texts: Grounds for Breaking a Lease : Health Risks due to Manager

texts:
I live in an apartment in Nebraska and recently got bed bugs from our neighbor. While our the landlord handles hiring the exterminator, they have failed to communicate important details that have put mine and my wife's health at risk multiple times.

When the exterminator comes to spray, we have to vacate the unit for 4 hours for it to be safe to re-enter. We only found that out because we tried to contact the exterminator's company directly due to the lack of information provided by our landlord. We then contacted the landlord and requested that they inform us once the exterminator has left so we could calculate when it would be safe to return. Not only did they not call us, but the staff member we spoke to said to re-enter "whenever" and it "should be safe" even if 4 hours hadn't passed yet.

After the first spraying, we were told that was it and that they would inspect our unit in two weeks. The next week they put up notices that they would be spraying for general insects. It turns out the exterminator had to do a second spraying (which they said wouldn't happen) and unlike general insect sprays require you not re-enter your unit for 4 hours. If my wife hadn't arrived home early she wouldn't have been able to tell him we weren't prepared and would have returned during the unsafe time period.

When we talked to them about the misinformation they were providing us with, the manager laughed at us and told us that it wasn't their job to know those details and that we should "Google" the exterminators number and call to learn the details. We have, even before the first visit and each time we were told that because we technically are not the customer they are unable to provide details about our units treatment plan.

I want to know if I have legal grounds to break my lease without penalties. I know you can if you have been injured due to negligence by the landlord, but what if they put you at risk multiples times due to negligence by the landlord? So far my wife and I have been able to be proactive enough, and in some cases do the landlords job to the extent that we have remained unharmed so far, but I don't want to be stuck here until we are actually harmed.


texts: Can i share ebook which i bought to multiple person without enabling them to download

texts: Can i show share ebook which i bought to multiple person without enabling them to download ?. So i won't be making multiple copies of the ebook but will be showing it to multiple users. Is there any copyright violation in doing so?


texts: Filing for arbitration in the court of common pleas

texts:
So I have a contract that ended up having patently false information that is also provable. This seems like the simplest thing to me, have expert witness, have the contract, have pictures, have audio recordings and witnesses that worked for him that can attest to the deliberateness of the actions.

However, the cost of the contract is around 20,000 and attempting to find out how to file for non-small claims court seems to be a bit difficult. So wanted to ask exactly how would I go about filing for arbitration?

Note: Did talk with a few attorneys who just said it'd be about 7500-15000 if appealed and that punitive damages would be unlikely so it wasn't worth it for me to hire them. That being said I'm trying to study


texts: Do you get to keep a fraudulent money transfer that you are entitled to?

texts:
Reading this story got me speculating: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-02-17/citi-can-t-have-its-900-million-back
TLDR: CitiBank accidentally wired $900m to creditors of a company they were the administrative agent for. The company had wanted to restructure the debt and avoid paying the full amount, but some poor shmuck at Citi made a whoopsie. Citi sued for the money and lost, because of the “discharge-for-value defense”:

The recipient is allowed to keep the funds if they discharge a valid debt, the recipient made no misrepresentations to induce the payment, and the recipient did not have notice of the mistake

What if the transfer had been fraudulently made by a hacker who had paid off several creditors to make it impossible to pinpoint what creditor he was working for and most recipients genuinely didn't know they were going to get the money they were entitled to, but otherwise 100% criminal. Would the doctrine still apply?


texts: What is a good formulation for a minor share agreement of USA company (Inc.), before the company shares/options are issued?

texts:
The company "Foo Inc" is registered in the U.S. It has not issued any shares or stock options yet.

A company CEO (Alice) needs to make a signed agreement with a third party (Carol) that Carol receives a certain minor amount of company shares or stock options when they are issued.

Will this agreement be a legal obligation?
What is a good formulation for such paper?
What are the consequences if Alice does not fulfill this obligation and Carol decides to sue Alice?


texts:
What are the required elements of valid claims for workplace exemptions of the following types? Exemption would be for an employer-required vaccination against some communicable illness.

Medical: I guess this requires that a medical professional confirms the need for a medical exemption. Can it be any doctor?

Religious/Philosophical: Does the employee have to provide any evidence that beliefs are strongly held and genuine, or must the employer disprove this? Also, how specific does the belief need to be?

Also, is it the responsibility of the employee to suggest reasonable accommodations or must the employer figure out how to accommodate? If the employee doesn't find the accommodation suitable, must there be a separate exemption claimed for the accommodation?
Assume this in the US, all parties are US citizens, employment is full time salaried exempt, at will and no union.
See also this related question.


texts: Car parked at my residence was made dirty by neighbouring building construction: can I get compensated?

texts: My car parked at my residence was made dirty by some neighbouring building construction. Can I get compensated in some way (e.g., paying for car wash)? I live in California, USA.


texts: How is a shareholder allowed to sue the company?

texts:
There are news about shareholders suing VW due to the losses that happened by the emissions fraud (lots of examples in the news, this is just one of them).

Now, I understand customers suing VW, and I would understand shareholders suing the CEO, the CTO, the entire board or any combination of them, and other managers implicated in the issue. That part is clear.

But, since the company is owned by the shareholders, suing the company does not make a lot of sense to me, because:

Conceptually it is a lot like someone suing himself (yes I know the companies are different legal persons, but still); one could argue that the shareholders did benefit from the fraud while it was ongoing yet no customer can sue them.
Any damages they take away from the company will decrease the value of the company, thus decreasing the value of their stock. Add to that the legal costs from both parts and the most probable result will be a considerable net loss.

Add to that the additional negative info for VW due to the lawsuit and it sounds a lot like using a gun to kill that fly that is on your hand...

The only possible explanaitions that I may think of do not sound very smart:

They hope that only a handful of stockholders will sue, so the damages paid to 10% of the stockholders will be diluted between the 100% of the stockholders... but once there is a sentence against VW, I would think almost all of the small stockholders would join any action class lawsuit.
They hope to get to a situation were they get the money and VW gets in enough of a bad shape that forces the German government to bail-out.

I don't know, the situation seems strange to me. Are there legal precedents of shareholder suing the company (not its management) before?

Update: To (hopefully) explain my doubts... If I buy a VW car and find it is not what I was promised, I can sue VW (the company) because I have a contractual relationship with it and the contract has not been honored. But a shareholder will have an ownership relationship with the corporation, which is what makes me doubt the possibilities of such a lawsuit1. And of course, there is always the -very, very, very tiny, almost non-existent - possibility that journalists are not reporting the issue correctly.

1Of course the individual members of the board and employees that failed in their fiduciary duty may be sued, but they are not the corporation.


texts: Can one be fired for "not being a good fit"?

texts:
NY/USA here if jurisdiction matters.

I am employed full-time and am salaried. I have an at-will employment with no special contractual constraints with my employer. Can I lawfully be fired for simply "not being a good fit"? What does the employer have to prove to claim this?


texts: 2 speeding tickets or just 1 for driving a long distance above limit and being caught in 2 radars?

texts:
This question originated from a recent action taken by the Highway Patrol in Brazil to catch speeders who slow down only when close to static speed radars and then speed up again. They wanted to catch speeders by placing one extra portable speed radar close (a few kilometers apart) to the other.

Besides catching speeders on the second radar what eventually happened is that some speeders received 2 speeding tickets (1 from the static radar and 1 from the portable one) and that's the point of my question: if you are driving above the limit and keep that speed for a long distance, is that 1 violation of the law or 2? Getting 2 tickets for 1 law violation might be considered a double punishment? If the idea of getting 2 tickets is OK, at which point ended the first speeding and started the second?

I specifically mentioned Brazil in my question, but this question is wide enough to be applied in other countries. Those answers are welcome too.


texts: Constitutionality of more restrictive bans on assembly

texts:
Virginia’s governor issued a ‘stay at home order’ that will be enforced by fines, and is in effect until June 10th, unless otherwise revoked. This includes the ban on groups of 10 or more.

All public and private in-person gatherings of more than ten individuals are prohibited. This includes parties, celebrations, religious, or other social events, whether they occur indoor or outdoor. This restriction does not apply:

a. To the operation of businesses not required to close to the public under Executive Order 53; or
b. To the gathering of family members living in the same residence.
Violation of paragraphs 2, 3, 4, and 5 of this Order shall be a Class 1 misdemeanor pursuant to § 44-146.17 of the Code of Virginia.
Commonwealth of Virginia, Executive Order Number 55, effective March 30

I know Maryland and DC are implementing nearly identical orders, and most likely other states are also doing so, or considering doing so in the near future.
A pastor in Florida was arrested for holding religious services with more than 10 people, according to NBC Miami.
This seems to move much deeper into “strict scrutiny” territory for questioning the Constitutionality of these orders, for example under the First Amendment,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

which is applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment.
While orders lasting for a few weeks may be easy to call narrowly tailored, can the same be said for orders lasting months? And what about enforcement of these restrictions in communities that don’t even have any confirmed cases of the virus? Sure, it feels like it’s “everywhere” but for some states it’s still only in the major metropolitan areas, leaving a lot of small communities alone (so far). A state-wide ban lasting for months that so heavily affects both the rights of assembly and worship, with potential fines and arrests for violation, is at least clearly less narrowly tailored than the previous orders. Whether the circumstance they are trying to avoid is worth this or not will be a pretty tricky question.
On the other hand, we all know that none of this is likely to be litigated until after it’s all over, simply because most of the courts are also closed except for the most critical needs, so there’s no one to raise the question to. At best, we may see some fines or convictions overturned in the future, but nothing to stop the continuation of the orders right now. Is there a precedent of such circumstances?


texts: Is it legal to send encrypted messages via a post card?

texts:
In German law, is it legal to send an encrypted message via a post card?
E.g. encrypt a message text on a computer with RSA and print the Base64 hash on the post card and send it.
Or is it a requirement that the message content is readable (hand written) plain text?


texts: Using business-only software API without being a business

texts:
I wanted to try out the Google Cloud Vision API for free, but there was this notice:

  This service can only be used for business or commercial reasons. You are responsible for assessing and reporting VAT.

If I were in the US, I would choose the "Individual" account type, but if I select "Germany" as country (that's where I am currently), then I do not get that option, and can only register as a business.

Does this mean that it is illegal for me to use it, as I am not a business? I also won't use it for commercial reasons, is this also illegal? If yes, is there a way I could use the API without violating any laws?


texts: Can a warrant, subpoena, court order, etc. require you to violate terms and conditions or a contract?

texts:
There's been a lot of attention lately to websites getting subpoenas to hand over user information, and then potentially getting a gag order as well for the subpoena.  I'm wondering (just for curiosity's sake) if a website (or any individual/company) can be legally required to either violate a contract or a ToS agreement.

For example, if a service's ToS agreed to use a certain level of encryption for passing around private data, could a court require that encryption be changed or lifted?  Or could it only subpoena the encrypted data.


texts: Why are there distinct burdens of proof in civil and criminal cases?

texts:
In a criminal case, in all common law jurisdictions that I know of, an accusation must be proven to a high level which is commonly stated as being "beyond reasonable doubt", whereas in a civil case the burden of proof of the accusation is typically lower, expressed as something like "preponderance of evidence" or perhaps "more likely than not".

Is there any explanation in the legal literature of what justifies having a distinction in burden of proof?


texts: What's the status of the estate of someone that has been convicted of stealing, and ordered to pay restitution?

texts:
Mr. X has been convicted of stealing $1 million, sentenced and ordered to pay restitution. What is the status of his estate under the following scenarios:

1) Mr. X has spent all the money and is broke. He can't possibly pay the $1 million. When he gets out of jail and (presumably) starts working again, how much of his income can he keep, and how is "excess income" assessed toward the $1 million debt?

2) Mr. X has a house worth $1 million with a mortgage of $1 million (a civil liability). I have been told that a criminal judgment takes precedence over a civil liability. Is it true, as my friend asserts, that the $1 million crime victims will get their money before the mortgagee after the house is sold?

3) Mr. X has a house worth $2 million with a $1 million mortgage, and $1 million of equity. Is there anything (e.g. taxes) that will stand in the way of the house being sold, $1 million being paid to reimburse the crime victims, and $1 million to the mortgagee? Put another way, what is the order of reimbursment between victim, mortgagee, and other claimants such as taxes?


texts: Can I used an ASCII generated version of a copyrighted image in my game?

texts:
I'm going to guess the likely answer is no, but I'm interested to know more. So let's say I have an image of James Bond from Goldeneye.

Then let's say I run it through ASCII art generator such as this http://picascii.com/ and it produces the following ASCII code made for the web as such (can't post here but here is a JSFiddle of the generated code).

https://jsfiddle.net/caimen/ope1j9w0/

Why or why would I not be allowed to use this version of a copyrighted image in my game?


texts: What (if any) position is the highest office in the line of succession that someone ineligible to be president could hold?

texts:
"Can a young US Vice President follow in the line of succession?" was a question that sparked my interest.

The answer to that questions is that a VP must actually be legally able to be President, as well. Okay, so VP is out - but if there was a Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor-style situation where most of the government officials were killed, is there any position in the U.S. Government that could legally assume presidency, even though under normal circumstances due to age, birth, or other restriction they would normally be ineligible to hold the office? And if so, what is that office?


texts: Can I use content I submitted to a website because they went out of business?

texts:
A while back I used to answer on WebAnswers and I was wondering since they are out of business, if I can go through the Archive and retrieve the content that I created and use it elsewhere. Their agreement which is listed here under section F Proprietary Rights states:

You waive the confidential nature of any content posted by You to the Website.

  You further waive any exclusive use of any content posted to the
  Website by You and that materials or ideas You submit on the Website
  or to the Website administrator or any employee, officer or agent of
  WebAnswers, will not be considered confidential and may be used by
  WebAnswers, in its sole discretion, without any obligation to
  compensate You for its use and without any obligation to return any
  such materials.

Based on these terms are we allowed to go on sites with a similar situation and grab our content?

In this sentence:

  You further waive any exclusive use of any content posted to the Website

Does that mean that the person lost it's content to the website and can't use it elsewhere? Perhaps I understood wrong in those lines. Any help interpreting those terms?


texts: Streaming Illegal Content Without Awareness

texts:
Dropbox and other cloud storage solutions have become popular over the last few years. Storj's decentralized network model may be the future of cloud storage.

I'm considering a similar approach to decentralized file hosting. Website owners would pay a fee to host their files on my network, which would be paid out to hosts on my network. Uploads would be anonymous and encrypted; neither myself nor my hosts could identify the contents.

Anybody who downloads illegal content from my network would be able to see the IP addresses of connecting hosts. Could legal action be brought against my hosts?

Similarly, if an internet proxy is used to access illegal content, can legal action be brought against that proxy?


texts: Work Policy States Employer May Access Personal Devices

texts:
My employer just sent out an email stating managers have the right to inspect electronic personal devices used for work. This includes web access to Office 365 via web browser or app installed on a personal phone or computer.
Some related questions belong more on workplace exchange. So here I'm just curious if this is legal? If it is a gray area what are the legal implications of fighting it?


texts: Our company shipped product to an address that the recipient just moved from

texts: The recipient moved and didn't notify us.  He moved 1 mile away.  Our tracking number showed delivery to his former address. The person said he went back and the new tenants said they didn't have it.  We shipped another unit to the person.  He received it.  The person said he then "convinced and persuaded" the new tenants to give him the package.  He now wants a "reward" for getting the package back.  We asked him to ship the "found" package back and he did.  He persists in getting a "reward" for getting the package back from the tenants.  Legally, what should we do?


texts: Is the creation of a cookie with a anonymous id a violation of GDPR even if it's not used until consent?

texts:
We run a website with a global user base and need to respect GDPR compliance for those visitors that the law applies too. Since we are on Shopify we are currently making a front-end request to check the visitors GDPR profile and if they are in a non-applicable area, we then load tracking (GA, Optimizely, Heap, etc.).
Unfortunately since Shopify only allows client-side manipulation, the call to check visitor GDPR requirements severely delays the JavaScript we need to run A/B testing without massive flicker.
To avoid this with other clients we have loaded Optimizely upon landing, which creates the anon cookie, however, we configure this to hold all tracking/events until consent can be given.  If it is not given the cookie is deleted and Optimizely is unloaded. Does this approach comply with GDPR?
Note: Optimizely does not track any PII or full IP addresses.


texts: Can co-parents-in-law marry? For example, a husband's father and a wife's mother

texts:
In the The Simpsons episode, Lady Bouvier's Lover, Marge's mom dates Homer's dad. Here, Homer and Marge are characters who are married.

  If he marries your mother, Marge, we'll be brother and sister!

  And then our kids, they'll be horrible freaks... with pink skin, no overbites and five fingers on each hand!

In the How I Met Your Mother, The Over-Correction, Lily's dad dates Marshall's mom. Here, Marshall and Lily also are characters who are married.

  So, we, um we just wanted to say that we're sorry for the way that we acted when we found out about you two.
  Your happiness is what is most important, so, if you two want to date, it's okay by us.
  Who said anything about dating? This is just about sex.
  We're family with benefits.

2 questions

Generally, co-siblings-in-law can marry, so Homer's brother could marry Marge's sister. But generally, could co-parents-in-law marry?

This question might be specific to a location, so if need be I choose the US. If I need to be more specific, I choose New York, the setting of How I Met Your Mother.
The thing is, if this were legal, that is step brothers and step sisters cannot marry but co-parents-in-law can marry even if it would make their respective married children step-siblings, then I think there seems to be a loophole:

If A and B are widows and dating each other and their respective children C and D are dating, then it's allowed for C and D to first be married and then for A and B to be married, BUT the reverse order isn't allowed? What logic.

Let me clarify: The spirit of the law I believe is for C and D to not be both step-siblings and married. The letter of the law prevents marriage if they are already step-siblings but does not prevent them becoming step-siblings by their widowed parents' marriage if C and D are first married. There's no issue here if the spirit of law is actually to prevent "step-sibling then married" and doesn't really care about "married and step-sibling", that is, doesn't care about "married then step-sibling". I guess such a marriage of A and B would be something like not incestuous by itself but would imply an incestuous marriage namely of C and D. So an indirectly incestuous marriage is I believe a loophole based on my belief of the spirit of certain marriage laws.

I could not seem to find any question like this online except this. What are the keywords here?

I think something about consanguinity?
I don't believe this is location-specific.


texts: Are there circumstances in which the source of drugs used by police provides a defense to those accused of crimes involving the drugs?

texts:
Can the source of illegal drugs used by law enforcement constitutionally shield those illicitly involved with those drugs from liability?

For example, if law enforcement uses a pharmacy's drugs to sell someone a trafficking amount, is that someone liable of trafficking?


texts: How to convince Google to fix a problem that caused few thousand $ damage?

texts:
Edited for less mystery. Sorry Google, I wanted to keep your name out of it.

I'm an independent software developer, a solo entrepreneur, publishing apps at Google Play. About a month ago, Google quietly disabled the in-app-purchases without any warning or notification. So while the app is still available for download, it does no longer generate any revenue. Which leads to the first two questions: Is quietly cutting off the revenue, without letting the affected party know about, a righteous behavior according to the legal conception in California? Doesn't this require at least some form of communication?

After contacting 11 (!) support staff members, one was found who started to work on the problem. But for three weeks, nothing has changed. The in app purchasements are still disabled. Contacting support just resulted in pointless, generic replies. Nobody ever answered any questions. Nothing was accomplished. Long story short, by today a full month of revenue is lost, while communication with all the support staff was a total waste of time.

Considering that we're talking about Google, this appears to be a extraordinary long chain of persistent incompetence. Hence these questions:

What can be done against it?
Is there any legal way to convince (force) them to fix the problem? ASAP?!?
At what amount of time wasted (or financial damage done) would it be justified to demand compensation? Right now we're talking about a few thousand euros in damage.
At what amount of time wasted (or financial damage done) would it be considered malice rather then just incompetence?
What course of action do you recommend?

Any advise on that matter is welcome. Thank you.


texts: In Texas is it okay for a person to post photos on a commercial website of private property without the owner's permission?

texts: We hired someone to build decks on our property.  He did not do a good job, finish the job, etc.  He took photos and posted them on his company website.  Is there anything I can do to have them removed?


texts: How to determine which court to apply to when parties are in different areas?

texts:
I am considering taking an employer to court. It would be regarding whether or not I'm a contractor or employee (and thus entitled to different benefits).

I am not sure which court I would apply to. I work in BC, the office I work for is in Ontario, but I believe the companies HQ is in Quebec. Which jurisdiction would this fall under?


texts: How is the liability part in a software license meaningful for open licenses?

texts:
The core text of the WTFPL (Do What The Fuck You Want to Public License) is short:

0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.

This is in sharp contrast with another open license such as MIT (and then all the other I saw), which includes capitalized wording such as

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, (...)

This is similar to giving a hammer and needing to state to one is not responsible if the taker uses it to hit their head with.
My question is: are the no-warranty disclaimers actually useful, or is it just a historical artifact? Were there cases when someone actually sued an open source software author for misusing their freely acquired code?
(if the question requires to be localized, I am interested in the EU and US)


texts: Open Source Software and Legal Responsibility for Software Content

texts:
I'm working with a few folks on updating some serious software for mechanism design. Engineered mechanisms have existed in the world now for a few hundred years or so.

The science here isn't really new.  We're debating bringing out some software for mechanism design and synthesis.  We are using really smart algorithms based on physics in the natural world.  No magic, just brilliant use working with the existing laws of nature.  One of our concerns is the potential for lawsuits by users of the software. We're not sure if we should share our algorithms openly or if we should seek to profit from them.

For example: Joe Cheap Carnival company invents a new wild ride using our awesome cool mechanism synthesis software.  They have Podunk Assembly Company manufacture it with cheapest materials possible with really poor quality control. The ride goes up at a local carnival and oops it fails, and someone gets seriously hurt.

Here are my questions:

If our software was used by Joe Cheap Carnival's design team to  synthesize a mechanism used in the faulty carnival ride, and our software encompassed the use hidden and encoded algorithms, could we be held liable for the failure?
If our software was absolutely open source (github), with all algorithms and logic flow in full public view, could we be sued? (Does this change the nature of "responsibility"? )

My questions relates to:  Can the open source process be used as a legal protection against a potential lawsuit for a software company?

Update (post DaleM response):

I'm not sure I fully understand the "duty of care" description.  We make software that tells engineers how machines move.  Its a similar function to what you might read in an academic text, albeit in a much easier intuitive form to use. (Drag and drop is much easier than reading a chapter of text then doing mathematical problems, even though exactly the same concepts are being used.) The function of our code is to accurately represent the laws of physics.   We don't tell somebody what to design, we tell them if you want this particular output, here are a variety of ways to achieve that output.

Hmmm... Lets say someone wants to design a six bar mechanism to move an object in a 720 degree circle and deliver it as fast as possible we can help with that.  Fancy Machine works uses that model to deliver bolts to an assembly line for rapid manufacturing.  Max g forces observed on the bolt is 8 G's.

Joe's Cheap Carnival decides to use that exact same mechanism to create an exciting ride for its customers. Its ten times the scale of the bolt delivery machine, but its the same basic mechanism design. Again, Max g forces observed on the customer sitting in the ride is 8 G's.

Is our design unsafe?  The bolts seem to get there just fine, people, no so much.  We profess no responsibility (same as an academic text book author on mechanism design.)  In fact that might be a better question. Have any academic folks been sued for academic publications providing "how-to" instructions?

If Joes Cheap Carnival team designs a unsafe ride with a mechanism design textbook as a reference, can the university who published that textbook be held liable?

Apologies if I'm not using the correct language in the legal arena.  And many thanks to you for your responses.


texts: What are UK Business-to-Business rights in regard to inadequate quality customised goods?

texts:
My partner is a wedding photographer and she ordered some branded USB drives (credit card style) from a reputable printing company.

I say reputable because they are one of the main players in the UK, and she has used them to print wedding albums before, which have always been of reasonable quality.

However, the quality of the USB drives is shocking. The 'print' is ok, but the base product is terrible. They look really cheap, the material has a poor finish and there is a small gap where the USB section swivels around. Also the USB section doesn't fit snugly into the rest of the card when closed, which means the printed image is not lined up correctly.

We would like a refund if possible. A replacement would be satisfactory if the quality were right, but I suspect this is the standard base product that they use and that any replacement would have the same defects.

The goods were ordered over the internet (which would normally allow a return period after inspection).  But I have read that normal consumer rights are not applicable when ordering 'customised' goods. However, the Sale of Goods Act does state that the quality of goods sold must be satisfactory.

I would appreciate any advice, but my specific question is:

What consumer rights do we have (UK) in regard to customised goods where the quality is inadequate?


texts: What information can I ask as the owner of a website to the clients of site?

texts:
I am not knowledgeable when it comes to IP and copyrights ! Any replies are greatly appreciated!

I am planing to go on Kickstarter with a website that offers speech synthesis to its users. I want legal protection for my users and myself. I do not want the software to be used by others in a malicious fashion. My thoughts to limit that would be ask the site users to register with me using information that will deflect them from being bad. I have three questions.

What kind of information can I legally ask of my users, proof of employment, job letter, banking info ?
Most importantly how can this information be kept safely, I am just a c++ programmer. Are there agencies that will keep this information safe or is it on me to safe guard?
The software can make copies of all synthesized speech summited to it. I can see it milliseconds before anyone else. Can I copyright on the fly or make the user sign away the right to copyright to me?

The software is implemented in a S.A.A.S. model (Software As A Service) like photoshop and the rest of CCS. In this model all speech simulations are conducted on a my backend and then submitted to the user. It features a synthesizer interface for the client to play around with and set conditions.


texts: Helping a friend = Too many fines and not enough money

texts:
A insured a motor bike for B, who signed it over to A. Since then, A has gotten close to $1000 in photo radar tickets.
After multiple attempts to stop B from speeding, A cancelled the insurance. After A received 2 more tickets, A took the license plate and told B that A needs the tickets paid.
B won't pay, so A said he would sell the bike to cover it. Now hypothetically it's not A's bike, but A is the registered owner of it. (Because B now has insurance from a different company, A assumes B forged A's signature.)
Can B do that?  What legal options does A have? A cannot afford the tickets and doesn't want any marks against him for whatever could happen license wise. (A only has a learners class 7 and is worried that it will affect his drivers class 5.)


texts: Appeal from a verdict of acquittal in Canada

texts:
Supreme court of Canada: R. v. Jarvis

This seems to say that the Crown appealed from a verdict of acquittal in a criminal case. It is reported to be a judge, not a jury, that acquitted the defendant. Would that mean that this was a bench trial, or just that the judge decided that the defendant should be acquitted even if the facts were as alleged by the Crown so that no jury deliberations were needed? Are verdicts of acquittal in Canada generally appealable, or might that apply only to bench trials, or otherwise only to acquittals by a judge rather than by the jury?


texts: Why don't attorneys like to offer subjective advice?

texts:
In another question, a commenter mentioned to me that attorneys 'are bad enough about giving concrete legal advice, let alone subjective legal advice.'

He was referring to my question of "is it wrong for an attorney to advise someone to do X because the fine for X is only $Y, and it is worth it to take the fine?"

I had supposed that attorneys don't like to offer subjective advice like that because it would be a violation of their license terms.

See my question here.

Why don't attorneys like to offer subjective legal advice?


texts: How to protect computer science project from being stolen by "employees" as an individual

texts:
I am developing an online platform for renting computer hardware and I've reached the point where I need to create the website. I do not have the required expertise to do that, so I thought I would hire someone to do it. I am currently an individual working at this in my spare time, but I would like to create a business wrapped around this platform at some point.

So far I've been working alone because I was afraid of so called "employees" stealing parts of the project and claiming it as their own. I cannot proceed like this any longer, since the project has grown to a size which I can't handle alone anymore.

I would like to hire someone to help me develop it. What steps should I follow to keep my project safe? Can I somehow make sure that what the said partner is working on will only be used in this specific project, and if given access to existing parts of the project, he/she would not reuse them in their own projects?

Note: It is my first time here and I have no knowledge regarding copyrights at all, please excuse any obvious questions.


texts: Can a real-life example be used to describe the difference between common and civil law?

texts:
I've done a lot of research into trying to understand the difference between the two systems, but their definitions are so verbose, and without examples it's more challenging. The only thing I was able to get from them was that case law was based on public opinion while civil law was based on statutes.
So, using this real-life example, here, how would this case play out under common law instead of civil law?

Would the court interpret the law based on popular opinion instead of what is strictly written? I heard that courts cannot rewrite the laws. That's congress's job. They can only interpret the laws.


texts: Is it legal to reference proprietary OS icons in an app?

texts:
I am using an open source app for MacOS. This app is also distributed through the Apple App Store. This app is meant to replace some built in OS functionality.

It recently came to my attention that this app, rather than provide it's own icons, references icons that are provided with the OS. Keep in mind that the app doesn't redistribute the Apple icons, it just references their location.

Is this a violation of Apple intellectual property rights? Does it violate any Apple developer agreement that would have been required to publish to the app store?


texts: Should I go to law school? What do I need to know?

texts:
I'm thinking about enrolling in law school, but I haven't taken the LSAT yet or done any serious research regarding schools, career tracks, etc.
My question is: what are some resources I should be looking into?
It's worth noting I'm 29 years old and not currently enrolled in college, though I do have a bachelor's and master's.


texts: Mention of open source license in product

texts:
We have a product that heavily relies on open source licenses like Apache 2.0, GPL etc.

Our product is a service that we host inhouse and our customers use (like Basecamp), like a Saas, so nobody would ever get the source code.

I know I have to include license notice of the used framework, but where exactly do include this notice? Do I put a special page IN the product? Should I include it in sales agreements? Or maybe just on a section on our product website?


texts: What is the name of the transverse white line that separates different time-limited parking zones?

texts:
I parked on a street that has 2 parking zones: all-day (with bi-weekly street sweeping) and two-hour. Painted on the street is a single six-inch-wide six-foot-long transverse white line that, I believe, separates the zones.

I parked on the "all day" side of this line, but received a ticket for breaching the two-hour conditions, citing "parking within 100 feet of the two-hour zone sign". I have previously appealed a similar ticket for parking in exactly the same place, and succeeded in obtaining a statement that this parking spot was part of the all-day zone.

What is the name of the transverse white line so I can talk with intelligence? Is it legally defined anywhere? I couldn't find it in the CA MUTCD or Google.


texts:
If a police officer gives a motorist a traffic ticket, is that technically considered an arrest?

I know that some police behaviors are as follows:

Detaining — with reasonable suspicion
Investigating — with reasonable suspicion
Questioning — potential suspects or witnesses
Arresting — with probable cause

During a traffic stop, the police officer clearly has probable cause sufficient for an arrest because s/he presumably witnessed the offense.

Is there a separate category specifically for traffic stops? Or is that considered a subset of the broader category of making an arrest?

The reason for this question is the language in this California statute:

CA Codes (veh:40300-40313)

  Whenever any person is arrested for any violation of this
  code, not declared to be a felony, the arrested person shall be taken
  without unnecessary delay before a magistrate within the county in
  which the offense charged is alleged to have been committed and who
  has jurisdiction of the offense and is nearest or most accessible
  with reference to the place where the arrest is made in any of the
  following cases:
  (a) When the person arrested fails to present his driver's license
  or other satisfactory evidence of his identity for examination.
  (b) When the person arrested refuses to give his written promise
  to appear in court.
  (c) When the person arrested demands an immediate appearance
  before a magistrate.
  (d) When the person arrested is charged with violating Section
  23152.

See this SO question and answer.


texts: After purchasing an item, then being issued a refund the item then arrived

texts:
I purchased an item at distance (in this case online), this item did not arrive until 2 weeks after the end of the delivery window. Towards the end of that 2 week period the seller was kind enough to offer me a refund, an offer which I accepted. However the original item has now arrived, more than 2 weeks late.

Given that I now have my money and the item, am I legally obliged to do either of the following?

Return the item
Pay the seller the refunded amount

In case it has any bearing on the answer, the item in question has value of the order of £5.


texts: What are my rights if my neighbor is belligerent in his own home?

texts: I live in a condo and my neighbor with a shared wall has violent and profane outbursts. We believe he has a mental problem and has episodes of loud yelling and slamming doors/throwing furniture. It happens all hours of the day and occasionally wakes us up at night. We know he's not well and he probably cannot control his outbursts, but it's disturbing for us and at times scary. He has never made a direct threat towards us, so do we have any rights here? We just purchased our unit so selling and moving is not an option right now. Also, not sure what my first action would be, police or HOA board? Any advice is appreciated.


texts: My deceased father wrote three novels and my sister and I now possess the manuscripts for two. What copyright law applies if we were to publish these works? He has been dead for thirteen years and left his wife, our stepmother as his sole heir, though the manuscripts are not mentioned in the Will. Would they be copyright to us, to him, to her? Does possession of the physical manuscripts matter?


texts: Where is the full list of Fillings for In re: Enforcement of Election Laws in the Georgia State Court?

texts:
Background
One of the many suits that the Republican party and Donald Trump filed after November 3rd in Georgia was In re: enforcement of election laws and securing ballots cast or received after 7:00pm on November 3, 2020
.  I found text of the petition linked above as well as the judge's dismissal, but this portion of the case mentioned on Buzzfeed was a part that I could not find documentation for:

A judge in Chatham County, Georgia, which includes Savannah, dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit on Thursday that attempted to sow doubt about whether election officials were properly setting aside absentee ballots that arrived after the state’s Election Day deadline. The campaign presented two witnesses who said they were worried about a break in the chain of custody for 53 ballots. Under questioning by the county’s lawyer, they admitted they didn’t have evidence that those ballots had arrived late, however. A county official testified that the ballots had, in fact, arrived on time and were handled separately because they needed to be specially checked and entered into a computer system.

I just wanted to see the more detailed reasonings that the Judge dismissed the case based on the affidavit attached and the corresponding process of the court after the petition.
Question
Where can I find the detailed documentation for In re: Enforcement of Election Laws in the Georgia State Court?


texts: What is the legal status of intimate photos sent to your (now) ex-partner after a break-up?

texts:
When I met my now ex-boyfriend, we were both already over 18. I took digital nude pictures of myself and transferred them electronically to him, i. e. I was sexting him. He didn't specifically ask for them, I just wanted to pleasure him. There wasn't much accompanying text to the nudes.

Now, after the break-up, I thought about these photos. I wonder who owns them now and if I could make him delete them. But I'm not planning to take any legal steps, I'm just curious. I'm also not aware of him posting them anywhere and I do not suspect him to, so this is not about revenge porn.

I found an article on Vice.com, but it is a bit unclear:

  According to Olivarius, you may have a case if a former partner refuses to delete your nudes after you’ve asked them to, but proving guilt in court in this situation will be extremely difficult.

What is the legal status of nude pictures sent to a now ex-partner after a break-up?

I saw this earlier question but it doesn't contain an answer to my question as the cases discussed are quite different.


texts: GDPR - am I a data controller as an app owner if I do not have access to the data?

texts:
Let's assume that I created a mobile app for iPhone that is tracking rides on a bike so that means the app is collecting GPS coordinates of the phone and later this mobile app shows some statistics about that. Also let's assume that the application keeps this gps data locally on the mobile phone only. So the app is processing that data in the way I programmed it but I as a person do not have access to that data. I assume in such case I am not the data controller according to GDPR because I do not have access to that data is that correct?
What if additionally to that I will program my app for example in such way that it will sometimes send current GPS coordinate to an online service controlled by external company such as Apple in order to transform GPS coordinate to a name of a street and city so that app can display street/city name to the user (reverse geocoding service). But still my app would send this data directly to Apple server so I will still not have any access to that data. Does this change anything and does GDPR now apply to me? Am I becoming data controller in such case if I have no idea when the app sends that GPS coordinate data to Apple and I do not know what coordinates it sends? I also do not know if Apple save this request on their servers or if they just automatically convert received gps coordinates to a name and return the answer without saving the request. I guess probably they do not save it but I can't be sure as I have no access to Apple service code. Or perhaps Apple is the data controller in such case or nobody is the data controller and GDPR does not apply at all?


texts: If a country gives visa after travel date can I take any action or claim any compensation?

texts: I had applied for a VISA for USA. During application, I'd given my dates of travel. However, my VISA was issued hours after the scheduled departure of my flight due to which I had to reschedule the flight, incurring a significant monetary loss. I'm an Indian citizen and it was a conference VISA, if that's important. Is there any way I can ask/seek for compensation? Do VISA services of other countries fall under consumer forum laws?


texts:
How many presidents have sued people, corporations, banks, for defamation, for libel, etc. (for any reason at all).

NOT how many have been sued... The other way around.


texts: My hard drive data was lost during a software upgrade; can I sue?

texts: The recent system update named High Sierra from Apple Inc. encrypted my entire disk and resulted in data loss. They didn't inform me that the update would encrypt the entire disk and that there was a risk that it may fail; it did fail, and my data is lost. Is there a way to sue Apple?


texts: Is it legal to enter school from my garden?

texts:
My back garden is back to back with my children's school.The fence belongs to me and there is no fence from the school at this side. My question is if it is legal for me to enter the school from my garden to pick-up or drop-off my kids?

My logic is this: as the garden is back to back with school's open area, which everyone can access while they are in the school. I am allowed to be in school to pick-up or drop-off my kids, and I am allowed to get to the fence of my garden (from school side), and then as the fence belongs to me, so I am allowed to climb over it to enter my own house?


texts: What does it mean that Scotland is a civil law jurisdiction?

texts:
I have learnt recently that Scotland is a civil law jurisdiction (when it comes to private law at least), but one that doesn't have a civil code.

I have also been taught that the main difference between common law and civil law is that common law uses a primarily bottom-up approach in which one starts from the facts of a case and works their way up to precedents, whereas civil law uses a primarily top-down approach in which one starts from the law and works their way down to the various situations that can arise.

With this in mind, I find it difficult to understand how civil law can be applied without a civil code. How does it work in practice?


texts: Cutting grass of vacant house next to me

texts: Am I able to send the city a bill for cutting the grass of the vacant house next to me? It's been condemned and was supposed to be torn down last June. I can't let the grass get too high because it attracts rodents and all sorts of things and being in the city our houses are close together so I don't want those things coming into my house. I've been mowing the grass now for the past 3 years and I was told that I could send the city a bill for the mowing. Is this true? (Akron, Ohio)


texts: UK, Office of National Statistics, personal or organisational right to deny data requests

texts:
In the UK, the Office for National Statistics regularly

  produces and publishes a wide range of the information about the United Kingdom that can be used for social and economic policy-making as well as painting a portrait of the country as its population evolves over time. (from Wikipedia article)

My question is whether the status of the ONS as an executive office of a non-ministerial department (reporting directly to Parliament) gives it the right to request (/demand) data (for example, for the production of a particular indicator that has been requested by Parliament), or advice, without paying for it.

As has been pointed out in the comments, the UK National Census may be one example of an ONS survey where a citizen does not have the right to refuse to answer. I am specifically interested in whether the ONS has the general right to insist on answers/demand other data (i.e. not tied to any specific named survey), without paying for them.


texts:
A sports teacher slapped my friend twice in the face in front of the class for not attending the sports class.

Should this be allowed? Tomorrow we are going to be on a strike so what points and facts in the light of law I should put on the table.


texts: Conflict of Interest for Private Consulting While Working at Company in Same Industry?

texts:
I have plans to branch out into private consulting in the field I am currently employed in. Several exisiting clients have approached me expressing strong interest in working with me privately, based on the help I have been able to provide ... especially when concerned they have not received the same level of service from their assigned resources.  As this area of consulting could (and often does)  take place in the evenings and weekends, and to be open and fair, I previously approached the head of my division to discuss the option of providing this service to those dissatisfied clients - offering to do so after normal business hours.  The response I received was that to do so would give my employers ammunition to fire me. I have worked here 12 years and have witnessed the evidence of the spiteful nature of my employers: black-listed in company and surrounding community; refusal to provide recommendations; delay or "creative processing" of exit pay, etc.  However, there are several people at our company who have private businesses in the specific field they are working in.

I've considered restricting my consulting practice to those clients who can show they have no active business with the company where I work.  Again, this consulting would take place outside my current work hours.  I see this as a way around the "conflict of interest" issue, but am fearful my employers would still use this against me. Is this a subjective matter that can be handled according to the discretion of employers, or is there a legal line drawn here?  What legal standing do I have in this situation?


texts: The Kampala Amendments, Germany, and the White Helmets

texts:
(as a legal question, I understand that some follow only one of the two main narratives currently running on world events!)

Annex I 2.2(g) states that:

  (g) The sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands, groups,
  irregulars or mercenaries, which carry out acts of armed force against
  another State of such gravity as to amount to the acts listed above,
  or its substantial involvement therein.

counts as aggression. (not that this was necessary since Nicaragua vs USA (1986) said the same thing).

Now I understand that if the armed action is extraterritorial to the funding state, as is the case with Germany's (et al's - but they never ratified the amendments) financing, only a state can bring a claim.

However, if members of this group get resettled within Germany, can a private German citizen bring the same claim against their government?

Or would it be necessary for any member of a group that violated the above quote to first carry out acts equivalent to state force within Germany itself?


texts:
If someone wanted to 'fork' a private company's license, could they legally do so?

That is to say, if, for instance, the company Grammarly found that significant portions of the company Evernote's EULA was worded better for their own use than the license they had been using, could they copy significant portions of it, legally, for their own use?

Sub question: are any or all legal documents copyright?


texts: Is an SDPX header legally equivalent to a license header?

texts:
I consider to use SDPX headers in stead of the full license headers in my code. However, I wonder whether this is actually legally equivalent.
So, for context, this is the SDPX license list: https://spdx.org/licenses/
The header of my code would then not look like this:
# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
# distributed with this work for additional information
# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
#  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
# specific language governing permissions and limitations
# under the License.

but like this:
# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

I can't really find anything on the web page of SDPX on this. The license header is pretty obvious in stating the main terms and conditions of the license, in a human readable way, while SDPX defines a key one can use to refer to a license, but then you have to know the convention.
So I could imagine they may be  legally different.  I know there is no such thing as international copyright law, but it would be useful to have an idea why those are or are not equivalent and what typically differences would be. Would there?
Of course, this is all apart from having a LICENSE file shipped with the code, and probably other requirements that are put on my code if I want to correctly use SPDX.


texts: What would be required to prosecute a person attempting internet fraud in Nigeria?

texts:
I've recently been emailing back-and-forth with a spammer from Nigeria. Background: After he spammed RPG.SE, I decided to have a little fun emailing back and forth with him Here's a transcript of our conversation.

He is attempting to get me to pay $170, USD, for a "vampire initiation fee". He has provided me with his email address, phone number, and location, down to the city (Edo State, Nigeria).

What would be required to prosecute a person who is attempting such fraud in Nigeria? What sort of evidence would need to be given to the police?


texts: how can a creditor prepare for someone's bankruptcy?

texts:
My brother's lawyer has recommended he file for bankruptcy, and he owes me a considerable amount of money. I wanted to know what steps I can take now to protect my interests.

The majority of the money I've loaned him is clearly documented - a mortgage for a portion of his primary residence and several loans for which we have a written agreement.

But others are a little less well documented.

He owes me my share of the income from rental properties we co-own. He doesn't calculate profit/loss until several years after the activity, and by that time he's already spent the money on personal expenditures. He does provide me with documentation of the income I would have received, so that I can pay my taxes.
When he needs money quickly, at his request I have made sham purchases on my credit card to his S-Corp for services that are, of course, never performed. These are easily identifiable on my credit card statements, but he never in writing said that they're loans; typically he verbally states he intends to pay me back "in a few days".
He is the executor for our late father's estate, but hasn't settled it yet. In the meantime, he has made purchases on our late father's credit cards and has liquidated some of our father's stock, funneling the proceeds through a joint bank account they have that's still open. He's taken less than his fair share of the estate, but I wonder whether bankruptcy will let him avoid paying any of this back, lowering the value of the estate for the rest of us.

What steps should I take now, before he files?


texts: Does GDPR include UK customers, or not anymore?

texts: Now that Brexit happened, does GDPR include UK customers, or not anymore?


texts: Can a judge give a direct order to a police officer?

texts:
I'm a layperson. I have seen judges tell police officers to take an action (ex.evict someone or handcuff a defendant). Are police officers required to follow instructions from judges?

I've always thought so, but then I read Law 101 By Jay M. Feinman, page 20. Please help me understand what this means:


texts: What bodies of laws protect against the disclosure of private encryption keys?

texts:
I am interested in US law as well as European law, and curious about international/other countries law, if applicable.

It is generally accepted that if you somehow find a private key (let's assume by reverse-engineering for now), you can't publish it. For example, this question takes it as a given.

However, I don't see what exactly in the law prevents from doing so. If you are given a piece of hardware or software that contains the key, it actually seems to me that there is nothing to prevent the key from being redistributed?

As far as I know copyright requires the material to be a creative work, with some originality. While the originality could be argued, I am not sure the creative work part would held. Moreover, it is well established that facts are not copyrightable. Can't a key be considered a fact?

The key can certainly not be patented, but it can be considered a trade secret. As this trade secret was not acquired trough unlawful means (such as an NDA breach), couldn't it be disclosed?

I am interested in legal precedents on the matter as well, if you know of any.


texts: Is it trademark infringement if you put the word 'the' in front?

texts:
There is a trademarked company by the name "good vibe tribe", registered for "Hosting an online community web site featuring the bringing of people together for the common good and challenges them to do good deeds in their community".
Is "the good vibe tribe" sign different enough to be legally sold on my print on demand business merch?


texts: "Etsy" plans as download - license, restrictions?

texts:
"Etsy" is an online platform designed to allow individuals to sell models via a standardized platform.

Some sellers off downloadable files, containing plans to recreate those models. Example, rubber band gun

"Etsy" doesn't seem to specify which license those files are distrubuted under, and no "shop policies" are specified.

What would I be allowed to do with those plans, and the models I may choose to build myself?

While immoral, what may prevent me from reuploading the same and monetizing them? Would I even have to provide attribution?


texts:
I am contemplating going to the courts over an issue that has persistent for decades in my area. Cattle rustling has really affected the livelihoods of the people of Samburu North Constituency (Northern Kenya).

Over the last two decades since 1990s the government of Kenya has engaged he issue in different approaches and currently we have 3 military camps in Baragoi area , in my view they have failed to protect the people and their property. This is an area with two warring communities (Samburu (maasai) and the Turkana. I can state with facts that the samburu community has lost almost 1/8 of its young generation (the morans) through this problem. For example in the year 2012, 12 youths died in one incident , in 2014 again another 13 died in similar incident. In 2015 one of my relatives was shot while grazing alongside 3 others and all died and about 500 heads of cattle driven away by the bandits from the other community.  Just a week a go 2 people died again due to exchange of fire, this time the issue was grazing area brought the quarrel.

There are contless other small incidents that led to loss of life between this communities. Even in the centre of the shopping centre (Baragoi) you can be shot at night---- this happened before.

The setting is one side of the trading centre is occupied by the Samburu (the majority) and the other the Turkana (minority) perceived to to immigrants from Turkana county years ago. We are in Samburu County (since the 2010 constitution before it was Samburu District) .

The Samburu would claim that this is there ancestral land and the Turkana would use the gun and advance their agenda of acquiring more grazing land ( this they have succeeded to some extent) ; the Samburu have long accepted this because the present Turkana generation in Baragoi is actually have birth right here and in the spirit of the 2010 constitution also any Kenyan can live anywhere in Kenya. www.kenyalaw.org:8181/exist/kenyalex/actview.xql?actid=Const2010

The government also lost about 40 police officers in the 2012 incident in suguta valley. They were in pursuit of cattle stolen from the Samburu people.

I wanted to go to court on the above issue and atleast sue the government and reguest them to compensate the poverty stricken people due to the loss of their livelihoods (cows) to the perennial attackers.  No such thing has been done so far .  I can extract all the families affected in the police OB with support of the community administration.

My question is , does this issue carry some weight to be listened by the courts? The 2010 Kenyan constitution is a near to perfect constitution (borrowed from the developed countries) and  one of the main work of the head of state in the constitution is to safeguard the peoples lives and property. Am not a lawyer but i will get a pro-bono lawyer.

I want to seek for compensation of loss of livelihoods. The people in those manyatta have been reduced to just paupers.


texts:
During a discussion, someone explained that rape is sexual assault. During his description, he stated, "assault = rape," but in context (he was differentiating between assault and harassment), he meant "sexual assault = rape." Someone else mistook his statement and thought that he meant assault was rape. In an attempt to clarify, I created a diagram with three concentric circles. The innermost circle was rape, the middle circle was sexual assault, and the outermost circle was assault. My thinking was that:

all rape is sexual assault, but not all sexual assault is rape.
sexual assault is (a type of) assault of a sexual nature.

Looking at definitions in Wikipedia (are there better options?) it appears to me that this is an accurate depiction of the relationship of these three terms.

assault - American common law has defined assault as an attempt to commit a battery.

battery - In the United States, criminal battery, or simple battery, is the use of force against another, resulting in harmful, offensive or sexual contact.

sexual assault - Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.

Is my understanding of these relationships correct?


texts: Is recording a neighbors yard legal in Colorado, USA?

texts:
In my neighborhood, the neighbor has about 3 dogs. At least one is outside and barking, seemingly all the time. (Earliest is 5-6am. Latest is midnight.) The only "authority" in the community is the municipalities Animal Control department.

The man who lives there is in his 80's and is quite hard of hearing. His daughter lives there, at least part of the time, and is quite confrontational with anyone who talks with her about it.

Animal Control says the burden of proof is on me.

Animal Control suggested that we set up an camera and film their back yard.

Q: Is this legal? Do I have any other recourse?


texts: Is it legal to post my experience about my landlord?

texts:
I had a horrible experience, wanted to move out and the landlord reactivated the ad.

Is it legal to post a comment to highlight my negative experiences? To me it seems like giving 1 star to a product on Amazon.


texts: Ruling striking down the Affordable Care Act

texts: What does Friday's ruling mean? I thought the Supreme Court already upheld the individual mandate and most aspects of the law.


texts: Is it legal for an employer to implant chips in the body of employees?

texts:
It is being reported in the media that employers in the UK are planning to microchip employees.

Can such a procedure be legal?

A qualified medical professional would only be allowed to perform the procedure on someone who has given informed and freely-given consent, which cannot presumably be given if the consequence of refusing is to suffer penalties at work.

If it's not performed by a qualified medical professional, then wouldn't they be guilty of common assault? The only defence I can see against a charge of assault would be consent, and again, consent cannot be said to be freely given.


texts:
I often read in the "papers" that a suspect is charged with multiple counts of the same  crime. Latest example are the parents of Andrew Freund, according to this article, each parent is facing "five counts of first-degree murder".

They allegedly committed only one murder, where are the other 4 charges coming from? Isn't that a double jeopardy - getting changed multiple times for the same crime?


texts:
Is evidence obtained under false pretences admissable in a criminal trial?

For example, imagine a policeman impersonates a computer technician to gain admittance to the suspect's home in order to "fix" the suspect's computer and in the course of doing this sees incriminating data.

Can the policeman testify in court against the suspect as to what he saw on the computer?


texts: Is using proxies to circumvent rate limit to scrape data legal in India?

texts:
I'm in India, and this is what the Indian Information Act of 2000/66F says on the matter:

Indian Information Act 2000/66F
Punishment for cyber terrorism.– Whoever,– with intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people by–
(i) denying or cause the denial of access to any person authorised to access computer resource; or
(ii) attempting to penetrate or access a computer resource without authorisation or exceeding authorised access; or
(iii) introducing or causing to introduce any computer contaminant,

Since the administrator of the API has authorised only a certain number of API calls for a network, can it be construed as a violation of 66F clause 2 if we try to circumvent the rate limit even though the information is on public domain?


texts: Is it lawful to discount products below its cost to sell other products on the same sale?

texts: Suppose a company in Singapore buys some hardware for $100, develops some software for it, and wishes to sell the integrated solution for $200 to a foreign customer.  The invoice lists the hardware for $1, and the software for $199.  Thus, the company does not lose money on the sale.  Is it lawful for them to price their product this way?  What law does this scenario involve?  Finance?  Business?  Taxation?  Custom?  Thanks.


texts: Manipulating Images for Promotion & Potentially Profit

texts:
Based in UK.
I am a graphic designer and during lockdown have been practicing my photoshop skills by digitally manipulating images of some local 'celebrities'.
The digital manipulations mostly involve adding tattoos to the person, changing their skin and appearance dramatically but the person is still recognisable.
Having shown these image manipulations to some friends they have suggested I setup an Instagram to promote my skills, and potentially take on paid requests and / or sell my existing work.
This is just a hobby so I would rather not get sued! I'm not sure if I need to contact the person in the image directly, or the owner of the image, not even sure how to find that out.
I've read that as long as I make it clear that the image is not official or linked to the person it should be ok. Also if the image is a parody or a criticism, or something that is highly transformative, that's also ok. Would my image manipulations fall within this category?
My questions are, what steps must I take in order to ensure the following is all legal;

setup an Instagram and post my photoshop work
accept commissions / requests and send this image back to a customer in digital format
sell my existing work

Any advice would be appreciated!


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

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


texts: Can I be sued for denying a tenant on the basis of income?

texts: I am a first-time landlord in Philadelphia, PA, USA looking to rent out my condo. As would be expected, I am looking to rent to tenants who are financially secure and wouldn't have any issue paying the rent. Ideally, I would like the tenants combined income to be at least 2x the monthly rent (3x being preferable). My question is, can I be sued for denying tenants explicitly because of their income? Or do I need to deny them for another reason? Or should I just ghost them? Not sure what the right approach here is, as both of the last two suggestions just seem cruel.


texts: Why can't I add a governing law to my terms of service to avoid GDPR?

texts: I've heard from fairly reliable sources that you can't avoid GDPR by using your website's terms of service as way to circumvent that law. From what I have seen online, if your website serves European users, it must obey that law. However, if a website is based in the US and the terms of service say that the law governing the terms is US law, how can GDPR have any affect? I'm not a lawyer, but I've signed many contracts in my life and nearly all of them have some form of "governing law" clause.


texts: What happens with the decedents' estate when a person dies whilst in a rolling contract?

texts: If a person dies whilst in a rolling contract, and payments are still taken from the account for a few months,would the company be legally forced to return the money to the account?


texts: HOA restricting owner displaying "For Sale" sign?

texts:
Can a home owners association (HOA) restrict or forbid the display of a "For Sale" sign by an owner selling their unit:

In the window of a unit?
On a posted sign, with the usual pole planted on the front edge of the association’s property (common area)?

In particular I am interested in Washington state of the US. I looked through RCW 64.34, but I have not found this issue addressed. Also, there a difference in this regard between the old Condo act and the new Condo act regarding this issue?


texts: Can I get prosecuted in the US for buying and using a stolen gift card?

texts:
I bought a $30 restaurant gift card code the other day for $10 from some online vendor and used it at the store as well as my credit card to pay for the rest (so it does connect to me).

It wasn't a physical card -- it was just a code I received digitally and gave the cashier. Today I found out that the gift card might've been stolen, hence why the vendor was selling it so cheap. I have no clue who owned the card or where it was purchased, but if I could pay the owner back I certainly would.

What are the chances that I could get in trouble? Should I worry, and is there anything I can do about it?


texts: Question about using Wikipedia content. About "CC-BY-SA" license. About its "Copyleft/Share Alike" part

texts:
What I want to do:
Let's assume that there is article, on Wikipedia, that is under CC-BY-SA license. For exemple "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pies,_tarts_and_flans". Assume next that I want to get from that article only table that contain list of pies. I want to get only it data (only facts, only copying "words" from the "name", "origin" and "type" columns, but not from "description" column ), without pictures. Let's assume that I want to create pies database using data from this tables. And than I want to build some website, in which user can get "list of random pies". This "random pies" will, of course, be gotten from that database. At one time, user will get only some limited amount of such pies. For example - generating list of 10 pies - by one pressing of button "generate random pies".

What I already found:
This type of use, in general, is linked to license on which that article are licensed. This Wikipedia article have license "CC-BY-SA". Also on wikipedia present detailed article on reusing Wikipedia content, where described how to correctly satisfy license terms.
So for now I understand that I need to: make attribution, indicate changes, stick "licensing notice" of used article, and also satisfy "Copyleft/Share Alike" part. Please keep this last, "Share Alike", part in mind.

Also license notes from official site:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

So, here is my question:
Trying to satisfy "Copyleft/Share Alike" part:
 - Am I obligated to make that database of pies publicly available, and with this also license them in the same license? For example, am I obligated to make a button - "download pies database as some file". Or I don't need to do this because I don't share the database directly. I just use some parts of it at once, in not direct way.

What I think about that:
Problem is that, that I really need to apply the same license on that database if I will be sharing it publicly. If I made it public. Because this database is "build upon", or is something similar to "adaptation" (https://creativecommons.org/faq/#what-is-an-adaptation), of that table ("ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original." (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)). But I don't know, if giving to users of that site, random parts of that pies database - will this be considered as if database is shared publicly.

And I knew that there was such statement that there no copyrights on information. But there copyrights on databases, and also - is this creation of database will be considered as just use of information, but not other things from used tables.

So my question is merely about "Copyleft/Share Alike" part. Merely about of obligation of making database public.


texts: What are the consequences of failing to pay a citation for expired vehicle registration in Washington?

texts: What can happen? A license suspension, or the involvement of debt collection agencies?


texts: Document license that explicitly forbids attribution of derived work

texts:
First of all: I hope this fits on this stackexchange. Sorry if it doesn't...

The title says it all. I want to write a document and I would like to put an open license on it (i.e. do whatever you want). However I am by no means willing to take any responsibility for derived work and would like the license to reflect that by requiring that any derived work not be attributed to me. So essentially I want a license that says:

"Do whatever you want with this text. Distribute it as you like. The only requirement I have is that you remove my name from any derived work".

Is that actually possible at all? Or should I then essentially pick a license that forbids derived work altogether?


texts: Is whistleblowing on a violation of union contracts illegal, even if t's done by a union non-member?

texts:
Suppose there were rumours at a company they would potentially shut down a unionised facility to shift production to a non-unionised facility.

Union members are contacted by external parties but cannot or will not answer questions. Non-union employees are concerned and unsure whether to publicise the issue themselves.

Is reporting an employer's breach of union contract, to a buyer or the media, illegal? Does it matter if the person reporting this, is a union member or not?


texts: If employment contract supercedes all previous agreements, does that include un-included parts of offer letter?

texts:
I'm a software developer at a company that develops software for the healthcare industry. Recently I received an interview call from another company that creates pretty much the same products that we do.

When joining my current company, the offer letter was sent to me by email and I only signed it a month later when I actually joined. At the time of signing the offer letter by my employer and me, I was also given the employment contract which was signed by my employer and me. I'm a staff employee now.

The offer letter states:

  During and after the period of employment with the company, you will
  not engage in any endeavor or activity which conflicts with the
  interests and business of the company or join a competing
  organization, for a minimum period of two years.

The employment contract however, does not contain the above paragraph.
There is a clause on confidentiality and non disparagement, but nothing that says that I should not join a competing organization.

The employment contract also contains this clause:

  Entire agreement; Amendments:

  a) This Agreement supersedes and cancels any and all previous
  understandings, representations and agreements of whatever nature
  between the parties with respect to the matters covered herein.
    b)
  This Agreement sets forth the entire agreement between the parties
  with respect to the subject matter herein and may be amended only by
  an agreement in writing signed by all the parties hereto.

Does this mean that I can interview with and join the other company or is it implicitly understood that the paragraph in the offer letter should be honored?


texts: Does GDPR apply to data of users who lied about their country of residence?

texts:
Imagine a website which requires users to register in order to use all its features. In order to avoid exposure to GDPR complains, would any of the following tactics work?

Ask the user for their country of residence, and offer a list with EU countries not in it

Ask the user for their country of residence, and display an error message if an EU country is selected

Practically, suppose a certain John Smith from Germany registers as John Smith from Arizona, US, and then requests a copy of their personal data under GDPR right of access, or complains about the collected data being excessive. Could his request/complain be dismissed on the ground that the website doesn't have any data concerning John Smith from Germany?


texts:
Let's say an organization asks a panel of volunteer judges to select the best short stories of the year. The judges select a set of stories, which are all available for free by a CC-BY creative commons license. The judges also arrange these stories into thematic groups. The organization claims copyright of the collective work.

Can the organization claim copyright of the collective work despite no contract or written agreement from the judges nor any payment to the judges?
If I list which stories are in the collection (i.e. a list of that year's best stories) but the list has a completely different order (e.g., by author name), is this reordered list sufficiently distinct to avoid a copyright claim by the original list's copyright holder?


texts: Virginia prosecutor changed/added charges to original charge that one pled guilty to

texts:
I was charged by the police with two charges that were felony 5. I plead guilty.

When I went to court the prosecutor added another charge and changed the felony 5 charges to felony 2 charges. The outcome of these felonies are extremely different.

Can a prosecutor in the state of VA do this?


texts: How to remove YouTube video that infringes my IP?

texts: If someone made a video of my song and uploaded it to YouTube: Is that legal?  If not, how can I block the video?


texts: May I publish hearing documents in a book and on the web?

texts:
I have been involved, pro se, in a special education impartial hearing on behalf of my son.  I would like to publish some parts of the hearing documents in articles on the web and in a book.  Is that allowed?  Here is a list of all the documents I might like to draw upon (I would redact identifying features and use pseudonyms for names):

My exhibits, which include my son's educational records, email correspondence with the district, and my hearing request letter
The hearing transcript (I contacted the transcription service to see if they mind; the manager is out this week but they will get back to me when she is back)
My closing argument
The district's closing argument
The hearing officer's decision (which will be posted on the state education department's website in a few months, with our names redacted, but with the name of the hearing officer not redacted)
My petition of appeal to the state review office, with memorandum of law and the entire email correspondence the district lawyer and I had with the hearing officer as an additional exhibit (note, the district lawyer and I were required to cc each other on all of that correspondence)
The district's Answer to the state review office, with a memorandum of law
My Reply to the Answer
The review officer's decision, which will eventually be posted on the state education department's website

I plan to use pseudonyms for my son and me and the rest of our family.

I noticed that some hearing officer decisions and some review office decisions include last names of district witnesses.  I think that ethically I should omit them, even if the state doesn't redact them.


texts: Can I refuse to answer a question asked by US Census taker by invoking the 5th Amendment?

texts:
Refusal to answer census questions is covered under 13 USC Sec 221, providing for a fine of no more than 100.00; that acknowledged, can a person elect to refuse to answer a specific question because he believes it may tend to incriminate?

Background: The 2020 US census is proposing to ask 'Are you a US Citizen? In and of itself that might be considered to be a innocent question, but given the political climate a respondent could easily assume that the information is being gathered (or shared with) the Justice Department and/or Immigration Control for the purpose of identifying and locating non-documented residents.

Regardless of an assertion that census data is not supposed to be used in a legal proceeding against the respondent, that respondent has no reason to believe that his answer would never used in that fashion.... consequently his conviction that the information MAY used against him.

IANAL, so .... thoughts


texts: Is it illegal to continue using oAuth tokens after a user asks to remove them?

texts:
We have an app that allows users to connect their CRM.

The CEO wants to "fool" users into making them believe that they can delete the OAuth tokens so that we don't have access to their data anymore.

However, the CEO wants the dev team to continue using those tokens in the background and read the user's data.

I'm the lead developer, and I have concerns about the legality of what he's asking. I don't want to be guilty by association.

This is a pre-seed startup in the United States.

Also, the CEO wants to download all of the CRM data from our users and re-sell it to other users.

For example, if Lyft were to connect their CRM to our tool, the CEO wants to use that data to sell it to Uber and vice-versa.

He claims this is legal because users are allowing us to read their CRM data and once we get the data, the data become ours, and we can do whatever we want with it. Is this true?

Are there any policies that we or I should be aware of before rolling out this solution?

We also request users to connect their business emails (Gmail and Outlook) to our tool. The CEO wants us to download all of their emails and store them in our database in plain-text. Are there any policies or regulations that I, as a dev lead, should be aware of?

Edit: There is no "legal" department, we have investors, and some investors have asked about the legality, and the CEO keeps saying "we're covered" He claims that he hired three firms to go over legal issues, but he refuses to share the name of the firms with me. He always evades the question with things like "Let me handle that."


texts: Is spreading fake news legal, even if it might cause some real physical/mental harm [US]?

texts:
This is my question, based on a hypothetical scenario:

Let's assume that I start spreading a smear campaign against vaccines (which would be ethically and morally wrong to do) using Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks using bots and other automated systems. If enough people start believing in the fake news I am spreading then they might stop giving vaccines to their children the end result of which might be something really bad like a malaria or measles epidemic, in which 1000's of kids might die in multiple states.

So will I be blamed for spreading false Information and would this not be protected under the 1st amendment and I could also argue that it's the fault of the parents who accepted opinion posts (framed as news stories), rather than consulting with actual physicians?

The above scenario was just a hypothetical question. What are the implications of spreading fake news legally?


texts: Could a high school teacher require their students to register to vote in New York?

texts:
Suppose that I'm a social studies teacher in a high school in New York state.  Odds are good that I'm teaching high school seniors about American history and politics.  I want my students to get involved in the system that they're a part of. I tell my students that I will give them extra credit if they register to vote.

My Questions

Would giving this as an assignment be legal under New York state law?
If it's not forbidden under state law, could it be forbidden by individual counties, towns, districts, or schools?

Potential Complications

Privacy.  Some students might be fine with registering, but not with telling me.
Citizenship.  Some of my students might be undocumented, or might be on a foreign exchange.
Age.  I know you can register if you're going to be 18 before election day, but some of my students might just miss the cutoff.

Assumptions and Facts

It's a public school.
I'd prefer to give out forms and have my students fill them out in class that day, but I could live without it.
I know exactly as much about my student's age and citizenship as I'm legally allowed to know.
It doesn't matter what offices are on the next ballot.
It would be a small and optional assignment; you could get an A in the class without doing it.

Giving out a grade for actually voting is beyond the scope of this question (and likely moot, since few people would be over 18 at the start of the academic year).


texts: Does Texas have standing to litigate against other States' election results?

texts:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/states-blast-texas-bid-overturn-election-seditious-abuse/story?id=74656637
What standing is required (if any) for an entity (person, corporation, state, etc.) to litigate against the election results (be national or local)?
Please bear in mind I am NOT a lawyer.


texts: Can an employer pay less in benefits to employees on a 'Family' healthcare plan than employees on an 'Individual' healthcare plan?

texts:
I work at a community college in California. About a decade ago, my union negotiated for the district to pay 100% of all healthcare premiums for single employees, and a fixed dollar amount towards the healthcare of all employees who chose to add their spouses/children/families to the insurance plan. The benefit package has not been renegotiated since. In the intervening years, because the employer is required to pay 100% of all healthcare premiums for employees in the 'Single' group, the benefits the employer pays to those in this group have grown to be greater than the benefits paid to employees in any of the 'Family' groups.

To be clear, any employee in the 'Family' group can move to the 'Single' group. But, of course, this would mean their families wouldn't be covered by insurance from the employer, which is less than desirable.

Is this in any way legally prohibited behavior?


texts: Is it a personal care or a Company care to correct the list of Authors of a Patent owned by the Company?

texts:
My name was missed in several patents issued by a Company with whom I was in the past. I contacted a very experienced Attorney in Employer-Employee Relations for an advice. His belief was that I cannot do anything if the Company does not want to add my name as an Author of a patent owned by The Company. However, this is a matter of Authorship but not a matter of Ownership. In Authorship it is only the Person (the Author) who matter. A Company may own the Patent but they do not own the persons names.

I gave the Attorney the following example: I own a Mercedes car and in my garage I replaced all the car signs of Mercedes with those of GM. I can do that because I own the car, but I cannot drive such a car on the street - It is illegal to change the Authorship (in that case Mercedes). He said "Very interesting example - I have not thought about such situation" but he remained firm on the belief that I cannot do anything to protect my name as an Author if the patent is owned by a Company, and the Company does not want to include my name regardless that the key idea of the patent is mine.

In other words, I think it is illegal to ignore an Author of a patent, and it is a personal care of the missing Author in the list this to be corrected. It is not a Company care. I believe that a Person do not need an agreement by the Company to file a claim for Patent Authorship and support his claim with enough evidences.


texts: Do UK citizens have a right to legal advice?

texts: As a British citizen: If I can't afford to pay a solicitor to get legal advice, am I entitled to free legal advice from the government?


texts: Trade Marks Act 1999: How to respond to objection as per Section 9(1) (b)

texts:
This is with reference to Section 9(1) (b) of the Trade Marks Act 1999.

I got an objection regarding my trademark application under the above section.

The examination reports it as :

  The above mentioned application has been examined under the provisions
  of Trade Mark Act,1999 and Trade Mark Rules,2002 and the trade mark
  applied for is open to objection under the following sections :

  The objection is raised under S 9(1) (b) of the Trade Marks Act 1999, as the mark consists exclusively of words or indications
  which may serve in trade to designate the kind, quality, quantity,
  intended purpose, values, geographical origin or the time of
  production of the goods or rendering of the service or other
  characteristics of the goods or service;

I would like to see some examples on how people have responded to such objections. Appreciate your help in this regard. Thanks


texts: To share a summary of a book, and put my name on it, is illegal?

texts:
I made a summary of a book I used in class years ago in order share it with my students.
In the summary, I took whole sentences and equations from the original book, and reduce the pages from 600 to 200, my intention at that time was to give to my students a more compacted book which implemented the important information for the class.
The mistake I made was to put my name in this summarized book and shared the book with my students. My name is on the cover and in all the pages.
Back then, I did not consider this could affect me, but I realized weeks ago that the book was uploaded to the internet through Scribd and SlideShare.
I have been extremely preoccupied since then. I fear the editorial of the original book can take legal action against me.
Do this can lead to legal problems?
The summarized book has been on the internet since 2011, is there the possibility of a demand coming from the editorial or author of the original book?


texts: Relation "Do not resuscitate" and absolute human rights

texts:
First of all, I have no law background whatsoever, so be free to tell if I am completely wrong.
As I understood it, 2nd article of the Human Rights Act gives the right to live. This right is called absolute, which means that I cannot renounce this right, hence when I try to commit suicide law enforcement is allowed to prevent it, even if I tell them not to. This brings me to the "Do not resuscitate"-request that can be given by patients. While I wholely support this measure, I was wondering why this does not violate our absolute human right to live. What is the backdoor used or have I understood this completely wrong?


texts: Does bankruptcy cover arrears of land revenue if act provides for punishing operators?

texts: If an Indian law provides that if a company is held liable every person responsible to the company for its management will be held liable (those who showed negligence and or were involved ) and that the payment shall be collected as arrears of land revenue who is liable ? I mean if a law provides being that the maximum punishment is 20 crore rupees . Now the net worth of the individuals running it and the company is 15 crore . How will it be collected ? Is everyone liable to pay 20t rupeesm ? Will bankruptcy help ?


texts: If an unofficial ballot “harvesting” bin is left in a public area, could it and its contents be considered abandoned property?

texts:
There are reports of unofficial ballot drop boxes appearing in California. I'm wondering if legally ballots deposited in such bins could be considered abandoned by their owners. I understand that an official drop box and the ballots within are protected by law and tampering with them is a crime. But it would seem that those same protections would not necessarily apply to anything deposited into an unofficial box (and to any unofficial box itself).
To be clear, I am not promoting or condoning anyone do anything with any ballot or box, unless officially sanctioned. Just curious about the case law around this or an educated legal interpretation of the law.