texts: Is it illegal to recommend to commit a crime, and to give specific instructions how to commit a crime?

texts:
I came across the rap music clip that recommends to burglarize the neighbor. It goes approximately like this: "Find the neighbor of race X, because they usually aren't too careful and more trusting. Watch when they usually aren't at home. Break in, don't hesitate, take such and such items, smash the mirrors. If they happen to be home don't hesitate, shoot them otherwise they will report you..." It goes on and on. They rented the house for this clip, and demonstrated how to do this in details.

I am wondering if this is illegal in California to recommend and encourage to commit a crime? He doesn't commit an actual crime, but he encourages others, and gives specific recommendations about the methods and details. I am sure there are a lot of dumb listeners who will follow and do what he recommends.

Addition:
Based on the few comments saying that this isn't a crime and is covered by the First Amendment, I would like to test how much does the First Amendment protection stretch here.

What if the clip advocated committing a mass murder, like "buy a weapon, go and shoot people like some of the mass murderers did". If he romanticizes and encourages the mass murder, is this still not a crime?

Next level: what if the clip, hypothetically, would advocate the murder of the US president? Would this still be protected under the First Amendment?

Also, can the federal hate crime laws apply, because he advocates targeting based on the specific race that he mentioned?

I am pretty sure if some serious crime like that was advocated in the lyrics, prosecutors would have worked hard and would have found some statute to charge him.


texts: Private Florida school won't employ vaccinated teachers

texts:
Regarding: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/private-florida-school-employ-vaccinated-teachers-77347282
If indeed it is true that Leila Centner is:

Spreading False COVID-19 information that supports pandemic infections to parents / students
Will not employ vaccinated teachers

Questions:

What, if any, statutes has Center run afoul?
Is there precedent for the First amendment right to effectively enable behavior #1?


texts: Under what circumstances are you required to stop and/or answer questions by the police?

texts:
After this case of suspected harassment by the police in England in response to refusal to provide a name while walking to catch a train I wondered when you are required to stop, and when you are required to answer questions as a pedestrian.  From the linked pages, it would seem the answer is that you are not required to answer any questions.  You are required to stop if you are either legally arrested or are going to be searched.
To be legally arrested the police must:

identify themselves as the police
tell you that you’re being arrested
tell you what crime they think you’ve committed
explain why it’s necessary to arrest you
explain to you that you’re not free to leave

To detain you for a search the police must tell you:

their name and police station
what they expect to find, for example drugs
the reason they want to search you, for example if it looks like you’re hiding something
why they are legally allowed to search you
that you can have a record of the search and if this isn’t possible at the time, how you can get a copy

From my reading, unless all of one of these sets of actions have been completed, you are allowed to continue about your business as if the police were not there.  Is this interpretation correct?


texts: Can a defendant challenge the constitutionality of the statute being accused of?

texts: If someone is accused of a crime in his state and he believes the statute he is being accused of violates one or more of his constitutional rights, say right to travel or free speech. Can the defendant raise an argument in his defense, move to dismiss, or appeal the decision under these constitutional grounds? Can he open a new case as a plaintiff against the state for enforcing unconstitutional laws?


texts: Does a wife have to ask her husband to record their conversation without consent?

texts: Just wondering, in California specifically, can a recording of a conversation by the wife of a husband and wife's conversation within their own home be submitted as evidence if the husband had no awareness of the recording? This is not a personal question, but an episode of "Billions."


texts: Is it legal to use digital copy if physical copy is broken/lost

texts:
I make digital copies of CD/DVD/Vinyls I buy and use those copies myself (on my phone/tablet/laptop).
I am free to use those copies because I purchased the physical version.

If I lose or break the physical version am I still allowed to use the digital versions?


texts: How to dismiss (an improperly filed) motion? Objection or a Motion Prior?

texts:
I have a hearing coming up where there is a "motion to dismiss" filed by the other party.  It is quite apparent the motion has been filed incorrectly (missing very specific paperwork) according to the rules.

Now to get this dismissed with best practices, would I raise an oral motion prior to the motion hearing (ie. a motion to dismiss the motion to dismiss the case)... or do I wait until the moment the motion hearing is starting and object to it... then start specifying the grounds and rules?


texts:
I submitted my letter of resignation and two-week notice today, and within minutes all my company access was revoked (security privileges, domain access, email access, dropbox, etc.). We work entirely remotely right now, which means I cannot work at all for the remainder of my time. My boss insists I was not fired, but having no ability to work whatsoever it certainly feels like I was. If I was fired I am entitled to severance pay, and I am curious as to what legal basis I may have.
Company is registered in Hong Kong working in multiple countries, I'm assuming the jurisdiction comes from the country where it is registered? If not, I'm not sure, as I (prior to the COVID-19 situation) traveled and worked in all of the countries we were involved in.
Irrelevant to the above question, but relevant to the work situation - I am behind one month's pay and a guaranteed salary increase of "3.5-10%, at the employer's discretion" starting from January that I never received.


texts: Facebook does not obey the Google Play's central opt out of the Ad ID

texts:
Facebook states in this Terms and services that it respects Google plays advertising id:

  Yes, the Audience Network SDK for Android uses the Advertising ID and respects its limit tracking option in accordance with Google Play's terms and conditions.

I checked it by sniffing its traffic, and it is true. But it is striking that it does not obey google plays opt-out mechanism:

I still could see that it used the IDFA Header even after opting out.

https://graph.facebook.com/network_ads_common/
MAKE:               LGE
IDFA_FLAG:          1
APPVERS:            1.1.10
ATTRIBUTION_ID:
NUM_ADS_REQUESTED:  1
CARRIER:
SDK:                android
SCREEN_HEIGHT:      592
VIEWABLE:           1
ADAPTERS:           AN
REQUEST_TYPE:       0
SDK_CAPABILITY:     [3,4,5,7,11]
CLIENT_EVENTS:
COPPA:              false
PLACEMENT_ID:       ????
SDK_VERSION:        4.7.0
TEMPLATE_ID:        200
OS:                 Android
BUNDLE:             ???
DENSITY:            2.0
APPNAME:            ???
OSVERS:             4.4
SCREEN_WIDTH:       384
SCHEMA:             json
PLACEMENT_TYPE:     native
APPBUILD:           10
LOCALE:             en_GB
MODEL:              Nexus 4
IDFA:               a6a1bca3-1f90-408e-8a9b-960ba26aa60a

So is that behavior legal from Facebook and can I do something about that?

Edit
It seems that they need to obey the opt out mechanism:

  Usage. The Android advertising identifier must only be used for advertising and user analytics. The status of the “Opt-out of Interest-based Advertising” setting must be verified on each access of the ID.

From:  Google Play Developer Programe Policies


texts: Requirements for using email as evidence

texts:
Someone told me you can "just send an email to yourself" as a means of proving non-disclosure, copyright, resolving disputes, etc.

What I'm specifically wondering is whether this requires you to use an email service where you have absolutely no way of sending backdated email or altering already sent email?

In other words, since you have full access to it at any given time, using your own email server for this purpose would render your evidence worthless, wouldn't it?


texts: Digital media; Are copyright and ownership the same thing?

texts:
I have a device that captures digital media content. The manufacturer of the device claims in their terms of service that, while I own the copyright to all of the raw content captured, that they own all digital copies of that content!?

Can anyone tell me if this even makes sense let alone would be legally enforceable in any meaningful way?

Thanks.


texts: Is it legal to ride in the open bed of a pickup truck?

texts:
A few years ago a police officer told me it’s not legal for me to ride in the bed of a pickup truck (this is in Michigan and I was well over 18 years old). He “let it go” because it was a short ride to football game.

Section 257.682b of the Michigan Vehicle Code says the following:

  (1) Except as provided in this section, an operator shall not permit a
  person less than 18 years of age to ride in the open bed of a pickup
  truck on a highway, road, or street in a city, village, or township at
  a speed greater than 15 miles per hour.

It seems that this would imply that riding on public roads in the bed of a pickup truck is legal except when the person is under 18, AND the vehicle is moving faster than 15 mph. Is it safe to assume that it’s otherwise legal?


texts: Where are Share Classes defined in an LLC?

texts:
Where are Share Classes defined in an LLC. For example, if I look at facebook's constitution at the link below, there are no definitions for share classes. I was thinking there would have been such a definition as Mark Zuckerberg owned special shares that entitled him to massive voting rights.

https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_downloads/governance_documents/2019/Facebook-Amended-Restated-Bylaws.pdf


texts: Obtaining the identity of a person who committed assault and is attempting to flee?

texts:
This did not happen to me, but to a family friend who works as a waiter. I'm researching, should I fall into a similar situation:

A customer and the waiter get in an argument, to which the customer responds by throwing scalding coffee into the waiter's face, burning him.  The coffee was hot enough to cause 2nd degree burns, think painful peeling sunburn from forehead to neck, lasting for a few weeks.

After the incident, the employee tried to get the ID of the assailant to sue him, but he fled before police could arrive, and he hasn't been seen again.

My question is: What could the waiter have legally done to secure the assailant's ID?  Could he use force to subdue and detain them?  And would he be legally protected against their employer disciplining them for taking these measures?


texts: Is it an offence to ignore a portable traffic light

texts:
This is  a question about laws regarding traffic lights in the UK.

When companies are carrying out works on or near roads they sometimes put up their own lights to control traffic and keep it flowing.

Is it an offence to ignore the lights, or do they hold the same authority as permanent traffic lights?


texts: Is it legal to distribute, in my .NET app, the interop contract (reference) from a third party COM DLL?

texts: When you reference a COM DLL (xyz.dll) in Visual Studio, it creates a interop contract (file interop.xyz.dll) that is used to "communicate" with the DLL. It is usually embedded in your software. If DLL is from third party, is it legal to distribute my software including this interop contract (and, of course, without the COM DLL itself) ? It's for an open-source project and people would have to get this DLL separately.


texts: Would Australia extradite an Australian fugitive who escaped from an Indonesian prison?

texts:
If an Australian was convicted of committing a crime in Indonesia, then escaped from an Indonesian prison, and somehow made it back to Australian soil, would the Australian government extradite them back to Indonesia?

Let's say the crime was drug trafficking, for which the mandated punishment was death by execution.

Australia and Indonesia do have an extradition treaty:


texts: Public Forum: Public street through Private Property in CA?

texts:
I speak the Gospel publicly in California in traditional public forums. There is a movie theater on privately owned property, along with other businesses and office buildings, that has a publicly accessible street running through it—Lakes Dr., West Covina, CA. I attempted this last Friday, to speak to the line for tickets. The manager and security for the theater ordered me to stop. After finishing my short talk, I did and cordially informed them that free speech on traditional public forums, like streets and sidewalks, is protected speech. The Theater manager said the street is part of the private property and subject to their dictates.

May I speak from within 5ft. of the street, sidewalk not clearly marked, under Traditional Public Forum protected speech?


texts: Do all US states require proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections?

texts:
Currently, there are no states where it's legal for a non-citizen to vote in a federal election.
The question is whether all states' laws specify that proof of citizenship is require for voter registration. I would tend to assume that in each state, the law would require that in order to register to vote in a federal election,

the person must present an official document that is proof of citizenship, such as a US birth certificate or US passport, at the time of registration, or
the person's citizenship status must be verified by looking it up in some database that required proof of citizenship. (For example, the Social Security Administration keeps a record of whether a person is a citizen, and this requires proof of citizenship to be presented to the SSA office.) Or,
in cases where the above two conditions are not satisfied, the person will receive a limited voter registration record that is only valid for state and local elections (in the case of states that allow non-citizens to vote in such elections), and such a person would only be able to obtain a limited ballot without any federal candidates on it (see https://law.stackexchange.com/a/46455/765).

Are there any states where such legal provisions to prevent non-citizen voting do not exist?


texts: Commercial "natural language processing" algorithm on TV shows

texts:
I am thinking of running an algorithm on TV shows which will output a written account of each show's contents. An example would be a written copy of the recipe used in a cooking show, which would be almost verbatim, but not a complete transcript and probably without any overall synopsis; just a few parts of the show. That being said, the algorithm would have to "watch" the whole show to discover the relevant parts.

Would I need a license from the owner of the show's copyright before doing so?

Would the answer be different if I watched the show myself, copied down the recipe by hand, and put it on a (commercial) website?


texts:
A while back, a friend of mine did a dumb: she gave her savings to some guy in return for a vague contract to invest it for high returns.  This wasn't an Internet/email thing; she knew this guy in real life (before COVID-19).  The guy led her to believe that he was registered financial advisor (though I didn't find anything to that effect in her contract or their message history).  Then she had some bad luck: lost her job, wrecked her car, etc.  So she wanted to dip into her savings.  She contacted the guy, who agreed to start disbursements from her investments (which he claimed to have a value of several times the principal at that point; he gave an approximate dollar figure).  He paid out a couple thousand, then started delaying, temporizing, and making excuses.  After a while of this, she started asking for all of her funds to be returned.  She continued regularly asking him for her money over the next number of months and this behaviour continued.
No doubt about it: my friend's trust in this guy was unwise.  But that's not the point here.  The point here is that buried in their message history, after several months of requests from her for money and excuses from him, he asked for another $2,000 to cover "fees" and expedite the process of returning her money.  (She didn't pay.)  From my viewpoint, this appears to jump from some sort of confidence fraud straight into 419 scam territory.  Is this a felony?
Both parties here live in the US state of Washington.


texts: Authority vs Authorization, are they the same?

texts:
This may be more of a grammatical/english question, but is there likely to be any dispute that there is a difference between the two words?

Compare:

Eg.1  Words giving authority to a group authorize a majority of the group to act.

Eg.2  Words authorizing a group to act authorize a majority of the group to act.

The point of dispute rests in the fact that sometimes a group is given permission to do certain acts and at other times they are required to do certain acts.  The disputed outcome is whether or not a majority of the group can act in either interpretation.


texts: Why can some states choose to reject the Attractive Nuisance Doctrine?

texts:
In the United States, the US Supreme Court established the Turntable Doctrine, in R.R. Co. v. Stout, 84 U.S. 657.  As I understand it, In general, if a person is injured while trespassing on someone’s property then, unless the injury is due to some specific fault of the landowner, the landowner isn’t liable.  After all, if someone trespasses on your property, you shouldn’t be liable for poor judgment exercised by the trespasser, especially since he shouldn’t have been trespassing in the first place.  But Stout created an exception to this, initially termed the “turntable doctrine” (named after the piece of railroad machinery that that the child Stout was playing on when injured).  The idea was that young children are a special case requiring a higher duty of care.

Stout was cited soon after in a similar turntable case, Keffe v. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Co., 21 Minn. 207 (1875).  The term “attractive nuisance doctrine” originated in Keffe, which explained the attractiveness concept thus:

  To treat the plaintiff as a voluntary trespasser is to ignore the
  averments of the complaint, that the turn-table, which was situate[d]
  in a public (by which we understand an open, frequented) place, was,
  when left unfastened, very attractive, and, when put in motion by
  them, was dangerous to young children, by whom it could be easily put
  in motion, and many of whom were in the habit of going upon it to
  play. The turn-table, being thus attractive, presented to the natural
  instincts of young children a strong temptation; and such children,
  following, as they must be expected to follow, those natural
  instincts, were thus allured into a danger whose nature and extent
  they, being without judgment or discretion, could neither apprehend
  nor appreciate, and against which they could not protect themselves.
  The difference between the plaintiff's position and that of a
  voluntary trespasser, capable of using care, consists in this, that
  the plaintiff was induced to come upon the defendant's turn-table by
  the defendant's own conduct, and that, as to him, the turntable was a
  hidden danger, a trap.

Twenty years later, the New York Court of Appeals discussed the turntable doctrine in Walsh v. F.R.R. Co., 39 N.E. 1068 (NY 1895) and said Stout didn't apply in that case.  Maybe I'm reading Walsh wrong, but it seems to me to be saying that Stout might apply in some cases, but it doesn't in that specific case.

But then Morse v. Buffalo Tank Corp., 19 N.E.2d 981, 280 N.Y. comes along in 1939 and says

  The general rule which has prevailed since the well-known turntable
  case (Walsh v. Fitchburg R.R. Co., 145 N.Y. 301) is that the so-called
  doctrine of attractive nuisance does not apply in New York, and that
  the only duty which an owner of land owes to a trespasser or bare
  licensee is to abstain from affirmative acts of negligence or not to
  injure intentionally such person.

And from there to the present, supposedly New York doesn't follow the Attractive Nuisance Doctrine.

How can some states follow it and some others not?  I've heard of circuit splits, but they can be resolved by a Supreme Court decision.  In this situation, a Supreme Court decision already exists, so I don't see how there can be a circuit split on this.

(Reason for question: I am taking a paralegal class and one of the exercises asks the student to determine whether the attractive nuisance doctrine holds in the state where the student lives.)


texts: Best way to explain sublicensable (through multiple tiers)?

texts:
I'd like to find a succinct definition of what it means in a software license agreement, to make the license "sublicensable (through multiple tiers)".  Ideally this would be a definition that could be included in such an agreement to make it clear to a layperson what this phrase means.

How would you define "sublicensable (through multiple tiers)"?


texts: Which Arrival Date do I enter for my spouse's "Date Arrived" on form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative?

texts:
I'm a US citizen and marrying my Korean fiancee. We're working on immigrations forms and have a quick question about form I-130 'Petition for Alien Relative', Question number 14:  (Question Marks in the Date Arrived field because it's the field we're unsure of.)

  14: If your relative (My fiancee, soon to be spouse) is currently in the U.S., complete the following:

  He or she arrived as a: [ Student ]
  Arrival/Departure Record (I-94): [ The Number ]
  Date Arrived: [ ????-??-?? ]

This is confusing us because of a trip we made to Canada last year. During the trip, we crossed the land border at Niagara Falls when leaving and returning to the US.

However, when we look up her I-94 travel history (https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov), it notes a Departure for the date we entered Canada, but it doesn't show an Arrival for the date we returned to the US. Additionally, the "Point of Entry/Exit" is blank for that departure.

The DHS site has a footnote that makes us feel both more and less confused:

  The following travel may not be reflected: land border arrivals/departures [. . .]

So we have one main question and one related question:

What do we enter in the 'Date Arrived' field?

The first date she entered the US?
The most recent date she entered the US from South Korea? (She's visited family back at home a few times)
The most recent date she entered the US from anywhere? (This would be from Canada) (We do know the date)

Do we need to make sure the return from Canada is properly recorded on her I-94?


texts:
If I were to take license texts of publicy available licenses, such as the WTFPL, to add some paragraphs and create my own license, which I then ship with content created by me, would that be legal? What about AGB's for example?

I'm sure companies put a lot of work/money in form of lawyers into writing the terms, and often it can't be prevented to make them open source.

Three options seem to be plausible to me: (a) license not yet specified and anything possible (b) public domain (c) same license as the license if a license.

(Initially intended to include the here used CC BY-SA 4.0, but after some additional search I found out that all CC licenses are itself licensed public domain. The question remains for the WTFPL for example, which is clearly copyrighted but without a license for the license given. Could use of the text be revoked / sued?)


texts:
Just a general question, it's so expensive to get lawyers these days and my business isn't making any money. I live in Iraq, can I manage my own legal problems such as customer complaints, land laws etc.
Do you know someone to answer it?
https://legamart.com/community/152


texts: Reporter asked me to write article about my $product; removing all mention of $Product before publication

texts:
Recently I was reached out by a reporter asking if I can write an article about an online software product of mine:

  I was hoping that someone at $organization might be willing to write an article explaining what you do, the history of the organization and how it works.

After some back & forth, and about a week of work, I wrote a detailed article about the niche, summarizing our findings, and explaining how we solve the problem.

Reporter come back to me:

  Our editorial policy/guidelines does not allow us to publish articles that could be interpreted as endorsing any business where fees are involved even if the organization is a non profit.  Therefore our editor will be  tweaking your piece to fit our guidelines.

They have specifically asked about the business, with no mention of this policy prior to me performing the work. They have put it in writing, that they will not be honoring the payment of mentioning the product. To me, this imports as classic bait&switch.

Is this legally actionable? If so, what are maximum damages under penalty of law, that I can seek?

And a what-if scenario: if damages are >$500, can I come back to them basically saying, that they can either run the original article as a full page advertisement (which is, according to their listing is $200), OR I will push this through court?

Many thanks.


texts: What does a "Notice requiring possession" letter mean?

texts:
I am renting a house in the UK.

My contract is for a year, started in December last year and will expire in December 2015.
In the tenancy agreement says Landlord can cancel the contract with 2 months notice period and I can with one month.
I have paid every month with no problem. Last payment was this morning.

I had an argument with my Landlord 1 week ago because he doesn't want to fix some defects in the house. To be more accurate he says he wants to do it but is delaying it. (First time we reported the problems was in March and still not fixed.)

After the argument I have decided to move to another place of course. I am looking for houses now. But several days later she came home and gave me this letter in hand.

My questions are:

Does it mean that she wants to use her right to cancel the contract after 2 months? It looks like that to me but I am not 100% sure.
What does it mean "after 16/11/2015"? After can mean anything... even end of contract in December.
Is this a legal document or just something she made up?
What happens if I want to leave the house later because I don't find alternative?


texts: Do universities have (fiduciary?) duty to provide enough classes for their students?

texts:
My niece, a college junior, told that most students at her university are unable to register for classes they need to graduate because there aren't enough classes offered, and because of that huge majority of students cannot graduate their 4-year programs in 4 years. I checked 4-year graduation rate statistics, and indeed, her university's 4-year graduation rate is abysmal 7%. Then a quick look at the class schedule, with most classes being wait-listed, confirmed the cause of the low graduation rate.

I'm wondering: is this practice by university to under-supply required classes legal?

Here's an analogy, the reason why I think the above practice is or should be illegal. Imagine that you contracted to purchase, say, a self-assembled car, in the following manner: you pay fixed amount annually until you fully assemble it, the manufacturer ships you the parts, and as soon as you complete the assembly - the car yours. The manufacturer assures you that this is a 4-year project, and that you'll have the opportunity to complete your task in 4 years. Therefore you count of paying the annual fee for 4 years and on the ability to use the car after that. Then, well into the project, the manufacturer informs you that they don't have enough manpower to manufacture enough transmissions, so your request for a shipment of a transmission will be wait-listed. And, even though you weren't given the opportunity to complete your work, the car does not belong to you yet, and you still have to pay the annual fee. The project drags on for 5 or 6 years instead of 4 solely due to the manufacturer delays. I think in this scenario the manufacturer would quickly get sued out of business.

I think quite a few colleges in US are doing pretty much the same thing: they offer significantly smaller classes than necessary to allow their students to obtain degree in a timely manner and profit from their own shortcomings due to extended duration of each student's paid enrollment.

I am not a lawyer though, and aware that a layman's perception of fair doesn't always coincide with what's legal. In particular, the subject of fiduciary duties (which IMHO is the closest thing to a layman's definition of fair) is not quite obvious. Thus the question to the professionals.

I'm not involved in any litigation on that matter, the question is for purely educational purposes (pun intended).


texts:
In order to copyright something, you have to do an innovative change (photocopying doesn't count)

Does converting public domain images into text (through OCR or like wikisource) count as "innovative change" and put a copyright on the resultant text?


texts: Can the States be taxed by the Federal Government in the US

texts:
Article 1 section 2 paragraph 3 states that representatives and taxes may be assigned to each state based on their population. So this might be the answer to my question. But there are several examples of case law involving the 10th amendment where states sue because some of their activities are taxed.

Would a federal tax plan that simply took the amount required to run the government and divided that amount across the states based on population and directly charged the states likely to survive a legal challenge?

I have tried to find examples of direct taxation of the states and can't find any so I would also be interested in knowing if this was ever attempted and if so why the practice was abandoned.


texts: What is the license of the code submitted for review but not yet incorporated in the project?

texts:
In the case when there is no explicit mention regarding the rules for such case in the project policy (like, f.e. GitHub
 has), what is the status of the code/patch submitted for the review (using mailing list or some other platform)?
Is it automatically licensed under the same license as the target project (I can see it being the case for "viral" licenses but what about others?)?
Does anyone have the same rights (copy, distribute) regarding it as they do with mainline project (even if it'll end up not being accepted)?


texts: What order does a court case take place?

texts: I'm doing homework for US Government and there are questions about steps in a Trial but I couldn't find any information that would help me with this online as links I could find didn't clearly explain the order it should go in. What would be the correct order for the screenshot given?


texts: UK-centric: how to stop a former colleague spreading informally unwelcome references?

texts:
I have a friend who took a former employer to tribunal, employer preferred to pay him early settlement compensation, signed mutual NDA not allowing any party (including employees) to disclose the existence of that legal dispute and later (unsurprisingly) went out of business.

Now my friend has been told by an interviewer in the company he applied to that they contacted his former colleague and he disclosed the existence of dispute. While my friend had a very good reason to take his former employer to court this is not what his prospective employer would be glad to learn.

Is there any legal way to stop former colleagues who were aware of the dispute from spreading this information (not necessarily libellous but still unwanted) to any new prospective employers, especially informally?

If there is no legal remedy then it appears that the golden rule is no matter how wrong your employer is, never take them to court if you want another job..


texts: Are political deals legally enforceable?

texts:
Are political deals legally enforceable if they are in writing?

For example, let's imagine a candidate makes a deal with a political party: "I agree not to run for office in race X right now, if you agree not field a candidate against me in race Y which is coming up next year and promise to pay me an indemnity of $500,000 if you break the agreement and run in the race anyway."

Is a deal like this enforceable?


texts: Is it legal to make a stock trade on non-public information that was obtained legally?

texts:
Let's say you hear two executives of a publicly-traded company discussing, in a public space, an upcoming earnings report, impending product release, bankruptcy, or some other material information that is non-public.

Is it illegal to trade that company's stock based on the non-public information you overheard?

P.S. I don't actually have any such information, I'm just curious.


texts: If a business cofounder leaves for a better opportunity, does he still get a share of profit ?

texts:
Background:

We run a sports club in India which is about 9-months old firm. It makes less than 10Lakhs per annum and is yet to be registered as a private or partnership firm. My partner informed me that he will be leaving to another country for a better opportunity and will not be able to come for another year or two. Currently we have a 50-50 revenue sharing informal agreement since we know each other for many years. He is fine with a 75-25, but my father suggests we reach an agreement and close our deal paying him some money. I am puzzled and wonder how others handle this scenario. Thanks a lot.


texts: What legal consequences could an employee face who sabotages a company website?

texts:
A disgruntled employee who left our company a few weeks ago linked an external file that edits the DOM of our website for people who are not logged in and not on our IP Address (which prevented us from detecting it for some time).

This makes a dialogue window open that says

  [Our Company Name] recommends the app [Ex-employee's personal app], check it out on the app store now.

And then a button that takes people to the app store or one that cancels the popup.

What torts and crimes has this person committed?


texts: Who owns copyright of Chaplin's movies (The Kid)

texts:
I wanted to ask whether it is legal to screen publicly Chaplin's The Kid (1921). In US according to Wikipedia, all movies made before 1923 are in the public domain. In UK I think the srory is different and the copyright lasts for the author's lifetime + 70 years. Charlie Chaplin was born in London, but spent most of his movie making years in US. Wiki says that The Kid was made by Chaplin (directed and produced) in his studio in US. So which copyright law is in power here, US or UK?

I would think that in this case US law is in power as the movie was made in US under a contract with US distributor, and thus the movie is in the public domain but then there is this company which claims it owns copyright to all movies made by Chaplin after 1918. So who is right and what are the ways to find out. US copyright registry is digitized only for the period after 1978 :(


texts: Competitor registered our domain name with different gTLD; redirects to their website (UK)

texts:
Company A owns the .co.uk version of the domain name; company B bought the .com version, and made it redirect to their own website

Would a legal challenge regarding this have any standing in a UK court, and if so, how would one go about resolving it?


texts: Is posting in blog format notes from out-of-print book where some content is original and other content is copied word-for-word illegal?

texts:
The out-of-print book is Commutative Algebra by Matsumura.  For example, you can't buy it on Amazon.
I take notes, solve the exercises, but sometimes in my notes (typed) I just copy word-for-word what is written.
If posting the notes in chunks in a blog format is illegal, what is the best I can do?  For example offer a download with PDF.  I am not deriving any money from this, just wanting to share my notes to anyone who finds them useful.


texts: Using Wikipedia Text in a Video Game Copyright Issues?

texts:
I am creating a game that has a great deal of items in the game.  For these items I wanted to add some "educational" pop-up text when players hover over a certain item in the game.  My idea was to simply take text from websites like Wikipedia (I understand the "reliability' issue already) and put them in as extra "flavor text" in my game like in the picture below (The text is in the while box at the bottom of the tool tip):

Most of the content in Wikipedia that I want to do this with is under the "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License" (CC-BY-SA) and this is where I get very confused.

I have been doing some very exhaustive research on this.  And to try to put this as simply as possible.  Even though the content on Wikipedia can be freely distributed.  Apparently under the CC-BY-SA license, it is argued that wherever the content is used with that license, ALL MEDIA attached to that content is now also under the CC-BY-SA license.

So from what I read, it may be inferred that my entire game, images, artwork, source code, and everything else, is now under CC-BY-SA license, and I must make my entire game publicly available for free because I have added this one line of text.

So my question is: Is this true?  Should I just do my own independent research on the each subject and put all of the descriptions in my own words?

Also I plan to sell this game commercially, so I do not wish to make my game freely available obviously.  Also I plan to have hundreds, even thousands of objects in the game, and doing research for each one is a great deal more time to come up with a paragraph or two for each object.  I am just trying to see if I can avoid that, as my time doing actual game development is much more beneficial.

I have no problem giving the citation credits for each passage as in the image.  But is this CC-BY-SA licence going to make it so I cannot give anyone credit at all, and I just do my own research?


texts: How do I prove unauthorized use of my signature?

texts:
I was recently terminated for allegedly violating the company attendance policy (claiming I did not contact my manager at least 30 minutes prior to start of my shift, which is a false accusation, but that’s a different issue). According to the HR manager, they have disciplinary documents containing my signature, yet I never once was written up or asked to sign anything regarding discipline. I don’t even know what is contained in these documents because:
 1. I never saw them.
 2. HR refuses to allow me to see copies because the state of Ohio does not require them to do so.

Given that an exact replica of my signature was placed [not penned] electronically on a document, would the burden of proof fall on the company? And if so, what reparations can I pursue for having lost my employment as a result of unauthorized use of my electronic signature?


texts: Would the government have to prove that the information was unintelligible for them to use the “Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016”?

texts:
The U.S. congress has a draft for a bill that would require companies to fetch information from a device when requested by a court. A consequence of this is that many types of security technology become illegal for any company subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

The draft says (sorry if there are any transcription errors)

  (3)(A)(2) Scope or REQUIREMENT - A covered entity that receives a court order referred to in paragraph (1)(A) shall be responsible only for providing data in an intelligible format if such data has been made unintelligible by a feature, product, or service owned, controlled, created, or provided, by the covered entity or by a third party on behalf of the covered entity.

For something to be made unintelligible, it has to be intelligible to start with. Therefore, would the court or government have to proof that it was in fact intelligible to start with to get the data?

For example, could the company claim that the user could have enciphered their document with the ROT13 protocol before it entered the device, and not give them any data until the court proves that the user did not?


texts: Is an employee of a company personally liable if they violate the law on behalf of the company?

texts:
In essentially any interaction between customers and businesses, there are people on the business end who are communicating with customers on the business's behalf. This might mean customer service agents, repairmen, store clerks, or any number of other positions.

If one of these representatives of the company violates the law in their carrying out of company business, can they be held personally liable, or are they protected under the company umbrella?

For example, say an employee at a restaurant refuses to serve a gay man, or an account manager at Wells Fargo fraudulently creates a bank account for an unwitting customer. Can either of these employees be held personally liable for illegal behavior on behalf of a company? What difference does it make if the company shows a pattern of this behavior through other employees?


texts: What if you own a fractional property or a timeshare which we all know are a rip off, but then you bought everyone else’s time shares for that particular fractional property. Would you own that property out right?


texts:
The relevant bits of Article 1 Section 3 state that:

  Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States

This seems to imply that, if convicted, the Senate may then choose to remove the president, or to bar them from holding future offices.  It is not immediately clear that a conviction necessarily implies either of these punishments.

Does impeachment conviction necessarily imply removal from office?


texts: Is not recognising a marriage based on gender of one person gender-based discrimination?

texts:
If a man A wants to marry B (a woman), their marriage will be recognised and certified by the authorities.
But if he wants to marry C (a man), their marriage will not not certified.
Is it gender-based discrimination against C and in favour of B and thus a  fundamental right violation?


texts: Do data privacy requirements apply to watch lists and sanctions lists?

texts:
There are different sanctions lists and watch lists all over the world maintained by governments & ministries, like well-known ones: OFAC lists, EU Consolidated Sanctions, CIA & FBI watch lists and many more. They often contain quite a lot of personal information about name variations, addresses, DOBs etc. which is usually considered as PII (as soon as it allows identifying a person) and should fall into a regulation of GDPR and similar. However, this data is openly accessed and even aggregated by projects like OpenSanctions.

So here's the question -- is it a special exceptional case that data privacy rules do not apply to sanctioned person data, or is it a worldwide violation of data privacy rules (very unlikely)? In a former case, who is authorised to decide that this person's data can be accessed without a restriction?

A more practical question would be, if let's say I want to collect some data about disqualified directors in the UK (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk) or another country, should I apply technical measures in line with the regulation (GRPR for instance) to protect this data in my system (e.g. encrypt it at rest)?

Please advise if it's an off-topic & I should move this question to another hub.


texts: Can the UK government use an 'order of council to suspend the Benn Act'?

texts:
The ex prime minster of the United Kingdom, John Major, has warned that Boris Johnson could use an 'order of council' to suspend the Benn Act (European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019).  Is this possible?

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/news/106861/sir-john-major-warns-boris-johnson-could


texts: Exploratory: discrimination against character trait

texts:
What is the rationale for the scope of what EEOC prohibits discrimination against?

More precisely, I have been fired for a trait of character (pessimism) that seems to me to be as much an integral & unchangeable part of my personality, as a transgender's sexual identity for instance. It's even possible my genetic make up might impact this trait of character. As objectively as I can look at my own situation, I feel discriminated against.


texts:
Does the ATF have jurisdiction to prohibit gun sales to marijuana users when the marijuana used is not subject to federal jurisdiction?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause

If the marijuana used was grown locally and did not travel in interstate commerce it would seem that the use of marijuana in states where this use is legal could not be construed as illegal under federal law because the federal government lacks jurisdiction under the commerce clause.

Apparently smoking marijuana takes away your 2nd amendment rights:

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/open-letter/all-ffls-sept2011-open-letter-marijuana-medicinal-purposes/download


texts: Can a person block access to a public space? If so, how much public space?

texts:
As an example:

Can I put a blanket in a public park and prevent anyone from sitting on it?

What if it's a really big blanket?

Can I decide to just block access to the whole park?

Answers relating to Canada are preferred, but American answers would be interesting too.


texts: Mandatory Disclosing of Minor's User Data to Minor's Guardian

texts:
I was thinking of ideas for software projects to work on, and the one I thought to try brought an interesting legal question to mind. The idea was to create a collection of tools, such as a browser, file storage, email, and other similar services via a web interface. Acting similar to a remote computer. The idea is for the platform to minimise data collected and disclosed, to provide users with desired privacy. As a privacy concerned minor, I already go to extraordinary lengths to ensure my privacy, even in situations where I may not have any legal basis (such as against legal guardians on personal devices).

If I were to run this platform, what legal requirements would I be faced with in regards to disclosing personal information, if the account owner is a minor. To be more specific, what information, if any, am I required to disclose to a parent or guardian of the account holder without the account holder's explicit permission? Legally, would I be required to disclose information such as the content of files stored on the service, the browsing history of the user, or the communications the user had with other users and the contents of the aforementioned communication. Would I be required to possibly even grant access to the minor's account at request of a parent or guardian.

An added complexity to the legal questionability of mandatory releasing of minor's data to parents or guardians, what provisions apply if I (the service provider) am unable to provide access to such data. For example, if the platform (as I intend to) stores the data in encrypted mediums, that is unrecoverable by the platform. In this case, many mandatory release of minor data, if legally required, would be invalid since I would no longer be capable of disclosure.

This is excluding cases such as those that are similar to HIPPA Privacy Rules. For example, releasing data in case of imminent threat to their person or others. This is in regard to the case of a parent or guardian contacting the platform requesting access to the account holders data for unspecified reasons. At this point, would I have to disclose anything? Do I have to keep the account? Would I (the service) legally be able to close the account, if the account holder had retroactively requested account termination in attempt of unauthorised access.

Background

Some background on why I ask. As I said I am a minor, and I've very privacy concerned. I encrypted everything I save with a very long and complex password that only I know, change constantly, and never transcribe to clear-text medium. I talk to people and read about stories, how their parents would violate basic levels of privacy that should be expected, things like reading journals. That's why I ask if there are any legal requirements that I, if I were to deploy a platform such as this, to the guardians. I don't believe they have any right whatsoever to the content stored in a platform like this, since everyone deserves the right to privacy. However, legally, I wanted to know what I would be mandated to do.


texts: When does new US legislation come into force?

texts: After the US Congress passes a new bill and the president signs it into law, when does this law come into force (become effective and binding)? Does the law need to be oficially published somewhere?


texts: Tax law and holding accounts (like Kickstarter)

texts:
Kickstarter is a simple example to highlight the question.

Let's say I'm Kickstarter's malformed cousin Rickstarter and someone is raising 100k for a project between November and April on my site. Rickstarter charges and holds funds in an account to distribute if the backer hits the 100k threshold, they fully refund in the case of the not hitting the milestone.

Let's say by New Years the fund has 50k in it's account.

Questions:

How would taxes be resolved if the funds are distributed for a successful campaign (say 5% cut for Rickstarter if we need specific metrics) before they file in April?
How would taxes be resolved if the funds are refunded for a failed campaign before they file in April?
How would taxes be resolved if they filed in February before it became clear either way what was happening with the funds?

By my understanding taxes are based on the prior year so I'm quite confused who exactly owns (and owes) what here.


texts: Can a person be held responsible for a breach of contract by another person?

texts:
I once worked as a contractor for a certain company.  That company required me to sign an agreement that contained the following:

  5.2.            Protection of Confidential Information.  Contractor shall not use Confidential Information for any purpose whatsoever or in any manner whatsoever except for the sole purpose of performing this Agreement. All Confidential Information shall be kept confidential; provided, however, that  (i) Contractor may disclose Confidential Information to [Company]’s own employees and contract team members (“Authorized Persons”) who need to know such information in order to accomplish the purpose for which [Company] has disclosed the Confidential Information, it being understood that such Authorized Persons shall be informed of the confidential nature of such information, shall be directed to treat such information confidentially, and that Contractor shall be responsible for any breach of this Agreement by such Authorized Persons, and (ii) any disclosure of Confidential Information may be made after [Company] consents in writing in advance of disclosure.  Contractor agrees to take any and all reasonable measures to prevent any unauthorized use, disclosure, publication, or dissemination of Confidential Information to anyone other than Authorized Persons, but in no event less than the level of protection that Contractor gives to its own confidential information. Contractor agrees not to otherwise use Confidential Information for its own benefit or for the benefit of any third party.

My question is regarding the bolded text.  I pointed it out to the CEO, and he agreed to remove it before I signed the agreement.  But what if that clause had not been removed?  Would it be enforceable, given that I cannot control what other people do?


texts: Is it illegal for an employer to give a job applicant an unfair advantage in the selection process?

texts:
Diana was invited to pre-employment test for a job. But it appeared that that the content of test was the same as last year, and she knew that content because of her friend who passed the same test last year for the same position (though she did not get the job in the end).

After the test there is an interview, and if Diana gets a job, is there any legal consequences as it is an unfair advantage for her because the company did not change the content of the test?


texts: Can I post email correspondence between myself and my apartment community Property Manager online?

texts: I live in a fairly upscale apartment community in a major city in Florida. I've been having major issues concerning building security and another matters that I tried to address with our property manager. Her response was dismissive, rude, argumentative and did not even address most of the issues that I brought up.  I followed up with her again and her reply was even more dismissive and arrogant.  Currently I'm trying to take my problems with our property manager with the management company ( You're very large and on apartment communities around the Southeast).  In case this doesn't go anywhere, I would like to warn another people in a review about living here.  I would like to post the emails in the review, redacted for privacy and removing any personal information to provide receipts and backup my claims.  If I did so, would that be illegal in any way?


texts: How many witnesses are required to a tenancy contract in England?

texts:
We need to get a new AST rental contract between ourselves and existing tenants. Given the current rules on minimising contact and travel in the UK we'd like to minimise how many people are involved.

Many contract templates have different witness requirements, what legally what is actually required?


texts: Is there a case to be pursued for a non-domesticated bank account attachment?

texts:
I'm going to try and be as brief as possible because I just want to get an idea if there is something to pursue here as a case:

I had old community debts from my marriage in CA; one of those debts was pursued by a collection agency, also in CA. The collection agency knew that I was in NV. An attachment to my bank account was pursued and granted, that levy was served by the Sherrif's department (also in CA). Sheriff served that levy to my nationwide bank; the bank also knew I was in Nevada.

I had my bank account released by a bankruptcy judge in NV. Part of the reason why it was released was because the judgement against my bank account was never domesticated in Nevada.

In short, I had three CA agencies - the collector, the Sherrifs and the nationwide bank - all of whom knew I was in Nevada, all act upon a non-domesticated judgement. The NV constable was never aware of the judgements against me. For all intents & purposes, both the Sheriffs and Chase reached across state lines when they all knew that I was no longer in CA and an established resident in NV.

Can I pursue a case against all three of them for not domesticating the judgement. At some point, doesn't the Sheriff and/or Chase have the responsibility to say "no, we can't act on this across state lines"?


texts: I heard that in order to make a paternity test in Germany, the consent of both spouses is needed. If the husband has doubts about whether he is the father of a child born in wedlock, can he insist on such a test in order to avoid paying child support in the event of a divorce?


texts: Is It Illegal To Test A Website For Exploits Regarding My Personal Info?

texts:
American here. I'm not a hacker or anything, just a normal computer science student. Anyways, I believe that my university has left an exploit open through their hub where anyone can use the modular apps to gain access to your:

Last 4 digits Of SSN, University ID, and possibly your password.

If I were to test the exploit by only using the public interface they provide, on myself, would this be considered illegal?

I would need to use a selenium script to automate attempts on finding the last 4 digits of the SSN - because it appears the database doesn't have a limit on how many attempts you can make.

Of course I would be trying to gain access to my own data, not anyone elses.

Oh and of course I would tell the Uni that this was a problem. I just didn't want to message them for nonsense.


texts: Is it legal in the US to arrange a contract for payment of a portion of future income in return for a service?

texts: For example, if you had an education startup that took, as payment, a contract from each student that they would pay an amount equal to 1% of their income tax to the education company each year. Would this be a legal arrangement, and would it be possible to arrange with an entity like the IRS to assist with these transactions?


texts: Criminal? Vehicle stolen by family member

texts:
If a policeman refuses to record or investigate a crime, such as a vehicle theft by a family member where the case could be borderline criminal or civil. What can one do to give the police department the confidence that this is a criminal case and not a civil case?
Another aspect to the theft is property within the vehicle. In fact, what if property in the vehicle does not belong to any relation of the family member who took the vehicle. Can the other owners of the property file a criminal theft complaint? Can the owner of the vehicle file a complaint about property that was in it?


texts: Is it legal for someone to sell access to an American politician?

texts:
If someone knows an American politician that is currently holding office well enough that they could schedule a dinner and bring a guest, is it legal for them to offer to set up a meeting with the politician for money?
I'm assuming that the politician doesn't receive any of the money and is unaware of the exchange and is only aware that so-and-so is coming to dinner.
Let's assume the politician and the bribe-taker are just friends, so we're just considering the most general case.


texts: Can I not consent to a "call may be monitored" call and still record for myself?

texts: Person A calls person B. Person A states that the "call may be monitored" and person B, then states "I do not consent to the recording of this conversation." Can person B still record on his/her own behalf, and use this recording in a court, and not have to worry about person A using the recording in a court.


texts: Applying for PHD in Florida. Application question

texts:
State: Florida
Subject: Applying for PHD programs in Florida

Question on Application: "Have you recieved disciplinary action?"
"Have you ever been arrested for, been convicted of, or entered a plea of guilty or NOLO contendre (No contest)
to a crime (excluding traffic offenses not involving death or serious bodily injury) or been adjudicated or required to register as a sex offender?

My friend that is asking was arrested for DUI with serious body injury.
She however, is not sure if it is a Traffic Offense or Criminal Offense (DUI)

Has anyone else experienced, or have good information pertaining to this question?

Thanks!


texts: Can an unfinished Integrated Master’s qualify for an H-1B?

texts:
I’m at the last year of an integrated Master’s degree in the UK.

This means that if this was a normal degree, I would have earned a bachelor’s at the end of last year.

Because it’s integrated, I think that means I currently hold no official qualifications, and will only hold a Master’s when I complete this degree this year.

Am I able to start the application for an H-1B now, or would I have to wait until I get that Master’s?


texts: Publish a paper on ligation support analytics

texts:
I am lead developer on the server side of some litigation support software.  I want to publish a paper as an individual. I have talked to my company and they will review the paper and they have the option of me listing the company or  not - there is no conflict with the company. Some of the analyitics have not (yet) been implemented by the company. The nature of the paper is an academic or theoretical nature. For example:

The science of information retrieval and how is that applied
to discovery
The science of machine learning and how it is applied to
discovery
Cosine similarity applied to discovery
How is machine learning used to categorize
How is machine learning used to classify
Special case of binomial classification (e.g. responsive versus non-responsive)

What are some publications or web sites I could submit this type of paper to?

I want to get it out there so it can be hit by search engines.  Let people post questions and comments.  Refine the paper and hopefully submit it for presentation at a conference in the future.

I am a developer - I could just build a web site myself for this and but it would take a while to get picked up by search engines and I would get a low ranking based on traffic and number of links.  Also since it is tech based those are not terms an attorney would know to search on.

Post on like a data science site is of no value. For data science people this is just basic stuff.


texts: What can I do if a builder ignores me while I try to have them fix something that is under warranty?

texts: I am a US citizen living in the US. I own a condo, which has a builder's warranty on it. I have been attempting to contact the builder to fix an issue with my roof/ceiling that is covered on the active (ie not expired) warranty, but have not received a response for a few weeks. If they simply continue to ignore me, what can I do? What happens if the problem gets worse and worse? Is suing the builder the only option? I'm not sure what to do.


texts: consumer demand for arbitration with AAA: what are the first steps when fee paid by business?

texts:
Quick summary

How does a consumer file a demand for arbitration to AAA, when the fee is covered by the business?

Context

Some terms of use for business services impose to the consumer the use of arbitration instead of courts, yet the business pays the fees for arbitration. This is the case for example with Uber (https://www.uber.com/legal/terms/us/):

  Your responsibility to pay any AAA filing, administrative and
  arbitrator fees will be solely as set forth in the AAA Rules. However,
  if your claim for damages does not exceed $75,000, Uber will pay all
  such fees, unless the Arbitrator finds that either the substance of
  your claim or the relief sought in your Demand for Arbitration was
  frivolous or was brought for an improper purpose

A Consumer Demand for Arbitration Form can be obtained from AAA: Consumer Demand for Arbitration Form. The manual states that:

  The filing fee must be paid before a matter is considered properly
  filed . If the court order directs that a specific party is
  responsible for the filing fee, it is the responsibility of the filing
  party either to make such payment to the AAA and seek reimbursement as
  directed in the court order or to make other such arrangements so that
  the filing fee is submitted to the AAA with the Demand.

The question

What does this  mean in practice, it seems there are two options? Does it mean the consumer should pay the fee, and will somehow be reimbursed at some point? Or does the consumer has the choice to go for the second option (cf either), and ask the business to pay directly the fee? Finally, what is a frivolous claim or relief? Could a dispute over a small amount be considered frivolous?


texts: Paying royalties without purchasing a publication

texts:
Background: For decades, Jazz musicians have relied on a series of illegal sheet music publications known as either a "Real Book" or a "Fake Book". These are illegal because they contain the melodies of famous songs and are sold without paying royalties to the songwriters. Until 2004 there was no legal version of these books available anywhere, yet it was impossible to be a professional jazz musician without one. So people copied and/or sold them illegally. Hal Leanord and Sher Music now publish legal versions that do pay royalties where required (which includes more than 95% of the tunes).

I am looking for a way to legalize an old (originally illegal) copy of a Real Book, but I don't want to pay as much as one penny to either publisher because they are part of a "music industry" that I do not want to support. There are many reasons, for example the "industry" artificially narrows the focus of popular music to increase profit while reducing production costs. There are also practical reasons, for example the publishers changed the repertoire in the new legal versions of the books, so some of the old tunes are missing. Is there a way I can pay royalties where they are due, without conceding any benefit to these publication companies?


texts: Lemon Law: Do I have to let a manufacturer try to repair a Brand New Lemon?

texts:
I just bought a washer and drier, pretty expensive one ($2,000). It failed after 2 runs. It's brand new and substandard in terms of quality).
I called to the store, they referred me to the warranty vendor. The warranty guys told me that was pretty normal, and they would come over and fix it.
My problem is I don't want to start out repairing a new appliance.  This was a defective item. I want a replacement, but they told me no.
I contacted the manufacturer who told me they it didn't matter, even if I bought it yesterday. They said the only option is to fix it. I asked if they could send a technician and take a look at it and diagnose without starting the actual repair. However, they refused. They said, once they send a technician, they will have to repair.
So I want to file a small claim against the manufacturer for selling me a lemon. Can I do this? Or should I let their repairman try to fix it. The problem is, they might apply a temporary patch, so it would work for a year, and then there is no warranty at all.


texts: Is youtube-dl takedown due to their tests which use copyrighted content?

texts:
The DMCA takedown notice posted on GitHub's youtube-dl page seems to be primarily based on the fact that youtube-dl is expressly advertised as a tool to "circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services", to the point that the test cases consist in downloads of videos copyrighted by WMG and Sony Music:

Indeed, the comments in the youtube-dl source code make clear that the source code was designed and is marketed for the purpose of circumventing YouTube’s technological measures to enable unauthorized access to our member’s copyrighted works, and to make unauthorized copies and distributions thereof: they identify our member’s works, they note that the works are VEVO videos (virtually all of which are owned by our member companies), they acknowledge the those works are licensed to YouTube under the YouTube standard license, and they use those examples in the source code to describe how to obtain unauthorized access to copies of our members’ works.

Is this really the crux of the problem? That is, if youtube-dl developers removed problematic test cases, comments and links to copyrighted videos, would the project become compliant with the Section 1201 of the DMCA? Or is the real problem that youtube-dl implements the "rolling cipher" used by YouTube to protect their content?


texts: Can I cancel a car purchase if the seller does not deliver on promises promptly?

texts:
I bought a used car on the condition that certain faulty equipment would be repaired under a "we owe" agreement. I have been unable to take possession of the car after buying it a week ago due to the fact that the faulty equipment technically makes it illegal to drive in my state in the U.S. The seller supposedly already repaired the equipment once but it was not working by the time I went to pick up the car, so I again left it there and they are repairing it again.

My understanding is that the normal 3-day "cooling off" period for consumer purchases does not apply to cars sold by a seller with a permanent physical sales location, so I know that would not have helped me even within the first 3 days after the purchase.

The "we owe" agreement expires 30 days after the purchase date so I would think anything close to 30 days is excessive for a seemingly minor repair, especially if they have had the car in their possession the entire time.

If I think this is dragging on too long with a seemingly simple repair, are there any terms under which I may be able to cancel the purchase even if I signed the "as-is car sale" agreement, and if so, what would be the shortest "reasonable" amount of time to allow them to deliver on their promises?


texts: Is it legal to track users of pirated software?

texts:
I'm making a piece of software right now, and I'm just doing it in my free time, so I'm not too serious about it. I want to make a version of the software and put a tracker in it that interfaces with Google Analytics. That will allow me to track things like country of origin, OS information, and hardware specs. I won't be able to see anything that is personally identifying or be able to single any one user out.

Anyways, I want to upload this modified version of the software to Pirate Bay, just to see what percentage of my users are pirating my software. I don't want to go after them, I don't really care that they're pirating it. I just want to see if there are any demographic differences between piraters and non-piraters.

This brings up privacy implications. Do I need to disclose that some sort of tracking is or may be happening in my software? If so, what do I need to disclose?

I live in the US, but since it's online software, people from other countries are bound to download it. Is there anything I need to do to account for that?

UPDATE:

I didn't realize that by uploading it myself that it would make this no longer piracy, but it doesn't really matter for my purposes. I have no intention of coming after these people. I just want to gather some data on piracy for my own curiosity (I know this seems weird but I'm fairly laid back about this piece of software)


texts: Destination-based sales tax collection. What if you do not know the destination's address?

texts:
A scenario: I am selling online software and I provide advanced features for premium members. As far as I understand I do not ship or deliver anything physically. I also do not ask customers for their address information and can accept any payment (e.g., bitcoin).
What sales tax do I charge if I do not know their county and address? Can I assume that the sale happened at my "store's" location and charge them a standard sales tax based on that?


texts: Impersonating account holder, with perfectly good intentions, and the person himself willingly assisting. Is that a crime?

texts: Is it considered a crime for someone to help a close relative by calling that person's bank on their behalf, with the person himself sitting in the room and willingly assisting, and dealing with the customer care representative of the bank by effectively pretending to be that person (i.e. by saying "I am John Smith" rather than "I am John Smith's son")?


texts:
I am wondering specifically about juvenile mischief, i.e. driving past a mailbox and teeing off on it with a baseball bat, or similar weapon.

If such a juvenile were to be successfully prosecuted to the full extent of the law, does that mean that he or she would have a felony (or misdemeanor) on his record for life?  It would seem a shame to be behind the eight ball just starting out life in this case.


texts: Is musescore.com violating CC-BY-NC by requiring a paid account to download such files?

texts: On musescore.com, there are several song arrangements released under CC-BY-NC (or CC-BY-NC-SA or CC-BY-NC-ND) licenses. However, musescore.com won't let you download many of these unless you have a Pro account with them (which costs money). This seems to me like a clear and blatant violation of the "NC" terms of those licenses. Is this actually the case, or is it legal somehow?


texts: Is self-defense mutually exclusive of murder?

texts:
A Dallas man is charged with murder.  The narrative indicates that the man shot the intruder in his back yard as the intruder approached with a pickax.  Assuming that the homeowner does not have a duty to retreat and that he does have lawful cause to defend himself (from intruder with a pickax), why \ how does the narrative fit a murder charge?

UPDATE: That being said, I would expect that the intruder being shot in the back of the neck does NOT help the defendant's claim of a justifiable shooting.


texts: If I have 2 cars is it legal for me to insure each with a different insurance company

texts:
I live in the US (Illinois).

If I have 2 cars, and:

For car #1, insurance company "A" has a better rate, and for car #2, insurance company "B" has a better rate.

Assuming the difference in rates is more than the multi-car discount of either insurance company, it might be cheaper to insure each car with a different insurance company.

Some time ago, I had heard that this was not allowed... that you had to use the same insurance company for all your vehicles. But, I don't remember where I had heard that, or if it was accurate, or if it might apply to Illinois, or not.

Is it legal to insure each car with a different insurance company?

To be clear, I am not talking about "Double insuring" a vehicle, and I'm not talking about splitting liability and collision/comprehensive coverage on the same vehicle between 2 different insurance companies... 2 cars, 2 insurance policies, one insurance policy with full coverage (liability and collision/comprehensive) for each car.

Also, the question is not about whether or not an insurance company might not like you to do this, or whether doing it might be problematic. The question is, is it legal to do it. In other words, are there any laws or regulations that would prohibit this.

And to further clarify, that could be laws or regulations preventing an insurance company from this, or laws or regulations preventing a person from obtaining insurance this way.


texts: Gym Membership Cancellation - Michigan, USA

texts:
Some Background:

My wife utilized a personal training service from a fitness/gym company in Michigan. She signed up for a year contract knowing that she would have to move approximately 9 month into the contract. That contract expired last month, and (to nobodies surprise), we got billed again this month. Digging though my records, I have a signed contract stating that the service is for 1 year, and then goes month-to-month. I have placed 2 phone calls giving the requisite 40 days notice that I wished to cancel, the first time I was informed that I must make an in-person visit to cancel (a 3 hour drive one way for me), the second time I was assured it would not be renewed as month-to-month. Fast forward to this month, I get a bill where I don't expect one.

Question:

I contested the last charge, which was outside the scope of the original year-long contract. I also had my bank re-issue my credit card so they cannot bill me further. What can this fitness company try to do to keep taking my money, and what can I do to either head them off, or prevent them from charging us for a service we don't use, and have no intention of using, and is also not under contract anymore?

Location:

Michigan, USA

UPDATE: A phone call to corporate seems to have resolved the issue. I still ended up getting a new CC number, and contesting the last charge. Will update again if anything ugly happens.


texts:
A common answer to problems and situations includes researching your state/country's law to check what are the consequences of a particular action.

As a layman, it is difficult to do this research effectively, since it's hard to find a comprehensive resource/channel of this information, and Legislative Language is complex and very structured.

Is there a method I can consistently apply for most political regions (Country or State) in order to do this research, and efficiently find what I'm looking for?


texts: If two individuals who are too drunk to give consent have sex are both guilty of rape?

texts:
Hypothetically let's say that two individuals are heavily drunk, to the point that their ability to give consent is questionable.  They have sex, both of them either don't remember the details of the night (black out) or both remember the situation as the other initiating the sexual encounter; in either case there is no clear way of determining who initiated the encounter.

If both were to make claims of rape could they both potentially be arrested for the act?

If one were to make a claim of rape could the other counter-sue for rape, that is to say if one doesn't claim rape until after the other makes an allegation how much of an affect would the delay in the claim make in the odds of either one being found guilty?

For this question lets assume a state with a 'proactive' legislation which does not define rape entirely as penetration, ie one where it is possible for a women to be found guilty of raping a man.


texts: How to find case law for a particular subject

texts:
How can I find case law for a particular subject in my state (Massachusetts)?

I have access to Lexis/Nexis, but my experience is that subject searches rarely work. For example, one topic I need to research is the case law on illegible citations. I received a moving violation and the charge was written illegibly. I did a search on Lexis using the keywords:

MA citation illegible

and it returned no results. I tried many other logical combinations of words, but they invariably returned no hits.

If you know a case citation then Lexis is fine, but how can I find the relevant cases in the first place?


texts: Is it legal to record video in my own dorm room?

texts:
I live on a campus in Washington State (at a public/state-funded school) and am interested in recording video (no audio) 24/7 in my dorm room without explicitly informing people who come in. I'm not sure if it's relevant but my dorm is paid for in full by a university scholarship.

All the information I could find about recording video in my own house (dorm) said that it was legal, except for areas with a higher expectation of privacy (bathrooms, bedrooms, etc).

I thought all hope was lost but then I came across a case where a person was recorded while using a living room as her bedroom. The judge ruled that even though the room was usually one of the most public rooms in a house, it was being used as a bedroom and therefore was subject to higher expectations of privacy.

I was wondering if this works the other way as well. It is true that my dorm does have a bed in it and it is where I sleep. However, when guests are over, it is not being used as a bedroom, rather a social area. Is this enough to get away without informing anyone?


texts:
I'm thinking of making a website that explains about games (walkthroughs, level-passing guide, etc.) which will include screenshots and the game content. Will these violate some kinds of copyright laws?
Sorry for my bad english explanation. I'm also sorry if this isn't the place for asking such question.


texts: When moving into a rental home, must a landlord inspect it before requiring damage deposit?

texts:
I moved into a shared house. The landlord will be wanting a damage deposit (aka security deposit), though I know for a fact that he hasn't inspected the room after the previous tenant moved out. Is he required by law to do this before I pay for the damage deposit?

This is in B.C. Canada.


texts:
In contract law, I've heard of "limitation of action". What is this and when is it enforceable? To my understanding, it's capping a time limit as to when a party to the contract can initiate litigation. There's got to be some limits, and I was hoping if someone could give concrete examples? I'm assuming the time limit can't be arbitrarily small such as "no legal proceedings will be allowed after 24 hours of the services being rendered".

I'm also assuming this doesn't cover everything, for example if someone sold a buyer a complete counterfeit (e.g. a fake Rolex watch) would the buyer really not be able to do anything about it given such a clause? What if some other term of the contract was violated but it wasn't found out until after the allowed time?

Here are some examples, but I'm currently living in Canada and most interested in our laws.


texts:
I am a photoshop enthusiast, and I have a doubt regarding a specific scenario, however I am very agnostic to law, and there is a scenario where I can't find appropriate information by myself.

So the scenario is the following:

I download an image publicly available on the internet. The image would be "media" addressed to the public, and copyrighted (that could include images from a model's photo book, or screenshots from a film, or similar, depicting people).
I modify it. Including: filters, contrast, lighting etc, addition/subtraction of details or elements. NOT including: faceswaps, modifications that would shame or affect negatively the reputation of the actors on the image.
I share it in a way that I don't make any economic profit out of it, and clearly stating that it is a modified image (not sure if inside the image, or in the caption under it) and state who is the legal owner of the original image.

Would my action be illegal?

Example:

I take a screenshot of Iron Man 2 film, turn the colors of the armor into green, and add a couple of mounted guns on the shoulder. Then I post it on reddit stating that it is a modified image, that I don't have any rights of it and that it belongs to Marvel Studios.


texts:
Recently, I've re-watched the movie Robocop (2014), and a question has come to my mind: Would making a cyborg be legal in the US?

Notes:

By "cyborg" I mean a robot-human hybrid, where the brain is essentially  the unique human part and everything else is robotic.
I know that in the movie Robocop was actually built in China, so you can take as a side question if it would be legal in China (but done to a US citizen).


texts: Can I use a store name as part of my trivia game?

texts:
If I make a trivia card game or video game for sale and one the questions is "Which grocery store was founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins?" and the the answer is presented as "Publix". Is this a trademark infringement?

Can I use that name as part of my game? Do I need to use a little 'R', 'TM' or 'C' with the name?


texts: Can I create Overwatch fan merchandise (such as prints, buttons, keychains, etc.) and sell it at conventions?


texts: Can a police officer report to a psychiatrist?

texts: In the United States, a psychiatrist calls a police officer under Tarasoff to report a possible danger. The police officer speaks with the potentially dangerous person and the dangerous person's friends. Can the police officer report back to the psychiatrist what they learned in these conversations? Is this standard police practice?


texts: Returning goods bought online in Poland as foreigner

texts:
I am a Czech national living just at the Polish border. I want to buy a laptop online at Polish online store called Morele.net. The store offers the goods to be sent to a Polish post office for pickup (Poczta Polska - Odbiór w Placówce). I am able to fill my Czech address on their site for invoicing and still get the "pickup at post" option. Am I eligible for the 14-day return period that is offered by the company (zwrot) just in case there is a problem with the goods?

The terms of the site are here:

Zwrot zakupionego towaru w ciągu 14 dni (odstąpienie od umowy)
Zwrot zakupionego towaru w ciągu 14 dni - English translation by Google
Wzór odstąpienia od umowy
Regulamin sklepu Morele.net

The main question is whether these conditions (and polish laws) apply for a non-polish national too when the business is done in Poland (pickup at post). I guess the 14-day return period is a part of polish law (Czech law has exactly the same thing too).

My guess would be since both Czech Republic and Poland are members of European Union, the terms should be the same for all EU citizens. In case of the return, I would simply send the laptop back to Morele from a Polish post office.


texts:
I know someone who was planning on legally changing their name to avoid detection by abusive family members. When opening a bank account she used her correct social security number, but used her similar planned new name instead of her current legal name. Well of course she discovered it was much harder to have your name legally changed than she believed, and you are required to post about it in the papers which somewhat defeats the point. So she may have committed a kind of fraud or forgery for very innocent reasons, not financial gain.

What sort of legal repercussions might this have? She would like to get her old financial records from this now closed account, but her ID does not match. Might she have any way to do that?


texts: How can a civil judge override the jury's award?

texts:
In a civil case in which the jury decides an award for the plaintiff, under what circumstances and with what limits can a judge reduce this award?

Does this implicate either the 6th or 7th Amendments?


texts: Copyright status of photographs published in 1924 by, and created by, the International Boundary Commission

texts:
The International Boundary Commission is a permanent international organization headed by two commissioners: a Canadian and an American. In 1924 it distributed to the public its Report, which contained many photographs that were its own work. The report contains no copyright notice.

The Commission's web site contains this paragraph:

  Permission to reproduce Commission works, in part or in whole, and by any means, for personal or public non-commercial purposes, or for cost-recovery purposes, is not required, unless otherwise specified in the material you wish to reproduce.

I'm wondering about usability of these photographs in Wikipedia articles. As nearly as I understand it, Wikipedia's policy says works uploaded to Wikipedia that are not in the public domain must be subject to a license allowing anyone to use them subject only to the condition that authorship and copyright ownership must be acknowledged. Here is Wikipedia's policy on this.

Are any claims to copyright forfeited by public distribution without a copyright notice?
Would copyrights have expired?

PS: Here is the 512-page report.


texts: Legalese: Collateralizable v. Pledgeable

texts:
Is there a difference between something that is collateralizable and pledgeable?
In contracts, I see these terms used interchangeably, but I suspect there is a difference when used as a precise legalese.
The subject could be convertible bond or machine in a factory.


texts: How can a person with a similar experience with the defendant, help the plaintiff in a lawsuit?

texts:
I lived in a house that was shared with the landlord and other tenants in common. I have now moved out and have a lawsuit started against the landlord. From "rumors" I heard that a previous tenant who got kicked out did not get his damage deposit or furniture back. (Call him Joe.) I managed to contact Joe and he confirmed this to be true. I too was kicked out and didn't get my damage deposit and have at least one piece of furniture unreturned.

In what way can I use Joe's story? For example could it be considered a testimony or corroboration or some piece of evidence saying that the landlord had done similar things in the past? Can Joe and I form some sort of legal team?


texts:
I was given a 250-year-old anonymous Italian manuscript to work on by its owner some time ago. I did research on it and transcribed it. I provided the owner with the transcription and the result of the historical research, copy of a public lecture based on the ms., and breakdown of the content.
My intention was to eventually publish the text of the transcription with an introduction, explanatory notes, etc. The author of the ms. remains anonymous.
I have just discovered that the owner of the ms. has sent copies of the transcription - my work - to at least two other researchers.
When I objected to my work being distributed without my permission, I was in effect "forbidden" to continue working on the project.
The question is: to whom does the transcription belong? To the owner of the manuscript or to its author (me)?
Is the owner in fact breaking copywright law by distributing my work without my permission?


texts: Obscene Publications Act (UK Law) - Meaning of 'publishes'?

texts:
So, what I want to know is this: Suppose there is an article online that somebody wrote, which is 'obscene' by the criteria outlined e.g. in http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/obscene_publications/

Let's say it is a written article (words only) for the sake of simplicity, posted on a website. If somebody goes on that site and reads the article, have they 'published' the article?

[The relevant bit of legislation pertaining to 'publishes' is the following (emphasis mine):

(3)For the purposes of this Act a person publishes an article who—

(a)distributes, circulates, sells, lets on hire, gives, or lends it, or who offers it for sale or for letting on hire; or

(b)in the case of an article containing or embodying matter to be looked at or a record, shows, plays or projects it [F1, or, where the matter is data stored electronically, transmits that data.]:
. . . F2


texts: Would I need permission to make a TV show called "Stackexchange"?

texts: I was thinking about making a TV show about a bunch of teenagers who learn new things everyday from the Stack Exchange sites.  Would I need permission to call it "Stackexchange?"


texts:
What is the legality of "Ban Evasions"? This sounds like a dumb question but perhaps enlighten the ignorant.

Ban Evasion, "The creation of a new account on a platform or website after being previously banned for ToS violations".

In 2018, the 9th Circuit court of appeals ruled that violating the ToS isn't a crime, but does that still cover Ban Evasion?

An example would be, say, Jody had an account with a very popular video sharing platform, he broke the rules and had his account suspended permanently. He learns from those mistakes (because we all make mistakes in our lives), and recreate a brand new account, despite it being written in the ToS that you cannot make a brand new account. He does so regardless, makes a new account, but then gets banned again for Ban Evasion, despite not violating any other rules, Would this be considered a criminal offense?

Big companies (or companies in general) will most likely not care, because it's not worth the legal fees to pursue such a case, and it's better off making it harder to ban evade, or write better rules, but regardless, Did Jody commit a crime, whether on state level, or federal level? (In the United States at least).


texts: Can an artist revoke his Creative Commons [CC] content?

texts:
Let's say an artist released a photo under a CC licence (for concreteness let's assume the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International). You find the photo interesting and save it for later use, noting the information for later attribution.

Years later you integrate the photo into a commercial work with attribution. In the interim, the artist has removed the photo and the CC licence, and wants you to remove it from your work. Does the artist have any legal rights here?


texts: Can I be sued for failing to secure an email I didn't request?

texts:
I work for a company that services schools across the US and we receive email communications from them all the time.

On occasion I receive emails with blocks such as the following in their signatures:

  PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION NOTICE: This communication may contain non-public, confidential, or legally privileged information intended for the sole use of the designated recipient (s). If you are not the intended recipient, or have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail or by telephone and delete all copies of the communication, including attachments, without reading them or saving them to disk. If you are the intended recipient, you must secure the contents in accordance with all applicable state or federal requirements related to the privacy and confidentiality of information, including the FERPA and HIPPA Privacy guidelines.

  Under Florida law, e-mail addresses, and all forms of communications,
  including e-mail communications, made or received in connection with
  the transaction of School Board business are public records, which
  must be retained as required by law and must be disclosed upon receipt
  of a public records request, except as may be excluded by federal or
  state laws. If you do not want your e-mail address released in
  response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to
  this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone.

My question regards the tail ends of both paragraphs. In both cases is appears that I'd be subject to binding by law or reductions in my privacy due to an email I may never have requested. In particular the first paragraph suggests that a public entity could contact me(provided they intended to) and I can then become responsible for securing the contents of an email I may never have requested or anticipated.

The second paragraph seems to suggest that my email address could become public record if I responded to a message sent in error(it lacks the clause about intended recipient). It seems backwards to make my information public based on interacting at all with the sender of an email I received.

The precise question is this: Can this school cause me to come under the authority of Florida public records law or make me subject to disclosure agreement regarding the information simply by sending it to me? Is there any requirement for at least implied consent?

(In case it matters, I don't have any great need to do so, I'm just curious at the presumptive language used in the notice).

Edit: The linked answer provides information for one of the clauses and suggests a possible answer for the rest, but doesn't provide for the disclosure clause regarding my own email. I've edited the question to try to twine them together more clearly. The whole concern is the ability of another entity to essentially opt me into an agreement, wherein the only real consent is opening a communication I received to see what it might be.


texts: How can I protect myself as a minority shareholder when I don't have the money to pay legal fees?

texts:
I'm about to sell shares to an angel who is going to become the majority shareholder of my company. The money will go into the company as new shares. I can only pocket it through salary agreements.

One of my concern is the new angel can decide to cut me off. They can do so by breaching fiduciary duties such as diluting my shares.

As a small timer, I won't have any money to bring them to courts if this happens.

How would I go about (in these negotiating times) to avoid such a scenario?

EDIT

I'm selling shares to raise capital for my company to grow, hence why the angel is needed. He wants control of the company, thats fine with me. However, I've heard many stories of founders been cut off (through clever schemes) and eventually end up with nothing, as in ZERO $$. I'm in Australia, so I do trust the judiciary system to protect me in any breach. Though my concern is the legal fees associated when such an event happens.


texts: Overpaid in cash at out of state hospital, they wont pay back

texts:
In Nevada, I needed some care at a hospital. After treatment, they told me I owed $1600 so I trusted them and paid in cash. Turns out I actually only owed about $1100, so they owe me $500. I live in Illinois.
I've called 5 times now, and every time its the same story: we agree we owe you money, the last person in charge of putting the request in messed up and didnt submit it properly, we're putting it through now, youll get a check in 2 weeks.
This has gone on for 6 months. What is my best course of action here to recover the $500?


texts:
Here is the situation:

A person age 19 flies to the US from the UK. In the UK the legal drinking age is 18 but in the US it is 21. So are you allowed to drink on the flight?


texts: Why can a medical score get a protection by copyright?

texts:
I came across a case where a Doctor A found a new medical score calculation which was used by another Doctor B with no permission.

Let's try to explain the situation (EDIT+++) :

Doctor A published a scientific article in which he describes how to calculate the score
Doctor B contacts Doctor B and ask him whether he could translate his score and use it
Doctor A answers that it is copyrighted but for this time it is OK
Doctor B translates it and publishes the translation, but did not acknowledge Doctor A.
a lot of doctors used the score and everyone recieved a complain from Doctor A about the copyright

I couldn't read the article Doctor B published but I assume he calculated the score for some of his patients and outputed some results in some study (cannot think about something else to happen).

I'd think even if the name of the score can be copyrighted (under a trademark ?), the calculation of the score itself could be assimilated to an algorythm and then not be licenceable under a copyright.

As it is not something material, I assume a score is not patentable either (and even so, it is published and not patented).

What Dr B did is bad and he should feel bad, but since I'm not sure such an algorithm is copyrightable, is this really illegal ?

NB : I'm a medical student, not a law student, but this case could have a non-neglectable effect if provent true.

NB for non medics : a medical score is a little calculus that help you grade the severity of a condition. Let's say you take red cells, multiply by the age and add the wheight, and depending on the result you have a nice/bad/very bad cancer. The doctor can then adapt the treatment on the score.