texts: Order of precedence in cases where more than one nation has an interest?

texts:
... Disclaimer first: This is a hypothetical that came up during a discussion elsewhere. No real people were harmed during the creation of this question, and  any resemblance to current or past events is purely an accident.

Here's the scenario:

Alice is a British citizen and foreign exchange student currently studying at MIT.
Kurt is a German citizen visiting Boston on a tourist visa. Because he's planning on a bit of traveling, he rented a car.
Because Kurt is also a bit of an idiot, one fine evening he gets behind the wheel after drinking a bit too much, and Alice is killed in a hit-and-run during his DUI, which ends nonfatally a bit later against a lamp post.

There are three nations that would have an interest in this case:

The USA, or at least the state of Boston where a DUI with a fatal accident took place;
The United Kingdom, who have lost a citizen through no fault of her own and may want to have a word with the person responsible, or at least reparations of some kind for her family;
Germany, who probably isn't happy with their citizen's behaviour right now, but is obligated to look out for the citizen's rights under their constitution.

Presumably, the US has first right here because they're the nation in which the crime happened, but how does international law shake out the rest of the order of precedence? Would the order of precedence change any if it had been a deliberate murder (say, Kurt buys a weapon in Boston, goes to the pub Alice happens to be in as well, a drunken argument happens and Kurt uses his newly purchased weapon to settle it)?


texts: Job interview according to the laws of Washington State, USA

texts:
According to the laws of Washington State, USA;

1) Is it legal for a person to be asked their preferred pronouns during an candidate job interview?

2) Is it legal for a company to ask anything that could cause bias during a candidate job interview?

3) Is it legal for a company to require or force the interviewer who conducted the job interview to use the candidate preferred pronouns, even if that interviewer does not want to do so?

Thank you


texts: Where to find brief for Jaffe vs Roberts

texts:
I am interested in finding the brief of the petitioner in the US Supreme Court case "Robert J. Jaffe, Petitioner v. John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, et al."

The case number is 16-1181. Here is the Supreme Court online docket for the case

Where can I find the petitioner's brief?

Moreover, I am also unable to find the petition and the opinion of the lower court (United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit). I surfed the Ninth Circuit website and searched for the case num. 15-56328 (number taken from the above mentioned SCOTUS online docket), but no results were found.


texts: Is there a way for participants of an industry to discuss how to keep a market healthy without it being considered collusion?

texts:
For a particular niche in demand but broad in utility industry, I am both a consumer and producer that participates internationally. Within segments of the participants, there are public informal concerns that the elimination of a price floor policy would lead to market failure through the unregulated undercutting of competition that would lead to lower quality products for consumers and an unprecedented drop in the number of competitors. For more sophisticated alternatives, as citizens of a country where free speech is protected, it seems like the people involved should have the right to publicly discuss how a policy would impact their lives and what could be proposed in place of it. However, such discussions would also inevitably include other independent business owners. Because of that, one should keep in mind that it is also strictly illegal for people who own or manage businesses in the same industry to decide or discuss what prices to set for the industry, which makes sense for the purposes of preventing a monopoly or oligopoly.

But, considering that such discussions wouldn't be solely to the benefit of the parties who would discuss such matters, but rather to the health of the entire market for any and all current and future participants, it seems unreasonable that participants who happen to be competitors wouldn't have any way to publicly voice the effects and alternatives of policies without it being considered collusion.

Are there any laws detailing what the limits are in this context? Are there referable precedents for what is allowed and not allowed within the context of maintaining market competition? From what I gather, there is a form of tacit collusion if it would be called that which seems permissible, but I have never had any particular desire for this kind of discussion until recently, so I don't have much experience in knowing how I establish what is legal and what isn't. I am looking for laws that can illustrate details and limits to these discussions to make there are no infringements before proceeding with a quantitative analysis.


texts: Are video consent forms needed for minors to participate in live video conferencing?

texts:
Since many classes are going online, do children under 18 require their parent/guardian to sign a consent form so they can participate?

Would it be different from a video release consent form since it's not being recorded and used as content?


texts: Under GDPR, can I give permission once to allow everyone to store and process my data?

texts: If I own the data, can I declare, as part of my personal freedom, that I basically agree that my specific data can be stored and processed anywhere by anybody, without asking myself every time?


texts: Is it illegal to sell my original Video game music for a fan game?

texts: So I am making an original video game soundtrack for a fan game I have started developing. The thing is that I want to sell this soundtrack on BandCamp, and IDK if it's legal sense I am going to be using it in a fan game. I have looked this up and I found no results for this subject. I don't plan on selling the game, just the soundtrack I made for it. So is it illegal if I do so?


texts: Are there legal obstacles to an elected official appointing a special prosecutor to pursue his/her opponent?

texts:
The current US Presidential campaign has had a lot of mud-slinging and accusations back and forth about violations of the law by the opposing candidate.  One has explicitly stated plans to (if elected) instruct the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to go after the other, some of whose supporters would likely support a similar plan if their candidate wins.   (Edit: The candidate overtly making this pledge won the election.)
Are there any legal barriers to doing this?  If so, what are they?

In general public policy terms, people are fed up with special treatment under the law for elites, but the US might block itself from getting high quality candidates in the future if it establishes a pattern of sending candidates to jail after losing elections.   (Please, no comments on the quality of candidates in the present election.)


texts: Can Australian citizenship be revoked for a long period of absence from Australia?

texts:
I moved to work in Australia about 10 years ago, got there a permanent Australian visa as an employer-nominated skilled migrant, and became an Australian citizen by conferral about four years ago from now.

A couple of weeks after making the Australian citizenship pledge and getting my Australian citizenship certificate and Australian passport I moved to Europe, and I have never been back to Australia since then.

My question is in the title of this post. I am asking this question because I am getting worried that my Australian citizenship might be revoked. The source of my worries is that I vaguely remember reading an article saying something like, "Those who obtain Australian citizenship merely for convenience of travel and do not intend to permanently live in Australia can be stripped of their Australian citizenship." I read that article many years ago and am unable to find it now.

I did research on the Internet, but have been unable to find a definite answer. On the one hand, I found no mentions whatsoever of people stripped of Australian citizenship just for a long period of absence from Australia, and I found no mentions of any requirements to stay in Australia in order to retain Australian citizenship. On the other hand, there seems to be a legal avenue to strip people like me of Australian citizenship: I recall that I had to explicitly confirm in my citizenship application that I intended to permanently reside in Australia, and I am afraid that moving to Europe from Australia just a couple of weeks after getting Australian citizenship might be seen as strong evidence that I lied about my intent to permanently reside in Australia. Many sources on the Internet say that Australian citizenship can be revoked in cases of false or misleading information in the citizenship application.

The actual reason for moving to Europe was that I had a good job offer from there, had been struggling already for about half a year to find a good job in Australia, did not want to take a low-skilled job like a salesperson at Coles or have a long unemployment gap in my CV, and was running out of my savings. I never had plans to permanently reside in Europe, and I accepted the European offer just to avoid a long interruption of my career as a highly skilled worker, to fix my finances, and to buy some time to figure out how to develop my career further.

It is very important to me to retain Australian citizenship, especially given that my career prospects in Europe do not look good and that I am unlikely to get a permanent residence permit in Europe in the foreseeable future. I have retained citizenship of my country of origin, so I am a dual citizen, but my country of origin is a poorly developed country whose cultural values I do not share, and I do not want to end up living there at all. I consider Australia my home, so to speak.

So I would be very thankful for any information regarding my question stated in the title of this post.


texts: Legality of using data obtained by hacking to make a blog post

texts:
As a data scientist, based in the UK, I am thinking about downloading the recently leaked Ashley Madison data, producing some interesting statistics (none of them incriminating), and using them to write a data blog post or making a dashboard about them. I would make all text completely impartial towards Ashley Madison or the users, since I only care about the statistical insights that could be drawn from the data.

What possible legal problems could I face? I'm guessing that the data is "owned" in the IP sense by Avid Life Media, but it's also very public.

Many thanks.


texts: Noise complaint about a neighbor who is excessively loud during the day with his subwoofer

texts:
I'm a student and when I'm not in school, I study at home (I live in Boston, USA). Often, 2-3 times a week, the neighbor who lives 1 floor below me starts playing video-games / watching movies at high volume in the afternoon or evening hours. I have noise-cancelling headphones, and for the most part they are life-savior, except this case – because the neighbor has subwoofer speakers and I literally feel with my feet how the floor (and furniture) shakes because of loud sounds, and it seriously distracts me from my study.

I have a lease agreement which says that noise is prohibited after 10pm, but there is no clause that any noise during the day. Can I still submit a formal complaint to my landlord about this neighbor? Or should I just call non-emergency police during each noise incident?


texts: What kind of secrecy can be obtained by hiding an organization's EIN (tax number?)

texts:
I am a treasurer for an organization under a local high school in North Carolina, in the United States. The organization I am treasurer for is not registered with the IRS, but the school system is.

We are seeking to do a nonprofit crowdfunding campaign in IndieGoGo, and they require our organization's EIN number. We have received that number from our treasurer, and are attempting to use it, but it does not show up in IndieGoGo, nor does it show up as an exempt organization on the IRS's Exempt Organization Select Check. Additionally, my supervisor informs me that the schoolsystem's EIN number is kept under tight secrecy, for reasons I cannot fathom.

Are there any benefits for keeping this number secret? More specifically, is there some sort of tax exempt organization status that does not have the records publically available?


texts:
Let's say Person1 takes camera pictures of the following items and releases them as public domain:

The external cover of her own USA passport
The external cover of the USA passport of a willing Person2
The external cover of the UK passport of a willing Person3

Is it legal?

Or is it somehow forbidden to release pictures of these three items (or some of them)?


texts: Should I retain a criminal defense lawyer just in case?

texts:
Myself I am very law abiding citizen and never was approached by police in the 20+ years that I am in America. But in this never talk to police video they claim that innocent people went to prison because they talked to police without a lawyer present.
That kind of bothers me. Should I retain a criminal lawyer advance just in case that I am that situation? is this something that people do? How would I go about doing it?
Also, how do I pay for this in advance considering that the event is unlikely to ever happen?


texts:
I am trying to determine the principled limits, if any, on when a person may be held financially liable for damage to another ("the victim"). I'm specifically interested in the case when damage is not reasonably foreseeable, and the person's mental state is good (that is, he is not trying to perform any bad act). As I understand it, if the victim has a strange and rare medical condition where he bleeds if touched even slightly, the person is still liable for damage inflicted on the victim, even if the consequences of brushing up against him could not have been known by the person.

There are various defenses against liability, such as contribution on the victim's part to damage, or lack of factual causation. I assume that the victim did not contribute to his problem, and an act (including omission) of the person did cause the damage. Is it ever a defense to argue "it was just an accident"? I'm looking for general legal principles, not the willingness of a particular judge or jury to overlook causation of damage in a particular case. Relevant citations would be especially useful.

To point to additional examples of the type that I have in mind, assume I have a tree on my property, which looks entirely healthy. There is undetectable insect damage to the inside of the tree which weakened it, and in a freak wind storm (winds of 60 mph suddenly arose, in an area that is not windy and prone to severe wind storms), the tree was blown down -- striking the neighbor's house, causing damage. Am I liable?


texts:
Weird question, but I'm amazed the fact that the media have published no photos of Jeffrey Epstein's prison cell. Surely, it can't be top secret.

So here's my question: If I visited the prison myself and told authorities I wanted to photograph the cell Epstein was allegedly in when he committed suicide, would they be legally obliged to allow me to do so?

To put it another way, what procedure should I follow if I want take a photograph of the cell? Would I file something similar to a freedom of information request?


texts: Who decides how consumer electronics should be labeled and advertised?

texts:
Let's suppose I'm a citizen who is very dissatisfied with misleading digital storage drive capacity labeling, where manufacturers use fake GB (base-10 SI metric decimal giga unit prefix equals to 1000 in power of 3) instead of correct (in context of computing and computer science) base-2 binary scale units (e.g. GiB with prefix gibi equals to 1024 in power of 3).

Aforementioned means that instead of expected 64 binary GB I could get 64 decimal GB which is around 59 binary GB.

Hence the questions:

Who decides how those products could be labeled?
If I would like to put an end on this misleading practice, who should I ask for help?
To whom should a possible petition for more correct labeling be addressed to?

The context is international market, I suppose, but also could be local.


texts: When can an immigrant claim US nationality?

texts:
Inspired by this question over at EL&U.

In my research for a response that question (which I never posted), I found this article in the Economist, which includes this paragraph:

  In general, to be a national is to be a member of a state. Nationality is acquired by birth or adoption, marriage, or descent (the specifics vary from country to country). Having a nationality is crucial for receiving full recognition under international law. Indeed, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “Everyone has the right to a nationality” and “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality” but is silent on citizenship. Citizenship is a narrower concept: it is a specific legal relationship between a state and a person. It gives that person certain rights and responsibilities. It does not have to accompany nationality. In some Latin American countries, for example, such as Mexico, a person acquires nationality at birth but receives citizenship only upon turning 18: Mexican children, therefore, are nationals but not citizens.

I was born in the US, so I am a US citizen and a US national. At what stage of the immigration process can an immigrant to the US truthfully and legally declare the US as their nationality?

(Limiting this to the US since different countries handle citizenship and nationality differently.)


texts: If a company fails to abide by its own arbitration agreement, does that invalidate the agreement?

texts: Recently, a certain cell phone company changed its terms of service from "your only recourses are arbitration or small claims court" to "your only recourse is arbitration." Since this company doesn't have the greatest record for responding to complaints, this has left the company's customers wondering, what happens if a customer follows all procedures to file for an arbitration, and the company simply ignores it? Would this invalidate the arbitration agreement and restore their right to sue? If a company could just ignore arbitration requests, wouldn't that make it essentially impossible for anyone to pursue any claim against the company?


texts: How is the jurisdiction of inter-state age of consent laws determined in the US?

texts:
How are inter-state relationships legality determined in the US?

Say Joe is 25 and lives in Maryland and Jane is 17 and lives in Virginia. In Maryland the age of consent is 16 and in Virginia the age of consent is 18.  Would this make physical relations legal in Maryland but not Virginia, or illegal in both?  What about digital communications between the two?


texts: How does a company, with a multinational presence, establish the correct Jurisdiction to work within?

texts:
For the purpose of this question, let's assume an eCommerce company has the following profile:

Registration Location:  London;
Distribution and Manufacturing:  London;
Domain Name:  www.example.co.uk;
Physical Location of Server:  UK;
Orders:  This domain only accepts orders from within the UK.

Referring to the above profile, it would be fairly obvious that this eCommerce company would be required to abide by the Laws and Legislation set within the Jurisdiction of England and Wales.

Expansion

Then let's assume this same company decides to expand and reach out to an Australian audience for example.  To do this, the company sets up a new www.example.au domain to accept orders from Australia.

What Jurisdiction would this Australian website fall under?  Would it be required to follow the Laws and Legislation of England and Wales, since it is operating from such a location or would it need to be mindful of the Laws and Legislation of where the site visitor interacted with the website?

Further Complications

Assuming there is a simple answer to the above, what would happen if the company also had a www.example.com domain that would accept orders from the rest of the World?  Again, this 'Rest of the World' domain being operated from the UK.

Let's make things a little more complicated.  Keeping with the above scenario but this time, the company opens up an Office in Australia that deals with Customer Orders, Enquiries and manages the Manufacturing & Shipping operations.  Same company just another Office in a different Geographical location.  How would this impact matters concerning Jurisdiction?

My Assumptions

I have come across a lot of discussions online, often conflicting, but would appreciate feedback on my assumptions on such matters.

Although www.example.au is a domain that accepts orders from outside the UK, it is still run and operated by a UK Registered Company.  Therefore, such a website should be Governed by the Jurisdiction of England and Wales.  The company should make this clear in the website' Terms of Use, where the Terms of Use should be accepted by potential customers prior to any orders being submitted from Australia to the UK for processing; regardless of the ggTLD (.co.uk, .au etc) of the domain.

In the event that the Company is registered in the UK but the servers are physically located in Australia, I am assuming the company could not be penalised by the Jurisdiction of Australia but Australian authorities could request the server to be shut down in Australia if they feel any content or interactions etc do not comply with their Laws and Legislation.  This then basically saying 'If you want to operate here, you will need to register and comply with our laws'.

Moving on to the issue of having an Office/Distribution Warehouse in Australia ...

Would I be right in thinking that the UK based Company would need to register the Offices/Distribution Warehouse in Australia?  Effectively creating a separate Australian Company?  Therefore, this Company being required to comply with the Laws and Legislation within Australia?

My thoughts being that if the company was not registered as a company in Australia, issues revolving employment, tax etc would arise not to mention relevant Insurances.

In the event that the company wanted to set its UK Registered Company as the 'Headquarters', they would need to set up a Contract between the UK and Australian Company.  This would bring with it the issue of Jurisdiction between the countries but that is a whole other question.

I am getting a lot of conflicting information to date, including from Legal advisors, but I would appreciate any feedback on the experiences of others and/or any pointers into the direction I should per sue to establish facts on matters of Jurisdiction.


texts: Can I be sued for unintentional patent infringement?

texts:
Based on my patent search, I don't think there is any existing patent that would cover the device I want to create and sell.

But if I am mistaken, and I make a business selling my device, what is the worst case scenario?

For example, I get a cease and desist, have to stop my business but keep my profits?

Or can a patent-holder sue me?

If so, can I be made to hand over my profits from my business leading up to that point?

Or worse, can I be made to pay even more, like for the patent-holder's other losses?


texts: Why are books contraband in a US boot camp?

texts:
An acquaintance of mine has signed up for the US army and is now in his first six months, I guess what's called basic training. He was not allowed to bring books and asked us to send him reading material.
A military website states for basic training:

Dice, playing cards, dominoes, magazines, newspapers and books will be confiscated.

(For completeness: There is an exemption for one religious book.) I understand that there may be little time or remaining energy in boot camp to read but is there an official rationale which was brought forward when the regulation was instated?


texts: In civil litigation: is a defense barred if not asserted in time?

texts:
I read that in civil litigation a defendant cannot use a defense that is not timely made in pleadings.  This seemed like a rather strong sanction for a failure or mistake in writing and filing defensive pleadings, so I checked the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and found the following in FRCP §12(b):

Every defense to a claim for relief in any pleading must be asserted in the responsive pleading if one is required.  ...  If a pleading sets out a claim for relief that does not require a responsive pleading, an opposing party may assert at trial any defense to that claim. No defense or objection is waived by joining it with one or more other defenses or objections in a responsive pleading or in a motion.

Does that actually mean that if a legal defense is not stated in a response to a claim that it cannot be used in a subsequent motion or trial?  (Defensive pleadings have to be served within 21 days of receiving a complaint.  That would mean that a defendant could get notice of being sued and then have just 3 weeks to state every defense to every claim  against it.)
Perhaps a better phrasing of the question:  What does this rule mean?  Is it not as harsh as it sounds because an "assertion of defense" can be very general, and any plausible defense can be later "joined" to a generic defense?  E.g., is it sufficient for a defendant to simply say in a response to each claim, "I disagree?"


texts: Is the formalism "I put you on notice" important, in UK law, or can a less formal wording be equivalent?

texts:
Example case: a high value car specialist/expert sold me a car with a serious defect they should have known of and disclosed (such as past accident history) while warranting the condition was good/undamaged. It could actually be any high value asset sold by a skilled specialist. The vendor is likely (in my view) to dispute the scale of the issue, and can't be asked to do any repair.  They probably should inspect and may wish to commission a report. For whatever reason I don't seek repudiation/rescission, perhaps I've begun using the asset and I will best mitigate my loss by paying some specialist to repair the defect. But I need to do the repair work soon, it can't be left long. So, anticipating at least a legal claim (High Court rather than County Court size) even if it resolves before a hearing, I want to write to them and say something like this:

  "I currently intend to have the asset repaired, to minimise my losses by repairing the defect, and this must be done very soon. I therefore place you on notice that if you wish to examine the defects yourself, you must make arrangements to do so within 21 days, and if you choose not to do so, then after this time it may not be possible to do so other than from photographs and engineer's reports. This may be detrimental to any defence if the matter goes to a court."

My question is, the last part absolutely covers me and ensures any claim that they couldn't examine, doesn't prejudice my position. But it's formal and also quite antagonistic. I'd like to word it a lot softer by missing out the words "I therefore place you on notice that", and simply start with "If you wish....", which makes it softer but doesn't remove any of the rest.

My question is, is there any magic about the formal wording  "I place you on notice that" (or magic effect on the protection I get from those words), which will be lost if I don't use that exact form of words? Or can I reword it more collegially by removing that clause without impact?

Also does it add anything to have stated the effect if they do not do so ("This may be detrimental..."), if the matter proceeds to a court case?


texts:
The abbreviation or notation O/C appears in many references to legal proceedings in Georgia, such as: "O/C Theft by Taking" and "O/C Driving While License Suspended". What does O/C stand for or mean?
(Source https://sowegalive.com/2019/04/01/bainbridge-and-decatur-county-arrest-reports-4-1-19/)


texts: When does a person lose diplomatic status?

texts:
Ahmed Ali Muthana, father of Hoda Muthana, "claims" that he was no longer working as a diplomat at the time of his daughter's birth, thereby insisting that his daughter was born a US citizen under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

His statement suggests that he was at one time employed in a diplomatic function (and that assumes that he had diplomatic "papers" because of his employ), how does one lose that status, and is there any action that he is required to take to relinquish that status?  Further more, if he failed to take some action to relinquish that status, has he committed some crime?


texts: Can I take my Appeal to Supreme Court in UK if my permission to appeal is refused

texts: I am appealing a biased, wrong in law and in facts, a Judgement against me in a possession claim that was based on speculation and miss-representation of facts. the District Judge took exactly the same line as the Local Authority, discarded a large volume of evidence included photos digitally dated and neighbours witness statements. the circuit judge on the paper direct me to attend one hour hearing for permission to appeal. Any views on how to overcame and convince the C judge that facts were miss-interpreted and D judge was wrong in applying point of laws and legal tests in my case? can I add further draft to my existing Skeleton argument before the hearing? Can I appeal to Appeal Court or Supreme Court if C Judge refuse permission to appeal as my case is in Public interest. Accused of subletting when I had short stay lodgers As per H Act 1985 while living continuously at my property. this was represented as parting with possession


texts: Are there resources that investigate a judge's personal life and opinions?

texts:
Preface: I ask this question for judges who lack (auto)biographies or whose (auto)biographies lack enough detail.

I purpose to learn about the personal lives or opinions of judges, to discover whether they affected their judging.

I exemplify with controversial landmark cases in the Commonwealth. For example, SCOTUS Justice Stephen Johnson Field had a poor record on racial problems, but his nephew (SCOTUS Justice David Josiah Brewer) seems more progressive.

Moreover, in Buck v. Bell, regarding the justices in the majority, are there resources that reveal their personal opinion of eugenics?


texts:
Is it legal for a real estate agent to accept a deposit on a house and then hold an open house for that property in NSW Australia?
Also is it legal for the real estate agent to raise the price on the house once the deposit has been made a certain price?
Are there any laws that protect the home buyer once the deposit has been made outside of any contract that was signed?


texts:
Virginia's 2012 HB 1 sought to define personhood as beginning at conception:

  § 1. The life of each human being begins at conception.
  § 2. Unborn children have protectable interests in life, health, and well-being.
  § 3. The natural parents of unborn children have protectable interests in the life, health, and well-being of their unborn child.
  § 4. The laws of this Commonwealth shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this Commonwealth, subject only to the Constitution of the United States and decisional interpretations thereof by the United States Supreme Court and specific provisions to the contrary in the statutes and constitution of this Commonwealth.
  § 5. As used in this section, the term "unborn children" or "unborn child" shall include any unborn child or children or the offspring of human beings from the moment of conception until birth at every stage of biological development

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB1+pdf

If this bill had become law, what would some of its effects have been? Would it have made a woman who got an abortion not specifically protected under Roe v. Wade criminally liable for murder? What other interesting consequences might it have had?


texts: Hypothetical: Is a fully disclosed pyramid scheme legal?

texts:
I see that hypotheticals don't typically go over to well on this SE site but I'll give this a shot.

EDIT: I originally posted as 'Ponzi' but I meant 'pyramid'

Was talking with a friend tonight about a hypothetical situation and the implications of full-disclosure on law and was hoping some of you might be able to settle the debate. (This is for US law btw)

Suppose I launched a company called Pyramid Scheme, inc. And we were 100% direct and transparent that this was a Pyramid scheme. We literally explained word for word that it is a Pyramid scheme:

  You can put money in and we pay you out based on the next people that put money in after you. If you are stuck on the bottom rung you will likely not see a return, THIS IS A Pyramid SCHEME.

I know (I'm pretty sure) Pyramid schemes are illegal, but if you completely disclose it and are 100% open about it, is it still illegal? I'm not talking about the fine print either, I'm talking about very direct straight forward declarations, even to the point where the name of the company is 'Pyramid Scheme inc'.


texts:
This morning, on Law Stack exchange there was an item by someone which included the following comment:

  A police officer detains you by issuing a command of some sort. For
  example, "Stop, stay here." If a citizen issues you the same command,
  and a "reasonable person" would consider it backed up with the same
  threat of force as that implied by the police, then the citizen has
  committed assault. If the citizen has merely obstructed your path
  without threatening you then they have definitely not committed
  assault.

Source: What power do I have as a driver if my interstate route is blocked by a protest?

Firstly, is this true in the United States? Secondly, is it true in the UK?
I found this interesting summary but I don't think it quite covers the statement above.

  At common law, an "assault" consists of placing someone in fear of an unwanted touching

Source: https://law.stackexchange.com/a/1226/9845

Would, for example, a stranger shouting demands at you in order to attempt to obtain compliance with those demands count as assault within the UK?


texts: Was defamation legal in Russian empire in the 19th century?

texts:
In Dostoevsky's Idiot, it seemed that it was perfectly legal to publish articles of slanderous nature.

Was there any legal protection of a Russian's rights in publicity in the 1800's?


texts: Can the Small Claims Court in California be used to rescind a sale?

texts: If a good was sold and the buyer sues for a rescission because of a misrepresentation of the good during the transaction, can this lawsuit be filed in the Small Claims Court?


texts: Who pays medical costs for a John Doe who dies in the hospital?

texts:
Say that a John Doe case (i.e. someone whose identity is unknown and the patient can't tell them) comes into the hospital and collapses, becoming incapacitated. They receive treatment yet ultimately die.

As the hospital staff doesn't know the identity of the John Doe, they can't tell if they have insurance to pay for the coverage, nor do they have any known next of kin. So who is ultimately responsible for their medical costs?

This question was inspired by the 2016 Doctor Strange movie where Strange brings the Ancient One into the hospital yet she dies, then Strange leaves without identifying her.


texts: Assume I own a property where parking is a premium, such as a beach house.  What can I do to prevent people from parking in my yard rather than paying for municipal parking?  What markings would be required to indicate that parking is not allowed?  Assume this is not an easement, but truly personal property such as a driveway or lawn.


texts: What are the legal issues of the Trump administration's proposed Muslim registry?

texts: What's the legality of Muslim Registry suggested by some of Trump's administration and his supporters? Does this violate freedom of religious expression or other federal discrimination laws?


texts: Would it be legal to have an infinitely long middle name?

texts:
In the United States, would it be legal to have an infinitely long middle name?

It appears that it would not be a problem, since most of the time people only use the first letter of the middle name. When a middle name is asked for, it is usually permissible to truncate it if it does not fit in the field provided. Some notes:

We will assume that the name in question is computable. That is, there is an algorithm that given a natural number n outputs the nth character of the name.
All the characters in the name are standard characters of the English alphabet.


texts: In a contract, should exceptions be stated to a clause if they're required by law?

texts:
Should a clause state possible exceptions to make it clear they will comply with the law? For example "no animals in the building" may be seen as discrimination against people with guide dogs, so should it contain an exception and say "no animals in the building except for service animals?

Another one may be medical marijuana. If a contract states "employees may not be in possession or under the effects of drugs at work", should it add "unless prescribed by a doctor"? If they don't add this could the people who wrote the contract be sued?


texts: Use of ™ on a software name that is not trademarked?

texts:
I'm making an app for Apple app store and the perfect name for my app is already "used" even though it's not on the app store (this is a thing with app store - when you create an app with a certain name, it cannot be used again, even if the app is not published or deleted). What I'm thinking to use now is the same name but with ™ appended at the end. Could there be any legal problems apart from somebody else trademarking the name?
I've seen some people say it is legal to do so but I want a second opinion.


texts: Why doesn't caffeine come with a drowsiness warning?

texts:
Recent studies have proven that regular use of caffeine and subsequent omission or withdrawal results in drowsiness and inattention - (due to changes in the brain to increase the number of sleepiness indicators to offset caffeine's effect).

Many drugs warn not to drive or operate machinery if they cause drowsiness. It seems arguable that caffeine has an obviously delayed effect but still ultimately causes drowsiness (and it's also more than a natural level of drowsiness because of side effects of caffeine use).

How does caffeine escape this regulation and the consequences of it? (e.g. if someone crashes car after forgetting their regular coffee earlier in day, who is liable?)


texts: Is it legal to replace something's firmware?

texts:
I'm a software/hardware hacker and I am wondering about how legal it is to replace the firmware of something. This something can be

a car
a chinese quadcopter
a phone
a Canon EOS 5D
a (connected) digital thermometer
a presence sensor
… anything.

I know that modify the firmware may be illegal (because of licensing/copying copyrights, usually).

But what if you can't even read the firmware, only replace it with one your wrote yourself?


texts: Is it possible to create an affidavit outside of a trial in the US?

texts: Is it possible to swear in front of a notary in the US that the contents of a document are true and create an affidavit even if that affidavit won't be used in court. If so, are their laws that punish breaking such an affidavit?


texts: Do I have to submit a fuel receipt when I'm not claiming fuel?

texts:
Im in the UK. I drive my car on business insurance for work. I claim mileage with details of my car e.g. engine size. I've been told that in future I must submit fuel receipts even though I am not claiming the full fuel cost. I was told it was to prove to HMRC that tax was paid on the fuel. I don't understand this as a fuel receipt wouldn't prove which car the fuel was in or used for the claimed journey. Is this a legal requirement?

update I've been told it's "to enable the reclaim of VAT on such expenditure by the company"


texts: Can I embed Liberation fonts in a piece of non-free software?

texts:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts :

  As a further exception, any distribution of the object code of the Software in a physical product must provide the right to access and modify the source code for the Software and to reinstall that modified version of the Software in object code form on the same physical product on which it was received.

I'm not sure if I understand this correctly... Does this mean that if I embed such a font in my software and use it to display GUI messages, then I must open the source of this software or else I'll run afoul of the licence of this font?


texts: Is it GDPR-compliant to require *public* publishing of personal info as condition for access to a service?

texts:
Background: For roughly 2 decades I've run my own private email infrastructure for myself, open source projects, and a few other individuals over business internet service intended for such usage. I've recently run into a major German ISP blocking my site (this is a new thing; I used to send to their customers with no problem) and interrupting communication with one of their customers I need to correspond with.

After a few weeks of back-and-forth with their email engineering contact giving me moving-goalposts/bait-and-switch about what they want me to do to get unblocked from their system, they are now insisting that I publish legal name and physical street address for the responsible party (that would be me personally) on the web as a condition to access their service.

Is this sort of requirement legal under the GDPR? I could understand (while strongly objecting to, but that's not part of the legal question here) "sorry, we won't open our service to you", but making an offer to provide access but making it conditional on what amounts to doxing oneself seems like it should not be legal. Is this (demanding I publish it publicly rather than give them the same information privately) some loophole for skirting around the GDPR? Is there anything else legally sketchy about the demand?

I am not in Germany; the other party involved is.

More details copied from clarifying comments I posted on an answer (sorry, some of this is technical and may not be useful to non-IT folks):

  The data was requested after a long series of individual email exchanges with their email engineering department (which has its own separate mail system that's not blocking my site). No emails were flagged as spam and no spam has ever been sent from my site to their mail system. (Fewer than 50 total emails have ever been sent from my site to them.) They seem to have instituted their own in-house policy for IP addresses to accept from based on IP block ownership data (note: not using any of the well-run RBL/DUL type lists) and allow-listing well-known sites.

  Rejection takes place before the SMTP session even begins (error message prior to EHLO, giving the address of the email engineering department which I then contacted). Initial request was that I provide "full contact info" on webserver associated with domain the IP address reverses to in order to be unblocked, with no indication of what that would entail. Eventually after being (apparently intentionally) vague for a long time they started insisting that include physical street address.

Basically, the actionable thing I want to know is whether I have grounds to say something like "The offer to accept mail from my site under the conditions of having published physical contact information constitutes a solicitation for personal data protected by GDPR, and if you are soliciting such personal data, you are required by law to accept it via a secure and private channel."


texts: Is it illegal if someone posts a photo of me that was taken by their front doorbell without me knowing?

texts:
I was given an address from someone who owes me money. I went to the address and rung the door bell, a lady answered the door. I asked if Tom was there, she replied no and no Tom lives here.
I apologized to the lady and explained to her that I was given this address by someone that owes me money, and that he had obviously misled me.
I said sorry again and went on my way. About two hours later a friend of mine called me and said that someone had posted a photo of me on Facebook asking if anyone new me. My friend knew the person who posted the photo, so they phoned him and told him he new me and I was kosher so remove the photo, which he has now done.
So was it illegal for him to post that photo taken of me without me knowing about it?


texts: Using a website in an app under different name

texts:
In mobile development, you can embed a webpage in your app as part of the app.
Now someone has asked me to embed a certain webpage from a website which offers a panel (which you have to buy) to their clients in an app but he also requested to remove the logo of that company from the page before showing it.

At the end of the website, there is an all rights reserved note.
Now I have told him that this looks like it's violating some law (copyright maybe).

So now my question is, is this illegal or even immoral.


texts: Do I have copyright over the code I write in my Computer Science class

texts:
Hypothetical Question: Do I have the right (copyright) over the code I write in my Computer Science class and thus all rights that come along with having something copyrighted?

I was wondering if I have copyright over the code that I write for my class as I am a paid programmer I would not like for any of my code to be stored on the instructor's "secure" server. And if they refused to do so, could I send a cease and desist to have it removed?

Edit: Yes I know this is a bit extreme, but I just want to know if I have copyright over it through intellectual property or some other way.


texts: Are Jurors informed about jurry Nullification

texts: Are jurors in US criminal trials informed that they can rule contrary to the law as given by the Judge (aka "jury nullification") by the judge or by any official source? What happens when juries do "nullify"?


texts: Compensation for custody awaiting trial resulting in acquittal?

texts: I was accused of a crime and held in custody for 8 months then acquitted at court,  I missed the first 8 months of my only child's life, and lost both my job and my partner.  Could I be entitled to compensation?


texts: Can a California (Berkeley) landlord ask for an extra security deposit?

texts:
Just got an email from a non-residential garage space landlord stating that our current yearly rent increase is due.

But it struck me as odd that they also added in a line that says

  "The security deposit you paid when you first leased space in the
  building was based on a percentage of the monthly rent paid. If your
  monthly rent has moved into a new bracket, then you will see an amount
  below. This additional amount is due and payable with June’s rent. If
  the increase in your security deposit creates a financial burden,
  please see your building manager."

Is this legal in CA? From a cursory inspection of the law there are tight requirements on what the deposit can be used for and it doesn't have anything to do with a "percentage of rent". It's to pay for the repairs, which would not go up in cost as much even if the rent does. But IANAL. We've been tenants for 3 years and this is the first this has come up.


texts: Can I claim compensation for expenses incurred when an item is late for delivery?

texts:
I ordered a huge amount of timber to clad my house.  I was assured delivery on a particular day and had booked builders and hired towers and scaffolding.

The timber arrived two days late meaning I've had to pay two builders wages for two days, plus the cost of the towers and scaffolding - totaling about £800.

Am I entitled to claim this back off the company?  I spoke to them and they're only willing to refund the cost of delivery (£120).  They said that I could, if I wanted, file a claim in a small-claims court, or seek the money from the credit card company.


texts: Inverse condemnation case law in Virginia

texts:
I'm trying to research in the subject of inverse condemnation laws in Virginia. The situation is that the city is building a highway improvement project but the property owner is having a sidewalk built along his property, not a road. This sidewalk touches upon partially to the building and the city is acquiring the entire tract/lot as per Virginia Code.

Are there any case law where property owner challengage this? I'm interested in case law research and the outcome of such challenages/inverse condemenation results. I tried searching and cannot find a similar situation such as this.


texts: Received a sticker on my car window on a private company car park

texts:
Quick story: I parked in my company car park (so I guess its private land), in a place where 'the bay is not marked'. I see many people parking in the same spot, and never have I seen a sticker on their window. Its a large sticker (around half A4 size), stuck to my drivers window. Just a warning not to park there as I am not allowed with writing that I could barely read. The sticker itself left a lot of glue marks on my window, so I am asking the security company to pay for the damage. Is this allowed?

The response I got is that its my fault for parking in a place that I shouldn't, but surely they do not have the right to but stickers on my car which do not easily peel off? Can I take this further? And what laws do I / the parking company have in such situation?

From my research, private land owners do not have the right to clamp your car, but I couldn't find any recent news about sticker on cars.

This occurred in the UK


texts: Can I create a will before our baby is born?

texts: We are having a baby and I had a question about creating a will. I am planning on talking to a lawyer before doing so, but just wanted some quick advice. Can I create the will before the baby is born? When I tried to find some will samples online, the forms all asked for the child's name, which we don't have yet. I'd really like to get as much done before the baby is born, for obvious reasons, so is this something I can do, or do I have to have the baby named before I can create the will?


texts: Will the judgement from England's Central Criminal Court be made available to the public?

texts:
I've found an interesting piece of news: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/09/man-charged-with-leeds-terror-offences-appears-in-court

  The charges allege that Golaszewski was found with copies of 21 Silent Techniques of Killing by Master Hei Long, The Anarchist Cookbook and The Big Book of Mischief on 23 February in Leeds. It is also alleged that he had in his possession the Improvised Munitions Handbook, Murder Inc, The Book by Jack the Rippa, and Minimanual Of The Urban Guerilla, by Carlos Marighella.

The article mentions the hearing date:

  He was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on 15 March.

Guardian article mentions 6 books, the Independent article mentions 6 counts: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/pawel-golaszewski-uk-terror-leeds-arrest-right-wing-a8815116.html

  Pawel Golaszewski faces six counts under the Terrorism Act and has been charged with possession of a document or record "containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

Will the judgment be available to the public?

I'm specifically interested in the link between possession of the books (some of them available on amazon.com) and terrorist charges - what other evidence has been gathered and how it was evaluated.

Micro research:

The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bailey is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Court - do all of the judgments are released to the public?
https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/ - I'm worried only a small portion of judgments lands on this website.

From the website: https://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/Central-Criminal-Court.php

It appears that it could be more involved than the possession of 6 books.


texts: Intellectual property and storage medium

texts:
A State owned hard drive contains intellectual property belonging to an individual.  Can the State remove that hard drive from the premises of the individual without his consent?

EDIT:

The property was proprietary data given to the researcher in the course of his research
There may be other copies around, but I believe that is more or less immaterial to the question
The individual was not given the opportunity to remove the IP from the drive, and even if he was, forensic tools are available to recover that material.

Followup Question:

Does this mean that the owner of the hard drive can walk off with the intellectual property of the user of that drive?

Does hardware ownership 'trump' the ownership of material on the hard drive?

Followup Question:

Does the State have the right to move an author's intellectual property from one medium to a different, possibly less secure, medium without the consent of the Author? Or, to put it another way, does the author have any rights with regard to the disposition of his intellectual property?


texts: Can state officials demand I-9s from a company?

texts:
I have a state official asking me copies of I-9 forms for my former employees.
Does a state official have the legal authority to demand federal documents such as I-9s from businesses in the state?


texts: To what extent does copyright cover the questions in a quiz game?

texts:
I am currently working on a trivia game. I have written more than 2000 questions thanks to Wikipedia. Because there are a lot of general questions, I am worried that another board game, a video game or a TV show in the world has registered an identical question.

If in my game I have a question such as "what is the difference between perfume and cologne?", maybe someone has registered the same question in a game. This could happen by chance and because Wikipedia is a very good website to read and create questions, and everyone can access it.

Although the questions were obviously be written differently, perhaps someone wrote "What is the characteristic that distinguishes the perfume of the cologne?", if the context is similar, is this reportable?


texts: What is Stamp Duty Land Tax used to fund?

texts: According to the gov.uk website, UK residents need to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax  when they buy a property over a certain value. Where does this money go and what is it used to fund?


texts: Can you trademark a phrase consisting of common words?

texts:
Could someone trademark a fairly common string of words, like "This is Your Life" or "Ask [Name]"? My question specifically regards to the naming a podcast — not naming a business. There is a podcast named that, which is fairly popular on iTunes, but if someone else started a podcast with the same name, could the original creator sue?

Just to be clear, I do not want to name a podcast with the same name(s) mentioned above or anything along those lines — it's just a general question.


texts: Buy a computer/phone from Apple, disagree to the terms of service after purchase; what's the legal perspective

texts:
My question and premise are very simple, but the legal perspectives on the answer are unclear to me.
A person purchases an Apple computer/phone product directly from Apple (any device requiring agreement to terms of service, end user license agreement, etc.)
During purchase of the product, there is no discussion about what the software legal terms will be -- however, Apple hardware requires the use of Apple software, thus it can be claimed one is purchasing an integrated hardware/software system.
After making the purchase, the customer starts the Apple operating system and diligently makes their way thru every poetic sentence of legalese. Upon reading the contracts (ToS, EULA, etc.), the user decides they in fact do NOT agree with these terms, and do not proceed.
At this point, they have purchased a hardware device which requires using a certain specific software, but they don't agree to the software terms, and are thus unable to use the hardware they purchased for the intended use.
Have I made any incorrect assessments of the situation up to this point?
It seems to me if a hardware company is selling an integrated hardware/software product, which can only run on specific software, the selling party would need to complete the contractual agreement terms with the buyer before the purchase is completed. Or at the very least communicate this situation with the user.
I'm sure this contradiction has no gone unnoticed, so I would appreciate the legal perspective on this situation.


texts: Is it illegal to record a telephone conversation with any federal employee, including Social Security representatives, even with their consent?

texts:
The Social Security call center has an automated recording for each call informing the caller that their call may be recorded.  There is no option for the caller to opt-out.

When speaking with a Social Security supervisor who was acting very inappropriately, a request was made by the caller to also record the call.

She claimed that "it is illegal to ever record a federal employee" even with their consent.

Is this true, or was she lying so that there would be no concrete evidence of her inappropriate conduct nor the inappropriate conduct of other representatives at the Social Security call centers?


texts: How did they get away with making films like Bumfights?

texts:
How did the founders of Bumfights and Indecline videos get away without being charged? They literally make money from their website which shows videos of them instigating fights and doing graffiti. Not only that but they seem to go after people with disabilities and homeless, wouldn't this by itself count as a hate crime or some form of discrimination or distribution of obscene material?

According to wikipedia, Ryan McPherson now has a warrant out for his arrest but this was for something he did in 2014 in Thailand. Wikipedia seems to imply that they don't even know the real identity of some of the producers, like Ty Beeson who was on Dr.Phil before getting kicked off.

Obligatory rant: these people are the scum of the Earth.


texts: What is the legal definition of at the entrance (parking sign law)

texts:
This is specifically in regards to parking sign law in Mesa, AZ.
The legal wording is

The owner or the agent of the owner of any private parking area shall be deemed to have given consent to unrestricted parking by the general public in such parking area unless such parking area is posted with signs as prescribed by this Section which are clearly visible and readable from any point within the parking area and at each entrance thereto.

I could not find a clarification of what "at the entrance" means. I can see two interpretations:

Physically situated at the entrance.

Clearly visible and readable from the entrance.


texts: Contractor Did Not List His Legal Business Name On Contract. Is The Contract Enforceable?

texts:
Hopefully someone here can shed some light on this matter for me.  Long story short, I entered into a contract with a general contractor for the construction of my new home.  I have been moved into the home but there are multiple problems with the construction.  These defects have been verified by third party inspectors.  Despite the third party reports, my general contractor refuses to fix the problems.

My contract states that any disputes must go to binding arbitration through the AAA.  This can be an expensive process and it's my understanding that I am unable to recover my legal costs in a judgement.

I was reviewing the contract and doing some research on the contractor and came across the following:

The general contractor has an LLC.  Let's say his legal business name is Smith Homes, LLC.
He has also registered a fictitious, or DBA, name with the state called Smith Homes.
My construction contract has his business logo in the top left corner.  The logo only states the DBA name, Smith Homes.
In the top right corner of the contract it does list his state registration number.
The contract states the following: "This contract made on 5th day of March 2018, by and between John Doe (my name) hereinafter called the owner and Smith Homes hereinafter called the contractor.
The signature line on the bottom simply states "Contractor" and then a place for the general contractor to sign.
Nowhere on the contract does it list the full legal name of the contractors business, Smith Homes, LLC.

From my research, the DBA name can enter a contract if it is noted that it is a DBA of the legal company name when the parties are introduced at the beginning of the contract. You might write, for example, "Smith Homes, LLC, d/b/a Smith Homes."

With all of that said, is this contract enforceable since the legal name of the contractor's business was not stated in the contract?  Also, since the contractor signed his name at the bottom of the document, could he be personally liable in a lawsuit?

Thank you all in advance!


texts: Relationship between PL (Public Law) and USC (US Code)

texts:
I am learning about taxes. In discussing the jurisdiction to tax citizens, my course cites:

  P.L. 86-272, Section 101(b)(1)

When I search for this text, I only find this:

  5 U.S. Code § 381 - Imposition of net income tax

Which contains a link to the GPO (Government Publishing Office), where the link is labeled: Pub. L. 86–272, title I, § 101

Here are my questions:

Can I find the original PL text anywhere? The GPO only goes back to 1995-1996 Congressional year; this PL was enacted in 1959
What is the relationship between PL 86-272 and USC Section 381? Is it, as described in the GPO link, the difference between a bill, vs a legal statutory citation?...:

  After the President signs a bill into law ... it is assigned a law
  number, legal statutory citation...


texts: Is it posible to sell electric electric cars as a nonprofit

texts: My interest is to diminish co2 emissions in the city. Would that be considered an actual cause for a non-profit?


texts:
I was in an abusive marriage which I finally got out of. During that process we were renting an apartment from landlords who were well aware of the abuse. My husband didn't pay rent and I was forced into turning in my 30 day notice. We paid 5600 for the deposit (rent was 1900). I left the apartment in the 30 days, cleaned, and returned everything. My landlord told me he would deduct 1900 out of the goodness of his heart from my security deposit and I wouldn't have to worry about last months rent.

Fast forward to today when I received the apartments deductions list which only shows my deposit being 3800 which isn't what I paid it was 5600. Then he is then charging me for June again along with July and August at 5700. Plus 1,141.00 for cleaning and blinds. So the total after deducting the 3800 "security" deposit means I owe 3,091.00 to them. They haven't even listed the apartment and there WASN'T any damage to not be able to rent unit.

Can I sue them cause it clearly states 5600 on my Rental lease l, there trying to charge me twice for June, and they are clearly not trying to re-rent the unit?


texts:
Civil liberties are rights afforded to people that the government cannot impose upon.

Civil rights govern government processes in an attempt to make them fair.

Is due process a civil right or liberty?


texts:
In the games, given enough effort and time, a player can get Pokémon with better stats and alternate color palettes, and are highly valued by players. Additionally, there is a built-in function that allows players to offer certain Pokémon in exchange for others. Often, players using this function will offer higher value Pokémon for other similarly rare Pokémon. For a lot of people, paying for these Pokémon might actually seem to be more efficient.

My question is purely hypothetical and I have no desire to do this, but if I started working in my games to legitimately generate these more valuable Pokémon, could I legally sell them online? More generally, is selling digitally generated goods legal?

I debated putting this question on Arqade, but I figured I might get more in depth answers on Law.


texts: Can I legally present data from public API's on a website?

texts:
I am in the process of creating a website that will use data to present information on publicly traded companies.  The tools that will present this data will be free to use and I will never charge a fee to use them.  I am accessing the data through various API's that I have found through my research.  All of the API's are free to use.

If my website increases in popularity, and I monetize the website through advertisements, will I be breaking any copyright/intellectual-property laws?


texts:
Can a jury find a defendant guilty on a charge for which the defendant was not arraigned?

For example, if a defendant is indicted on a charge of manslaughter can the jury convict him of murder?


texts: Can my user agreement require end users to indemnify me for misuse of their data by third-party services embedded in my app?

texts:
I have an Android App which is already in the Play Store.

Now due to GDPR I am planning to improve my Privacy Policy and a Terms of service.

I am planning to add certain terms in my Terms of service some of which are:

I am not responsible for any damage/loss caused to your phone by using my app.
I am using certain services such as X,Y and Z services. And any collection, use or misuse of the data collected by those service I am not responsible.

I know that the above two points are not framed in an proper legal language but my question is that suppose the user is accepting those two points will it exempt me(My responsibility) from those two cases.

Any help would be grateful.


texts: Use material without permission for educational purposes

texts:
For a school project I created a website. The website is public, therefore anyone can access it if they know the address.

On my website I use images that I don't have permission to use. (Found on with Google image search)

Would the owner of the images be able to sue me? The images are solely used for educational purposes, and I don't make any money from the website.

(I live in Denmark, EU)


texts:
I'm an MBA student working on an assignment to evaluate the feasibility of transitioning from a license-only model to a franchise model.

We're fine doing the business analysis, but we do have some legal concerns about what to do with the existing licensees. Grandfather them, drop them, or convert them?

Does anyone know of any businesses in the U.S. that have made this type of transition? Or of any case studies on the subject? We would like to be able to address the issue in our paper, rather then just note it as a concern.

Thanks


texts: As the sole LLC owner, can I pay myself all the profits I make?

texts:
Can I (sole-owner and sole-employee) simply take whatever profits I make from my LLC's bank account and pay them to myself,  rather than paying myself a defined salary or rate? (I'm not saying this is good business advice, and I'd keep money for taxes, but I'm wondering if I can do this.)

And does this change based on whether I file as a single-member LLC, or file as an LLC but elect to be treated as a corporation?

Also, does this change when I hire employees?  (not founders, or partners, just employees).

State: Wisconsin


texts: Are police forces obligated to warn before shooting?

texts:
When watching the series Fringe (and any other police series for that matter), the police/FBI usually looses their suspect because he is running away and the police keep yelling "stop or I will shoot". The suspect escapes and the show can go on.

I understand that this is needed for the drama, but since they are consistently warning the suspects, I came to wonder whether there is a legal protocol behind that.

Are police/FBI/similar forces obligated to warn someone who is running away that they will shoot? Can they just shoot him in the back (or wherever they manage to aim) when they have the chance?

I am specifically talking about

the case where the fugitive does not pose an immediate threat to the police (by shooting at them for instance) but they really need to stop him right away (possibly killing him in the process).
the legal protocol for that exact situation (not any mistakes/accidents/... - I am not interested in linking this to any current events)

The question rose after watching US TV series but I would also be interested in the situation in France if possible (though US will be fine too for the sake of the show reality-checks).


texts: The five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress

texts:
Part of the point of bringing someone before Congress is that they're forced to tell the truth or risk perjury charges. However, the charges only seem to apply if Congress can quickly dig up proof of a lie. Otherwise, if the perjurer makes it five years without his lie being discovered, it's like the crime was never committed.

The 'Committee Classified' documents that the Democrats released a day or two ago seem to contain evidence of Kavanaugh perjuring himself before Congress at least five times, all more than five years ago.

What is the justification for the statute of limitations being set at five years from commission, and are crimes beyond the statute of limitations able to be presented as background in cases of future wrongdoing?


texts: Disturbing peace by playing table soccer

texts:
There is a soccer table, which stands in an apartment and the neighbour feels disturbed by it every time a game is played. He has already

called the police several times, but they usually came after 8 p.m. or never caught the residents playing football (so it was always quiet for them),
called the landlord, who then asked the residents to stop "playing basketball" in the apartment (there was clearly a misunderstanding),
and in addition also a criminal charge was filed (for disturbing the peace), but it was dropped due to lack of public interest. (I think, he therefore has no other option but to file a private lawsuit.)

I can hardly find anything serious on the net about table soccer and disturbing the peace. It's mostly about musical instruments. I can imagine, however, that it goes in the same direction.

The soccer table itself is of course not very quiet, but I would say that a violin, a trumpet, a piano, a drum set, etc. are much louder. Personally, I would also rate a guitar with steel strings a bit louder if you practice a courageous piece. But of course the instruments also make a different kind of noise. It is also worth mentioning that the neighbour feels disturbed with every little thing and generally shows little tolerance.

The neighbour actually always comes to the door after 2 to 10 minutes after every start of the game and rings and knocks, even if he is ignored every time. There are still several other issues between him and the landlord and him and the table soccer players. A peaceful communication is no longer given. Therefore some misunderstandings are not cleared up at all. So I'm interested only in the general legal situation which leads me to

the question:

When and how long do you have to endure your neighbours' table football game and under which circumstances are the game enthusiasts not allowed to enjoy their hobby? (They don't play from 8 p.m. and also not on Sundays. But maybe they are even allowed to play until 10 p.m.?)

Please feel free to edit the question text. It is not easy to formulate correct technical terms if you are not an expert in this field and also not a native speaker. When editing, simply fill in the "Edit Summary" with meaningful words. Then I can understand that.


texts: Is it sufficient to provide a privacy policy only in english language?

texts:
Regarding GDPR, is it sufficient for a gaming app available in some commercial app store to provide a privacy policy only in english language?

Is a translation necessary for every country of the EU where the app is available?


texts: Can I use the Olympic logo in a card within my board game?

texts: I'm publishing a board game and one of my cards is called "The Olympics" and has the logo in pixel art (Photo link: https://ibb.co/f5yocQ). I know that the logo and the words "The Olympics" have had many issues with fair use over time. I'm selling the game, but I'm not advertising the game in any way using The Olympics or the Olympic logo. It is simply a card that triggers an event (The Olympics) in-game. Is it legal for me to do this?


texts: Is it illegal for a store employee to do this with payment?

texts:
In a retail store the official policy is that cash is not accepted and payment must be made through payment card (e.g. credit card). Some employees started telling the customers who want to pay in cash "if you are OK without getting change, you can pay in cash" and the employee would pay using his own credit card and keep the cash for themselves. A small "profit" may be made, for example is the purchase cost $19 and the customer paid with a $20 bill then the employee gets the $1 difference.
What laws may be broken? Does it matter if everyone does it or if management knows about it?
To add to the hypothetical scenario, employees are at liberty to give 20% off discounts. What if the discount was applied, after the customer had been told the price and paid in cash? From the example it would be 19 x 80% = $15.20 and they pay with the $20 so it would be $4.80 profit instead of $1.
Tips in the form of coins and bills are accepted, so in a sense it could be argued that it's a tip.


texts: Why would a plaintiff settle for less after winning a case?

texts:
In the news right now is Hulk Hogan settling with Gawker for $31 million. This is a significant drop from the original $140 million judgement. What motivations would Hogan have for accepting this settlement? Why wouldn't he just demand the full amount?

My first guess was that Gawker may just not be able to pay the $140 million, but even in that case wouldn't Hogan still get the $31 million that Gawker is able to pay?


texts: What would be the default speed limit for a highway in Texas in this case?

texts:
A 2 lane road is enhanced, widened and expanded to 6 lanes. it goes through a small town. The previous speed limit on that road was 55 mph.

After the new road is finished the speed limit signs are taken down in preparation for the new speed study.

The police in this small town contend that the old speed limit of 55 mph is still in force. The say that because of the ordinance of that town is still on the books, they can still enforce it even though no speed limit signs are posted on the road.

The road is a named and numbered state highway.

According to Texas law, I see that it states this:

(b) Unless a special hazard exists that requires a slower speed for compliance with Section 545.351(b) , the following speeds are lawful:

(1) 30 miles per hour in an urban district on a street other than an alley and 15 miles per hour in an alley;

(2) except as provided by Subdivision (4), 70 miles per hour on a highway numbered by this state or the United States outside an urban district, including a farm-to-market or ranch-to-market road;

That road is a farm-to-market road.

This road is also one where there are not many driveways and would be considered to be outside of an urban district.

So what would the speed limit be on that road when there are no posted speed limit signs anywhere in that city on that road?

In Texas speeding is considered to be a class C misdemeanor criminal offense and is not a civil infraction. In Texas a trial by jury can be had for those offenses.


texts: During a traffic stop, should you disclose that you are carrying a licensed firearm without being asked for it?

texts:
Consider a routine traffic stop and assume the driver or the passenger has a firearm, legally obtained, and legally concealed.

Is there any obligation to reveal that they are carrying that firearm?

Also, should one disclose it of your own accord when you are in the following dilemma:

You have it on your person or nearby where instead of surprising the officer during the routine stop, you'd rather honestly disclose it

The disclosure is a double edged sword, if you do it may make the officer anxious, nervousness and trigger active.

On the other hand, if you don't and during the course of interaction some aspect having a firearm comes to light.


texts: Can I kill people with my autonomous drone?

texts:
If I were to deploy an autonomous drone that went around shooting people, what could I be convicted of?

Suppose that all decisions were made by the drone, and I had no intent of this happening.  E.g., perhaps I wrote an algorithm that discerned between what and what not to shoot, but a bug slipped in that caused it to shoot people.

Although it's, in my opinion, subjective, I'd say that the possibility of the drone killing someone would be one that came across the deployer's mind, but, still didn't expect to happen. Sort of like a nuclear power plant melting down.

Contrarily, what if I did design the drone to shoot people, but I didn't actually pull the trigger?


texts: Can a law-enforcement officer share a crime report with the alleged perpetrator?

texts:
This is one of a few questions I will ask.  I understand that no one can give legally binding advice and I am not asking for it.  I am looking primarily for information and terminology I need to better research the actual laws relevant, I don't presume anything told to me is legally binding.

I have a friend, let's call her Alice, who was raped by a police officer, let's call him Bob.  She went to the police and made a report, in which she also stated that she wished he was dead out of anger.  Alice ultimately did not press charges.

Bob, now states that the officer to whom Alice gave the statement, informed him of her statement in detail.  My understanding is that, without charges filed, the officer could not repeat any of the statement to Bob?  Is the officer allowed to provide details of this statement to the accused?  I know the officer promised the statement would not be repeated at that time.

If she isn't allowed, what sort of legal options are available for Alice to seek to have the breach of privacy punished? Alice was already afraid of making a report, due to fear that police officers would side together. This violation of her privacy is making it far less likely she will trust the legal system enough to file charges for the rape. So, I would like to be able to assure her that she has some means of seeking punishment for this, to show her that the legal system is still on her side and the police can't just collaborate against her. Any idea of what option one might pursue that I can research in more depth?


texts: Why couldn't LBJ Trademarks claim "Taco Tuesday" due to common usage?

texts:
It is apparently not commonly known, but the phrase "Taco Tuesday" is a registered trademark of Taco John's, a restaurant chain based out of Wyoming. Why is it then that in 2019, when Lebron James tried to trademark "Taco Tuesday" for himself, that he was denied not due to the similarity to Taco John's trademark, but rather because it was deemed to common on a phrase to trademark?

In this case, the applied-for mark is a commonplace term, message, or expression widely used by a variety of sources that merely conveys an ordinary, familiar, well-recognized concept or sentiment.

USPTO Application 88579771
It is expressed later on in the application that it was also considered to be to similar to "TECHNO TACO TUESDAY", and that allowing such a mark could detract from people search for the aforementioned term.

Although applicant’s mark does not contain the entirety of the registered mark, applicant’s mark is likely to appear to prospective purchasers as a shortened form of registrant’s mark.

What I don't understand, though, is that nowhere in the application does it mention Taco John's already existing claim on Taco Tuesday. Since the company does still attempt to enforce its claim on the mark, including sending cease-and-desists to offenders, it seems odd that LBJ Trademarks LLC. was denied the claim due, in no small part, to how common the phrase is in the American lexicon, and not because it was already claimed.


texts:
I am in the final round of a set of job interviews with a tech contracting company out of Atlanta. I passed the initial technical screening and the very easy coding interview for a machine learning position.

In this position, I'd be given 3 months of intensive machine learning training, and then contracted out to other companies. I'd have to sign a 2 year agreement binding me to this contracting company.

None of this seems too bad, but I've recently gotten wind that this company (and many like it) regularly add fake work experience to their employee's resumes, and expect you to lie in interviews to back it up. They have not yet asked me to do this (I'm waiting for them to call me now to give me final details).

This has happened to others, and questions like "Should I take this job?" have already been asked here, so I won't repeat them.

My question is, if they do admit to to such fraudulent behavior, either in writing or over the phone, what legal action can I take against them? I hate the fact that this is a real thing, and I want to see any company like this shut down.

I've been out of grad school for 8 or 9 months now, and I was so excited to finally have a job offer. I am incredibly p*ssed that this job, which I was very excited for, is actually a way for foreign nationals to scam money from major corporations by using me as their dummy.

Edit: Just got off the phone on the final interview and I am being pushed forward. I was told that "we give you great, in depth training and then we vouch for you", so no admission of guilt, and their training is reputed to be quite good. I actually enjoyed speaking with their data-science expert about some pretty interesting mathematical concepts.

The funny thing is, the caller ID said "Brighter Brain", which is not the company that I am interviewing with. So I did a little googling and found out that this company goes by 5 or so names all around the Atlanta area. Each has complaints against them on various job boards, alleging that they make new employees sign a predatory contract and then force them to lie to clients in order to get the job. Some people are ok with this, and others are not, but seems like it is definitely going on. Any advice is definitely appreciated.


texts: Can a phone conversation be summoned from telecom operator as evidence in court of law

texts:
Our landlord/landlady have twice made statements that suggest they breached our privacy. We have not recorded our conversations since we understand it would be illegal to do so.

However, we wish to get to the root of the matter and force them to declare how they obtained such information. Our second conversation was over the phone - can we escalate the issue with the hope that the court can summon a recording of our phone conversation (where the violating statements where made) for evidence?


texts: How can a copyright liccense be irrevocable under US law

texts:
The various creative commons licenses and various copy-left and similar licenses all claim to be "perpetual" or "irrevocable" -- to last for the term of the copyright. For example, the CC-BY 4.0 license says:

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material

The other CC license include a similar provision.
But 17 USC 203 says:

In the case of any work other than a work made for hire, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of copyright or of any right under a copyright, executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978, otherwise than by will, is subject to termination under the following conditions

...

(3) Termination of the grant may be effected at any time during a period of five years beginning at the end of thirty-five years from the date of execution of the grant; or, if the grant covers the right of publication of the work, the period begins at the end of thirty-five years from the date of publication of the work under the grant or at the end of forty years from the date of execution of the grant, whichever term ends earlier.
(4) The termination shall be effected by serving an advance notice in writing, signed by the number and proportion of owners of termination interests required under clauses (1) and (2) of this subsection, or by their duly authorized agents, upon the grantee or the grantee’s successor in title.

This document from the US Copyright office describes the law and the process under it. So does this article from WIPO magazine. This short article from a law office summarizes the provisions of Sections 203 and 304 of Title 17 (the US Copyright Law). This article from the Author's Guild summerizes the law from the POV of a literary author.
Given this provision, how can such licenses for US works plausibly claim to be "irrevocable"? Cannot the author or rights-holder terminate any such license after 35 years under this procedure?


texts:
35 U. S. C. §101 highlights "laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas" as patent-ineligible.

The Alice/Bank case discusses abstract ideas and explains that in applying the §101 exception, a court must distinguish patents that claim the “building blocks” of human ingenuity. Where are the rules written on applying the §101 exceptions?

For a precise definition of what the exceptions are, do I need to review the relevant cases or are they defined somewhere?


texts: I was driving on a 2 lane undivided road in the left lane. The speed limit was 45, and due to slippery conditions I was going 30, with a 7-8 car length gap in front of me. I saw the vehicle in front of me change lanes and fishtail a bit. The SUV now in front of me was close to a stop, so I began slowing down. When I was 4-5 car lengths away, I hit a patch of ice, resulting in a rear end collision. The Oakland county officer cited me for failure to stop within assured clear distance. Is there a case that I can cite that clears me of this? I do not believe I was in violation as I left a clear distance, and was driving for the conditions.


texts: Could United's upgrade policy be legally interpreted as gambling?

texts:
United provides Global Premier Upgrades (GPU) to frequent fliers that can be used to upgrade one leg of a flight by one class, e.g., economy to business. However, for international flights, the economy ticket also has to be in minimum fare class ("W" typically), which is often significantly more expensive then the cheapest available ticket at time of booking. It's typically around $200-$300 more per leg. Other than being eligible for an upgrade, the higher fare class has no other benefits. That was actually confirmed to me by an United agent on the phone.

The upgrade is also dependent on availability of a special type of tickets (R-space). Availability at time of booking is quite rare on most routes. You can still apply the GPU, but you get wait listed. If R-space becomes available or United doesn't sell all business class seats for cash, they will upgrade by going down the wait list. Often the upgrade does not go through. In this case, the GPU is returned to the customer. However the price difference of the tickets is not. So you have spent $200-$300 for nothing.

So in short: at time of booking, you need to decide whether you want to spent extra money for a chance at an upgrade. If you get it, great. If not, the money is gone with no value or benefit and United keeps the cash. Some frequent flier web sites refer to this actually as the "upgrade lottery".

I looked at some legal definitions for gambling, and it seems the main ingredients are there. See for example: https://definitions.uslegal.com/g/gambling/, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling

You wager money
there is an event with uncertain outcome
if the the outcome is "good" you have a substantial gain, if the outcome is "bad", you lost your money without any benefit from it. It's a simple "yes"/"no"
You have little or no information to predict the outcome at time of wager.
You have no control on the outcome


texts:
I want to use some of the information from one website, but that website has a copyright. The source of the information is under Open Government License"

I have a few questions regarding the licence
"Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents (ISBN 978-0-11-341340-9)"

That website has a policy:

"All chapters from the study materials are crown copyright and have been reproduced from the government publication Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents (ISBN 978-0-11-341340-9). This material has been reproduced with the permission of The National Archives under the Open Government License."

Open government licence
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Does it mean that all the information that has been "reproduced" from books follow their copyright?

Can you copyright reproduced information by open government licence?

I just want to know can I use the information from that website and just mention  Open Government License and "Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents (ISBN 978-0-11-341340-9)"'

Thank you very much for the information.


texts: In the US, at what age can a child refuse to attend a religious service mandated by their parent?

texts:
If a child has determined that they don't want to attend religious services with their parent, at what age can they no longer be compelled to do so?

Given:

A parent is stating to their child that they must go with them.
A child (of unstated but still minor age) doesn't want to go.
Occurring within United States (Michigan if it matters to that level)
(area of the world where the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is not ratified)

Are there actual laws written, or de facto situations (e.g. let's say another law specifies that a child can't be physically forced to go anywhere without causing abuse) where the child can refuse to attend?  Are there "tiers" to the age; Is it true that a temper tantrum of a 5 year old would be seen as such, but the refusal of a 17 year would be legally accepted?

My comment regarding abuse is purposefully vague.  When is it abuse?  Is it only physical?  If a child claims one religious affiliation (or alternately none at all), is it abuse to force indoctrination?  If so, at what age can a child be considered "old enough" to decide that this is some method of verbal abuse?  Are there other abuses that can be (or have been successfully) claimed?

Please don't assume I only limit the "de facto situations" to abuse.  Consider if there are other items that would affect this activity.


texts:
From time to time local media in my country (Romania) argues about civil union which is not yet allowed. Doing some research, I chose Poland as a reference as I perceived relatively socially conservative (e.g. both Poland and Romania strongly oppose same-sex marriage).

Wikipedia has an entire article dedicated to same sex unions in Poland:

  In 2004, under a left-wing Government, the Senate approved a bill
  allowing gay and lesbian people to register their relationships as
  civil unions

  Following the 2015 parliamentary elections, the social conservative
  Law and Justice party (PiS) formed the new Government. PiS is opposed
  to registered partnerships.

  A new registered partnership bill was proposed on 12 February 2018 by
  the Modern party

The first paragraph suggests civil union is allowed, but the last ones talk about a new bill, but it is not clear if this is an improvement upon existing civil union legislation or this is suppose to allow civil unions.

Question: What is the legal status of civil unions in Poland?


texts: Is a carpark a road, given this definition in New Zealand law

texts:
I am wondering whether a car park would be considered a road.

Per Land Transport Act 1998 interpretations a road is:

  (a) a street; and
  (b) a motorway; and
  (c) a beach; and
  (d) a place to which the public have access, whether as of right or not; and
  (e) all bridges, culverts, ferries, and fords forming part of a road or street or motorway, or a place referred to in paragraph (d);
  and
  (f) all sites at which vehicles may be weighed for the purposes of this Act or any other enactment

(d) seems overly broad whereas (a), (b), and (c) are not so I am unsure. Would I be wasting my time trying to argue this in court? I have an infringement for an unregistered car left on a road, which was this open air car park at a council/government owned airport.


texts: Missed flight, can we take the airline to court to claim money to rebook remaining flights?

texts:
A couple of weeks ago me and my partner went on holiday. We had booked with Thai Airways and had a multi-part ticket. London -> Bangkok, Bangkok -> Tokyo, Osaka -> London (via Bangkok)
On the day of the Bangkok to Tokyo flight (Nov 17th), I had food poisoning, we got to the airport, but I was constantly throwing up and severely dehydrated, so we saw the airport doctor, they ruled me not fit to fly and sent me to the hospital in an ambulance, my partner stayed with me the entire time.
Whilst at the airport doctor's, one of the nurses took our flight information and went up to inform Thai that we wouldn't be able to make the trip (this was about 4 hrs before the flight was due), unfortunately there wasn't anybody manning the check-in desk so they weren't able to notify them, however they said they would return later to let them know.

I sent an e-mail to Thai the following morning (Nov 18th) when I was no longer incapacitated checking whether the remaining flights were still valid.
The morning after that (Nov 19th), I received a call from Thai at 9am at the hospital saying that unless we rebooked our tickets (with a new Bangkok to Tokyo flight) at a cost of £1000 each (the original ticket cost us ~£740 each) by 11am, all our remaining flights would be cancelled.
We believe the airport doctor notified Thai (in Thai's T&C it states if they are informed prior to the flight they won't cancel the remaining flights), though we don't have any physical evidence.

We could have booked a flight to Tokyo by ourselves for aprox £300 each on the day.

Would there be any room for us to take Thai Airways to court to reclaim the £2000 we had to pay?


texts: Is a document signed using software considered legally binding?

texts:
To clarify, I am asking if the following two scenarios are essentially equivalent from the legal perspective of signing an employment contract. I suspect I may be splitting hairs, but am curious nonetheless.

Usual scenario: I print the contract on paper, I sign using a pen, I give a copy to the relevant company representative (and sometime later receive a copy of the contract with the company signature added).

Proposed scenario: I sign the contract using software (such as PDF Annotator), print the 'signed' document and give the printout to the relevant company representative (and presumably receive a copy of the signed document later).

There is nothing contentious involved nor any question about my intent to agree to terms. This would be using either California or Michigan law in the USA. The purpose is to simplify my life from a paperwork perspective.

This is not about electronic signatures but about whether a signed (on the computer) and printed document is as valid as a printed and signed document.

(The only relevant question I could find is Is a touch screen signature considered an electronic signature?, but this is asking if such a signature is an electronic signature, which it is not.)


texts: Would company A be legally liable if a hack is developed by a third party to run company B's software on A's hardware?

texts:
So let's assume there are 2 console companies: Company A and company B.

Let's say that company A creates the gamesystem X and company B creates the playingmachine 5.

Both companies have proprietary software on their machines, and both companies have games exclusive to their own machines.

Let's say a third party, let's call it hackerman, makes a hack for the gamesystem X that allows him to natively run playmachine 5 games on the gamesystem X without actually circumventing the DRM software on the playmachine 5 games.

For the sake of the argument, let's assume this is a hardware hack (for example connecting a new piece of hardware that hackerman created himself) and not a manipulation of the software on gamesystem X.

Also let's assume that it is literally impossible to patch out this flaw either as a firmware update on the gamesystem X or as security patches on playingmachine 5 games, such that it would take a whole redesign of the hardware architecture by company A to remove the flaw on the gamesystem X.

Now the question is: would company A be liable for this?

Because the repercussions would be that if people knew that there's an underground hack they can do to run both system games on just one system, company B would lose out on sales of playingmachine 5.

In this case, it COULD also be that company A intentionally made it that way to be able to be hardware hacked in that way, but let's assume that there's definitely no way to prove that accusation.

Also let's assume that hackerman is unidentifiable, the hardware hack is easy and cheap to do (such that even non technical people can easily pull it off) and information and guides on how to do it are either spread through the dark web (so untraceable) and word of mouth.


texts: What is purpose of a lawyer "lawyering up?"

texts:
I've read/heard on the recent news that on an ongoing case, lawyer of a person, himself, has lawyered up (actually, I heard that about the Trump's lawyer, here, or here but please don't derail the question with the particular case).

As this is the first time I am hearing something like that and considering I don't have much experience with law, I want to know, why and on which cases such thing happens? Is it because if a lawyer loses to defend his/her client, he/she should pay some tribute to his constituent or something like that, or lawyers of a lawyer have just advising role in general?