texts: How to prevent the problem of a document changing its content after you signed it

texts:
I just read this:

  The problem is that if there is a dispute over what was actually in the NDA later on, its going to be extremely difficult to establish what the NDA said.  I'd refuse to sign an online NDA out of fear that some years from now, I'd be presented with "you signed this document" which looks nothing like the document I thought I signed.

I think this is applicable to both online and hardcopy documents in the same way. For hardcopy, someone with enough sophistication could just either copy your signature, or graft it from one document to another. Likewise, for electronic media, you could easily just paste their electronic signature onto a different document, since it's just bits of 1's and 0's that the document is saved in the database or cloud with, so it's easily changed.

I'm wondering how you can prevent these problems. If you are the one creating the document to be signed, wondering what must need to be done so that if you were in court the document would be considered valid, the content considered the original content and valid, and the signature considered valid. If you give a copy of the document to the person signing it, then they could use it to reference the original. But if they lose it, then they lose the protection. Also, they could just throw it away and say that they never got a copy, and say that you changed the original contract. I'm not sure how one would protect against this sort of stuff, what needs to be done on the document creator's part to maintain "legal validity" or "legal soundness". Seems like documenting the process somehow might help, but I can see loopholes there as well. Hoping one could outline/clarify what should be done here.


texts:
I live in Virginia. I am told that I am not allowed to walk my leashed dog anywhere 'on campus' of our local community college which, they say, includes the parking lots.

Their website only addresses the issue by saying only service animals are allowed on campus. Is that enough legal 'juice' to automatically exclude walking a leashed dog in the parking lot?


texts:
There has been some debate in the Democratic Party on the subject of a federal wealth tax.  I know that there is some debate about the constitutionality of a wealth tax, but for the purpose of this question, I would either assume that the wealth tax is constitutional or that the states were enacting this law to test its constitutionality.

U.S. News & World Report states that 40% of billionaires in the United States live in either New York or California, where Silicon Valley and Wall Street bind many of the extremely rich to the businesses that made them so wealthy.

Obviously, the biggest problem for a state like California trying to extract revenue from its uber-wealthy populace would be that they would simply move their residence and use any other possible legal loophole to avoid having to pay.

At the same time, many of these billionaires built their wealth out of business empires that are firmly established in those states, like Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook. The process of moving a business of that size and cultural significance would be immeasurably expensive because those firms rely on an elite talent pool that is very locale-centric for their recruiting, and they have employees that could choose to leave the company rather than relocate.


texts: When does user generated content violate copyright?

texts:
I am currently in the process of finalizing the technology behind a game where users are able to create "lands" of their own.

Each land is upkept and expanded by Tokens.
Tokens are bought from Real Money Store.
Tokens are tradeable.
Users are able to create images(terrain, characters, monsters etc...) that fit their local "land" theme and enable other players to interact there.
The land creator receives tokens from visitors that like the land.
Tokens are not changeable to real currency.

My question is whether it counts as a breach of copyright if someone creates a "skyrim" or "Star wars" land and fills it with people and locations from that universe?
They still need to create the art with the in-game tools, so I assume it's original artwork with names and lore based off existing IP)

And a second, derived question is whether my profit (people paying other people with tokens that they had to have bought from me) constitutes profiting from a copyrighted IP.

Obviously each land is reportable in a multitude of categories -
 nudity/pornographic content, IP violation, gore, violence, hate messages etc... and I assume it will take a significant amount of work to filter through those reports.

I am talking to lawyers about it, but there's a whole world out there and many of You can give perspectives from different countries so that I can ask the right questions and hire the right lawyers.

EDIT:
EULA and TOS are of course going to be properly constructed to remove any liability I would have for user uploaded content.
Are there countries where I am for exmaple still liable?


texts: What is the most likely outcome of being caught using copyrighted material for financial gain?

texts:
Say someone, let's call him Joe, creates a website where people can pay a small fee and watch 25 second clips of a TV show, say The Big Bang Theory.

The producers of The Big Bang Theory do not currently market their content this way and Joe is not stealing from any revenue stream they currently have. People who use Joe's service will quite certainly not purchase less copies of legitimate Big Bang Theory products because of the service. Joe is simply profiting off content that he didn't create and doesn't own.

If Joe is caught and brought to court, what is the likely outcome of the case? Will he receive a fine? Be sent to jail for many years?

And what would you estimate is the worst possible penalty?


texts: Are there doctrines of contract law that limit potentially open-ended liability?

texts:
Sometimes when you have a contract with another party, the exact dollar amount that you as a customer would owe is not firmly specified. Instead there may be a statement about what would be the charge, once all of the facts are known. For example, a contractor may say "we charge $300/hr. for however many hours it takes". With no contract provision expressly limiting your liability, there is the possibility that what you thought would be a $900 job is actually a $90,000 job.

A concrete instance of this situation is emergency medical treatment, where the customer probably cannot obtain the chargemaster and certainly cannot obtain a commitment as to what specific goods will be provided (nobody really knows what the costs were until a month after the event). Is there any doctrine of contract law that limits a customer's liability in such an open-ended charges situation? I have in mind agreements that are closer to contracts of adhesion, and not major industrial titans with equal negotiating power. (I only want to know about contract law, and not about regulations on the medical industry or the obligation to have medical insurance).


texts: How can it be legal to buy and sell zero-day exploits in the US?

texts:
There are companies like Zerodium (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerodium) that buy "functional exploits" and sell them to "corporate and government clients". These are zero-day vulnerabilities, that is, vulnerabilities that are unknown to the developer of the software. Ethical hackers and professional security researchers typically report these vulnerabilities to the developer, so that they can be fixed. But companies like Zerodium buy these exploits and resell them to somebody else, we don't know who exactly. These people who buy the exploits from Zerodium are not going to use them legally, because as far as I know there is no reasonable way to use a zero-day exploit legally, other than reporting it to the developer (which they are not doing). Apparently the government is also buying the exploits from them, but that doesn't make it legal anyway.

Somebody might think that this is more or less like buying and selling guns, which is legal in the US. However, it's not really like that. First of all, guns can be used for several legitimate purposes, from fun to self-defense, while zero-days exploits cannot reasonably have such purposes IMO. And then, we don't really know who companies like Zerodium are selling the exploits to.

So how can all this be legal? Are there any specific laws in this field that allow it? Or are there any laws that would define this as illegal, or allow somebody to sue such companies in any way?


texts:
If I had a database of customer names and I'm to transfer it to another party, how much scrubbing can be done until it's no longer personal information?
If I abbreviated customer names like John Doe to J.D., is this still considered personal information?
Basically how reducible is personal information until it's no longer personal information?


texts: Leaving company and wiping personal data

texts:
I am new here please help and answer my question.
In case you are leaving the company, you worked for, if you wipe your personal data such an email you logged on or data like the logs of the websites you visited from the PC, Laptop or cellphone that owned by the company have you violate the law?
The second question is: I would like to say that the reference to the prohibition of the personal use of the assets of the company in the NDA contract not in a separate contract, can this issue violate authenticity of this clause?
PS: the reasons for wiping that is because that company can not abuse data.
PS: In the NDA there is a paragraph that says you can not use company properties for a personal issue.


texts: What approaches can comply with SOX code review requirements?

texts:
I am working with a client, which has a bunch of services under SOX compliance.

They currently have a code-review policy that looks like so:

A reviewer must accept the last commit on a pull request

This means that if someone rebases, or makes a small nit change, they need to get a review all over again. This causes a velocity slowdowns.

The reason they do this is:

  SOX mandates that all Changes are tested and approved before being
  deployed to Production. If a developer can make a change after a code
  review, then we loose the assurance that code has been
  reviewed/approved. The risk is that functionality might be altered
  (intentionally or not) without Management awareness.

I am having trouble believing that this is the best solution for SOX compliance. Looking around at documentation for SOX, it doesn't specifically say that code review needs to look like this.

Are there better approaches? I would love to help my client increase their velocity here, without adding too much risk to SOX compliance


texts: Employer green card sponsorship after termination

texts:
This question is a follow-up of my previous question.

So I've been told to leave the company yesterday. Now my question is regarding the Green Card application. So I've been sponsored for EB1-B employment based category. In July/August 2017, my I-140 was approved (I was under OPT that time). Then we applied for I-485 in mid October 2017 (when I was in my H1B). I got an RFE and it was taken care of. I got my EAD/AP two weeks ago (valid for a year).

Now that I'm no more an employee of the company, what will happen to my I-485 and my status? Is my EAD/AP good now? I talked to that law firm, and they said they are not going to withdraw it. Everything is already done, probably next milestone is interview.


texts: Software training provider offers very cheap price online for course...(via Stripe)

texts:
Firm is based in London. Item relates to a London event, bought online in UK.

I buy the item.
Next day amount forceably refunded by firm.

Next day Firm responds thus:
Thanks for your message! You were the lucky one to discover our website bug

Sorry about that, there was an error during a few hours yesterday. But, that's our bad, that's why we would be happy to offer you 10% discount to the Early-bird price on that course :)

Question
I bought the item for the price quoted. My offer was accepted.
Does the firm have the right to cancel the item on the grounds that they made a mistake with the pricing?
Am I entitled to take the course at the rate I paid for?


texts: Is an attorney who hasn't agreed to represent me yet required to keep our discussions confidential?

texts:
I'm looking for an employment attorney and most seem to want the discuss the case, to see whether or not I have a case, before agreeing to represent me. Does this mean that any information I give them should remain confidential?

One of them has asked me to email him copies of emails I have that would be evidence in the case. Would he be required to keep them confidential?


texts: Is it possible to legally prohibit someone from linking to specific pages on your website?

texts:
By linking I meant to give exact instructions about how to find a specific page on the site, for a user with enough privilege. It can be a URL, or a demonstration of where you should click, etc.

The site don't have to be open to everyone. But they had no informations about their user's real identity. Everything they could get is at most an "I agree" checkbox during registration.

I'm not asking about whether they can remove the user posting or using the link, but is it possible to legally request removing the link itself (in other sites)?

My first guess is no. I think it is not directly related to copyright as the user didn't post the content, and your terms of service cannot affect other sites. But then I feel there are some quite similar things seemed possible, and someone must be already trying to do this. So is it? If yes, what are those terms called (a part of the copyright license or terms of service, or something else)?

@apsillers pointed out this may have something to do with the contract law. I think indeed this can be done between companies, or companies and employees. But (1) is it still effective if the site just let users to agree to the terms online? (2) If a user did it anyway, I think you can only remove the user in your site, or in theory you can let the user pay. But you still cannot remove things in other sites, because those sites didn't agree to the contract. Is that right?

I'm thinking about a license like this:

You can use the ideas in whatever way you want (they are not patented; or maybe they are, but the fact your site is describing them cannot be patented).
You cannot copy the articles directly (there is copyright).
You cannot refer to the explanations in this site in formal documents of a company, or prove this site has promoted this idea. Or a weaker term: you have to pay to do that.
You can rewrite the whole things, or don't leave explanations, or whatever.

This is indeed a bad idea which I thought it must be disallowed at first. But it seemed to be weaker than what a company can have with their employees.


texts: Is it legal to copy the design of a website only to demonstrate coding ability to clients, nothing more?

texts:
I'm trying to find out what is "fair use" or not. I'm a web developer trying to get off the ground and my website portfolio has nothing. So, I'm thinking to have a section of my website called "how-to recreations" or the like, where I link to websites that I've programmed from scratch that are modeled after existing, possibly copyrighted websites. I would make my source code (for the design and not the server/database functionality; for the HTML/CSS/JavaScript, if you're tech-savvy) open-source, I wouldn't sell the recreation as a template, and on the page on my portfolio website1 that links to this recreation, I would state and link back to the site that I recreated and explain how I coded various elements of that site. It would just be used to show my coding ability to potential clients and to teach other programmers one way that a site's design out there could be implemented with code.

Tl;dr I'm copying a site's design solely for demonstrative/instructional purposes. Is that legal?

1I'm thinking to not make this page anything other than a how-to and a link to the recreation. But, if I wanted to, could I link back to my portfolio for potential clients that want to hire me based on this how-to/recreation? Would everything still be "fair use"?


texts:
I wrote a poem laughing at Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a contest for the Spectator magazine. Only when they published the winner I realised someone in Germany is being prosecuted for doing the same.

What charges am I facing? I live in Scotland.


texts: Are parents responsible for libel committed by their children?

texts: If a minor commits libel, are their parents or guardian liable for the tort?


texts: How can the constitutionality of a Law be challenged in the USA?

texts: Can the constitutionality of a law in the United States be challenged other than through the Supreme Court?


texts: For example if I apply for a patent in U.S. so will my rights over the intellectual property be held only over U.S. or I could also claim my rights over an IP in some other nation also like India and do I have to apply for patents in respective individual nations.


texts: What semantic notions underlie 'articles' with legal apprenticeship?

texts:
Source: A Brief Introduction to Law in Canada (Mar. 2017). p. 265 Middle.

  Historically, in Canada, there was debate over rival methods for teaching law. Some members
  of the legal community believed that traditional English vocational methods for training
  lawyers should be followed. These methods were based on an apprenticeship model where-
  by law students served "under articles," and obtained practical experience and direct
  knowledge of the law by working with and under the supervision of a practising lawyer.
  This training could also be supplemented with law society lectures. On the other side of the
  legal education debate were those who favoured the idea of formal university training at a
  recognized law school, where professors (rather than practising lawyers) taught the law.
  The debate was resolved in favour of the current model, which combines academic course-work with articling requirements.4

  articles
  an apprenticeship under
  a practising lawyer

  4    William H Hurlburt, The Self-Regulation of the Legal Profession in Canada and in England and Wales
  (Calgary and Edmonton: Law Society of Alberta/ Alberta Law Reform Institute, 2000) at 69-78.

How did "article" semantically specialize to this legal signification?


texts: How do lawyers bill for phone/email requests?

texts:
I work in an agency where clients will ask for investigations or have queries or specific requests (requiring research/analysis) via email or phone or even text.

I need to bill for this time without having to estimate time required on every request. What do lawyers do to cover their billing agreement in such circumstances? I couldn't find an appropriate terms and condition or similar clause. I understand when I call my lawyer about something or ask something and they email me back they'll charge me and I'm fine with that - but where would this agreement be established and what would a suitable clause look like?


texts: Is it legal to use MP3 encoding on my website?

texts:
I'm currently developing a website that allows users to record voice notes and upload audio files and then share them to Twitter. I'm currently using the MP3 format, but it is patented. I wanted to use OGG but it has a really low compatibility, so I want to know more about MP3 licensing. I'm currently hosted in the United States.

Is it legal to share the audio content that users record/upload in the MP3 format?

I see that Tumblr allows users to upload MP3 files and also distributes them in MP3.

Twitter also uses MP3 in TweetDeck.

But I can't see them in the Licensed Companies in mp3licensing.com

Assuming there's no problem with the copyright of the content inside the MP3 (artists songs, etc) that users upload, is it legal to distribute the content in MP3 format?

Also, according to Wikipedia, all the MP3 patents expired in the European Union. Does that mean that it's not illegal there, and if it's illegal in the US I can host the files there just to avoid legal consequences?


texts: May I register a company with already existing name, but different business direction? (Worldwide)

texts:
I want to register a company (small game studio), but in my country (and in the others too, I suppose) does exist a company with the same name, but their scope of work is completely different from game development (e.g. web design). So the question is - should a company name be unique worldwide, if it has clients all around the world (which happens if you distribute your product digitally) or there is a distinction between same named companies with different business direction?

The country is Ukraine, but since the studio will distribute a digital product (well, games) all over the world then I assume, that its name should be unique worldwide?


texts: UK Small Claim procedure limit exceeding with VAT

texts:
My understanding about UK small claim procedure is that- limit is £10K. (as Ltd company contractor)For some unpaid work notice pay which end client initially proposed to pay, but in reality didn't pay if I include VAT then it crosses 10K mark But without VAT its within10K limit. I am VAT registered.

Kindly suggest


texts: Can a company be both an airplane manufacturer and an airline?

texts:
It may be advantageous for a company that manufactures its own aircraft to also be an airline. For example, the airline business would likely have reduced maintenance and parts costs relative to other airlines, and there would be a tighter feedback loop between manufacturing and end consumers.

I have read that Boeing, who used to own United Aircraft and Transport (UAT), was forced to dissolve UAT after investigation into the scandalous "spoils conferences" (source):

  In a move clearly aimed at Boeing, new Postmaster General James Farley and, later, Congress banned the award of the new contracts to any companies that also built aircraft.

I managed to find what I believe is the Air Mail Act of 1934 that supposedly bans these vertically integrated companies here, but I don't see where, specifically, the act bans these companies. It's unclear to me whether this was a one-off ban of combined aircraft manufacturers and air mail companies, or whether this ban continues through today with modern airlines. I am specifically interested in the US here, but would also be curious about other countries (e.g. could Airbus do this?)

Is it still illegal for all manufacturers to start their own airlines, or does this law no longer apply today?


texts: In Florida, can a home defense weapon and use of "Castle Doctrine" (deadly force) transfer to a house of a friend that I visit?

texts: Suppose I am entitled to use a weapon for home defense in the state of Florida.  If I visit a friend for say 1 week, would the Castle Doctrine apply if an uninvited intruder entered the house of my friend and threatened my life (or the life of my friend), even though it is not my normal place of dwelling?  Specifically, I am asking if the Castle Doctrine applies ONLY to your main places of dwelling such as the persons car and house, or if it can extended to a friends house you are visiting (and sleeping at).  The friends house is also in Florida.


texts: Is it illegal to throw away the previous tenant's mail?

texts:
Say I move into an apartment. And over the next months and years, I keep receiving mail for the previous tenant, whom I do not know.

This is understandably annoying. The easiest and most convenient approach for me is to just throw away his mail – but would I be breaking any law if I did so?


texts: Buying a home in NYC as a non-citizen with no previous ties with the U.S

texts:
If a person wins, let's say, the equivalent of US$ 300 million in another country, goes to New York City and buys a house there, they certainly need to report their own residence in order to live there.

But what about tax returns or taxes in general?

I know that the US have a clingy nature when it comes to tax returns and related things.

Are tax returns based on incomes or are they based upon wealth as well?

Obviously a wise person would transfer part of that money in a NYC bank, so is this person subject to taxes provided that they'll not be working or conduct any other remunerative activity, and supposedly, use that wealth to provide for themselves?


texts: Does probation period count actual days worked or days starting from job acceptance?

texts:
I had worked an on call job. There was zero guarantee of any work, but typically everyone got 2-4 shifts per week. I was terminated within probation according to management, but I was very close to being the end of it.
Does the probation period start from the first day of work or from when you accept the job offer? Does it end on the last day of work or when you are informed of termination? For example, if the end of the probation period is on the 21st and you worked on the 20th but received notice of termination on the 22nd, which would count?
To my understanding 3 months is standard probation. There was a union agreement, however I had not accumulated enough hours to be protected. Just to be clear, any union agreement is supplemental to the law, right?


texts: Would public chat servers be considered public spaces or communications, for recording purposes?

texts:
By this definition, a public place is generally

  an area, whether privately or publicly owned, to which the public have access by right or by invitation... but not a place when used exclusively by one or more individuals for a private gathering or other personal purpose.

Take, for example, a Skype group or Discord server to which the join link is publicly available. This seems to fit the public definition quite nicely. It's also arguable whether the chatroom members have reasonable expectation of privacy, a la the Wiretap Act.

If, say, someone were to record conversations on such a server and later disclose them, would this be considered recording in a public space? Does the size of the server matter? Has this happened before, and if so, is there any precedent I might be missing?


texts: What if the travel insurance plan document has coverage "editorial" error?

texts:
I've posted this question because I've never bought travel insurance and I'm interested in the consequences of editorial errors. To illustrate such an error, I've posted a specific example from a real company with a good reputation (a financial institution that sells but does not service the travel insurance).

From the financial institution's website

You will be provided with a complete Plan Document upon purchase of the plan. If you would like to review the Plan Document, please click below.

Download Plan Document

Selected text from the downloaded plan

Benefits are not payable for any loss due to, arising or resulting from:

participating in bodily contact sports, skydiving or parachuting except parasailing, hang gliding, bungee cord jumping, extreme skiing, skiing outside marked trails or heli-skiing, spelunking or caving, or scuba diving if the depth exceeds 120 feet (40 meters) or if You are not certified to
dive and a dive master is not present during the dive;

----------

This is how I interpret the text:

We do not pay benefits for any loss that is due to, arises from, or results from
  your participation in these sports: bodily contact sports, skydiving, or parachuting.

Except we do pay for parasailing, hang gliding, bungee cord jumping, extreme skiing, skiing outside marked trails or heli-skiing, spelunking or caving, or scuba diving if you do so at more than 120 feet or if you are not certified to dive and a dive master is not present.

Assumptions and Question

In the original text of the plan, I bolded the word "except" so that it would stand out to anyone reading this post. The word "except" is reading (to my eyes) as an exclusion to an exclusion, so the listed sports are ok as long as you do something extra risky. (Note: To catch the nuance, you might have to slowly read the original out loud or have someone read it to you.)

One could also assume that the purchased plan documentation will (a) supersede all other plans, and (b) will not have the same type of error.

But what if it (the purchased plan) does have the same error, and you engage in one of the "excluded except [for]" activities? For example, do purchased insurance plans tend to have clauses that give them an "out?"

Note: There may be no real answer to this question. In which case, I hope readers at least find some dark humor here. It's also possible that I've misread the text and need to be guided on how to read (interpret) it in a different way. If so, then American English is the standard.


texts: Using a trademarked word as part of another word

texts:
I have read many questions asking the opposite: splitting a trademark into multiple words.
Not sure if the scenario is the same.
Example: company named "FilterJedi" selling water filters, is this a trademark infringement because jedi is protected and is a famous term? even when the company is not using any logo or reference to StarWars and is not in the business of entertainment?


texts: Does Wassenaar Arrangement on the transfers of arms and dual-use goods and technologies apply to security training?

texts:
Does the Wassenaar Arrangement on the transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies apply to IT security training?

Does it apply to IT security training on exploitation techniques?

Is it applicable to institutions or individuals?


texts: If defendants can be charged for both the attempted and completed offences, why prefer to indict just the completed offence?

texts:
I'm assuming "preferment" means preference, but I don't understand it. s 6(4) assumes that Defendant completed the offence. Why would've  Defendant been charged with just the attempted offence? Why only after charging Defendant with attempted offense, would the Crown rather prefer "an indictment for the completed offence"?
Why wouldn't the Crown just charge all Defendants with both the attempted and completed offences from the outset?

Is it possible to convict of an attempt if the attempt was successful?

Is it a defence to a charge of attempt if the defendant in fact succeeded? The answer (not surprisingly)
is that the defendant can still be convicted of an attempted offence. Section 6(4) of
the Criminal Law Act 1967 resolves the issue:

where a person is charged on an indictment with attempting to commit an offence or with
any assault or other act preliminary to an offence, but not with the completed offence, then
(subject to the discretion of the court to discharge the jury with a view to the preferment of an indictment for the completed offence) he may be convicted of the offence charged notwithstanding
that he is shown to be guilty of the completed offence.31

31 Webley v Buxton [1977] QB 481 indicates that although s. 6(4) does not apply to summary offences, the
common law rule is the same and a defendant can be convicted of an attempt to carry out a summary offence,
even if in fact they have committed the full offence.

Herring, Criminal Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (2020 9 ed). p 792.


texts: 1980s California murder trial transcript

texts: I'm not a legal student or scholar, but I'm looking to get my hands on a full transcript of a California murder trial from the 1980s in which the defendant recieved the death penalty. Since the LA county court's website says that they destroy transcripts after ten years, but keep transcripts from death penalty cases indefinitely, I am fairly sure the record still exists. I just don't know how I should go about getting it, how much an e-mailed PDF copy would cost, how much a scanned copy would cost if I went to the court and got it in person, or even if the record would be found at the court or in the state archives, since the defendant is dead. Any help would be much appreciated.


texts: Can my phone provider legally upgrade my phone OS without my consent?

texts:
I wonder whether my phone provider can legally upgrade my phone's operating system without my consent.

I am most interested in the United States, especially California and Massachusetts.


texts: A few years ago, I made a science study guide for a specific chapter of a textbook for some people I was tutoring. I would like to sell it now, but unfortunately I used a ton of separate sources from the internet and from separate textbooks. I also used a few diagrams from the internet. If I specify that I only wish to be paid for the time that it took to set up the study guide, can I sell it as long as I don't claim to have made the material? Or can I claim the purchase as a donation to keep my blog going?


texts: Does Deep Packet Inspection violate privacy laws?

texts:
Most, if not all ISPs do some form of Deep Packet Inspection under the guise of maintaining QOS, security mitigation, legal compliance, and/or national security. Some have even gone as far as offering customers the ability to "opt out" for a fee. See this article.

While some tech savy customers can circumvent DPI by using a VPN. Most customers will stick to using HTTPS which is "supposed" to create an encrypted tunnel from the client to the intended website's server. But it is possible for ISP's to forge the certificates in order to facilitate DPI or eavesdropping.

By running DPI on customers connections, are ISPs violating privacy laws? What recourse does a customer have against this type of violation?


texts:
From DistroKid's Lyric Agreement (emphasis mine):

  a. For good and valuable consideration (including any consideration
  set forth in the Distribution Agreement) you hereby grant to us, on a
  gratis basis, the non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable and
  sublicensable right and license in perpetuity, throughout the universe
  to the following (and to sublicense the following rights, including
  without limitation to Digital Stores and to and in connection with any
  other third party services and products)

What does this mean? Definitions I look up contain lots of terminology I don't understand, such as "misfeasance" or don't really define the term legally.

I'm particularly curious if this allows me to terminate this agreement at some point, or if this agreement is for forever.


texts: Can I say that I am utilizing same terms & conditions and privacy policy of this (xyz) website?

texts:
I am running a service A that uses some other service B. The company L also provides and uses the service B for themself as well for service K.
Can I say on my service website A that my service utilizes their terms & conditions and Privacy Policy and forward the links to service K terms & conditions and privacy policy?
The service K's terms and Conditions and Privacy policies have their name on them so how much that matter or what kind of change should I put on the website to reflect this correctly?


texts: Is it illegal for a search engine to not provide an option to opt out of saving search history?

texts:
Currently Bing search has no option unlike Google search to opt out of saving history. Although Bing search can be set to not save history, it still saves the history of the user in the Microsoft account (if logged in) even though the search setting says otherwise.

Is it illegal to mislead the user in this way? If it is indeed mentioned in conditions, is it not illegal to not provide an option to opt out as per EU law. I am asking for EU privacy law in case the answer needs to be specific.

Edit 1: Bing history page is in : https://www.bing.com/profile/history

Microsoft Account History: https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/activity-history

You can see all your history in the second link even if the search history is disabled in the Bing History page.

Edit 2: Yes I mean about GPDR. It is enforceable from 25th May 2018. So they should comply before that or else they will be fined?


texts: Is “do not resuscitate” on a t-shirt a legal order?

texts:
A few months back, I watched a House episode that featured him violating a DNR order, and being taken to court for it.

A few days ago, I've come across a do-not-resuscitate t-shirt on one of the t-shirt web-sites, and trying to find the exact site for the question, it seems like a sample query will give you a complete list of pretty much all of these t-shirt websites overall.

If someone is admitted wearing such t-shirt, would it be considered a joke, or would it serve as a legal order to indeed not resuscitate?


texts: Can one tenant consider breaking the lease on the part of management if a neighbor violates smoking policy in Texas?

texts:
If a neighbor is being exposed to second hand smoke in an apartment complex and the other party doing the smoking is doing it in a way that breaks the lease, could that be grounds in Texas for the tenant being exposed to that smoke to break the lease with the leasing office?

I am speaking of a scenario where the leasing office has verified that the smoking policy is the same for all leases.

Let's say the leasing office has been notified but the behavior continues.

Any case study out there comes to mind for the state of Texas?


texts: Do citizens of India have a legal right ask a website to delete their personal information?

texts:
Is there any rule under the IT Act or any other regulation in India which provides the right to withdraw consent from providing your personal information?

I want to delete my personal information from a certain website where I have created an account.

UPDATE

As @ohwilleke pointed out I was specifically looking for "a legally enforceable right" and not something inherited in TnC since it can get pretty crazy [Ref: 7,500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Souls]

Thanks for your responses, I have done my own research with negative result, at least for India. While EU seems to be serious about "Right to be forgotten". As per this regulation, you do have option to opt-out. So it does mean somewebsite.com would destroy my personal information when i choose to withdraw my consent. Now,

  what happens to other data retention laws that require data to be kept
  for specific amount of time?


texts: Can a FRCP Rule 11 Motion suffice as a "responsive pleading," or do you have to either (1) answer the complaint; or (2) file a rule 12 motion, to meet the responsive pleading deadline, and then later file a Rule 11 Motion.


texts: Can non-witnesses legally refuse to answer questions from judge?

texts:
It appears that a judge in their courtroom can ask anyone any questions. A quick search shows that it is not uncommon for persons refusing to answer judges' questions to be prosecuted for contempt of court, but most of those persons (if not all) are subpoenaed witnesses.

This question is about everyone else in the courtroom apart from the witnesses (and let's exclude the defendant too to avoid being sidetracked by self-incrimination laws e.g. The Fifth Amendment): prosecutors/plaintiffs, lawyers, experts, members of the public etc.: do they break any laws if they refuse to answer a question from the judge?

So far I have found that, in the US, lawyers can be fined for that.

In New Zealand, the relevant upcoming law deals with disobeying "Certain court orders and undertakings" but it does not look like arbitrary questions asked by judges fall into that bucket.


texts:
I read this slightly bizarre article that says two convicted felons were charged after touching guns in a gun store.

Although the article is unclear on the meaning of touching, I'm going to assume the men had physically held the gun in hand. That of course is clearly a violation broken, nothing to see here, move along type deal. They also had a third person essentially buy a gun for them. I guess they get an A for effort on trying to be smooth.

It is not a smart idea of them to be in a place that sells weapons to begin with, but it made me wonder about a few things. Is it illegal for a convicted felon to enter a gun store, a gun show, or have some proximity restriction involving guns that they are knowingly aware of? My only real guess is some may be given strict rules based on their probation, being released on bond, constraints of their conviction, etc.

If a felon did touch a gun, say with their pointer finger, is that enough to be considered in possession of a gun, or having control of the gun?

For the record, I'm by no means questioning what the police did in this case. The article is worded very poorly, and simply produced a few possible "grey area" questions.


texts: What is “open-source software licensed under the MIT license”

texts: I wanted to use laraspace as my laravel boilerplate. It says in the license area "Laraspace is now an open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license." Does this mean I can use this however I wanted?


texts: What authority does a US state use to tax former residents?

texts:
Some US states such as California and New York go to great lengths to keep former residents part of their tax base. As an example, New York continues to consider an individual to be domiciled in NY until and unless that individual establishes a permanent domicile elsewhere.

And (with few exceptions) if New York considers you to be domiciled in NY, you are considered a resident and must pay state tax on your worldwide income. This is distinct from individuals who have to pay state tax on NY source income.

Bottom line: if New York considers you a resident, you must pay state taxes on worldwide income, even if you did not set foot in NY or in any way have a connection to NY during the tax year.

Example: John Q. Smith lives in NY and pays taxes for five years. For all of 2015 he is outside of NY and couch surfs around the US without establishing a permanent domicile. He does not return to NY after 2015. New York considers him to still be domiciled in NY for 2015 and therefore he must pay NY state tax on all of his worldwide income for 2015.

Smith objects and faces off with New York in court. The first question would be what court(s) would have jurisdiction. New York would love it to be heard in state court and just cite their state tax law as their authority to tax Smith. And Smith wants it to be heard in federal court, but can't sue the state due to the Eleventh Amendment. So is that it, end of ballgame for Smith? The case is heard in NY, New York state law is the authority cited, Smith gets a state judgement against him and he has no way to appeal it outside of the state's jurisdiction?

And the second question, assuming somehow the case gets to federal court or another state's court: Smith argues he had no connection to New York during 2015 and shouldn't have to pay New York state taxes. New York state counters his argument with: "We have the authority to tax John Q. Smith under the legal theory __________________________". What would that legal theory be? Has this been tested in court?

Please do not give practical answers or workarounds that would short-circuit the process before they get to court. This is a hypothetical question on legal theory, not an actual case I'm trying to resolve.


texts: I am curious is there any legal force in a statement like Copyright (c) MyDomain.com. In other words, the copyright holder is a domain name or the owner of the domain.


texts: Can the government change a plea offer based on a dismiss motion the defense files?

texts:
Suppose you are accused of something that doesn't make sense or shouldn't be placed on you based on jurisdiction, and decide with your retained defense attorney to file a motion to dismiss those charges.

If the government has already offered you a plea offer quite early on, with no jail time/small fine, can they make that offer less favorable just because you filed that motion?

They were annoyed and "mad" that you've bothered to file a motion, so they screw you over with an increased sentence?


texts:
I'm managing a french company where the VAT must be applied, and I am stumbling upon a problem that annoys me.

There is a simple form to know if the VAT must be applied or not
(please tell me in case I'm wrong on that) :

Seller EU (me) =>
    Outside EU : no VAT
    Inside EU :
        Customer not a business : apply VAT
        Customer's a business : apply VAT ? <== It's my problem

Ok. (This comes from an article from the TheNextWeb which is linked below)

I took a look at how quaderno.io works, since it's their target, I believe they must be right, so I used their demo : https://quaderno.io/features/checkout/ and tested for my company in France.

When I entered my VAT Number, they removed the tax (from 10$+20% to only 10$).

BUT, the problem is the following :

I asked my accountant if, when making an invoice from a French company to an other French company, I should remove the 20% tax. She said no. I must indicate my VAT number AND the VAT number of the client, and that's it.

The 20% tax still applies and the client must do it's paper work to get back the tax he paid from the state (France), not the issuing company.

So, as far as I understand, Quaderno is not right for France as I should still pay 12$ (10$ + 20%).

But the explanation given by TheNextWeb and how Quaderno works raise me an other question :

They both remove the VAT tax when the company enters it's VAT number, which leads me to believe that in some EU countries, if the VAT number is given, the service must remove the tax from the invoice.

Is this right ?
In that case, in which countries we must remove the tax when invoicing the client, and in which countries (like France) we still must keep it ?

Thank you for your help and feel free to ask for more details if it isn't the case.


texts: How can an agreement supersede another contemporaneous agreement?

texts:
I came across this type of clause, and found that it's quite common. I understand the part that says an agreement supersedes any previous agreements, but the clause looks something like this:

  Supersedes Previous Agreements. This Agreement supersedes all prior or contemporaneous negotiations, commitments, agreements and writings with respect to the subject matter hereof, all such other negotiations, commitments, agreements and writings will have no further force or effect, and the parties to any such other negotiation, commitment, agreement or writing will have no further rights or obligations thereunder.
  Lawinsider.com

I understand that a new agreement can supersede an older one. All that needs to be done in that case is to establish the time that any other ones were made, and by comparison you can know that one in particular is the latest one. But I don't understand how an agreement can supersede all over contemporaneous agreements. I understand "contemporaneous" to mean at the same time, am I wrong about that? Is it even possible for two separate agreements to be made exactly contemporaneously? Also what happens if other agreements have this clause (that it supersedes all other agreements)? If it is possible for multiple agreements to be made exactly contemporaneously (which I take to mean exactly at the same time, which I'm not sure is possible), doesn't this result in multiple agreements superseding each other?


texts: What degree of copyright does a tabletop RPG's DM hold to an instance of a campaign?

texts:
So, I have been watching the Youtube channel CritCrab, that deals with various flavors of misbehavior in tabletop roleplaying game groups. One video dealt with a group that had kicked out their DM and gotten another DM, and DM1 had then gone after DM2 for "stealing his campaign". No actual legal threats were made, but this got me wondering if DM1 might have had some sort of standing.
As a quick overview, in a tabletop RPG, the Dungeon Master (exact nomenclature varies between rpg systems) creates an outline for a narrative he wants the players' characters to participate in. This outline is generally called a campaign. The players, for their part, design their characters with more or less input from the DM. They players and DM then get together to flesh out the outline of the narrative through basically improv theater and combat simulation using polyhedral dice.
So, clearly this is a group effort and the players have a great deal of input in the creative process of fleshing out the storyline. Ergo, they'd have some degree of copyright to the ongoing story outlined by the DM.
My question is, do the players have enough copyright to ask someone else to pick up from where the previous DM left off and essentially create a derivative work? Or, can an ousted DM pretty much vindicate the group's decision by taking the new DM to court to prevent them from continuing the story?


texts: Could the USA order Apple to unlock a phone under the Defense Production Act?

texts:
The Defense Production Act reads in part:

  The President is authorized (1) to require that performance under contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) which he deems necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense shall take priority over performance under any other contract or order, and, for the purpose of assuring such priority, to require acceptance and performance of such contracts or orders in preference to other contracts or orders by any person he finds to be capable of their performance

Could the president order Apple to provide the service of unlocking a phone under this act?


texts: What is the jurisdiction of a decision made by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals?

texts:
I am not a lawyer so please correct any terminology I have used incorrectly.
What is the jurisdiction of the decision made in Warren v. District of Columbia? I.e. supposing the events that led to this court case were to occur again but in a different district, would the decision made by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals also apply in that other district?


texts: Is a landlord required to disclose a balloon payment?

texts:
Suppose a house was rented two years ago in California, on a two year lease.

If when the lease expired, the landlord refuses to renew, citing an upcoming balloon payment that would not be covered by the rent as the reason, what recourse does the tenant have?


texts: What kind of "theft by..." is it when someone refuses to return deposit?

texts:
I made a deposit payment to a moving broker but never signed the agreement.  They are refusing to return my deposit.  "Theft by unlawful taking" doesn't apply because I willingly gave them the deposit, neither does "theft by deception."  This seems like it is some kind of theft, just trying to figure out what.
I live in Kentucky, the moving "broker" lists Chicago, IL as their main office.
Regarding an answer below about "damages", i.e. expenses incurred on my behalf, 1) they have no valid contract 2) I didn't wait until the day before the move.  I notified them a few days after the deposit and that was well over a month before the move date.


texts: What can I do if my roommates poisoned me?

texts:
What can I do if my roommates poisoned me by improperly using pesticide without asking if it was okay with me to use it or even warning me or telling me after the fact?

The product says clearly it is not to be used in areas that occupied more than 4 hours a day, rooms with vents, or anything not sealed.  I woke up very sick and with an intense headache.  This is not something that I ever experience under normal conditions.  I found an open package and rubber gloves outside of their rooms.  I heard them talking about it the night when I was in the bathroom about to take a shower, but it made more sense the following morning.  I heard our other roommate telling them that it came in the mail and didn't come with directions, so doing what "that guy" said should be fine.  I took a picture of the package, and on the label it says at the top with large letters that it is only for sale to and use by professionals.


texts: Reporting an app vulnerability to the authors

texts:
At the beginning I'd like to inform that the case refers to US law, which I am completely unfamiliar with.

Cutting to the chase, I've been recently training reverse engineering skills on lately published, closed-source application. I found that there is a serious vulnerability which allows to easily bypass serial code verification.

And now I want to report this to authors, so that they can fix it. Of course the research I've made on this application was solely in order to broaden my knowledge on reverse engineering and I was not going(and I am still not) to publish any kind of crack. I am acting in good faith intention.

So I want to know whether the authors could accuse me of breaking copyrights, etc. if they turned out to be unfriendly?

Regards


texts: Can Amazon ask for my credit card statement?

texts:
I have problems with Amazon, I was trying to buy a 30 eur gift card for a birthday but they put the order on hold and blocked my account.

Then I got a mail stating that I should fax Amazon my latest credit card statement with my name and address. At first I disregarded it as phishing but then months later I tried to login and found out my account is just blocked. So I sent them an email and they sent the fax request again (see below).

It seems very fishy to me, no shop ever asked me to do this and I do a lot of online shopping. I cannot even do it, I don't have a card statement like that, it's a debit card actually and who uses fax in 2016?
I asked my bank if they had any experience with this but they haven't replied yet.

Is it even legal for Amazon to ask for this?

Thank you for any thoughts on this.

  Greetings from Amazon.de.

  Please note that your order is currently on hold pending the
  verification of your billing information. We will be happy to proceed
  with your order as soon as we receive a recent credit card statement
  for the credit card you referenced for this order.

  At your earliest convenience, please fax us a statement which displays
  the billing name and address for the card.

  You can find our fax number on the Amazon.de Help page:

  www.amazon.de/fax

  Alternatively, you can ask the issuing bank of your credit card to
  contact us with verification of these details.

  You will not be able to access your account online until this
  verification procedure has been completed. However, it is not
  necessary to open a new account or place a new order; we will complete
  the processing of outstanding orders once your billing information has
  been verified.

  Thank you for your patience with our security measures. Please don't
  hesitate to contact us by email at adressen-bestaetigung@amazon.de
  should you have any questions.

  Sincerely,

  Amazon.de http://www.amazon.de

There's no way to send them an email but their fax number is on their actual website.

  Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

 adressen-bestaetigung@amazon.de

  Technical details of permanent failure: Google tried to deliver your
  message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain
  amazon.de by amazon-smtp.amazon.com. [207.171.188.180].

  The error that the other server returned was: 550 #5.1.0 Address
  rejected.


texts: Is a CEO of a company a de facto public figure?

texts:
In other words, does a CEO share the same protections as a private citizen against slander/libel if the CEO only appears to the public (in interviews, shows, etc.) as a representative of the company instead of for self-aggrandizement?

jurisdiction: US, FL.


texts: What legal standing do non-compete clauses have in employment contracts?

texts:
Almost every job I have ever held has a non-compete clause, lasting for up to a year after I leave a particular organisation, prohibiting me form delivering similar services on behalf of a competitor.

Are these clauses actually valid in a court of law? I'm most interested in UK law, but as most of these roles are for international companies, any examples would be useful.


texts:
"I am licensed in the State of Texas and have been admitted on a pro hac vice basis for a case I am handling in Florida.  I am not licensed as an attorney in Florida."

This is what a lawyer wrote to me in an email, when I asked where he was licensed. The matter at hand in in FL or NJ, while he  is licensed in TX.

I am not a lawyer but my understanding was that Pro Hac Vice is for appearing in court. We have simply been negotiating via phone/email. How is Pro Hac Vice applied here? And should he be saying that in this case or is he trying to bamboozle me with his legal jargon? Should I request a copy of the authorization he claims to have received?

Answers to any of these questions would be very helpful to me. Thank you in advance!


texts: Can you explain the "Rule of Three Scores"? In plain English?

texts:
The term is used several times at https://sfgov.org/civilservice/rule-111a-position-based-testing and I can't fathom the meaning.  I searched the site and found a definition (copy below, indented).
But even after (roughly) understanding what eligibles, appointing officer, and more are, I still can't grok it.    To me it seems akin to intentionally obfuscated source code.  I can't grok what's in italics.  Even after finding this help while drafting this.  I can't grok what it means to consider a score.  I think "employee organization" = union, but I'm not sure.

Sec. 202.6 Certification - Rule of Three Scores
The names of eligibles with the three highest scores on the list of eligibles for a position, who are available for appointment, are certified to the appointing officer. When there are two or more approved personnel requisitions on file for the same class, the number of scores certified shall be equal to the number of positions to be filled plus two scores. An eligible list adopted under the Rule of Three Scores shall in all cases be exhausted when eligibles standing at less than three scores are available. Use of the eligible list when there is less than the minimum certification available shall be at the discretion of the appointing officer.
If all eligibles at a score waive appointment or fail to respond within the time limits provided in these Rules, the appointing officer may request supplementary certification(s) from the next highest score.

Is it language designed to be impenetrable other than to a union's lawyers?  That's my hunch, but it's just a WAG I'm hesitant to even mention.


texts: Can men in various countries make pre conception child support deals?

texts:
Charlie Sheens are told to pay $50k a month for his child. What about before conceiving babies Charlie said, "Look, if I knocked you up, I would only spend $2k."

In theory, a girl may have to choose 2 options. $2k a month from a billionaire or a $1k a month from a welfare king. She may prefer the former and may agree to sign contract to get knocked up and get paid $2k a month child support. Say her next alternatives is picking much poorer man.

Is it legally binding?


texts: Making Terms of Use and Service. I put "these sentences" at the end. Do they mean same?

texts:
For last week, I had finished making "Terms of Use ans Service" but this agreement should be translated into several languages such as Chinese. At the very end, I wrote:

In the interpretation of this User Terms, preferentially English language User Terms shall be taken into consideration than translation into other language.

However, I usually wrote:

This Agreement is provided to you and concluded in English.

So, here comes my question. Are they exactly same in legal minds? If not, could you explain me why?


texts: If someone has significantly less assets than the monetary value of an umbrella policy is there a concern for being sued for their personal assets?

texts: If someone has an umbrella insurance policy for a large amount, for example, $1 million and they have significantly less personal assets (for example $100,000), would it be possible that a lawyer could come after their personal assets or would the umbrella policy always be the target?


texts: Can a murder case be filed if that information gets classified?

texts: Assume a member of the government murdered another individual over some unrelated matter. The attacker is an important member of the US government, so the President classifies this information. Now, if one person tries to reveal this information in order to get justice, would the person who committed the crime get charged or would the person using classified material get charged with a crime like Snowden or both?


texts: What if any law is broken if Person B hugs Person A against A's expressed wishes?

texts:
Here is a recent post about person A in the US who doesn't want to be hugged, yet keeps getting hugged despite voicing that the hugs are unwanted:

https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/questions/9016

As described in the post, are those people committing a crime?  If so, what crime?  If not, what is the minimum that A would need to do to escalate the situation into a crime?


texts: Is a contract between persons A and B legal if a previous contract between person B and C states that B shall not make such a conract?

texts: I'm renting a room from a friend and she wants me to sign a lease agreement with her. The weird thing is that she has told me that she has signed a previous lease agreement that stipulates that she will not sublease the apartment. If I did sign a contract with her, would it be legal and binding?


texts: What does this final section regarding the "termination of the binding provisions" in this contract mean?

texts:
A company recently offered me a  great position as the head of their IT Security division.

The job being offered is contingent upon my signature signing a lengthy employment, NDA, Noncompete, contract that has a few questionable lines I could really use help in understanding them as normal English.

What does the following section from the employment contact mean in plain English:

  Termination.
  The binding provisions may be terminated by mutual written consent of the parties; Provided, however, that the termination of the Binding Provisions shall not affect the liability of a party for breach of any of the Binding Provisions prior to termination.

Can this be explained in plain English to assist me in making my decision on whether or not to sign the contract?


texts:
I've recently used a "service" app. It connects handypeople / cleaners to users and facilitate the transaction.

The App confirmed the appointment and took payment. 55 minutes before the appointment was due take place they cancelled it.

I lost a day's wages and travel expenses. I've asked for them to take ownership and cover my losses with a GOGW a nominal £50 (this was less than my actual losses)

If I had cancelled in that time frame or not been there to let them in they would have charged me.

They've replied that in their TOS they've covered this basically saying they wont be liable.  Can a TOS override what I consider to be basic contract law?

Would I have a case in the small claims court?


texts:
For a school project we need to make a small business start-up. For our start-up we are going to make a music app which uses the Youtube API to play the videos.

We also need to think how we can make money with the app. That's why we thought of 2 plans:

a free app with ads
a paid app without ads and more features.

However, the question is: can I still use the YouTube API in a free app with ads and a paid app? When I'm reading the Terms of Service, I see this:

  You and your API Clients must not, and must not encourage, enable, or
  require others to:

  sell, purchase, lease, lend, convey, redistribute, or sublicense all
  or any portion of YouTube API Services, including YouTube audiovisual
  content;

  sell YouTube API Services or access to any components of YouTube API
  Services unless you obtain YouTube's prior written approval;

  sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions that are placed on or
  within YouTube audiovisual content or the YouTube player without
  YouTube's prior written approval;

  More here:
  https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/developer-policies#g-distribution-and-commercial-use

I'm not selling a YouTube API service, but an application which will have more features and stuff. So, is it still possible to use the YouTube API in a free app with ads and a paid app?

Kinds Regards, Jonas


texts: Is it legal to have the same software name?

texts:
I am thinking of a name to give to a distinct format of file. It is a JSON or XML file that store the location of things found on the internet, much like an address (as the format) that point a specific location.

Something like (clip, clippings, clipp, clippr, clipps, clips, clipr, clippers).

This name will be given to the file type and the app/software that reads it.

Example: Open <filename>.clipp.json with android app Clipp.

  Note: Clipp has been used to name an app that helps you book a restaurant. See: clipp.co

Some of these names have been taken by one brand (like clipp, clippr and clipps). Some are taken by multiple brands sharing the same name (like clips and clipper). Some are just general names used by many other apps and brands as well (like clip and clippings).

As much as copyright and trademarks are concerned (as discussed in: Brand piracy).

Is it legal to have same software/app name?
.. with different logo?
.. have different target market (while one app is a browser, the other is a note manager)
.. with a brand that uses common verb or noun like (tyre,clipper,move,bags)


texts: Why aren't alcoholic extracts considered alcoholic beverages?

texts:
Why are some alcoholic liquids allowed to be sold without restrictions, while others are taxed and illegal to sell or serve to anyone under the legal drinking age?  Examples of "exempt" alcohol:

Vanilla extract (typically 40% ABV)
Bitters (often 45% ABV)
Cough syrup (as much as 25% ABV)
Mouth wash (upwards of 25% ABV)
Cooking wine


texts: FL, USA - Recording/Voyeurism Laws In Harassment Situation

texts:
A good friend is being harassed by his neighbor, and is at the end of his wits trying to get some recourse. Essentially the neighbor is belligerent: comes out when family members are home specifically to verbally harass them, trashes the area around their house by blowing lawn debris or placing garbage around it, puts signs in his yard that points to their property to shame them, the list goes on.

They do not have property surveillance, so the attempt thus far has been to hide a cell phone with recording on when he comes out to harass them from his driveway, photo-document the trash/signs, etc. The police can't typically do anything in this dispute because a crime hasn't actually been committed, even with video evidence of verbal harassment.

Being said, in exasperation the friend has uploaded videos documenting the issue to a video-sharing site. I suspect there are Florida statutes that, regardless of reason, prohibit this manner of recording where the harasser is at home (a time/place which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy), does not know about the recording, and it has been disseminated online in a manner which would shame the harasser in the eyes of someone reasonable.

I'd like to think this is in violation of FL 810.145 but the language there is almost specific for recording someone dressing or through their clothes. Am I correct in my thinking?

As a side question, for such disputes, would the best course of action be to collect good audiovisual evidence and then file a harassment claim and just prove it in court?


texts: How can a country take action against patent/copyright violations?

texts:
Suppose, China copies US-made Humvees and Russian made Sukhois.

Is it possible for USA/Russia to take legal actions against China?

If Yes, how is China continuing its productions?


texts: Health insurance just for a particular gender?

texts:
Can a company provide health insurance just for a particular gender? For example by giving different premiums for different genders. I think they can give different premiums for different age groups.

Is this legal in USA? I am leaving aside arguments about who is a man and who is a woman.

This is a hypothetical question. I was thinking since different genders have different health needs may be some can benefit from low premium.


texts: Is the cost of recovering a suicidal person's body deducted from their estate?

texts: If a person committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in a remote rural area in New Mexico and it cost the authorities a lot of money to recover their dead body would those costs be deducted from their estate?


texts: Meaning of “the approval of First Mortgagees holding mortgages on Units...”

texts:
I've been a condo association President for a couple of years now and I keep finding older residents that have come up with their own interpretations over the years, so if something isn't clear, I do my own research.

Our apparently boilerplate condo declarations state this:

"The consent of the Owners of Units to which at least
sixty-seven percent (67%) of the votes in the Association are
allocated, the approval of First Mortgagees holding mortgages on
Units which have at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the votes of
Units subject to mortgages and, upon written request, notice to all
First Mortgagees holding mortgages on Units shall be required to add
or amend any material provisions to this Declaration or to the
By-Laws"...

What exactly does this mean:
"the approval of First Mortgagees holding mortgages on
Units which have at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the votes of
Units subject to mortgages"


texts:
Is a CEO of a U.S. public company allowed to hire a consulting firm for which he is the sole or primary employee?

Example:

Suppose a compensation committee within the board of directors of company ABC decides the CEO is worth $10mm per year. That said, the CEO believes he is actually worth $20mm per year. To avoid these rules, the CEO starts XYZ consulting corporation for which he is the only employee. CEO then has ABC hire XYZ as a consultant, paying XYZ $10mm per year. As a result, CEO of ABC is effectively being paid $20mm per year even though the board only approved $10mm per year.

This certainly seems like a violation of shareholder trust and like a way of evading the control of a compensation committee. That said, is this actually illegal under U.S. corporate law? If not, under what laws would this be illegal?

Bonus question: is illegal for a Canadian company that trades on a U.S. stock exchange, like the NYSE?


texts: Is it safe to use public domain images of Wikipedia for commercial purposes (like printing on a product)?

texts:
I searched for public domain images on Wikipedia for my t-shirts.
Here is an example public domain image.
The permission section for the image says:

  This image consists only of simple geometric shapes or text. It does not meet the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection, and is therefore in the public domain.

So is it really safe for me to use that image for commercial purposes? If no, why they call it a public domain image?

P.S: large companies can use music band logos for printing business as indicated in this article. (I couldn't figure out if article is missing a point)


texts: Do any laws exist which protect a mother without shorterm disability from losing her job due to leave for pregnancy complications?

texts:
My wife is pregnant and also in the process of switching her work status from "benefited" to "non-benefited" (she's a nurse). We use my benefits only (for the most part), and the pay bump is about $13,000/year - so for us, it's worth it.

The issue we've run into now is that, if there are complications with her pregnancy that force her to be on bed rest for many weeks, are there any laws protecting her employment under that circumstance? I know by default she's protected by FMLA, but is that only after giving birth? Even if not, FMLA is only 12 weeks, so if she's placed on bed-rest (or some other extended complication), her time off from work would exceed the FMLA limit I think?

So that the situation is clear, here are the facts:

She's in the process of going per diem, which offers a pay bump with no benefits
She still has time to cancel the transition if necessary, and remain a benefited employee

We're trying to think through all potential hiccups associated with her continuing with the transition to per diem, but this is purely a legal question, and not really seeking fiscal advice on the situation.

Can her hospital fire her from her position if she has (a) no benefits and (b) a doctors order to bed-rest for say two months before giving birth (so assume two months due to complications before birth and 3 months off after birth)?

Bonus Points:  If FMLA is the only thing protecting a mother in this situation, does the fact that she would have short-term disability even matter? While she would get paid for that disability leave, could her employer still opt to fire her if she has to take off an additional 2 months prior to using FMLA?


texts: Renting in Michigan former tenant and rental agreement

texts:
I bought a house in Saint Clair Shores. Closing took place 10/1/2018. I’m friends with the previous owner, who had a tenant. We agreed that she could continue to rent for a couple months. I drafted a rental agreement:

“Rental agreement for: (tenant), (homeowner)
- Rent of $xxx, which includes all bills, is due first of the month.
- This agreement is subject to change.”

No address is listed on the document.
Per MCL 554.634 Section 4, “A rental agreement shall state the name and address...”

The tenant is loud and destructive, and leaves the house a mess. I informed her that I no longer want her boyfriend on the property and she still brings him in. I no longer want her here and want to begin an eviction process.

Given that the rental agreement is not valid, how can I go about the eviction?


texts: What are UK laws on the formation of micro-nations?

texts: If someone were to claim land they owned in the UK as an independent nation, and therefore refused to pay taxes or comply with building regulations, what laws would be broken and what legal action might be taken against such a person?


texts: If you need a DBA (doing business as) if your company is legally named "Foo Bar Inc" but you want to be branded as "Foo"

texts:
Say you have a company legally named one of these:

Acme Investments Inc.
Acme Working Group Inc.
Acme Bank Inc.
Acme Technologies Inc.
Acme Company Inc.
Acme Inc.

In all these cases, you just want to brand yourself as "Acme", rather than having to put the whole name like "Acme Working Group Inc.". In the case of "Acme Inc.", this seems similar to Google Inc., and we just think of them as "Google" rather than "Google Inc.". I'm wondering if Google in this case has a DBA to go from Google Inc. to Google. Same with Walmart, etc. Or if you can simply brand yourself as Google instead of Google Inc. without a DBA.

In the case where you have something more than just "Foo Inc.", such as "Foo Bar Inc.", wondering if you can also just leave off the "Bar Inc.", so like "Acme Working Group Inc." becomes branded as just "Acme", or if you need to apply for a DBA in this case.


texts: Why isn't Anne Sacoolas prosecuted in the US?

texts: The one fact about the Vienna Convention known by everyone is that diplomats are not subject to the law of the country to which they are sent.  But they are subject to the law of their own country.  Now setting-aside the question of whether or not Anne Sacoolas has diplomatic immunity (which is already covered here), surely she can be prosecuted in the US, assuming that causing death by dangerous driving is an offence there?  Is the impediment that it is an offence under (most) state law, and she was not in any US state?


texts: What are the charges faced for sexting minor overseas?

texts:
One of my friends(18) was in an online relationship with a girl(15) overseas. They were sexting each other for about a year until he broke off contact with her, realizing the mistake he made. He deeply regrets it and is worried everyday that he's gonna get into prison and get registered as sex offender/ predator. It has affected him so much that he has his mental health go down, grades go down and really just a pessimistic view towards his future. It has been more than a year since they broke up.
What are the charges he'll face?
Laws of which country apply to him? Say he's from Germany and the girl is from the US. Does the Germany or the US laws come into action in this case?
What happens when he visits the US and the girl files a complaint?
Does the girl face charge for distributing nudes, since he never asked for it and/or pressurized her, and it was the girl who texted him first?
He's a second year physics undergrad, and a smart one. Plans on studying in the US if he gets the opportunity, to get his PhD. But is scared for his dear life that he'll into prison for this mistake he made.


texts: Is it fraud to receive coronavirus mortgage relief when you left your job for non-COVID reasons, such as a divorce?

texts:
A person quits their job non-COVID related reasons. The person moves out of the state and abandoned the home. During that time, this person makes a request to receive COVID relief on their mortgage.
Is this illegal? Also does the spouse have a legal obligation to report it?


texts:
I have purchased a laptop, but the company from which I bought it is refusing to officially transfer the ownership. It's a Dell laptop and Dell have a form for transferring ownership.
I am based in the UK, but bought this will the UK was in the EU.
My question is simple.

Can a seller legally refuse to transfer ownership of a laptop?
If they are legally required to but still refuse, what recourse do I have?
I still have the receipt from the laptop and the company does not dispute the fact that I bought the exact machine from them.

Points for clarity.
The seller does not dispute that I bought the laptop in question. I have seen other questions, eg this one, saying that ownership transfers at the point of sale. Dell have a transfer of ownership form for the purchase to be registered. The company are refusing to register the transfer of ownership to me.
According to Dell, the laptop is still not registered to me. As such, they are refusing to service it under its warranty. They do not accept my receipt as evidence. I guess this is fair from their point of view: it doesn't say the service tag, so it really could be any laptop of that model.
Extra details.
It is a company who have their own website but also trade on eBay, not a private seller; they still trade both on eBay and their website. They are simply saying that they do not transfer ownership. They claim that this was in their listing on eBay, but I have no recollection of this---and likely would not have bought if I had seen it, since it sounds super dodgy---and the eBay listing no longer exists. Further, they claim that the transfer is not necesssary since Dell will service without this. I have not found this to be the case, nor have many others; see below.
Specific pointers to UK law would be appreciated, rather than general references. I'd like to go back to the company armed with facts, not merely opinions, as well-informed as those may be.
I hope that this question will be helpful for others. It appears that proof of ownership is a big issue for Dell laptops. See the image at the end of the question, arising from a search for refusal to transfer ownership laptop, for evidence of this!


texts: Abuse of power / official capacity / misuse of authority etc financial damage minimum?

texts:
A bit of context: Recently the Romanian Justice Ministry signed a executive order to change the penal code decriminalizing "abuse of power" if the damage is less than 200000 RON (Aprox: 50.000 USD / 45000 EURO) everything less than that is subject of labor law.

Is it normal to have minimum financial damage value for such an act to become felony ?

Only thing I could find is Texas code where it becomes a state felony above 2.500 USD (and I'm not sure about that even, because it says "value of thing misused" which for me doesn't equate with damage)

I'm not sure if abuse of power is the correct term (it's a literal translation from Romanian) so here is the definition:
The act of civil servant, who, in the exercise of his duties, knowingly, does not act or acts incorrectly and thereby causing harm legal interests of a person

Some examples:

Policeman giving you I fine without real cause because he doesn't like you, your race or gender

City council member preferentially selecting streets to be repaired based on his own house location

Mayor hiring his own nephew and allowing him not work at all for the job he was hired to do

Taking or giving bribe is another infraction, different from this one, at least in Romanian Penal Code.

I appreciate any references to similar articles in any penal code, or even suggestions for google keywords.


texts: Is dumping a bucket of water on a police officer assault?

texts:
In NYC, headlines include locals dumping buckets of water on the police officers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/23/new-york-cops-throwing-water-de-blasio-unions/


texts: I am an American about to marry a Russian girl in Russia. Do I need a pre-nup?

texts:
My fiance is not a "Russian bride"; she's a real girl I've been dating for a year, we love each other, and want to get married.

If we marry in Russia, do I need a pre-nup?

If we later on get a foreign spouse visa to enter America, will that mean I should have an American pre-nup too?

Or do I just have to have an American and Russian (translated) pre-nup in both countries no matter what?

Thanks!


texts: Mass, commercial identification of people appearing in porn

texts:
Someone on the Internet claims (I'll call this person "the operator" below):

They have crawled around 100TB of data from both mainstream social networking sites, and porn sites with user-generated content;
They have used facial identification, behavior identification and voice identification to match identities, linking 100 thousand social networking profiles to people appearing in porn;
They plan to offer a commercial service, where presumably users can look up a certain person to see whether they have appeared in porn. The service is touted as a way to "check whether your partner has been a sex worker";
They claim to be located in Germany.

Assuming the operator is truthful in their claims, my questions is: what kind of legal problems might they face?

Has the operator made an offense under criminal law in anything they did? Is it illegal to collect and store the data, do matching between such data, or provide the matching data to other people?
If other parties are to bring lawsuit to the operator, how likely are they to prevail?

If a person was identified to have appeared in porn, can they sue the operator for defamation or something else? Does the person need to prove that the identification caused damage? Does it matter whether the identification is correct or not? Does it matter if the "porn" is in fact surreptitiously recorded and uploaded without the person's consent?
Do the data sources (social networking sites, porn sites) have ground to sue the operator? What if the operator never state the source of the data in their service?
Since the persons identified, the users of the service and the data sources are likely to be overseas, which jurisdiction's laws govern these potential lawsuits?


texts: Am I allowed to sell the reviews of my product to another company?

texts:
I ran a company which closed down two months ago. One of my former competitor's has contacted me about buying my branding, product formulations, and business name.
They are not interested in my database of customers but they are interested in the reviews for my products. They want me to export my product reviews without usernames in a format they can then import to their website to attach to my product. Any kind of identifying information is to be removed.
Am I allowed to do this? If one of my former customers visits this new website, sees their writing on the site without their knowledge or consent, am I liable? On my own website, I had no privacy policy or anything like that: it was a small home business.
I'm not sure if PIPEDA answers this, I don't know if this is considered user's data or not.


texts: At what point is perjury committed in an affidavits containing a lie?

texts:
If an affidavit contains a lie, at what point in time is perjury committed:

When the lie is committed to paper, before signing it?
At the moment the affidavit is signed?
When the affidavit is handed to a lawyer?
When the lawyer submits the affidavit to court?


texts: How far does Japanese censorship law go?

texts:
Japan has some really strange censorship laws, where porn or other pornographic material needs to be censored at all times.

However, there are uncensored versions of Black Bible available. Apparantly, it's because the original studio licensed it to an American distributor, who in turn could release it outside of Japan uncensored.

This leads to the question: is the actual creation of porn and pornographic material legal as long as it's not distributed? The original creators had to draw the genitalia themselves before they blurred it after all.

I'm just curious to know how that works. Does that mean Japanese studios are fine as long as they don't release their stuff uncensored in Japan? Let's say I wanted to hire a Japanese studio to create a hentai for me (cause I'm super rich and I can do that, apparantly), would they get in trouble for it, even though they themselves wont release it in Japan (and neither will I)?


texts: Can a company receive a payment and never provide the paid service?

texts: I was wondering a question about a situation I'm involved in. Prefacing that I live in Italy, where an European directive states that every customer in their territories must have legal rights to return any item or service in his ownership and receive complete refunds (except like shipping fees where previously specified) within 14 days; is it possible for an online service provider (specifically a VPS hosting provider), to have a "no-refund" policy AND a "You agree that we can terminate at our discreption your service for any reason without prior notice" policy in their ToS? I literally mean paying for receiving nothing because at their discreption I was "rude" asking why the setup page of the VPS I bought didn't check for an OS selection and when they asked me that selection I requested a refund because I considered and told them they were a non-serious company, and only for that, not even they deleted my order before it was even completed nor provided, but terminated my account on their site too. Can anyone give me any advice of any action (legal too if necessary) to undertake towards this company?  Thanks!  PS: Sorry for my english if it isn't 100% correct or well-written but as I said I live in Italy where english is not the first spoken nor written language even if I'm still learning it...


texts: Does GDPR apply to personal information entered in a password-field?

texts:
If someone enters personal data in a field which purpose is not to handle personal data, does GDPR apply?

For example if someone enters their email, phone number or name in a password-field? If so, does it matter if the password is salted and hashed, only hashed, encrypted or plain text?

Or let's say they enter their name, adress, phone number, email, social security number and exact GPS-coordinates in a field used for registering some kind of "random" alphanumeric promo code. The promo code is logged and/or stored in plain text on a server when they press "Apply". Does GDPR apply in this case?

It can't be expected that someone will enter personal data in these cases. But where exactly does one draw that line? Does the field need to be clearly marked "Email", "Phone number", etc. in order for GDPR to apply? If so, what about a field marked "Username" - a username alone isn't necessarily enough to identify a physical person?


texts: Are booby-traps illegal if they don't harm humans?

texts:
I saw this image today:

[![4chan post][2]][2]

For the sake of this question, let's assume it happened in the front yard of the poster's house (so on his property)

If this really did happen, would this be considered a booby trap, because the nails served no purpose other than to destroy the property of people driving over the sign?

Would this trap be illegal, even though there's no way that it would reasonably hurt another human (if you're outside, you have shoes on, protecting you from the nails).


texts: What would happen to a person with no identity?

texts:
I'm working on an RPG, and a few of the characters have no ID, and are secretly from another universe.

If one is processed for a minor crime (say, trespassing), but has no ID, no history, and no citizenship anywhere, what would happen to them?

The perp knows he's from another dimension. Admitting it will surely result in an asylum, but what about just pretending to be a native, though nothing is verifiable?
To clarify, these people have no relatives that know them, they have IDs that come up as fake/fraudulent, and no link to any country whatsoever.

Also, for jurisdiction, its California, but the FBI is also involved.


texts: GDPR and Storing Non-EU Citizen Data as an EU-based company

texts:
I work for an EU company based in the UK and often work with clients in China and Africa (and some other non-EU countries). In the future, it may arise that we will be storing some personal information on citizens from these countries and was wondering what the GDPR laws were with reference to an EU company storing non-EU citizen data?

I thought GDPR was to protect the data/information of EU citizens (from Wikipedia):

  General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 ("GDPR") is a
  regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all
  individuals within the European Union (EU) and the European Economic
  Area (EEA).

but wasn't sure if personal information outside of the EU was also protected.

Short version: are there any GDPR considerations that must be in place when an EU company stores personal information from citizens outside of the EU?


texts: Would stricter gun laws in the US allow the arms industry to sue the US government?

texts:
As far as I can tell the US government, especially the current US President Obama, wants stricter laws concerning the ownership and / or acquisition of guns and weapons in the USA.

Now again as far as I can tell, there's the general idea in the US that whenever a (foreign) government reduces your potential sales, you can sue them to replace the money that you potentially may have gained. With the (foreign) only applying when there's a free-trade agreement (like TTIP or NAFTA) between the US and the foreign nation in question including investor-protection measures.

Now assume Obama convinces the congress to make a law to restrict the acquisition of guns (e.g., more controls for private sales, less people qualified to buy guns in the first place, etc.) or he just signs an Executive Order having the same effect.

In this scenario, can every single company that sells / produces guns sue the US government because their sales got reduced by this new law / executive order?


texts: What are some possible law suits or civil actions the Las Vegas shooting victims could take?

texts:
I assume that many, if not all of the businesses, corporations and individuals who were operating and supplying services at the time of the Las Vegas Strip shootings (Wikipedia) - such as hotels, concert promoters, etc. - to guests and concert attendees had protected themselves against liability with contracts, entered into the customers by the purchase of tickets, payment for hotel rooms or verbal agreements.

And those contracts absolved the provider of civil liability for injuries from ordinary circumstances (tripping/falling injuries) and also possibly injuries and deaths from extraordinary circumstances (force majeure) such as the shootings.

But regardless of those contracts: are these some possible civil actions by the victims? (Yes, I know anyone can sue anyone in civil court). But why would any or all of these possibilities be thrown out - such as a lawsuit against a municipality re: governmental immunity - by summary judgment?

  1) Could someone open a civil action against the city of Paradise
  (where the incident occurred near but outside the boundaries of the
  city of Las Vegas) for failure to provide security? Or are city/county
  municipalities immune? And is the state of Nevada immune?

  2) Could someone sue the concert promoters for failure to provide
  safety? And/or was that safety limited to the actual physical area of
  the concert?

  3) Could someone sue the hotel/casino for failure to provide general
  safety? What about failure to prevent the gunman from bringing weapons
  into the hotel/casino?

  4) What about the store that sold the firearms (or ammo or accessories) to the shooter? Even
  though those sales appear to have been legal in Nevada?

  5) Or one or more of the firearm companies themselves?

  6) What about the shooter, his estate and/or his family? I assume it
  can be alleged that they might have known of the shooter's plans
  and/or failed to intercede.

  7) And (possibly) more of an opinion: could a group of victims attain class
  action status against any of those government or private entities?


texts: Has there been a SCOTUS case which clarified the meaning of the phrase "to promote the progress of science and useful arts"?

texts:
The US constitution article 1 section 8 gives the Congress an enumerated power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Generally, this is understood to be the power which allows Congress to create intellectual property laws (supporting copyrights, trademarks, and patents).
Has there been a case which clarified what constitutes a "useful art" or "progress of science"?
Specifically, this power can easily clash with the 1st amendment prohibition on the restriction of speech and press.  So it's not hard to imagine that there would have been some conflicts that the court would have opined on.  Has that happened?  If so, what's the case?
This is not a question about "fair use", by the way.  Fair use is an exception to the existing restrictions on intellectual property.  This is a question about what type of expression may not be copyrighted at all.


texts: How to properly deal with a cable company which regularily does not provide the bandwidth that is being payed for?

texts:
We are having a contract with a cable company managing our internet and phone connections. We very regularily (even at on the dot schedules) do not have any internet or telephone network connection in our house.

What can we do to either terminate the contract prematurely or make them keep their part of the agreement?

We are living in Germany.


texts: Imagine a single person with a net worth in the millions but less than 10 million. He / she is thinking about having a new will drawn up and setting a living revocable trust. Part of the idea behind the living revocable trust is to plan for a possible incapacity situation. If the successor trustee on the trust is a different person that the personal representative on the will, is that going to cause problems when the person dies?


texts: Found a dead insect in a mushroom package

texts:
I found a dead insect at the bottom of a mushroom package I bought from local grocery store. I already consumed some of that mushroom and when I removed the remaining mushrooms to store in another container , I noticed the insect at the bottom of the tray. What can or should I do about this incident?
This happened in SF Bay area


texts: Is a contract enforceable if one party can’t keep a copy?

texts:
Suppose parties A and B are signing a contract that incorporates by reference a confidential document belonging to A. Party B agrees to a non-disclosure agreement which disallows B from viewing or possessing the document after the contract has been signed.
A and B sign the contract. To comply with the NDA’s requirements, B destroys their copy of the document.
Is such a contract enforceable in California / United States?


texts: Can Snapchat sue me if I use name "Snap" in my commercial project?

texts:
I plan to name my commercial web project as ____Snap.
My website will be unrelated to what SnapChat is offering and in a different industry, but idea of short living content is the same.


texts: Rights of rejected non-EU extended family members of EU citizens for achieving a righteous verdict

texts:
Check out this interesting discussion carefully.
Now, suppose that I am a citizen of Ireland and I reside in a non-EEA country with my spouse, children, dependent parents and an unmarried sibling (who has been a member of the household since some 30 years or so). I wish to move to another EU country (let's say Germany; or, interestingly let's say I moved to Germany for 6 months to practice the Surinder Singh route to come back to Ireland). FACTS: My spouse is genuine, my genuine children are minors, my parents are genuinely dependent on me and I can prove that, and finally my unmarried sibling is a household member since 30 years. Under EU law, it is clear that all of my family is eligible to relocate to an EU country (other than Ireland; or in fact Ireland if I use Surinder Singh). BUT, it seems from that discussion that the rights of Extended family members are not as strong as those for Core family member, which User Relaxed confirms with some examples. Precisely, if they refuse my extended family member's (sibling's) application (even though I provide extensive and sufficient evidence) on say any grounds they like, I would effectively not have anything to claim since my there is no right possessed by my sibling as my other Core family members have in EU legislation. This way, my sibling would be left behind and I could not even argue for him in a court as he doesn't have any right in EU legislation like my other family members (who are "Core") have. I think this is why the lines about Extended family members' rights is a namesake thing. Do you have anything to prove me wrong? Do genuine Extended family member cases always win in the end provided there is sufficient evidence?