texts: Would I be infringing on a trademark if my company name is later trademarked?

texts:
If I incorporate an LLC, and then someone federally registers a trademark with that name, would I be infringing on a trademark and have to change my name?

Or will they be unable to register the trademark if a company is using the name?

I ask because I keep hearing that I'm supposed to register the company before trademarking, but in my case, I think the trademark is more important. I still want to register the LLC first to make it the trademark owner, but I'm worried that someone will snag the trademark after I register the company. Will I still have protections if my LLC is registered and someone snags the trademark? Will I be able to use the trademarked name on products?


texts: What factors determine if a person guilty of software piracy receives a custodial sentence?

texts:
This article suggests that a person who pirates content in the US is unlikely to receive a custodial sentence if found guilty of criminal software piracy

There are 3 amateur legal opinions in the above article:

It's civil.
It's a crime.
It's a crime that's rarely enforced.

There are cases of people getting sued. However, there are no cases of people going to jail for downloading.

There is one case of people getting jailed for distributing.

So my question is, if a person is found guilty of software piracy in the US, what factors determine if that person will be given a custodial sentence, and how heavily does each factor weigh?

The previous question Are pirated movies and software legal for personal use? only says whether it's illegal. Of course it is.

I am asking whether it's "wise" to break the law in this case? How likely you will get caught? What's the penalty? How many went to jail already for this? Any court cases?


texts: University dorm serving meat with vegetarian food

texts:
I'm a college student and a vegetarian. I've noticed in the last year and a half that the dining hall department sometimes serves vegetarian food on the same platter as meat food, and I let the staff know. This has now happened several times and is getting more ridiculous (like pepperoni pizza and cheese made in the same pie). I'm not looking to sue/get damages, but is there is any standing from a health code standpoint to ask them to stop this?

Edit: to clarify about the preparation, I mean that when the staff puts a pizza into the oven, it is half cheese and half pepperoni, and they are served from the same dish. I am in Washtenaw County, Michigan


texts: Elements of bribery: what is a "thing of value"?

texts:
There is lately some suggestion that a US president who withholds aid to a foreign country on the condition that the foreign country investigate a political opponent constitutes bribery.  The definitions I've found of that offense all involve a "thing of value."

It is clear how such an investigation could be valuable to a US president, for the investigation would damage the reputation of the president's political opponents, probably making it easier for the president (or the president's political allies) to win the next election.  But I am asking here on Law because curious:

Is there precedent for such an intangible act to serve as a "thing of value" in a bribery prosecution (or impeachment)?

For the purpose of this question, I am not particularly interested in promises of employment, since employment implies a salary.  It seems like the distinguishing characteristic is that the thing of value is an act that only indirectly benefits the person seeking the performance of the act.  Suggestions about other distinguishing elements are welcome.

The question principally concerns US federal law, but because the delegates to the constitutional convention would have understood bribery as a common-law offense, it would also be helpful to know about common-law precedent from before 1789, which may have influenced their understanding of the word bribery.


texts: Can the President of the United States pardon proactively?

texts:
President Trump's administration has just formally started the transition process. He is now officially a lame-duck President. It is common for outgoing Presidents to grant pardons in this last phase of their presidency, while they still have the power to do so; Clinton is one of the more infamous examples.
The question which occurred to me: Can a President shield people not only from punishment but even from investigation and trial for federal crimes by granting a pardon proactively (a "prospective pardon") before any prosecution, let alone indictment, trial, sentence or punishment?


texts: Difference between "Private Property" and "No Tresspassing" signage

texts:
In my door-to-door ministry work I've observed various forms of "No Tresspassing" signs on properties. Do "Private Property" signs imply the same laws as a "No Tresspassing" sign?

At one house in particular, the owner had posted a sign which said "Private Property," but had covered the "No Tresspassing" part of the sign with duct tape. We skipped that house to stay on the safe side, but would like to know if there are actually any differences in meaning.


texts:
I recently got married in Portugal. My wife and I decided that we would both take each others surnames, combining the 2 so we now have 2 surnames. The registrar over there needed a letter from the UK government to highlight that this was achievable (along with all the other formalities), so we sent across the document on this page:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notarial-and-documentary-services-guide-for-portugal

The document can be found under the heading 'Obtain an informative note on change of name'.

What I want to know is, now the we are married and all the formalities have been completed, is there anything that we need to do over here (the UK) to confirm the name change, such as get the marriage certificate translation via the Portuguese Consulate? Or is this process all completed without us needing to?

I just thought I'd check before changing my name in all the appropriate places, and if there is anything that we need to do.

If anyone is confused about what has actually happened to our names, I'll give an example:

Pre-marriage  : Maria Silva       & John Smith
Post-marriage : Maria Silva Smith & John Silva Smith

Thanks in advance


texts: What is the legal difference between loitering and loafing?

texts:
I have seen this sign below on a few United States Post Offices in my area of Virginia. The sign prohibits 3 acts:

NO SOLICITING
NO LOITERING
NO LOAFING

No soliciting is obvious.  However, loitering and loafing are nearly synonymous in dictionaries.  I have to assume there is a difference between the two.  Why else would both be listed?

Is there a legal distinction between loitering and loafing?


texts: Can vehicle owners ever be held to account for accidents caused by someone else driving?

texts:
Bob owns a car. Rob borrows it, drives, breaks some road rules and causes an accident with a hell lot of damage, blood and sorrow (all hypothetical).
Under what circumstances can Bob be held liable for that, if any? (Barring the scenario where Bob intentionally modifies the car or sets a device to cause the accident). Let's also assume that there is no insurance whatsoever and it is perfectly legal to not have one.
Say if the car does not have a current WoF (warrant of fitness, or whatever equivalent in different jurisdictions), does Bob have any duty to disallow Rob to drive it, or at least warn him about the expired WoF? Or is it totally up to Rob to check that the WoF endorsement is current?
(Any jurisdiction).


texts:
What rights does Tim Berners Lee have to the World Wide Web?

Does he have any say over what is allowed on the World Wide Web, its regulations, and so forth? If not, when did he lose these rights and who has dominion over the World Wide Web?


texts: A person on disability, supposedly can only make $1000/month without having to report that income to the IRS. If a person on the show is shown to make more than they should, revealed in a case before Judge Judy, does she report this to the IRS?


texts: Cloud storage: requesting copy of data vs physical seizure of storage devices

texts:
If a third party has a personal computer which contains evidence of a crime then that computer can be seized by law enforcement as evidence, rather than the data being copied from the computer and the computer being left with its owner.  However, as exampled here, when evidence of a crime might be found in a cloud storage account, law enforcement asks for a copy of the data rather than physically seizing from the cloud service the storage devices on which the data is stored.
So why the difference?  Is it merely a matter of practicality, or is there some law requiring physical seizure of the computer in one circumstance but not in the other?


texts: Is it criminal to take evasive actions to avoid paying a civil judgment?

texts:
If a lawsuit goes against the defendant and a judgment is rendered against the defendant, is it a criminal act for the defendant to then start hiding their assets or taking deliberate steps to evade paying the judgment?

For example, let's say a defendant gets sued and the judgment against the defendant is $200,000. The defendant has a house worth about $250,000 and the plaintiff starts executing on the judgment by taking steps to have the house sold to satisfy the judgment. While this action is pending in court, defendant then "sells" his house to his wife for $1 and the deed is transferred into her name.

Can a criminal complaint be lodged against the defendant for this conduct?


texts: How should one interpret a Delaware judge's instructions?

texts:
This is regarding a corporate matter in Delaware (the seat of a majority of U.S. corporations).

A Delaware judge ordered a corporation to post a relevant notice "for two weeks in a widely circulated daily newspaper in Delaware." Questions:

1) Does "two weeks" mean 10 business days or 14 calendar days?

2) The two largest Delaware daily newspapers are the News Journal out of Wilmington, and the Delaware State News out of Dover. Wilmington is the larger and more business oriented city, but is at the northern end of the state, while Dover is in the middle of the state, covers a larger area, and is the state capital. The difference is like the difference between the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Is either newspaper "better" (more acceptable) than the other, or are they comparably acceptable


texts: How come Canadian Police Information Checks do not show arrests, only convictions?

texts:
I was wondering if there was a way to find out what a U.S. border official will see on your record. A police information check in Canada seems to only show your conviction, no section on it that shows arrests..

A u.s. border official will be able to see your arrests, if I am right from what I researched...so..

I am wondering why the police information check does not show arrests, and, if there is a way to see it (vulnerable sector check? probably won't show either and maybe hard to obtain).  Maybe through the freedom of information act?


texts: (EU) Can a license agreement demand a specific compensation for unlicensed use of the software?

texts:
Scenario: As a software developer I create a WordPress extension that does x which I sell for, let's say, $20.
When buying it's clearly mentioned you are only allowed to install it on a single website.
When you install it on your website and try to run it for the first time you are asked to enter your license key and accept, by ticking a box, that if you use it without a proper key or use it on multiple websites with a single key you will be taken to court and have to pay me $5000 plus attorney fees for each unlicensed install.
Question: Is this legal? Is it enforceable?


texts: What's the difference between gross negligence and criminal negligence? A simple example that would show the difference would be appreciated.


texts: Is there a legal path for overturning Nixon vs US (not to be confused with US v Nixon)?

texts:
Nixon v US established that impeachment is not justiciable.  However, this provides a path for it to become a carte blanche unrestrained power of Congress.  This is a far cry from its intended aim of being a power which would only be exercised with a great self-restraint by Congress.

Can this decision reach the SCOTUS only via a case brought by another impeached party?  Or is there another legal path for SCOTUS to consider it again?  Is there a path through an injunction?  I am not asking what would guarantee its overturn.  I am only asking about how the legal system works to make it possible (if a plaintiff succeeds in all challenges which they bring).


texts: Do people born in unincorporated US territories have a constitutional right to non-citizen nationality?

texts:
In Downes v. Bidwell, the Supreme Court concluded that the Citizenship Clause does not apply to people born in unincorporated territories of the United States.

Instead, if they had no other claim to US citizenship, they were considered non-citizen nationals of the United States. However, Congress later extended citizenship to such individuals if born in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands.

Currently, non-citizen nationality at birth is provided to people born in American Samoa or Swains Island by 8 USC §1408.

The Foreign Affairs Manual gives historical background on non-citizen nationality and contains the following curious note:

  The United States exercises sovereignty over a few territories besides those mentioned above.  Under international law and Supreme Court dicta, inhabitants of those territories, (Midway, Wake, Johnston, and other islands) would be considered non-citizen U.S. nationals. However, because the INA defines "outlying possessions of the United States" as only American Samoa and Swains Island, there is no current law relating to the nationality of the inhabitants of those territories or persons born there who have not acquired U.S. nationality by other means.

Did the Supreme Court state in dicta that individuals born in unincorporated territories of the United States are constitutionally guaranteed US nationality, or was the Court simply making a remark about what they thought was the intent of Congress regarding the nationality of hypothetical individuals born in unincorporated territories not otherwise provided for in the Immigration and Nationality Act?


texts: Docket Day Deposition, Plea, and Negotiations

texts: Prior to Docket Day, is it required for the defendant's attorney to provide him or her with the deposition and/or final plea? Can the defendant's attorney tell the defendant to sign the plea because some time later the attorney will get a portion of the plea removed?


texts: Do I have standing to sue a credit bureau or lender after being approved for a loan but being prevented from signing due to their error?

texts:
I'm in New York.
So, what happened was that I applied for a loan from a loan agency. My credit was good, I was making good income, and my loan was approved.
I need to stress that last point. My loan was approved, not just superficially, or that things "seemed good", I was approved. I have emails saying that, specifically:

Congratulations Sean,
Your loan request has been approved!
Log in now to review the terms of your offer and sign your loan agreement.

So, I was approved, and just needed to sign electronically. Great! Except, in order to sign, I had to verify my identity through a credit bureau questionnaire.
I kept failing this questionnaire, because it was giving multiple choice questions where no answer was possibly correct. For example, it asked how much how much I owed in student loans listing 4 non-zero amounts to choose from, and I've never had a student loan so there was no correct answer.
This wasn't a case of identity theft or anything like that. There are no student loans on my report with any bureau. Another similar question asked me to name a street I used to live on, but again none of the choices were correct. About half the questions were using my information, and I was able to answer them correctly, but it was not enough.
I made numerous calls to the credit bureau and the loan agency to try and resolve this, but no one was able to help me. The loan agency was unable to consider any alternative method for me to sign for my loan, and the credit bureau was even more unhelpful, having no idea why it was happening and no solutions to offer.
If I had been able to sign for the loan I was approved for, I would not have suffered damages that I did after soon after losing my job and apartment.
Do I have standing to sue the loan agency for failing to provide an alternate method of identity verification after approving me for a loan? Or for the credit bureau for having a malfunctioning identity verification system that preventing me from being able to sign for a loan I was approved for? Or both?


texts: Can seller of property impose conditions on how it is used by the new owner?

texts:
When I sell a domestic animal, can I impose a condition that the animal is kept as a pet and never killed for meat? If the new owner breaches this condition, will I be able to hold them to account?

This would be analogous to listed buildings: you can own them but you can't demolish or alter them significantly.

Jurisdiction: any English-speaking country.


texts: If I ran a question-and-answer website in the US with absolutely no moderation, what legal trouble can I get into?

texts:
Suppose the contents are rated in the same way motion pictures are rated, and the users are warned before hand and are given the option to turn safety on and off.

References to antecedent lawsuits and court decisions are very much appreciated.


texts: I have a lot of catalogs featuring different products, and basically what I want to know is if there can be a problem to upload all those in a github repository so that anyone can download them, instead of going to the manufacturer sites one by one


texts: Can CA public benefit corps be for-profit?

texts:
I'm interested in forming a public benefit corporation in California in 2018. As I understand it, these can be for-profit. But when I look at the California government website for information about filing Articles of Incorporation, it implies that public benefit corporations must file as not-for-profit.

A different source seemed to say it was enough to state “this is a public benefit corporation” in the Articles of Incorporation (in addition to all the requirements of a B Corp).

How do I incorporate a for-profit B corp in California?


texts: If a family member has taken a possession of mine for a long period of time, is that theft?

texts: I live at home with my aunty and about four months ago she has taken my property up to my nan's (without my permission) who lives across the state. Is it illegal for her to keep my possessions without my consent?


texts: Private company making it hard to delete customer's personal data

texts:
Storyline

A friend of mine opened an account with an online company that sells picture prints. Without her knowing, just after signing in, somehow (she did not understand how; probably through the Apple application Photos), the company came into possession of the photos she had on her computer.

When she realized they were in possession of her photos, she sent an email asking for the account to be closed and her personal data (photos included) to be deleted from their system. It follows a pretty long list of confusing emails at the end of which they agreed to close the account. They did not confirm they would delete the pictures though.

Two months later, she received a promotion email that included her pictures! She sent another email asking to stop promotional emails and also asking to delete the pictures. They answered they can't delete the pictures themselves, but they can reopen the account so that she can delete her pictures herself. She accepted it to reopen the account (which was probably an unfortunate move). Turns out, deleting pictures can only be done one at a time and there are thousands of pictures, which is more than inconvenient! That's at this moment that my friend told me the story.

Extra information

No payment and no banking information has ever been given to this company. Note also, if it matters, that my friend lives in Canada.

Question

I very much suspect she is in right to 1) no receive promotion emails anymore, 2) Have them close the account again and 3) have them delete her pictures. Am I right?

Can you please advise us on an appropriate answer to hopefully convince the company to respect those rights?


texts: Could you fix and carry (for self defense) antique firearms in 2010 New York?

texts:
Forgive me for basing this on a pop-culture reference. I heard this on a TV show:

Abe: They (antique guns) are considered collectibles, so they don't have to be registered.
Castle: Making it pretty smart to kill someone with one.
Abe: Oh, yeah.
— Castle S03E04

For what it is worth, the episode is set in 2010 New York.
Then, I researched a bit about owning antiques. According to WikiHow,

Most states exempt antique firearms from the general licensing and ownership requirements to legally own modern firearms.

I understand that gun laws vary considerably by state. In 2010 New York, would owning antiques come with the right to fix them and use them (legally)?
To further narrow it down, what justifies his saying, "pretty smart to kill someone with one"?


texts: Could a Doctor Refuse to Treat a Patient in an Emergency?

texts:
Suppose a man commits a hate crime against (Hypothetical Church), and in the midst of the crime, the man is critically wounded by the police and rushed to the hospital.

Suppose there is only one doctor there, and that doctor has the ability the save the man. But that doctor has a lot of friends in (Hypothetical Church) and is aware of the man's crime.

Would it be illegal for the doctor to refuse to treat the man and let him die?

I realize there could be other consequences (possibly getting fired or losing a medical license), but I am mainly asking if it is illegal. (United States)


texts: How to find regulations specified in the US Code?

texts:
How does one find regulations that are specified by the United States Code?  For example, 22 USC § 288b says:

§288b. Baggage and effects of officers and employees exempted from customs duties and internal revenue taxes
Pursuant to regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, the baggage and effects of alien officers and employees of international organizations, or of aliens designated by foreign governments to serve as their representatives in or to such organizations, or of the families, suites, and servants of such officers, employees, or representatives shall be admitted (when imported in connection with the arrival of the owner) free of customs duties and free of internal-revenue taxes imposed upon or by reason of importation.

I am unable to locate any relevant "regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury" in the Code of Federal Regulations; do they exist, and, if so, where?
A general answer to the question is obviously preferable, but if someone is able to find the specific regulations in the example without being able to answer the general question, that is also helpful.


texts: GDPR compliance in ads SDK for iOS/Android

texts:
I have opened this question in SO, but was suggested to ask here, as the solution might come from a lawyer, rather than developer.

I work on a native ads SDK for iOS/Android (banner, interstitial, video ads etc.).
We want to comply with GDPR regulations (and others, like COPPA, later).

So I have few questions here:

Should the SDK provide a way (set of get/set functions) for publisher to read/write the GDPR data? I talk here about the values of IABConsent_SubjectToGDPR, IABConsent_ConsentString, IABConsent_ParsedPurposeConsents and IABConsent_ParsedVendorConsents in user defaults or shared preferences...
If yes then should the SDK parse the IABConsent_ConsentString and store the parsed data to IABConsent_ParsedPurposeConsents and IABConsent_ParsedVendorConsents?
Or, maybe the SDK should ask the user by itself for the consent data?
Even if none of the above has to be implemented in the SDK, it still has to read the GDPR related data from NSUserDefaults/SharedPreferences. So should it read the IABConsent_ConsentString and parse it by itself? Or can I just rely on the parsed values (IABConsent_ParsedPurposeConsents and IABConsent_ParsedVendorConsents)?
And, in general, who is responsible to collect this data from the user, build consent string and parse it to vendors and purposes lists? Is it the publisher (app developer) or each one who touches this data (e.g. SDKs in use)?

Thank you.


texts: What happens to a judgment when one of the parties dies?

texts:
A sues B, wins a judgment, and can't collect because B has no money. A dies. Is B off the hook?

B dies first. Does A have a claim against B's estate?


texts:
This is bit of a follow up to How can a community based not-for-profit be sued?
A dispute arose with a local kink community getting sued.

The open letter was addressed to ... Lyncaster’s ...and alleged that
he had invited a minor to his home, ...for a discussion related to ...
(BDSM),...

Obviously sex acts with a minor are illegal. However, some people have different interpretations of what is sexual. My question is, in the eyes of the law, what is defined as a sex act?
For example, if someone finds it sexual to be tied up, if an adult did this to a minor would that be considered rape? In law does sex mean involving genitalia? Is talking about sexual things with a minor illegal (if it's not intended for educational purposes e.g. Sex Ed)?


texts: Chances of theft of new invention during the screening process to get a patent

texts: Suppose I invented something and need to patent it. So, I submit all the documents to the patent office. So, the officers who examine my documents containing new invention at the patent office, could rob the idea and sell it a other big company and get the money from them and help them to file a patent while delaying my submission. So, they will tell me that there is a previous submission of the same invention and reject mine. Is this a possibility to happen? what kind of measures have taken or can be taken to eliminate such activities? Is there any law to help the inventor?


texts: Can the costs of a "charity challenge" be paid for with part of the funds raised?

texts:
If one undertakes a "charity challenge" to raise money and awareness through some performance feat, can one cover one's costs for the feat out of the raised money?

For instance, supposing someone walked from John o' Groats to Land's End raising money from family and friends. Would it be legal to cover the equipment and supplies associated with this out of the money raised?


texts: What's the punishment for false rape accusations in the US?

texts: Is there currently any federal or state laws that punish false rape accusations?


texts: My company is changing my 401k from Fidelity to Principal in the process I am not allowed to make an exchange for 30 days is this legal


texts:
The Daily Mail claims in a recent article about the incident on January 6th:

And he [Trump] could face prosecution in state court in Washington DC for inciting the mob to violence.

Could Trump be charged with inciting the actions of 6th January 2021?


texts: How can I decide, whether I can include a particular image in my commercial blog posts and e-books?

texts:
Imagine I have a blog, on which people can download some free e-book. The purpose of the blog and e-book is to establish connection with potential buyers and eventually sell them something.

Imagine further that I have found an image, which I consider including into my materials.  What kind of algorithm can I use to determine whether I am allowed to include the image in my materials under American law?

In particular: In this blog post there is an image from "The Matrix" movie with a copyright notice. Is it legal to include such images in your blog?


texts: What does "may" mean when used as a verb in a text of law in the US? Possibility or guarantee?

texts:
What does "may" mean when used as a verb in a text of law in the US?
For example, if the law say "X may do Y", is it guaranteed that X can do Y, or does that mean that perhaps the judge or whoever has the decision power will grant the X the right to do Y, but not this isn't sure at all?
Actual example from  8 C.F.R. 316.5(c)(1)(i) (see emphasis):

(c) Disruption of continuity of residence -
(1) Absence from the United States -
(i) For continuous periods of between six (6) months and one (1) year.
Absences from the United States for continuous periods of between six
(6) months and one (1) year during the periods for which continuous
residence is required under § 316.2 (a)(3) and (a)(6) shall disrupt
the continuity of such residence for purposes of this part unless the
applicant can establish otherwise to the satisfaction of the Service.
This finding remains valid even if the applicant did not apply for or
otherwise request a nonresident classification for tax purposes, did
not document an abandonment of lawful permanent resident status, and
is still considered a lawful permanent resident under immigration
laws. The types of documentation which may establish that the
applicant did not disrupt the continuity of his or her residence in
the United States during an extended absence include, but are not
limited to, evidence that during the absence:
(A) The applicant did not terminate his or her employment in the
United States;
(B) The applicant's immediate family remained in the United States;
(C) The applicant retained full access to his or her United States
abode; or
(D) The applicant did not obtain employment while abroad.

In this example, if one satisfies A, B, C, or D, is one guaranteed not to disrupt the continuity of my residence for the purpose of naturalization?


texts: Legality of redistributing free to air satellite channels over the internet

texts:
Is it illegal to redistribute or extend the signals through the internet on otherwise open and free satellite channels?

If not in the US, how is it related to the international scene? The question of it's legality is not clear cut, as the signals are already open.

The internet company would merely be replacing the need for a satellite dish which is otherwise required to receive the analog signal and instead received by an ethernet cable directly from the internet company to your computer or device, and not through the satellite dish to your reciever.

Can someone try to shed some light on this?


texts: Questions about real people and fictional characters in novels

texts:
I was wondering if any legal experts can give me any advice about how much freedom a writer has to refer to real people and places in a fictional work and in what situations it's best to get permission or avoid it altogether.

I do know that the chances of these people/place representatives even reading the reference are very slim, but in theory, let's say you ended up writing a best-seller, what would happen in these situations:

Can you reference the name of a real hotel in a novel such as the Plaza, NY. without asking for permission? Nothing negative is written about the hotel. We just know the scene takes place in front of it. Should you get permission to mention them first, or is it not necessary?
People: I know you can mention a famous person in a novel, but what about if you added a negative spin to that person:

E.g. You're acting like Oprah Winfrey on crack.

He looks like Bruce Willis without the creepy stare.

She looks like a Rosie O'Donnell before she put on the pounds.

Could those people sue in theory if they thought you were depicting them negatively? I'm thinking in particular about the Winfrey on crack line? Are they fair game as being in the public eye?

You can't put a fictional character like Chewbacca in your book obviously, but can you just reference such a character.

E.g. My ex-wife looks like Chewbacca after a good shave.
Or how about:
He did a Sherlock Holmes on the filing cabinet.
Could the company that owns the rights to the Sherlock Holmes/Star Wars franchise have a problem with such a line or is that just extremely unrealistic?

I know that the chances of a book being successful enough for the parties in question to even know about the reference to them are very slim, but any feedback from anyone with knowledge of such matters would be greatly appreciated!


texts:
Our mayor forged the name, room number and signature of another councilor on a hotel bar tab. According to a taxpayer funded independent investigation he wrote the room number of the other councilman, printed the other councilor's name and scribbled what appears to a signature. The signature is not legible. This happened in Washington DC during a conference.
No criminal charges were made. Is this illegal? What should be done? How do I report this? I don’t have an example of the mayors sober signature.


texts: What are the rights of the creditors of "nondischargeable" debts after a bankruptcy?

texts:
Suppose there was a bankruptcy filing, and there was $500,000 of debt that was ruled non-dischargeable. Let's say that the debtor kept a house that was less than the value of the exemption ($300,000 per couple in New York).

Suppose the value of the debtor's house skyrocketed to $1 million. Can the non-dischargeable creditors then force the debtor to sell (or mortgage) the value of the house that exceeds the exempt value up to the amount of the $500,000 debt?

Can the non-dischared creditors form a committee to monitor the debtor's assets, tax returns, income, etc. to collect any "excess income" over a reasonable living allowance after the bankruptcy?


texts:
Background:
I'm was originally interested in knowing what it would take to sell a phone under my own brand that runs an Android fork (open source Android without Google, essentially modified, open-source operating system).
From here I discovered a Google-run consortium called Open Handset Alliance which includes members such as Motorola, HTC, and others, essentially restricting members from building competing products while allowing licensing for default applications (like Gmail, Google Maps).

OHA members are contractually forbidden from producing devices that
are based on competing forks of Android.

Does this mean I cannot manufature my own phone under my own brand while sourcing parts from anyone under the OHA?
I stumbled upon an example:
I do not think this is so because a company Fairphone is now selling a phone with an Android-forked (competitor OS), even though it's CPU is sourced by an OHA member (specifically Qualcom). I've also learned other companies are selling "refurbished" phones in a similar way.
Which begs the question:
Could I legally buy new iPhone12s (or other new flagship phones), modify it (by maybe just painting it or diamond studding it) and resell them as my own brand (assuming the end product did not have "Apple branding" and was not advertised as such)?
If I were to load an entirely new operating system on that hardware, would that also be legal?


texts: Can UK citizens claim common law rights in a UK court, and what would happen if they did?

texts:
I've read in numerous blogs and heard from a few people that common law is more important than statute law in the UK, and that UK citizens can claim common law rights in some cases for their benefit.

According to one of the people I spoke with many moons ago, it requires opting out fully with the help of a legal professional; but that may have been their choice.
According to some blogs you can simply claim common law rights in a court.

However, I've not been able to find a trustworthy answer or explanation about what that would entail.

Can a UK citizen claim common law rights in a UK court?
If they can, would it change anything?


texts: If I license stock images/video footage from a stock image company and alter and recombine them in a layered composition with my own original elements added to create a new image/video composed of many images/videos, do I then own the copyright to the final product?


texts: GDPR: Can I make a subject access request for information that I obviously already know?

texts:
The GDPR guidance states that subject access requests can only be refused if they are manifestly unfounded or excessive.
The detailed guidance on what constitutes manifestly unfounded or excessive can be found here
In summary a manifestly unfounded or excessive request is:

Malicious or intends to cause disruption

Repeats previous subject access requests

Overlaps with other subject access requests

The guidance makes no mention about whether or not it would be excessive to request information clearly already known to the subject.
When I say information already known, I mean for example:
Asking a previous employer for information such as:

My salary while I worked there

My start and leaving date

My job title

This would be useful in a situation for example, where a person needs to prove their income for the last several months and the previous employer is refusing to provide an employers letter.
Of particular interest is the following paragraph:

An individual may also want to receive another copy of information they have requested previously. In this situation a controller can charge a reasonable fee for the administrative costs of providing this information again and it is unlikely that this is an excessive request.

This seems to imply that I can ask an organization for another copy of information that I already know. They can charge a fee, but not refuse to comply.


texts: Can Congress issue a legislative pardon?

texts:
Suppose that the President did not want to pardon someone, but Congress passed a private bill excusing a person from a violation of a law.

Suppose this bill became law (either through inaction of the President or a veto override). Can Congress essentially pardon a violation of law through legislation?


texts: Why a civil court can order damages for killing a person?

texts: Referring to the O.J. case, how can a civil court (or any legitimate court system) determine that you have indeed beat someone to death, now we are ordering you to pay damages and then you may walk free... this goes so badly against my sense of justice that I was wondering if anyone has a justification for it. In Finland where I'm from, the charge for causing a death in any way is always a criminal charge; you can't start a civil suit over it (as far as I know).


texts: Is it illegal to reverse engineer a software if the EULA prohibits it for all purposes?

texts:
I have installed an Android app that lets me play with networking and HTTP headers.
One of the perks of the app is to be able to export a configuration file so other users that also have the app can import it and use your server (the purpose of the app is to make an SSH tunnel so the config files have SSH server address and credentials, among other things)
The thing is, you can choose to "lock" the configuration files so the people you share them with can import them and connect to your server, but can't actually see the server address or credentials. I assume the files are encrypted with AES and the key is static, but I'm getting off-topic now.

One of the clauses in the EULA clearly states:

  "You may not decompile or reverse engineer the software, for any purpose or under any circumstance."

The reason I want to reverse engineer it is to decode the configuration files, so the people who want to can use the data in other apps such as OpenVPN.

The U.S law for reverse engineering is pretty clear in this regard:

  (f)Reverse Engineering.—
  (1)Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.

So, in this case, since my objective is to achieve interoperability (so users can use the data from the config files in other apps) wouldn't this count as an unlawful clause in the license agreement, therefore, invalidating the entire contract?


texts: How does international income taxes work when the buying intermediary platform is in the United States and recipient corporation's country is India?

texts:
The question is a bit broad.
Assume a person A buys something in Europe. This is a digital product which is sold through a platform provided by an American company. After sales are made the final recipient of payment is an Indian corporation. The corporation is liable to pay income tax to whom? India? EU? The EU member state? US state? US federal government? Local authorities? Some other authority?
I have heard of the term "withholding tax". Now both India and USA implement withholding tax the tax withheld will be for India or USA or some where else?


texts: How can saying a song's name be a copyright violation?

texts:
I received an E-mail newsletter inviting me to watch a chorus perform several songs that were arranged for this occasion. They are also selling tickets, so I don't know if half of the profit is sent to the publishers for having performed those songs. In the E-mail they said

  This time, we'll be singing songs of LOVE from some of your favorite artists (We can't quite tell you what they are because of boring copyright stuff, but they rhyme with BABBA, Qween and Bruno Bars) along with original spoken word performances and all the magic you've come to expect.

So, is it really because of copyright that they can't tell you what they are, or is it a diversion tactic? And, if it is a copyright violation, how and why?


texts: Can we get charged for felony for opening a parcel accidentally?

texts: Can you get charged for felony for opening a parcel accidentally? Some incompetent delivery guy put a $1000 parcel in the lobby of my apartment, and not realizing that only 1 of the 2 boxes was mine, I took them both to my apartment as quickly as possible and opened them, then I realized only one of the parcels was mine. I put it back to the lobby. Question is if I can get charged for felony.


texts: Reports say that someone died during the protest/occupation at the Capital building. Given that, is it reasonable that some of the persons who stormed the building could be successfully prosecuted under federal or D.C. felony murder charges?


texts: Is the Court Registrar/Clerk immune to a suit for negligence?

texts:
Suppose a Court Registrar/Clerk issues an enforcement instrument against a party to enforce a judgment debt, but the Court later rules that this instrument was invalidly issued (i.e., the Registrar/Clerk should not have issued it).  To be clear, this is not just a snafu in the paperwork --- for various technical legal reasons, the Court rules that this type of instrument cannot be validly issued against this party at all (even though it was, in fact, issued against them).  The applicant for that instrument relied on it, and suffers loss as a result of its invalidity.  (If the applicant had known it was invalid, he would have sought other enforcement methods in the meantime, but that opportunity has now been lost.)

Can the plaintiff sue the Court Registrar/Clerk (which issued the invalid instrument) for negligence, or on some other cause-of-action?  Does the Registrar/Clerk have any form of judicial immunity that would alter the standard position of a suit for negligence?  Also, in a negligence suit of this kind, would it be expected that the Court Registrar/Clerk has the duty of care to only issue valid instruments, or would it be expected that the applicant is the one that bears the onus of determining validity of the instrument issued at his request?

Jurisdiction of interest: Interested in any common-law jurisdiction, but mostly interested in Federal Court in Australia.


texts: How does a hold-over clause in a lease work?

texts:
I'm confused by hold-over clauses as they apply to the rental of a property. What is the intent?

Originally I thought they were so the landlord can increase the rent to a very high amount to put pressure on the tenant to hurry up and move out. Though I sometimes see hold-over where the rent and the lease is the same.

So what's the difference between a hold-over an an auto-renewing lease, or a lease that automatically switches to month-to-month after a certain date?

If a lease clearly indicates that the tenants must vacate the property on a certain date, and they do not do so, this is already a violation of the contract so what's the point of having a holdover clause?

In Canada it's extremely difficult to physically remove a person and their possessions (a judge is required to appoint a bailiff). Out of curiosity, in the US (in places like Texas) is a court order needed to physically remove a person after the lease ends?


texts: Explain the concept of "filing a claim on behalf of the government"

texts:
An article on Wall Street Journal stated that for false patent marking and whistle-blower laws:

  ...Anyone can file a claim on behalf of the government, and plaintiffs must split any fine award evenly with it...

How does "filing a claim on behalf of the government" work? What is it exactly, how does it contrast with the principle of privity, and how is it applied?

Also, is the concept of "filing a claim on behalf of the government" unique to the United States, or are there other countries that have such laws and procedures?


texts: Why Tonga domains (.to) are not legally shut down, for websites tolerating piracy?

texts:
UPDATE: due to lack of clarity in the initial question, I have completely revised it. I, hopefully, made it more comprehensible now.

I often see sites which illegally distribute copyright-protected content (torrents and alike) using .to domain name (which belongs to Kingdom of Tonga).

This makes me curious to know:

Why aren't this domains legally seized from their owners and/or shut down?

As ICANN is located in the US, I'd expect it to operate under the US laws. Does it's authority is restricted, when dealing with other country's domain?

Are there any special "Total internet freedom" laws in Tongo, or they just do not care that their TLD is used (?abused) in such way?

I do not want to link to exact sites here (I believe for obvious reasons). But I know a number of content-sharing sites, which were legally deprived of their domain name, and had to move to another one (not all of them, but some moved to .to domain). With that said, I have never heard .to domain to be legally taken away, in alike cases.


texts: What educational requirements (if any) are required to be a juror in the USA?

texts:
Searching online I found the following information:

To be legally qualified for jury service, an individual must:
...
be adequately proficient in English to satisfactorily complete the
juror qualification form;
Source

Following up with another search, I found this JUROR QUALIFICATION FORM (Commonwealth of Kentucky)
https://kycourts.gov/resources/legalforms/LegalForms/005A.pdf

I have highlighted in blue the box marked Level of Education Completed
Question
In what way and to what extent is the level of education used when deciding whether someone is fit to be a juror?


texts: Homeschool moderator expects my kid to be enrolled in public school, any alternatives?

texts:
I'm from Australia. I was aware that the homeschool moderator would come today but I've been really busy the last couple of days and was completely caught off guard. She asked to see the work and I was unprepared, unable to find the workbooks my kids had been working though. I asked it if could be rescheduled to another time but she said she was booked out. I was then asked to enrol my kids in public school within the next two weeks before leaving. We are moving to a new house 120km away in a week and my kids absolutely hate public school.

What can I do to avoid sending my kids to a public school?


texts:
I own a engineering company in which I design products to serve as a proof of concept for companies to use to gauge commercial interest and funding. I also design products that may either in the exact same design, or similar are manufactured by the company, and sold commercially. I never manufacture or sell end products

I typically work on products that have little to no risk of injury, but recently have changed to more "dangerous" products. Such products have lithium batteries, high voltage systems, ect..

In either of the cases I described (me doing initial prototype, or design to be manufactured) am I/my company held liable for damages caused by my designs?

If so, will having the client (their company) sign a release of liability form help protect myself? Considering I don't manufacture, market, sell, repair, ect the product.


texts: Is a contract valid if one of the party doesn't even read it?

texts:
You might think someone must be stupid to sign a contract without even reading it. Yet I see it happen all the time, when contracts are just too long and there's no time to read stuff you suppose you already know. Typical examples are contracts you "accept" online, like TOS's and privacy policies. Nobody reads that. And the funny thing is that the other party usually knows you haven't read it. Websites know that nobody reads their huge TOS's or privacy policies, and it has also been demonstrated (researches, polls, articles). And the salesman telling you "just sign here, it's the usual stuff", they know you haven't read it because they saw you sign it without reading it.

In the case of online contracts, you don't even have a copy of them, so the other party could change the terms and you wouldn't even have a way to know it. Stackexchange could tell me that I agreed to post at least a question per month, or my profile would be deleted. Well, did I agree to that? Maybe, who knows, I don't know what was really written in the TOS when I clicked, and now they might have changed the terms and there could be no trace of the old contract.

So are these contracts valid? What makes a contract valid and binding?

If jurisdiction is important, I'm interested in the EU and the US.


texts: Are there laws restricting who can go into "employees only" areas?

texts: I attempted to research this on my own, but found absolutely no results. Is there anything legally restricting customers from entering areas marked "employees only" and/or areas that aren't marked but are clearly not intended to be accessed by the public (such as a stockroom, employee bathroom, etc.)? Is it any form of trespassing or something similar that an employer could use as basis for legal action or calling law enforcement in an extreme case (e.g., disgruntled customer walks into the employee only area and refuses to leave until xyz demands are met)?


texts: Building has been out of hot water for 32 hours

texts:
I currently live in a student residence with another 35 students. On Wednesday night I didn't have hot water and took a cold shower, then, next night I still didn't have hot water. I asked the other tenants if someone else didn't have hot water through the Whatsapp group we have and everyone who answered stated that they also don't have hot water.

This morning (32 hours after Wednesday's night) I informed the landlord of this problem and also encouraged others tenants to do the same.

I know that in most places hot water counts as a plumbing service and the landlord has a time window to fix this problem, after such time some legal actions can be taken.

What are my rights as a tenant of a room when facing this problem? Let's say that he doesn't fix it this weekend because paying a plumber on weekends is more expensive and he prefers to wait until Monday, so he leaves all of us for 3 more days without hot water, what can I do about this?

I'm not an Austrian citizen nor I don't speak German (yet) but I do have a rent contract signed by both parties.


texts: Fourth Amendment traffic stop followup question

texts:
This is a follow up question from why doesn't the 4th amendment apply to traffic stops.

So, the current answer states that the 4th amendment applies to traffic stops, which makes sense to me. So after thinking about that and looking up some odd articles that arguably make sense, I'm kinda curious of one of the issues that can arise from that.

Question: During a legal traffic stop, let's say that when they ask for licence and registration, you ask

  can these documents be used against me in the court of law.

It seems the answer would have to be

  yes

Since they can and if you were to receive a ticket, they would be a part of the evidence. Assuming you give them your identification information since you are being detained and investigated, how can an officer handle such issue of not violating the 4th Amendment?

Issuing a ticket for failure to have insurance would seem to have no basis since there is no proof, and requiring the proof would require either a warrant or the person to give up their right?

This is a theoretical question about individuals and their rights and I do have full insurance and produce it every time. I'm not looking for answers that involve the driver to forfeit their rights (i.e. "I would just hand it over", "issue the ticket, and let the courts hash it out", etc). I think we can make a safe assumption that the person is a reasonable person that likes to preserve their rights. And again, this is from the perspective of a honest police officer that would like to keep the person's rights intact. I will flag answers that go down that road as not an answer since they clearly would be opinions.


texts: Are inferior courts bound by a decision of a minority of the Supreme Court judges?

texts:
Say the Supreme Court of 5 judges (in New Zealand) makes a judgment. Two of the judges (minority, though one of them is the Chief Justice) express a separate opinion on a question of law.
Are the inferior courts bound by that interpretation?
Please also post answers for other jurisdictions (the principles would likely be very similar).


texts: "Geographical limitation" in the 1951 Refugee Convention?

texts:
DW mentions that:

  Since the start of the war in Syria five years ago, more than 4.5 million Syrians have spilled over the border into neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. None of the latter three countries has ratified the 1951 Convention, meaning they technically have no obligation to recognize the displaced individuals as refugees. While Turkey has ratified the Convention, it maintains a "geographical limitation," which means it still only recognizes refugees from Europe.

The "geographical limitation" seems pretty loophole-ish to me. Can someone shed light on the details of how it's possible, e.g. what article in the Convention is invoked etc.? Are there other countries using this "geographical limitation" trick?


texts: Is it legal to attempt to redefine legal terms?

texts:
If a term or phrase has a specific (and relevant) legal definition in UK law, can I use it to mean something else, and can I use it to mean something else without first telling the other party what I mean instead? (to be clear; I'm not actually trying to do this, but someone else is trying to do it to me).

For example:
In the UK, the definition of a Licensed Premises is set out in The Licensing Act 2003 as [a] premises in respect of which a premises licence has effect.

Given this, can I legally use the phrase 'licensed premises' to refer to only those parts of the premises that I intend to sell alcohol from, rather than the entire premises?

I see three possible options:

I can use the phrase to mean whatever I like, the fact that a legal term with the same phrasing exists is irrelevant
I can use the phrase, but only if I make it clear that I am redefining it. If I don't redefine it, then it has it's normal legal meaning.
I cannot redefine the phrase at all. It has it's normal legal meaning, and only Parliament can make it mean something else

My gut feeling is that 2) is broadly correct, as the other two seem like they would lead to issues, but I suspect that the answer is (as always) more complicated than that.


texts: Can a surrogate mother keep the legal motherhood?

texts:
In jurisdictions where surrogacy contracts are regulated:

Can a surrogate mother (who has signed a contract and is earning money for this service) keep legal parenthood over the child in her womb if she decides so?

What would be the legal consequences of this? Would she have to pay some kind of indemnification to the originally intended legal parents?

Would there be any difference if the intended parents were the genetic parents of the child?

I'm assuming that these varies across jurisdictions, so I'm mainly searching for responses summarising several cases of jurisdictions around the world. However, jurisdiction-specific answers are also welcome.


texts:
e.g. in the EPL (Eclipse Public License) the last statement reads like this.

  Each party waives its rights to a jury trial
  in any resulting litigation.

Can I waive my fundamental constitutional rights? If that be the case, wouldn't it be possible for a legal entity to coerce or cheat a person into a contract that violates his/her constitutional right/s?

Isn't the law of the land above all (including contracts)?

Can the law through due process come to conclusion that a person be denied his constitutional rights because he signed a contract that was illegal/unconstitutional in the first place?

This is not a duplicate of these questions

Can I waive my statutory rights?
How can felons be denied Constitutional rights?


texts: What the prosecutor need to proof to proof blasphemy case in Ahok case

texts:
Indonesian Christian governor are jailed for blasphemy
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/world/asia/indonesia-governor-ahok-basuki-tjahaja-purnama-blasphemy-islam.html
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=id&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=id&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Findonesianskeptics.blogspot.co.id%2F2013%2F10%2Fuu-hukum-pidana-kuhp-pasal-156-penodaan_11.html&edit-text=&act=url

Sentenced to a five-year imprisonment whoever intentionally publicly
exposes a feeling or commits an act:
A. Which is essentially hostile,
abusive or defamatory of a religion held in Indonesia;
B. With the
intention that people do not embrace any religion, which abides in
Belief in the One Supreme God.

Does people that break the law need to do both A and B or one of them?


texts: Can a business legally pay employees per project?

texts:
I've Googled this question but I haven't found any exact details or reliable sources.

I'll keep this as broad as possible so the question isn't specific to my situation but I will answer any questions that are needed to give context if the answer depends on situation.

If a client were to pay a business $X for a service can the business pay the employees a percent of the clients payment if the employees only duties involve providing the service the client payed for?

I know that each employee would need to be paid minimum wage so if the minimum wage is $10 and they spend 10 hours providing the service the business would need to pay no less than $100.

I ask becuase not all contracts are even for a service based business. A small project could charge $2,000 and a large project may charge $6,000 but an employer may want to pay the employee more for that large project.

For example:

20 hours at the $10 rate would be $200 for that contract but if the employer could pay per project then the employer could pay something like $500 which would average out to $25/hour which may be too much for an employer to pay for smaller projects.


texts: Should I be concerned my vpn server provider is based in the U.K.?

texts:
I understand in this age that there are several uses for vpns.

As such I did some research and decided to use nord as they seemed popular and claimed to not log.

However when I connect to certain servers in Europe and google what is my isp it brings back a company called M247 ltd. which appears to be based out of the UK.

Now my questions is this:

How can nord (or any other big provider) possibly claim a no log policy if they are simply renting the servers and since m247 is based in the U.K. Could they be forced to log turn over information even without consent of nord because the company is based in the U.K. even if the physical server is somewhere else like Switzerland for instance?

I get nothing is completely 100% and there has to be some level of trust but they claim no logs so surely they must have some controls over the logging of the servers they rent from m247 (or others who provide servers to them).

This seems like it would be a problem for any vpn provider who rented servers (which is a lot of big providers).

So what exactly is going on? Are they renting the servers and then nord install something to secure the servers from logging or is all traffic anonymised by the vpn before it even reaches the server? Or maybe they have a policy with the owner of the server to not log?

Hopefully it is clear what I am asking.

Thank you.


texts: Dispute with overseas logistics company (USA) - how to sue an international company?

texts:
I live in the UK and sell stuff on Amazon. Last year I used a logistics company in the US to help me deliver my products from China to the US.

They gave me a quote for $1850 which I paid. 8 weeks later, they gave me another bill of $1550 for extra charges. This dispute went on and was not fully resolve, yet they charged my card on file a few months later.

I'm trying to resolve this matter with them, but if push comes to shove, how can I sue them here? Will I have to pay a lawyer in the US? I'm determined to get my money back.


texts:
I moved to the UK 20 years ago when I was a 14-year-old child. I settled here - studied, worked, started my own business, had kids and so on.

Because of the EU membership, I was guaranteed equal treatment with nationals in access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax advantages.

Now, because of Brexit, I have been told that in order to stay I need to apply for settled status. Isn’t this discrimination since nationals do not have to apply? Isn’t the UK Government breaking the law?

I am very worried and distressed at the idea of having my name and personal details in such register. With this scheme, is the UK Government responsible for the harm and distress caused to the individual health and mental wellbeing?

Is there any ground for challenging this scheme legality in court?

Would there a breach of my human rights if I was not to apply for settle status and then subsequentially got deported (taken away from my children, home, business, etc.)? How about if I was refused, re-entry or access to public services (NHS for example)?

Edit - clarification

Some suggested I naturalise but I don't want to because I don't feel the UK is my homeland and I don't share some British values (for a start, I am not a royalist so I would have a problem with the registration oath...). Also, there is a considerable cost associated to this process.

Edit - ask for clarification

Some suggested that

  discrimination is in general legal unless it is based on some
  characteristic which is specifically forbidden as a basis for
  discrimination (e.g. race)

Article 14 of ECHR prohibits discrimination based on:

  "sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinions,
  national or social origin, association with a national minority,
  property, birth or other status"

Would you not consider EU Citizens residing in a foreign country of other national or social origin or even just of other status?

Also:

  The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that European Union member states cannot consider
  the nationals of other member states to be aliens

Doesn't the settled status scheme contravene this, while the UK is still part of the EU?


texts: Is there any way for a customer to obtain a binding statement that their account with a UK business is paid off?

texts:
I have a young child in a nursery (kindergarten) in England which is run by a national childcare provider, and they are supposed to be taking monthly payments via Direct Debit.
However, as far as I can tell no Direct Debit payments have ever been taken for the time my child has been there.
I’ve spoken with the individual nursery manager a number of times and they’ve repeatedly told me our account is up to date, but I don’t think that’s correct and I believe we owe a significant amount of back payments in the order of a few thousand pounds.
We haven’t received any invoices, but I’ve been setting aside an estimated amount of money each month in a separate bank account in case they realise there’s been an error and come knocking for the full amount, but it’s kind of burning a hole in my pocket just sitting there.
Ideally they’d send me an invoice for the back-payments to date so I  don’t have to maintain the separate account (and I’m going to pursue that avenue for a while longer), but ultimately if they don’t think I owe them anything I’d like to be able to use that money myself rather than leave it accumulating each month.
My questions are:

What is the extent of my obligation to inform them if I think they’ve undercharged for services? Should I write to them to confirm our previous phone conversations?

As a preferred option, I’d like to pay any outstanding fees for the childcare services we’ve received, but if they continue to insist our account is up to date is there any sort of limitation on how long they have to identify any mistakes and request back-payments?

If there is no default limitation, is there any letter / notice I can send to give them X days to request any back-payments or forfeit the right to claim them so that I can eventually stop ring-fencing the estimated funds in my personal banks accounts?


texts: Does the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence allow you to specify exactly how attribution must be given?

texts:
Prompted by this Meta Stack Exchange discussion
Stack Exchange uses the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license for user contributions. But in the footer of every page is a link to a blog post specifying how attribution should be given. Some of the restrictions specified are:

Visually indicate that the content is from Stack Overflow or the Stack
Exchange network in some way. It doesn’t have to be obnoxious; a
discreet text blurb is fine.
Hyperlink directly to the original
question on the source site (e.g.,
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12345)
Show the author names for
every question and answer
Hyperlink each author name directly back to
their user profile page on the source site (e.g.,
https://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username)

By “directly”, I mean
each hyperlink must point directly to our domain in standard HTML
visible even with JavaScript disabled, and not use a tinyurl or any
other form of obfuscation or redirection. Furthermore, the links must
not be nofollowed.

The relevant section (4c) of the licence itself says:

If You Distribute, or Publicly Perform the Work or any Adaptations or Collections, You must, unless a request has been made pursuant to Section 4(a), keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i) the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, and/or if the Original Author and/or Licensor designate another party or parties (e.g., a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for attribution ("Attribution Parties") in Licensor's copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, the name of such party or parties; (ii) the title of the Work if supplied; (iii) to the extent reasonably practicable, the URI, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work; and (iv) , consistent with Ssection 3(b), in the case of an Adaptation, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Adaptation (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). The credit required by this Section 4(c) may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Adaptation or Collection, at a minimum such credit will appear, if a credit for all contributing authors of the Adaptation or Collection appears, then as part of these credits and in a manner at least as prominent as the credits for the other contributing authors. For the avoidance of doubt, You may only use the credit required by this Section for the purpose of attribution in the manner set out above and, by exercising Your rights under this License, You may not implicitly or explicitly assert or imply any connection with, sponsorship or endorsement by the Original Author, Licensor and/or Attribution Parties, as appropriate, of You or Your use of the Work, without the separate, express prior written permission of the Original Author, Licensor and/or Attribution Parties.

In the Meta Stack Exchange discussion it is argued that Stack Exchange are trying to assert restrictions which are not part of the CC BY-SA licence:

To hyperlink each author, in addition to the page itself
To use a direct link rather than a shortener
To not use nofollow

Does the CC BY-SA licence allow primary distributors to specify restrictions like these, or can secondary distributors ignore them and still be compliant with the licence?


texts: Does this devotion clause mean I cannot work on personal commercial projects (or a registered business)?

texts:
As an engineer, I would like to make sure that I can work on side projects, and have the right to commercialize it; that is publishing on the app store as a paid app, or hosting on the web with a subscription fee. Of course, this wouldn't be in competition with the COMPANY.
With that in mind, I have an offer of employment from a company I really like, and this was one of the clauses that stood out to me. Based on this, do I need to ask for explicit permission to work on such projects?

The Employee shall devote his/her whole working time and attention to
the employment during the time thereof, and shall not, without the
consent in writing of COMPANY_NAME, engage in, or become
a director, manager, employee, or agent, of any other company, firm, or
individual which competes with or conducts similar business to
COMPANY_NAME, during the term of the employment, nor shall the
Employee engage in any other business or occupation whatsoever.


texts: Can a public school "edit" a transcript from a private institution?

texts:
I've got quite the interesting story. Long story short, I'm enrolled at summer school with a private, nonprofit institution that has an agreement with my school district that allows grades from summer school to appear on official school district transcripts for credit. The summer school has a policy that there are no excused absences, even for illness (diagnosed by a state-licensed physician). Due to this, my grade in the class is extremely low.

Can this public school district change the grade I receive from the summer school class to one they believe is representative? The instructor of the summer school class is also a instructor within the school district, if that helps.

Thanks.


texts: Is it legal to live in the woods in the USA?

texts:
Can one chop down trees, build a cabin, and just park there?

The question is about living on land that is not owned by a private individual in the USA, and is not designated as a state park or designated wildlife refuge, which have more restrictions.

Suppose you left your cabin door open by mistake and someone else came in and doesn't want to leave your cabin. What would happen if you called police?


texts: OECD model tax convention: changing residence mid-month

texts:
OECD model tax convention and its commentary serves as a basis for many Double Taxation Agreements between European countries. How, typically, is a person P taxed according to the tax convention in the following case:

P is a resident of country A according to the convention from Jan 1 until Aug 15
then, from Aug 15 until Dec 31 they are a resident of country B
they derive income from employment which is exercised in the corresponding states (A until mid-August, B afterwards)
they receive salary at the end of the month (ie. Aug 31)

Should the August salary be taxed only by the country B (which is the country where P is a resident when he receives the salary) or half-half between A & B, as P already earned half of their August income when they became a resident of B?


texts: IP How to avoid writing out Assignment of Inventions

texts: Most (all perhaps) software-related employment contracts want you to list out your prior inventions. I would like not to disclose some of my "inventions" (past projects and such). Wondering how I can do this while at the same time agreeing to some contract. I would like to be protected from them saying I used their technology to create my past invention, while at the same time keeping my invention private from the company.


texts: Why does Android care if my carrier doesn't want me to create a WiFi hotspot?

texts:
I recently purchased an unlocked Android phone (Motorola G7) and when I try to enable a WiFi hotspot I get the message "Your current rate plan does not support this feature".

I've seen various reports of people getting this message in error.

Aside from that issue, I am wondering why Google (the authors of Android) and/or Motorola (the makers of my phone) even care about the fine print in my carrier's plan. They sold me a device which is capable of forwarding packets from other devices. If my service provider wants to market a form of price discrimination based on selectively allowing or disallowing packet forwarding, why would my phone retailer or architect even be interested in cooperating?

It would seem analogous to an apartment manager who takes issue with my sharing WiFi, or some other non-transferable good such as airplane tickets, with a neighbor. Or what if Android tried to prevent me from getting student discounts or food stamps when I am not eligible? I don't see what is gained by the third party even taking an interest in these cases. Is Google acting out of a legal obligation here? Are they doing something illegal?


texts: Falsely Accused of Crime and Banned From Establishment

texts:
I recently attended an event at a local venue and received an email falsely accusing me of a crime that I did not commit and banning me for life.  The email goes on to state that if I attempt to re-enter the establishment or slander the name of establishment, they will make known what I am being accused of with more than just the authorities.

What legal options do I have here?  I don't think I can sue for defamation of character since the email was sent to me only.  I was thinking that I may have some legal recourse since the email clearly threatens to defame my character if I re-enter the establishment but not sure.

I believe that this was clearly a case of mistaken identity as the seat that I purchased was occupied by another person at our table and as a courtesy, I simply sat in his seat since it wasn't a big deal.

I really like the venue, so I'm looking to clear my name so I am welcome to attend future events.  What's the best way for me to approach this matter?


texts:
Can I legally sleep in the street in France?

Assume my location does not perturb traffic circulation, i.e. I am on the pavement, or the road is only used by pedestrians.


texts: Can a business owner be liable if they provide their service for free?

texts:
If a business provides a free online service which involves data storage, is the owner liable if they lose a user's saved data given that they provide the service for free?

The business has a disclaimer of liability in the Terms of Service.

If it matters, the business is in the state of Pennsylvania (USA), and it follows all the laws of the jurisdiction.


texts: Does Trump's pardon of the Blackwater mercenaries violate international law?

texts:
President Trump recently pardoned Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, four Blackwater mercenaries convicted in 2014 of killing civilians in Iraq back in 2007.
The United States is a party to some of the Geneva Conventions. A UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries spokeswoman said that "these pardons violate US obligations under international law".
Is that correct? Did Trump violate binding obligations of the U.S. government under the Geneva Conventions (the part the U.S. is a party of) to prosecute war crimes with that pardon?
This question has two parts:

Do the Geneva Conventions the U.S. is party to establish an obligation?
Does the pardon legally violate these obligations?


texts: What does "residence of temporary character" mean

texts:
The protective covenants and restrictions section on the deed of a house has a clause stating:

  No trailer, basement, garage, barn, or other outbuildings erected on this property shall at any time be used as a residence temporarily or permanently, nor shall any residence of a temporary character be permitted.

What exactly is "residence of a temporary character" in this context? Does this clause restrict the owner of the house from making it a rental property or an AirBNB home?


texts: Is it illegal to raise money for a project, if no such project is ever expected?

texts:
Say a guy asks for donations to build something. He does the best he can to make the donors think this is being built, even though it's not really. He doesn't anticipate ever finishing the project, and expects to live off of this money.

He offers "perks" for large donors, and creates fake media/etc. to make people think it's really succeeding even though he barely works on it. He, however, notes a clause in which he claims there's no guarantee that the project will be finished -- and all money donated is not subject to return. Given that nothing is promised, even though he's pushing something he's not really entirely backing, and asks for the money privately (i.e., direct-payments, BitCoin, PayPal, etc.), he does not use any website other than maybe his own, and as such doesn't break any terms/agreements on such websites since he can set his own clauses and legal info pertaining to his own website.

The clause is, "All money donated is donated as is. No returns or guarantees. Perks are guaranteed, but no money will be refunded should the project fail or no longer be worked on. Donating money will not necessarily further or speed up the development, but it is hoped to; thus, do not donate money and expect the development to be proportionate to the amount you donate. I hold no liability for those asking for returns when I explicitly state that donations of any amount are not to be returned."

The real goal is to just raise the money for himself, but he provides a legal clause that is expected to protect him from liability should anyone get the law involved in going after their money once they've donated it by their own free will. Given these circumstances, would this be illegal?

It is similar to a GoFundMe kind of thing, which is asking for money for yourself, but saying that the money could be used to help a project; thus, this makes you not so much a "backer" but "donator."

Basically, using a "project" to increase the odds of making money, but the "project" itself is never expected to be finished. Given that there's no contract/agreements before donating, I see no way this can be enforced with the clause on the website stating that no money will be returned and no guarantees will happen with the project.


texts: Can Slack really claim not to be a data controller?

texts:
I'm an EU resident. I just sent in a GDPR removal request to Slack. Their response:

Per our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, your Workspace Primary Owner (Customer) controls Customer Data. Customer owns all of the submitted content, including profile information, and Slack processes Customer Data on the Customer's behalf: https://slack.com/privacy-policy#collect.
A Workspace Primary Owner, as the data controller, is responsible for determining whether profile information requires deletion. If you wish, you may also want to reach out to your Workspace Primary Owners as we can only delete profile information upon their request.
If you have any questions about this process, please refer to this page in our Help Center: https://get.slack.help/hc/articles/360000360443-Delete-your-profile-info-from-Slack

Somehow this doesn't feel right. Slack claims that the organisation (or person in many cases) running the Slack is the data controller, but the "data controller" doesn't even have normal access to more than 10000 messages if they're not paying Slack. Does this make sense legally?
And what if this "data controller" doesn't comply to my request?  Or is dead or doesn't even exist anymore?  Isn't it Slack's responsibility to remove my data in this case?
This reddit thread is related.  Which got me to 1a of [Article 17 of the GDPR], that states

the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed;

To me this clearly applies to most (probably all) of the Slacks that I was on, since most of my data (i.e. messages) are not even visible anymore. Is this correct?


texts:
I'm wondering if there is solid legal ground for suing the US government for using an electoral college which can have the effect of denying citizens a vote. My argument is that the electoral college violates a citizen's right to a vote because it 1.) effectively changes your vote to match that of the majority in your state (or congressional district if you're in Maine or Nebraska) and because 2.) it gives some citizens a stronger vote than others due to what state they live in.

The electoral college altering your vote to match the majority seems to be the most egregious crime because, although the constitution doesn't explicitly require your vote to be equal in strength, surely the founders intended with the word 'vote' that you at least get to choose who you vote for.

I understand the constitution does not explicitly guarantee that all votes must be equal, nor does it ban geographic voter discrimination and that it does call for an electoral college so I see the counter argument would be strong, but I wonder if you guys think there is any case to be made for my argument.


texts: What is the legal status of hentai Japanese visual novels and manga in the US depicting minors?

texts:
My common sense says no. If someone took a piece of paper and a pencil and drew some very detailed pictures of 2D anime people. It feels insane that that would be enough to constitute felony possession.

This entire wikipedia list suggest otherwise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_cartoon_pornography_depicting_minors#18_USC_1466A
where it looks like several individuals were convicted only on the possession of drawings.

Certainly, if an artist is using technology to image real minors into his artwork, then that would be a common sense violation of the law. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

Clearly there must be some line separating safe and illegal between the extreme examples.


texts:
I have a propriatery audio fingerprinting algorithm that I created over the years, and I use it to scan radio and tv stations for music, then create reports for it, etc.

Croatian Discographers Union doesn't agree with transparency my system provides, and are determined to shut me down.  So they claim that I am infringing their rights as they have under Art. 10 of the Rome Convention.

Since I am never making any copies of their phonograms (supplied as mp3 by the system users') and audio fingerprint in nature isn't enough to re-construct any part of the audio signal - I am wondering if their claim stands or can be brought down and with what arguments.

Basically, they claim that process of fingerprinting is similar to reproduction...


texts: How can an un-enforce-able contract still be valid?

texts:
I don't understand how a contract can be UN-enforce-able, but still valid? Doesn't "uN-enforce-able" mean "invalid"?
Presuppose that your surgeon doesn't email with patients,  you formed an oral contract with the Dr perfectly, and you recorded it as a WAV audio file. Indubitably it's a valid contract, and evidenced electronically or digitally – but not in writing. But if the audio file is un-enforce-able, then your WAV file is useless!

As we have already seen in Chapter 1,1 the general principle is that contracts may be made
entirely orally, no matter how valuable or important the subject matter of the contract may
be. However, there are some exceptions to the general rule that no written formalities are
required, and this chapter will examine two classes of contract. The first encompasses particular
categories of contract which must be in writing as a result of legislation. The second
concerns certain types of contract which are not enforceable unless evidenced in writing.
It should be noted straight away that there are important differences between the two classes.
As regards the first, the ‘contract’ will be void if not in writing. But as regards the second class
of contract, any contract will be valid but simply unenforceable if not evidenced in writing.
This means that, where a contract is made orally, neither party can sue on it unless and until
a party can produce the appropriate written evidence of it. Such evidence may come into
existence after the contract has been made.

JC Smith's The Law of Contract 2021 3 ed, p 115.


texts: Municipal council "approves"/"accepts" secret documents

texts:
In Alberta, Canada the Municipal Government Act says:

  180(1)  A council may act only by resolution or bylaw.

Our council emerged from an in camera session and passed a resolution:

  ... that Council accept Administration's report on the Legal Claim Defense Statement as presented.

The report was presented in camera and they refuse to give me the report or statement.

If they can "act" by "approving"/"accepting" secret documents it seems to be an "end run" around MGA(180).

I thought that the main point of the Magna Carta was "no secret decrees".

Do I have a right to this information without recourse to FOI?


texts: How should a contract for Agile software development differ from a contract for Waterfall software development?

texts:
All software development contracts I've seen specify that x piece of software will be developed for y dollars within z amount of time.  This works out for traditional Waterfall model projects, where you do a lot of forward planning and it is reasonable to expect that you will know how long the project will take near the beginning of the project.  It doesn't match up at all for Agile, where you can start without having any idea exactly where you will end up and you are expected to be able to deal with requirements changes.

How would a contract for Agile software development differ from a contract for Waterfall software development?  Is there a place where I can find a sample contract for Agile development?


texts: In California, what is the law that authorizes the moving party of motion for protective order not to comply with the discovery in question?

texts:
Some attorneys say so (e.g. https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/is-the-discovery-process-halted-when-a-motion-for--3637798.html), but when I looked into the statute (CCP 2030.090, 2031.060, 2033.080), I never found anything that "stays" the discovery pending the hearing of motion for protective order, or explicitly states that the moving party does not ned to comply with the discovery until the motion is ruled.
This is especially important for "request of admissions" because the lack of response would enable the propounding party to move the Court to deem every request as if they were admitted.
Lack of response to request for production of documents / interrogatories also almost guarantee a compel / sanction motion to be granted.
Which means, if the party seeking protective order just want to be safe, they would need to respond to the (supposedly unreasonable) discovery anyway, even if the response is just a whole bunch of objections. Moreover, some objections have to be very specific (e.g. exactly why something is over-burdensome, what effort would it take, etc.), which means it would be a lot of work to formulate a bullet-proof response. Wouldn't that defeat the whole purpose of motion for protective order?


texts: DMCA: How can ISP ever avoid liability, ISP always gets financial benefit from user content infringement

texts:
According to DMCA, to avoid liability the ISP must not financially benefited from the infringement.
But ISP is always making money in one or many ways from infringement (ads display, subscription, marketing, publicity, traffic)
Especially when the infringed content is popular, the revenue must be there more than usual.

so how can ISP ever be innocent?

Addition from comments:

I think the key for this is DMCA does not specify indirect or direct benefit of ISP. So lawyers can always say that ISP gained "a benefit". Also most of shady file hosting sites their main purpose is obviously make money from illegal content in a short time until reported. When someone upload a popular illegal content on youtube, gets 1 million view in a day then deleted by google. Google already made big ads revenue, which is the main business model of the website. That is completely a direct benefit out of it. With full purpose and intention of Google.


texts: Order status Cancelled on the merchant website considered as relevant proof with legal common sense

texts:
An e-commerce order was returned back to the merchant, but they didn't give me reciept, a practice common in Indian e-eCommerce.
But on the merchants website now the order is marked as cancelled. In terms of relevant proof isn't this ample proof that the business for which the amount was paid is terminated and the moneys should be refunded back to me. I am not a lawyer, but any proof that is registered on a merchant website isnt that a relevant proof?


texts: Exclusion based on Ethnicity, a Private event in a Public Space

texts:
I was sitting in a bar when a social event sponsored by a certain ethnic group's club began. Accompanied by the bar's owner, the event organizer requested that I leave because I was not [of that ethnic origin].

Was this request legal?
Does the legal interpretation of this situation depend on the ethnic groups involved?


texts: Do the UK TV licensing rules disregard innocent until proven guilty?

texts:
I don't have a TV license, I use Netflix and Amazon Prime. In the UK you have to state that you don't have a TV license and sign a declaration to that effect every 2 years (unless you then get a license).
When signing my declaration there was a note stating that they may come round and check if I need a license, I would assume by coming into my house and looking at the back of my TV. If they did this they would find no antenna plugged in and then be on there way. However do they have the legal right to perform this check? Do I have to let them in, and if I don't, what is the consequence? It feels like the check is assuming I'm guilty and that I would have to prove my innocence - but that goes against one of the fundamental principles of our legal system.
My question is: does the TV licensing system operate under the innocent until proven guilty modus operandi and if not why not?


texts: In Washington: Is it legal to sell alcohol to someone without an ID who looks 90 years old, after asking to see their ID?

texts:
At the store I used to work at, if you ask for ID, the customer NEEDS to provide it. They could have grey hair, a cane, and even be verified as 21+ by someone else, and it still wouldn't matter. We were told that this was Washington State law. I've had this happen before and when the customer doesn't believe me, I call my manager and they repeat that it is the law. Recently someone said that isn't true, and in researching it, I haven't been able to confirm either way.

I've seen things about an ID not being necessary, but it doesn't specifically mention anything about if they had been asked for their ID already.

SO: Once you have asked for ID, is it necessary to see the ID before selling Alcohol, even if the person looks old enough?

Edit: I feel that maybe I was a bit confusing in this question. I am specifically interested in exactly where the line between policy and law is. I understand why the laws are in place, I don't understand what the minimum requirement is, and what is just trying to cover the bases just in case.


texts: dealership title obligations for primary loan holder

texts: My boyfriend thought he was co-signing for his sons car. Turns at they made him the primary loan holder but did not put him on the title.Does a car dealership have a legal obligation to put the primary loan holder on the title in Ohio?


texts: Can a judge increase the speed on a traffic ticket?

texts:
I had a trial de novo today for a 22349(a), cited for 80 mph. At court when discussing the case, the officer gave his introductory statement and alleged that his radar clocked me at 90 mph but that he wrote me for 80 mph and even alleged that I said that I "usually go 80." We went back and forth with questions but I ultimately lost.

The judge then said that he finds me guilty for going 90 mph and that I owe another $150 but he'll offer me traffic school and suspend the extra amount pending I don't get another ticket within the year. The oficer never said anything about amending the ticket whatsoever. When I asked a question regarding what I was being found guilty of and stated that said ticket was for 80, the judge quickly stated "well I found you guilty of going 90 mph." Are judges allowed to do that?

I'm aware that officers are allowed to amend tickets even during the trial but is the judge allowed to independently create another/increase the charge?

The officer did nothing to prove that I was going 90 (aside from one statement), all of his defense was to prove that I was going 80 mph, which is what was cited for on the ticket. Is the judge allowed to act as prosecution?


texts: What if an ex spouse violates a new divorce decree?

texts:
I expect my ex to violate our brand new, court approved, negotiated divorce decree.

Should I keep a log of such transgressions?

At what point should I seek legal help to enforce compliance: financial and otherwise?

Some options seem to be: At the time of the first transgression, After a certain number of transgressions, When the dollar amount goes over a certain amount.

(I hope things go smoothly going forward, or at least reasonably smoothly, but I doubt that will happen.)


texts: GDPR: Detecting duplicate accounts in online services with customer data

texts:
If I have a game or some other online service I host in which:

It is forbidden for a subscriber to hold more than one account, OR
Even if it is not forbidden, to detect one person on multiple accounts for abuse prevention (such as enforcing a ban from the service)

does the GDPR prevent me from using any of the following data for the express and singular purpose of accomplishing this goal?

IP Address
Email address
Password hash
Payment info (hashed, not raw)
Screen resolution
Video card model and driver version (via regular graphics API)
Running process list (as used by anticheat)
Hardware hash
Typing/clicking cadence
Friends lists
Other on-service behavior (menus accessed, access patterns, etc)

I'm aware of a paper (Greidanus, 2017) that covers the legality of using various methods of client side cheat detection software that uses some of this data, but as the purpose would be different in this case, I assume the conclusion may not necessarily be the same.


texts: Could investors plot to trade shares of a company in an attempt to raise its stock valuation?

texts:
Could a circle of investors (plotting together) trade among themselves shares of a start-up company to make the company look as a worthy investment?

For example, the company has 10,000 shares and they buy 1,000 for $1,000 each to make the company look like $10,000,000 worth. Alternatively, they exchange 1,000 shares of one company created by them for 1,000 shares of a new company and claim it to be a deal worth $1,000,000.

Is that a common and viable strategy? Are laws protecting future investors against this kind of games?


texts: Tourist being fined on a bus and not paying it afterwards

texts:
I do know that different countries have different approaches when it comes to bus companies inflicting fines and whatnot, but on general grounds, how does it work for a tourist not willing to pay a fine inflicted on him on a bus? If he goes back to his country, how can the company possibly recover the sum? Are they going to access the transgressor's bank account even though it's abroad?
Obviously I'm assuming that fines are not to be paid on the spot.
I'm also assuming this taking place in countries that do not deny exit to any individual having to pay fines or debts in general (in Morocco or the UAE I think that they do not let anyone who has to pay a fine leave the country, but I'm not sure).