet" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4281, "body": "<p>Based solely on what you've described, what the lawyer did is inappropriate if, in fact, it occurred without any prior permissions. However, since you are not the actual client, it may be that you lack pertinent info, because this would be <em>exceedingly rare</em> behavior. Lawyers <em>are</em> allowed to make procedural and \"expert\"/professional decisions about your case without your consent, and do so all the time. As a general rule: we decide who to depose, what expert(s) are necessary to prove your claim, what questions to ask in discovery, what to say and when to say it when attempting to settle, and what witnesses to call vs. not to call at panel or trial. All of that is in the purview of the attorney's general discretion and work product. </p>\n\n<p><strong>However, attorneys cannot diminish, amend, or settle your claim without your permission, unless you've signed a limited representation agreement and/or a prior authorization to do these things with a waiver of consultation on issues relating to settlement.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>(It is not uncommon for a client to say, \"My bottom line is <em>X</em>; hence, you have my permission to settle the case for anything over that amount.\") A client may also, subsequently, give verbal consent, saying things like \"just do your best and get what you can\". </p>\n\n<h3>Contingency and Total Award Strategies</h3>\n\n<p>Since you aren't the one having entered into the contract, you may not be privy to the existence of these types of contingencies. Agreements like this are very common when an attorney takes a weaker med mal claim. It may be that the lawyer will only take the case to the extent that they will <em>try to settle</em>, and <em>may even file</em> the case, with the understanding that <em>they will never try</em> the case. It is a way to try to get you as much as possible when all facts come to light, without agreeing to the expense of a trial. This happens a lot. In these situations, when you are trying to settle a claim that ends up being much less valuable than the attorney thought when he took the case, the insurance carrier will often say, \"We will pay <em>X</em> on the claim if Doctor Doe is dismissed out,\" or something like that. Often lawyers intentionally over-file, in hopes there are <em>two carriers</em> (the more insurance the more money to make you go away) that they can try to settle with. When it turns out both docs are covered under one insurance carrier, then the weaker claim will often get dismissed out. It is a strategic decision to add them, and to dismiss them &ndash; and this is very common. Proving malpractice against one doctor is hard enough; trying to prove that you are the victim of double malpractice, back to back, is nearly impossible. </p>\n\n<p>All of that said, even if a client has entered into these types of limited or decisional authority-granting agreements, the lawyer still has a duty to keep the client apprised of what's going on. The client may decide later they don't like how little the attorney is stating the claim is worth (despite being forewarned this may happen, it happens all the time that when it actually occurs the client is not happy). In that case, they have the right to find a new lawyer, but that will be very difficult to do for a few reasons: (1) the original attorney is entitled to get paid for the work done under a theory known as “<em>quantum meruit</em>,” so other attorneys will be hesitant to get involved; (2) they will put a lien on any recovery for the amount of time and expenses, to be paid from any settlements or awards (and they get paid first, before the client or the new lawyer); (3) if a client gets angry and says they want to just drop the case rather than have the lawyer make more than the client, even after a year or more of work, all of the costs will still be owed by the client; (4) the potential new attorney will call the one who has the case and ask about whether the client has unreasonable expectations, if their case has any value, etc. Keep mind, if an attorney is doing the things you've described, they probably would suffer no love loss if the case went away.</p>\n\n<h3>Malpractice in Context</h3>\n\n<p>It very often happens, especially in medical malpractice cases, that a client will come in and describe the case one way, and then when the medical records arrive and the attorney and/or the paralegal/nurse-para review them, and all the facts get flushed out, it turns out things occurred a bit (or a lot) differently than the client described or recalled in the first place. This is typically <em>not</em> a matter, 99% of the time, of the client lying to the attorney, but rather it is merely the phenomenon of memories being based on their perception of the events/their care, rather than verifiable fact and established medical standards. (This is why eye-witness testimony is so notably unreliable: 10 people can witness the same event and there will inevitably be 10 different descriptions.) One thing all clients should be told by their lawyer (and you should only hire an experienced medical malpractice lawyer for these cases) is that bad outcomes do not equal negligence. Lay people often think that if something bad occurred while under the care of a doctor, this is the case, but it is not the measure of malpractice. Sometimes, even when the doctor does everything according to their specialty/industry standard, bad outcomes happen. Malpractice/negligence <em>only</em> occurs when they have deviated from this standard of care - outcome notwithstanding.</p>\n\n<p>The inverse is also true, when it comes to a bad outcome. The doctor may have breached the standard of care, but this cannot be determined by the patient - the law requires expert testimony to establish this. Sometimes bad outcomes are just the risk of the procedure. This is why patients sign (but rarely read) the informed consent forms, that describe in detail, and state the patient is aware, of <em>all</em> the potential bad outcomes that may occur during the procedure. Negligence, or a \"breach of the standard of care\" occurs when the typical physician (not the best expert in the world, just the normal, typical doctor in that field) would have found the actions to be unreasonable and never acceptable given the totality of the circumstances. Once you prove that, you then still need to prove that is what caused your damages (not the disease, or the ailment itself). Unfortunately, even with the best physicians, bad outcomes happen all the time.</p>\n\n<p>It is <em>very</em> common, to the point of being almost predictable, that a medical malpractice claim's value will depart from the original ballpark estimate of value that an attorney tries to \"best guess\" at the outset. When your attorney tries to value a case, they roughly estimate your \"special damages\", which consists of medical bills, lost income, lost earning capacity, and other quantifiable sums. Then, they must try to assess the market rate award for pain and suffering for the type injury you've sustained. This is only guesswork, based on jury verdict reports, reported settlements, and the jurisdictional leanings toward large or small verdicts (comparatively). As the case evolves, as facts come to lights, as experts are consulted - this is when these estimates can largely deviate from the original guesstimate based on very limited information.</p>\n\n<h3>Risks of Contingency Representation</h3>\n\n<p>At any rate, when a lawyer takes a case on contingency (when they agreed to get paid only if they recover, and not until they recover, aside from out of pocket expenses), they do this because they've relied on the client's account of what happened, as well as their initial assessment of the records, usually prior to hiring an expert (if they even intended to hire one because they agreed to take the case all the way through trial). You must understand that attorneys don't like when a case loses value any more than the client; in fact, probably less as they are the ones who've invested often hundreds of hours in the case at that point. This is how they make their money. Thirty-three percent of a small amount is not the same as that of a large amount. And many, many hours go into these cases. An attorney can make far more than their hourly rate on a great case, but this is balanced by making far, far less on cases whose values plummet as facts come to light. When a case appears to lost much of it's initially estimated value, the attorney will still try to maximize recovery; however, it may not seem that way to the client because after they take their third, and then recoup their expenses (which is on top of the third and is the responsibility of the client win-or-lose), clients can end up with almost nothing. This is because the expense of these cases is enormous and it is the problem with that area of law and the system in general. It is not uncommon for a medical malpractice case to cost, out of pocket, $200,000 or more! This is why so few people are able to get a lawyer to take these cases, and often when they do, it's on the very limited basis I described.</p>\n\n<h3>Med Malpractice Primer</h3>\n\n<p>Med Mal cases are some of the hardest cases to win and they are by far some of the most expensive cases to try. This in not accidental. Depending on the state you live in, tort reform (a legislative effort to limit the amount of medical malpractice claims filed and tried overall, as well as limiting their total recovery) can range from limits on damages, to very short windows for statute of limitations, to the requirements (like where I practice) where you must literally try the case twice &ndash; once before a med mal screening panel, who hears all your witnesses just as a jury does, and then decides whether the case should (and in some cases can) go forward. In some states (I happen to practice in one) the findings are admissible in court (not the evidence but the finding). So, if the MMPT screening panel finds the doctor was not negligent, or was, but the damages were within the standard disclosed potential outcomes, so there was no causation, or myriad other things, if you decide (or in some states, if you even still get to go to court) the defense gets to say to the jury that the legislatively enacted Med Mal Pre-trial screening panel found X (no negligence, causation, or damages &ndash; or all three). These panels are usually comprised of a lawyer (75% defense lawyers) or a judge, and two doctors who are biased against these types of cases in the first place). Also, if your expert gets torn apart on an issue during panel phase, anything they admit can be used against them in the trial. I say all this to help you understand that these cases are made, by the legislature, to be very hard to even find a lawyer to take, very hard to win, and exceedingly expensive to litigate. This is based on the (fallacious) theory that medical malpractice claims should be limited to the most serious claims because this litigation is so costly, and so impactful on the rates all citizens pay for insurance, that the legislature has seen fit to make them very difficult to prosecute, thereby weeding out weak claims.</p>\n\n<h3>Bottom Line</h3>\n\n<p>If the client truly feels their lawyer did something they did not have permission (either explicitly in writing, or verbally) to do, they need to talk to the attorney, explain their discomfort with the situation, and figure out why it occurred and if it was truly in the best interest of the case and the client. If the lawyer cannot adequately answer those questions, they should get a second opinion. The client can demand that anything the attorney did be undone, if it was the type of thing that is in the client's control. One would need to see the engagement letter and retention agreement, and also be privy to the conversations. It is, unfortunately, not uncommon for a client to say they understand what the lawyer is proposing when they don't. If you find that's the case, you may have them ask that all determinations be put in writing, with an explanation as to why.</p>\n", "score": 11 }, { "answer_id": 417, "body": "<p>Lawyers have two primary ethical duties: to the client, and to the legal system.</p>\n\n<p>I'm not going to tell you whether your lawyer was right in your case, because I don't know the specifics of your case.</p>\n\n<p>However, there are some decisions that are the lawyer's to make, even if the client disagrees. The allocation of responsibility, in most jurisdictions, is governed by some version of <a href=\"http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_2_scope_of_representation_allocation_of_authority_between_client_lawyer.html\">Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2.</a></p>\n\n<p>However, the MRPC also imposes other duties on the lawyer, including the duty not to bring or to advocate for a frivolous claim (see <a href=\"http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_3_1_meritorious_claims_contentions.html\">MRPC 3.1</a>).</p>\n\n<p>If facts came to light that made it clear that the claim against a specific person were frivolous, then no matter what you told him to do, he could not ethically prosecute that claim.</p>\n", "score": 9 } ]

[ "common-law", "canada", "negligence", "lawyer" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6140, "body": "<p>Some arguments hold that \"unjust factors\" has founded on a vague conceptualization of <em>unjust enrichment</em> situations, as occurs at the beginning of all areas of practice.</p>\n\n<p>\"Absence of basis\" reasoning presents a specific condition by which determination can occur. A <em>'basis'</em> can exist, or not, and when present the basis derives from <em>rights</em> that – ideally – have definition external to the matter of the case. </p>\n\n<p>If \"Absence of basis\" reasoning comes to take the primary position in arguments, then \"unjust factors\" arguments can remain as supportive or secondary matters of the claim. Conversely, saying there exists \"unjust factors\" but not arguing that an \"absence of basis\" exists... could seem contradictory.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "england-and-wales", "common-law", "unjust-enrichment" ]