texts: Should I keep calling my court appointed attorney?

texts:
I had a medical issue, and there was a very slim chance that I could have ended up as a ward of the state. As a result, I was given a court appointed attorney. However, I have not heard from the attorney at all, and I've tried contacting them since I've been discharged from the hospital.

As far as how I've been contacting them, I've been leaving a brief voicemail that pretty much follows this format: "Hello, this is ________; I'm calling regarding case number ________. If you can call me back at __________. That would be great."

I've done that at the start of business hours, for 3 days in a row. I hope I'm not bothering them too much, but I'd like to make sure the case is resolved. If it's resolved, then by statutes in my region it will be sealed.

However, if it's open, then I cannot pursue certain business plans, because I need to have good health to proceed for licensing.

I'll be sending an email next Monday, and I might stop by the law office next Friday.

So the meat of the question is this: Should I keep contacting them via phone? If I'm unable to establish contact, does it warrant contacting the bar association after several weeks?


texts: If a police officer has taken the keys of my car away from me, who are the police allowed to return them to?

texts: I was accused of stealing from a store from a worker so she tried to stop me from driving away. I was later arrested by the police because she claimed that I was attempting to harm her with my car. The keys to my car were taken and I wasn’t allowed to take any of my belongings out of the car such as my phone or wallet. When they arrived they hand cuffed me and didn’t listen to anything I said, I was taken to the police station where I was finally listened to. They finally heard my side of the story and found out I was right. I asked for the keys of my car back and they told me that they gave them to the passenger in my car at the time of the incident. The person that was in my car has now stolen my car and everything in it. All they said was that they’re sorry and that I should report it.


texts: Do I need a business license to start a social media website?

texts: I'm planning on starting a social media website similar to other large social media websites. Do I need to register it as a business in order to make profits from it and/or get a trademark for its name? (I live in Georgia, USA)


texts:
Florida Statute FS718 17(c)1 provides for a $500 fine for not providing access to HOA records.   Access will be referred to as discovery
Assume a trio of owners files a successful complaint regarding and in the course of discovery is denied.  Assume that adjudication is favorable and the finding is that for said records access fine.   Bob owns one unit, Mary owns one unit, however, Alice owns 3 units.   Possible fine can be weighted:

1X$500
3X$500
5X$500

Assume that the records request / discovery is tied to the subject matter of the complaint: one records request is launched on behalf of the 3 plaintiffs.
What is the line of reason to support adjudicating each of the line items above?  Please list reasoning in the order of likeliness of adjudication.


texts: Why is a business allowed to refuse a customer?

texts:
The Dutch constitution says that everyone shall be treated the same when the circumstances are the same (my translation; original: gelijke behandeling in gelijke gevallen). In addition to that, there is a law that further implements this principle, the general equal opportunity law (Dutch) which requires equal opportunities in regards to offering work, housing, goods, and services. I assume that most European countries have similar clauses and my question is not limited to the Netherlands, it just happens to be that I know the Dutch law a little bit.

Why is it that companies can refuse someone business in equal cases? I.e. accept one customer but not another.

One example is a bank, where I am refused an account without any given reason but seemingly because their snitches have no information on me (a GDPR request turned up "we have no data on you"). Another example would be a cheap rental place requires the tenant to earn 5 times the rent (nobody that earns 5x that rent wants to live there), so they refuse me despite my offering to pay the full rental period ahead (one year). There is no nondiscriminatory reason for refusing to do business with me, since from a business perspective my case is equal or even more favorable than others'.

I am probably misunderstanding this principle and applying it incorrectly, since I am not a lawyer. Nevertheless, when comments on sites like reddit tell me that "of course they can always just refuse your custom" and I ask "why? The law says [as above]" nobody seems to have an answer. I'm curious what the reason is and would be happy with an answer for any country in the European Union that has a similar principle of equality.

The only reason I can think of is that the law doesn't say "you have to give a reason when refusing business", and therefore I cannot prove that the reason was discriminatory. Or even if it wasn't, they won't give it for the case that I find some legal reason why it isn't a valid reason. Still, in equal situations it seems to me that I should expect equal treatment.

I've seen this other question but that is about the USA (with a completely different set of values and laws).


texts: Would gambling money on odds of winnig a video game be legal in the United States?

texts:
I believe I read before that the US only constituted a situation as 'gambling' if there was luck based, which is to say that if there was a sufficient degree of skill involved then something was not considered gambling.  In fact I believe that is why certain fantasy-baseball style gambling games were allowed.

There are numerous online games that are rather complex and skill based, which makes me wonder if they would be legal for participants in these games to gamble on the outcomes.  Could an existing online game such as a quake style death match legally support gambling on your success in a match within the US?  So for instance every one of 8 people puts up 5 dollars at the beginning of the match, with the last person standing at the end getting all the gambled money (minus whatever overhead the company that makes the game takes)?

I imagine there must be a reason this is illegal, or everyone would be doing it already.  but if so why would the debate over far less skill-based games like the fantasy-football example be allowed?

Is there any state where this would be legal?


texts:
I have many Wi-Fi networks located in France and got quite concerned reading that an 18-year-old man from Dijon (France) was convicted for "praising terrorism" and was given a suspended sentence of three months in prison because the SSID of his Wi-Fi network was "Daesh 21."

What Wi-FI SSID names are forbidden in France? Ideally I would like to have an exhaustive list to ensure none of my Wi-Fi networks sends me to jail.


texts: What kind of agreement/contract do I need?

texts:
I want to offer a service to small businesses (e.g. virtual assistance). The fees will be part fixed and part variable (based on the actual amount of time spent doing the work). I would prefer not to specify an upper limit to what the fees can be (as that actually creates more work on my part to monitor what the projected invoice will be).

Some contracts/agreement will have a minimum duration for the service and a cancellation fee. For those that are on a minimum duration, once it exceeds, I want the terms to continue as is. Rates might change on occasion, so provision for that is needed.

What kind of contract/agreement do I need to get my customers to sign with me? A trading agreement?
Any key points I should include in this contract/agreement?

Any templates I can use online?


texts: In Washington State, how much of a car can be replaced before it's legally not the same car?

texts:
Let's say you have a 1965 Thunderbird. You can't legally take the V.I.N. plate off the car, slap it on another car and say "this is my 1965 Thunderbird."

You can, however, take the rear bumper off your car, replace it with another bumper, and still say "this is my 1965 Thunderbird."

Somewhere between these two extremes is the line that you can't cross. Any idea where that is?

I know that for years, people took old VW bugs and replaced the bodies with kit-car bodies. Those cars remained legally old VW bugs. Hypothetically, you could take one of those cars and replace more parts. What if you replaced the engine, trans-axle, suspension, etc.? Can you replace everything but the chassis?


texts: Has the "right to assemble" (US 1st Amendment) ever been shown to apply to just two persons?  I was just wondering if it had ever been applied to as few as two persons.  (Or even one person in fact.)  I wonder if that's still an open question or can one or two people "assemble"?  What constitutes "assembly"?


texts: Suppose I have to write a paper for a class in college.  Am I allowed to copyright the paper (provided I did not sign my rights away already) that I turn in?  Is there any thing prohibiting this in copyright law that I am not seeing?


texts: What is considered appropriate dress for a magisterial district court?

texts:
I have made a civil complaint in my local magisterial district court and received a notice to defend from the defendant, so I will need to go to court at the end of this week.  I have lost some weight due to exercise recently and my suit no longer fits comfortably (nor looks very good).  I'm also not sure where my tie is.  Unfortunately, the notice to defend was lost in the mail and I just found out five minutes ago that I will need to show up for court.

Is it appropriate to show up to court in slacks and a golf-T, or slacks and a button down shirt, instead of a suit?  Or should I wear the suit and try to make it look as best I can?  My first instinct was that magisterial courts may be more lax than county courts, but my second instinct was that magisterial judges may be more sensitive to dress due to that very presumption.

I am looking for a practical answer to this question.  While I know that there likely isn't any absolutely enforced dress code, dressing too casually will surely bias the judge against me.  I would like to know where the line is likely to fall for most judges.


texts: If I were to steal an item explicitly labeled 'Steal this,' would I have any legal ground to stand on?

texts: Say if somebody were to steal System of a Down's "Steal this Album", would they have any ground to stand on in that the item explicitly told them to do it?  Would this fall under some form of entrapment?


texts: What are the penalties for attempting to fill a forged prescription in the U.S.?

texts:
My cousin who lives in Anaheim, California was just caught trying to fill in a forged prescription for a benzodiazepine (Valium/diazepam). He scanned and forged the original script given to him by a doctor who refused to refill it a second time.
He went to a CVS last December and they successfully filled it. He tried again this month only to be caught by the pharmacist who asked him to wait a bit but called the police who arrived and arrested him
He was bailed out and now they say he's looking at being on the hook for a felony if the DA decides to press charges. How serious is this? I know a workmate who did something similar here the UK and only got a caution. I think this is highly unlikely to happen to him though as the American justice system is known for being particularly brutal in comparison to other Western nations.


texts:
I have an artist working on some things for me and I've just found out that they are 15.

In the UK, can a 15 year old legally sign over copyright to another person?

The assumptions made by me are 1. A minor can hold copyright 2. A minor cannot enter a legally binding contract.


texts: What are UK rules on written material that is sexually explicit?

texts:
D is an adult who writes sexually explicit fan fiction which D posts to Tumblr and Archive Of Our Own. D always marks such writing as 18+ only and warns minors not to read or interact.
The fan fiction material does not contain any sexually explicit images, it is text only. The characters are all consensual adults, but often written as Character x Reader, in second person, i.e., Character x You. Otherwise described as self-insert fan fiction.
What is the UK law on sexually explicit material that is written and clearly marketed to adults online? What steps can an author take to avoid criminal liability for such posts?


texts: Why isn't voluntary manslaughter punished equally to murder?

texts:
I can't wrap my head around the fact that in many legal systems, the punishment for "voluntary manslaughter" (or similar) is different than the punishment for "first degree murder" (or similar).

Some examples, all prefixed with "Unlawful, intentional, voluntary and successful killing of another human being...":

with malice aforethought
on a whim
after being provoked
in order to not get caught
in order to not pay
after being asked/paid to
by hiring a contract killer

Why shouldn't all of these cases have the exact same punishment?

Edit, to clarify:
Why wouldn't a manslaughterer generally be considered to be an equal threat to the society as a first-degree murderer (assuming that both were deemed to have been equally willing to take a person's life while being equally aware of what they were doing)? Both of them could (or could not) regret what they did afterwards, that is outside of the scope of this question (assume both were deemed equally likely to regret).

Edit 2:
"assume both do the same" --> "assume both were deemed equally likely to regret"


texts: Legality of forced, set charitable giving as a condition of employment

texts: Is it legal, in a right to work state, for an employer to force charitable giving as a condition of employment? There is no choice in the charity, it is a specific one selected by the company. The amount is non-negotiable, it is predetermined by the company based off of the employee’s pay rate. The company does not allow for it to NOT be automatically deducted from the employee’s paycheck. Then on top of that, the company sponsors other types of charitable giving programs for that same charity but those are of voluntary participation.


texts: What can you legally do when merchant promises a perpetual service for a fixed fee, but doesn't deliver?

texts:
There's a (legitimate) company called Cloud-at-Cost that sells virtual machines for an (extremely cheap) one-time payment.
However, users are encountering multiple problems:

After a year or so they suddenly tacked on a yearly fee and made users accept new terms with this fee included in order to access their VMs, even though this wasn't in the original contract.
The machines are frequently down and impossible to use.
The company is notoriously hard to reach and frequently closes tickets without even responding, and apparently if you initiate a chargeback for a service that was not rendered, they shut down your account altogether.

The question is, what can you legally do when dealing with such a merchant?

Given that they promised a perpetual service for a fixed cost, but don't deliver and don't respond, and that they also forced you to accept new terms (which you had to do in order to access your data), can they be held responsible legally speaking?

Note that I'm not particularly asking about lawsuits here, I'm just wondering what the legal options options are in such as situation. For example, how would you initiate a chargeback for the one-time payments when the service is indefinite and you've already "partially" been rendered the service (but now you might be reasonably worried that they'll soon stop delivering on the other parts too)? Or maybe for the yearly fee you've "accepted" and paid, considering that you had no other choice and it was against your initial contract? Or if you did sue them, which portions of the fees can you reasonably be expected to claim as the damage, and which parts would already be services rendered? How would an arbitrator decide a case based on a fixed payment and indefinite contract?


texts: Can anyone explain the difference between leaking classified information where the information leaked doesn't technically violate any laws (ie- wikileaks) & printing something like the drone report (drones violate international law but we knew that before the papers) and actually whistleblowing like cigarette companies have been using carcinogens or NSA violating American rights. The first two are treason, but the latter two are whistleblowing? Does what is reported actually matter to avoid a treason charge?


texts: Are song titles protected by copyrights?

texts:
I have been working on a brand for a while, I have multiple designs and each design is based off of the logo, which is a clean styled text.

If the name of my brand was inspired/is an existing song title, is their title protected under a copyright?

Notes:

I'm in the USA
My brand makes no reference to the singer or song in general
My brand name is just the same as the song title


texts: Is "who has jurisdiction" the same as "which laws apply?"

texts:
This question asks "which laws apply" and this answer talks about "who has jurisdiction."
Reading that led me to wonder if they are necessarily the same statement.
Are they?
Or, are there cases where an authority generally able to hear/prosecute cases on a particular subject/law does not have jurisdiction, and an authority who does have jurisdiction has to apply laws that don't strictly match the venue where the authority sits/covers?
Federal courts interpreting state law jump to mind, but I'm not sure if that example really answers this question.


texts: When does software copyright expire on defunct products (i.e. Lotus 1-2-3)

texts:
There are a lot of people still using "defunct" software such as Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Organizer.  We also use existing software today that will be cancelled in the near future but may still have market value - just not to the copyright holder.

Is there any obligation on the part of the copyright holder to actually provide the material that they are protecting, or is it legal to simply "sit on" it and refuse to allow the world to buy or sell their defunct software?

i.e. had Apple held their slide-to-open patent, and then never provided it to the public for usage, could they legally simply prevent the planet from ever using slide-to-lock?


texts: Is there any jurisdiction, in which one can adopt an adult person?

texts:
I'm working on a fiction text that revolves around the idea that many men marry
women like their mothers. I thought that it would be an interesting plot twist,
if a woman adopted the man.

In order for the story to be more or less believable, there must be a legal way
to do it.

Therefore my question: Is there any place on Earth, where a woman could legally
adopt a man roughly her age (30-40 years)?


texts: I was racially abused at a public park. What legal actions can I take?

texts:
I was racially abused at a public park. Basically out of no where he called me a terrorist. I ignored him. After a while he came directly to me and ask me to go away and said this is Australia.
The offender was a food truck owner.  I am afraid that if I report to the police, the police won't take any action and just record
it as another racial abuse statistic. I have his details, pictures and video recording the incident .  I live in Australia.
Edit:
I am not of middle eastern decent but I do have a beard. I was wearing a robe like garment for a cultural function i was attending. This is what provoked him. But i think, most of all is that I'm what people can immediately judge as a geek and weak appearing person (I slightly resemble Mark Zuckerberg).  So people don't usually fear confronting me.


texts: Can an employer force an employee to donate to a charity?

texts: Can an employer force an employee to donate to a charity and is it legal that they know how much an employee contributes? This is in the U.S. with a large global corporation.


texts: Protecting against Creative Commons revisions

texts:
I am looking to purchase digital assets for a project.
The assets are loosely described as CC on the page:

You can use it for commercial purposes and make edits as much as you like. However cannot distribute. Credit isn't required.

I have tried contacting the owner to clarify however have gotten no response.
Two questions came to mind:
1: Can an artist revoke his Creative Commons Content

No they can't - Ok, fine

2: How do you then prove that the paragraph on their website said what I quoted above at the time of purchase?
My honest solution would be to:

Setup a video camera pointing at my monitor

Navigate to google and google "todays date"

Navigate and load up the asset website - scroll to paragraph.

As silly as that sounds, I don't see another way.
Is the above solution valid?


texts: What if a person cannot find a lawyer willing to fight against a powerful party?

texts:
Hereafter, for concision, I use the noun `leviathan' to mean a magisterial, mighty party that can retaliate against lawyers.
I restrict this question to First World countries (e.g., the UK), which I assume can protect lawyers from such leviathans. Suppose:

A commoner suffers an injustice at the hands of a leviathan, and wishes to take legal action.
The threat posed by the leviathan, prevents the victim from finding a lawyer willing to represent his case.

What can this victim do? Does the law offer or guarantee him any assistance?


texts: Can plaintiff or defendant question judge?

texts:
I watch a lot of Judge Judy,  and many of you know its irritating.

She has said she cannot look into the evidence or she has so many other work to do. How can a judge behave like this to public?

Is she a public servant?

How can a judge say what ever they want and nobody can react? Is that the law? Nobody over the judge in the court?

I saw another real court video, a girl said "adios" to the judge and the fine amount was  doubled.

Any where written  how to behave in the court and what all things anyone can say?


texts: Could I create doubt of a crime by having multuple people suggest, but not actually claim, that they were the murderer?

texts:
Let's say hypothetically I'm a member of some gang and just killed a member of a rival gang.  I've been accused of murder and taken to trail.  My fellow gang members want to help me get off, but not so much that their willing to do anything that could lead to their going to jail instead.
It's possible for one of the gang members to claim to be the murderer to sow reasonable doubt in theory ( What prevents someone from claiming to be the murderer in order to get the real murderer off?)  However, they would then be guilty of purjury and other crimes which my fellow gangbangers likely don't want to go to jail for.
However, instead of one person coming forward and explicitly saying they committed a crime what if multiple gang members all came forward and implied they committed the crime.  For instance saying things like "I was planning to kill that man for being on our territory, but I won't say I did it" or "I 'took care of' some of the rival gang members that day" something along the line.  Could a half dozen individuals come forward to intentionally sow confusion as to who the murderer was without risking purjury and thus help the actual murder get free?
If the inability to plead the fifth when giving testimony makes it too hard to imply guilt of yourself could they instead intentionally point the finger at other gang members (with those member's approval), thus allowing them to imply guilt of another without being put in a position where they had to explicitly say yes they did or didn't commit the murder if asked directly, since they can't definitively know what another person did.
Has any situation like this actually occurred in real criminal cases?


texts: Is there a site that lists all EU members' Statutory Instruments for specific laws (like MLD4, UCITS etc.)

texts:
I'm new here and don't have a law background but my field (finance) often overlaps with legal aspects quite a bit.

I was hoping someone might be able to steer me in the direction of a good (free!) online reference that I could search specific EU member statutes?

For the overarching directives etc. I have eur-lex.europa.eu which I've found good and I also have my local (Irish) statute (www.irishstatutebook.ie) but what would be really useful is a site where there was effectively a matrix of enacted law dictated by the EU per each member (like again, the UCITS regulations differ slightly form member state to member state).. does such a resource exist?


texts: Legal requirements for Board of Directors & officers for WA state worker co-ops

texts:
Myself and several friends are planning on starting a for profit worker-owned cooperative business that will provide landscaping services in Washington state. We have decided to form our cooperative under the state's legal business structure for Cooperative Associations  (RCW 23.86), and are currently in the process of drafting our Articles of Association and our Bylaws.

State regulations force Cooperative Associations to have a certain organizational structure similar to a C corporation, where you have a Board of Directors that governs the organization, and is voted in by the member-owners of the cooperative (RCW 23.86.080). Furthermore, the statutes require the Board to elect officers such as a President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary (RCW 23.86.085).

However, we would like our organization to have a "flatter" organizational structure that does not have a Board of Directors making decisions in the name of the co-op's membership, but rather where all worker-members are Board members who have full, equal membership rights and each get one vote in all collective decisions. We also wish for the legally mandated "officer" positions to be essentially meaningless titles, that confer no priveleges/powers to the members who we arbitrarily select to fill them.

We have been trying to think of a way to satisfy the legal requirement to have a board, while creating no distinction between board members and "regular members". What we came up with for our Bylaws was the following:

  Immediately upon being granted membership in the Co-op (through the
  process described in this section, below) a person is:

  given one seat on the Co-op’s Board of Directors ; and
  granted equal powers and privileges as all other Board members.

  Thus all Co-op members are on the Board of Directors, and use of the
  words “member” or “members” will hereafter imply a person or persons
  who are Directors on the Co-op’s Board.  The use of the term
  “collective” shall hereafter refer to all of the members of the
  cooperative together, with all of the powers, privileges, and
  responsibilities granted to the Board by law, and by the Co-op’s Articles
  of Assocation and Bylaws.
  From time to time, as required by RCW 23.86.085, the collective shall elect the following officers: a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. None of these officers shall have any powers, rights, privileges that differ in any way from other members.

Does this satisfy the requirements in RCW 23.86? Is it legal to do this - i.e. to state that every member of an association is on the board and has equal powers/rights/responsibilities?

Are there any changes that should be made to this that would better describe what we are trying to do?


texts: Handling immeasurable / abstract concepts in a contract

texts:
Professional negligence is somewhat related in the sense that it's generally recognizable in extremes, but is overall too abstract to define with much granularity.  You can't measure it to tiny units.

I want to understand how something like this is codified.  I did see this question (When is "reasonable" not implied in a contract?) in which "reasonable" is treated as a means of smoothing over the complexities of certain definitions.

If one wanted to codify something abstract -- like professionalism, kindness, humor -- how would that be approached?
 Can one simply put "reasonably" in front?

For example: say I had "kindness" baked into a friendship agreement:

I will be your friend and bring you snacks as long as you are reasonably kind.
Signed me

... but they weren't kind and I wanted to cease bringing them snacks.  Could I argue that they weren't reasonably kind?  And how far can something like this be stretched before it's thrown out or ignored?  Could one take it to such an extreme as reasonably cool and still have a serious verdict?


texts: What remedies are available for failure to pay the orderd amount of child support in NJ

texts:
In my divorce decree which was in Texas, I was ordered to pay child support, which I paid. In the decree right above the judge's signature was a notice in bold letters that stated that failure to pay child support can bring a jail term of up to 6 months and a fine.

In a friends ongoing divorce in New Jersey, her husband was ordered to pay child support of xxx per month. However he is paying about half of the amount.

When my friend asked her attorney if they could enforce him to pay the entire amount, including arrears of nearly 4 grand, they told her that they couldn't enforce him to pay by threatening jail as long as he's "paying something."

This doesn't make sense to me, as I am fairly certain that penalties of contempt of court exist in New Jersey as well as probably every other state in the US.

What legal remedies are available for failure to pay the entire amount due for child support? Especially when arrears have accumulated that are above 4 thousand dollars? Or is her attorney correct?


texts: Legal to walk around with a wooden rod in Alabama?

texts: I am a very poor skateboarder, and would like to use a shovel handle as a "dry-land gondola paddle" to make navigation easier. Could such a thing be considered a weapon if I were to go about in public in a city with this?


texts: When can a US police officer stop me from recording our encounter?

texts:
During any encounter with a US police officer, under what circumstances would the officer have the right to force me to stop recording our encounter with my smart phone, and can he prevent me from retrieving my phone if I don't have it out already when the encounter begins?

I know that it's legal to record my encounter with an officer in the US, I'm just curious about what excuse the officer could use if he wanted to force me to turn off the phone, and what situations he would legally be able to force me to stop recording.

If I believe the officer may wish to violate my rights, do I have any legal ground to refuse to stop recording? Is there any particular way I can record in order to make it safe for the officer and still effective, so that I cannot be forced to stop recording?

Perhaps a wearable camera would allow citizens worried about protecting their rights during police encounters to ensure their recording can't be legally stopped by an officer, even if the officer knows of that particular wearable device and doesn't want to be recorded?


texts: Are the individual terms of a contract copyrighted?

texts:
I would like to make my own contract without having to pay a lawyer. Some websites, such as Docracy, explicitly say that you're allowed to use their contracts. I'm wondering, if you were to come across some random contract with a specific wording you really like for some common clause - like a severalbility clause - can you copy it or would that be infringing?

For example, say I already have my own contract. Can I see the no waiver clause on reddit.com and say, hey I like that, I'm adding it to mine!

  If we do not enforce any right or provision in this user agreement,
  that is not to be deemed a waiver of our right to do so in the future.


texts: Can the supreme court enforce its rulings on the executive branch?

texts:
I've just read this article on Slate. In it, they describe how Trumps administration has ignored deadlines imposed by the U.S. District court, after losing a case to SCOTUS (I bolded the most relevant specific example).

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it will continue to defy a federal court order compelling the full restoration of DACA, the Obama-era program that allows 700,000 immigrants to live and work in the United States legally. By doing so, the administration has chosen to flout a decision by the Supreme Court, effectively rejecting the judiciary’s authority to say what the law is.
Donald Trump first attempted to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September 2017, a move that would’ve stripped its beneficiaries of work permits and subjected them to deportation. But his administration continually cut corners, failing to explain the basis for its decision and refusing to consider the impact of DACA repeal on immigrants, their communities, and their employers (including the U.S. Army). This June, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious” under federal law and therefore “set aside” DACA repeal.
To implement that decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm compelled the administration to restore DACA to its pre-repeal condition on July 17. Grimm’s order required the Department of Homeland Security to let DACA beneficiaries renew their status for two years, accept new applicants, and restore “advance parole,” which permits travel outside the country. But DHS did not do that. Instead, the agency maintained that it would reject new DACA applicants. It  also declined to accept DACA renewals or reinstate advance parole.

Does SCOTUS and the judicial branch have any way to actually enforce laws on the executive branch? It's one thing to enforce laws on some random citizen, but it seems there is no way for SCOTUS to enforce laws against the branch of gov't that's responsible for enforcing laws.


texts: Would secretly placing a security camera in a shared garage, but only viewing my half, be legal?

texts:
Backstory: I recently had a lot of valuable belongings stolen out of my shared garage (rental unit) while I was away for a week. There was no sign of forced entry, and there are a few possibilities to how the gear went missing. It's possible my neighbor was: negligent; guilty of the theft; or neither (lock may have been picked, or a duplicate key might exist - the padlock is from before I moved in). While I do not plan on storing anything of value (except my car) in the garage anymore, I do want some piece-of-mind. I am also a little inspired by the recent viral videos of a homeowner engineering a "thief catcher".

I am considering secretly placing a security camera in the garage in a way that it only views 'my' half of the garage so as not to invade my neighbors privacy; I may also possibly place an item that seems valuable (empty safe, etc) in plain sight in case whomever stole my gear tries to get lucky again. Is secretly placing a camera in a shared space - but only viewing my property or my half - legal?

Pro-active edit: I am not looking for advice on how to safeguard my items in the future, or whether I should file a claim; I have already made my decisions such as buying a new padlock in case of unwanted key-duplication, and started acting upon them. I am only concerned about the legality of placing a security-camera in a shared space that I do not own, and whether turning the camera to only view 'my half' is legal or not. No loose items are stored on my half that are not mine.


texts: Can a child release his own work into e.g. the public domain?

texts:
I (15 years old; living in Germany) write software now for ~four years and wondered whether I can release it into the public domain or under some free software license without having to ask somebody.  I know that I have to ask my parents for many legal acts and that my father's employer (he is a professional software developer) has some rights about his software.  Have I to ask my parents (as for many legal acts), my school (my "employer" :)) or somebody entirely different?  I had searched the web very often but I always only find what the legal status of schools are.

PS: I'm not a native English speaker and that's why I don't know whether I said that what I wanted to or not.  Everybody who thinks he maybe has spotted a mistake: correct it please.  This is what I wanted to say (in my native language German):

Ich (15 Jahre alt; in Deutschland lebend) schreibe nun seit ungefähr vier Jahren Software und überlege manchmal, ob ich sie in die Public Domain entlassen oder unter einer Freien-Software-Lizenz stellen kann ohne irgendjemanden zu fragen.  Ich weiß, dass ich bei vielen rechtlichen Aktionen meine Eltern fragen muss, und, dass der Arbeitgeber meines Vaters (er ist professioneller Software-Entwickler) einige Rechte an seiner Software hat.  Muss ich meine Eltern (wie so oft), meine Schule (meinen "Arbeitgeber" also sozusagen) oder gar jemanden ganz anderen fragen?  Ich habe danach oft im Internet gesucht, aber konnte immer nur Abhandlungen über den Status in Schulen finden.


texts: CE certification for toner cartridges of laser printers

texts:
Concerning toner cartridges and drum units of laser printers, I'm interested in ascertaining
whether, according to European Commission Directives currently in force,
a CE Certification document is produced:

by the manufacturer (i.e. self-certified), or
only by a Notified Body

The subject seems to be related with the "level of risk" of products,
so a related issue is the established level of risk for cartridges of laser printers.
Concerning the above, I would like some guidance on the online availability of relevant information.


texts: Does a 16yo without a work permit have rights to the code he was paid to develop?

texts:
I am sixteen, and I have a summer job for a software company.
In my state (Maine), a work permit from school is required for someone of my age to have a job but it was never filled out. I assume someone forgot.
I am also aware that minors can void contracts. However, I am unsure whether or not that extends to employment contracts.
I, along with one other employee, am currently putting work towards a ~$100,000 contract, and am being paid the same as I would be had I worked at the local McDonalds.
During the course of the job, I wrote software on computers provided by the company.

Can I void the contract, and claim the work I did as my intellectual property?

Am I even technically employed given I never submitted a work permit?


texts: does the GDPR apply to publicly available data?

texts:
There is a lot of information about what kinds of data the GDPR applies to and what responsibilities a person collecting or processing such data has (e.g. on Wikipedia), but I have found little information about whether these rules apply also to publicly available data (e.g. from the internet).  Does the GDPR apply to such data?

Examples:

I have a printed phone directory in my office, which lists names and phone numbers of people.  This seems to be "information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual", so reading the wikipedia page literally, this should be covered by the GDPR.  Since this is my my office, it does not seem to me that "Recital 18" should make this exempt from the GDPR.  But clearly, locking the phone book away or informing everybody listed in the phone book that I hold their phone number makes no sense.  Is my copy of the phone book covered by the GDPR, or not?
If I download 10,000 tweets using the Twitter API and do some statistical analysis on these tweets (e.g. to determine the most common words), is my collection of downloaded tweets covered by the GDPR?  Again, notifying everybody that I downloaded their tweets seems to make no sense.  Are there any obligations I have in storing and using this data?


texts: How would the court handle a situation where evidence could be provided that presents minor justification but would take extensive time to present

texts:
Imagine a court case where an argument for a defendant could be made that is judged to give them only a very slight increased chance of being found innocent, but would take a disproportionately large amount of time to prove.  I'm wondering how a judge would handle these cases, can a judge curtail the defendant's right to defend himself on the grounds that it costs too much to add a day's worth of trials for such a minor proof?

So lets say there are two examples.

Someone claims to have not known "john doe" but is later proven that they know each other.  The prossecution uses this as evidence of the individual lying to discredit the witness, with the witness being only a minor witness to begin with, say one of 2-3 people colobrating an allabie.  The Witness explains that he is horrible with names and so didn't recognize the name of someone he has semi-regular contact with despite knowing the individual well.  The witness could help to increase his credibility by parading dozens of character witnesses in front of the court to prove his difficulty with names is a known and common issue and just the witness probably wasn't lying, but it's allot of effort to increase the credibility of a non-major witness.
A defendant is put on trial and the prosecution points out that the defendant was googling or asking questions that seem somewhat related to the crime, suggesting the defendant was preparing for the crime.  The defendant says he was researching the information for some story he was planning to write, but the prosecution points out the defendant hasn't written any drafts of this supposed story down and implies there is no story and that's a flimsy justification for his search history.  To help increase his credibility the defendant could spend the next half a day explaining all the plot points in his planned story in detail, how the research he did was relevant to specific plot points, and generally provide an extensive enough narrative that it seems likely this story had been being built on for some time as claimed and isn't a fictional story; but it's still a long time to provide only minor increase in credibility.

Does a judge have the right to say that the benefit to the defendant is deemed so minor that it's not worth wasting the time and expense required to present this defense.  Of does the judge have to allow any defense, no mater how tedious, if the defendant claims it would help their cause?


texts: Traffic ticket was never received by court, but I have to check on it forever

texts:
I received a traffic ticket. It's been a month and the court has still not received the ticket. I have been calling every few days, and they tell me to call again in a few days everytime. The court date is approaching and they tell me if it's not received by the court date, I will not be in trouble, but to just keep calling every few days. I've told them I don't want to call for the rest of my life, but they have made it clear that if they ever receive the ticket I am liable, and they insist that I call until they receive the ticket, which may be never. I am on probation which makes this even more important to resolve. I have asked that they send an email or some proof that I am attempting to pay the ticket, but they refuse. The ticket did not include an amount to pay.

This is Houston Texas, Harris County Constable, court of David Patronella. I live in Florida, so appearing in person is rather impractical. Ticket was running a red light. Ticket was before I started probation. Ticket does not break terms of probation.

How can I resolve a ticket that was never received.


texts: Employment contract prohibiting salary discussion in the UK?

texts:
I work for a company in the UK and my employment contract states that I must not discuss my salary with colleagues. I know that this is illegal in the USA but cant find any information about in the UK

Are there any laws in the UK that relate to this??


texts: Dispute unpaid debt of a deceased family member

texts:
My elderly relative died in December 2018. Her gardener has now (January 2019) sent us an itemised invoice. The items begin in March 2018 and end in November (my relative last left the house in October to go to hospital). The total amount demanded is £700.

When we visited in January the garden was tidy and had clearly been worked on recently. We have no reason to think there was any dispute existing between them, and my relative was old but of sound mind.

Location: England, UK.

The problems:

We do not believe that our relative would have left the bill unpaid
for so long (7 months).
We do not know what previous demands or
payments were made, or when.
There is no way of knowing whether the    work was actually done,
except for the most recent.
We have not (yet)
found any written records of previous invoices, receipts or payments
(from before or after March 2018).
Not immediately relevant but    aggravating: the charges are very
high considering the work and the    part of the country.

The questions:

Is the executor legally obliged to pay? If he chooses
not to, what could happen?
Normally, not paying would risk a county court judgment against the
debtor. What happens if that person is deceased - will the judgment
be against the executor?

I am in favour of paying only the final item (a very expensive £120 "garden tidy") as we can verify this was done.


texts: Procedure for changing illegal procedures and processes by bureaucratic organizations

texts:
I have found that many government agencies, both state and federal, adopt illegal procedures or attempt to collect information illegally or create administrative barriers to obtaining information from them which they are legally required to provide.

A very typical example of this is that a government agency may demand that a person provide identification or other irrelevant information to receive a public record even though no law authorizes them to do so.

What can a private citizen do to correct an abuse like this or force the agency to act in a lawful way?

I am aware that in many cases the citizen can get a court order to solve their individual problem. For example, if the citizen wants a record, they can go before a judge and ask for a court order which compels the agency to produce the record. However, this only solves the problem for a single instance. It does not help others with the same problem or force the agency to behave lawfully in other cases.

So, is it possible, when petitioning for such a court order, that the citizen ask the judge to order the agency to behave in a lawful way and abolish their illegal "regulation" in addition to granting the citizen's one-time request?


texts: After the Brexit, can we store UK data in EU region?

texts: Can you please tell me, whether we can store PII data belong to UK in EU region? I know the other way round is illegal. But I could not find a place where this problem address properly. Can you please help me with this?


texts: What is the legal basis that can prevent a carton being reused in Australia

texts:
I came across a box that has the words "Reuse of this carton is prohibited and is punishable by law"

With that box in mind, I have a few questions

Is this true are there laws that could enforce prevention of reuse
If so what is the basis
Does it apply to commercial and non-commercial uses? e.g. Could it be around the packing of strawberries
Does this mean it is ok to bin the carton but not reuse it?


texts: Do verbal goodwill waiver stand in court?

texts: I'd like to put in scenario. Party A enters into a monthly payment contract with Party B. Party A pays monthly the ammount. One day, Party A is unable to pay the monthly installments. Party B says it's fine no problem, this was verbally recorded. Party A later resumes back the repayment. Months later, Party A and Party B has an argument. Now Party B wants to take legal action on Party A for the non payment several months ago. Does the original 'No Problem' good will waiver from Party B holds in court?


texts: Notice period after tenancy agreement runs out

texts:
Hope someone can help me with this. I moved into a private let property in August 2009, when I moved in the tenancy was for 1 year and it required that I give 2 months notice before I could move out. Since then I have never had a new tenancy agreement to sign.

I am now in a position to buy my own house and was under the impression that I only have to give 1 months notice as I thought the contract would now become a periodic tenancy. However the agent from the letting agency was on the phone yesterday to arrange a time to come out and inspect the property and she said "it's actually two months notice that you have to give according to your contract, I'll check with your landlord to see if they are happy to accept one months notice".

Is this true? Am I still required to give 2 months notice even though I haven't signed a new contract for years? Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but the property is in Scotland.

Hope someone can help.

Thanks

Alex


texts:
Suppose I create a very unflattering portrait of a celebrity and publish it in a book marketed as a scathing attack on corruption. If the picture crosses the line, I could be sued for defamation.

But suppose I hire someone else to create such a picture. I could still be sued, of course. What I'd like to know is if the artist I hired can also be sued.

As a crude example, suppose I told an artist, "I want you to draw a caricature of pResident John Doe having sex with a donkey. I will pay you $200 for all rights to your creation."

If the artist complies, could (s)he be held liable if someone sued for defamation, or would I be the only (potentially) guilty individual?


texts: Where can I find information on how low-income appellants funded their cases?

texts:
Assume that:

the appellant has little or no income and money.
the case's legal fees have already been significant; the appellant has already undergone a trial, and likely the County Court and EWHC.
the claim for damages costs less than the legal fees, or the claim itself is not monetary.

barristers (and/or solicitors) were instructed, possibly expensive QCs. It is unclear whether they were acting pro bono.

The official judgements do not reveal the funding for these lawyers; so where can I find this information? Please advise if there are cases that better match the assumptions above:

R (on the application of Tigere) (Appellant)
v
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and
Skills (Respondent) [2015] UKSC 57

The appellant needed student loans, and so how could she have funded litigation in the EWHC and then EWCA before the UKSC?

R (on the application of Reilly and another)
(Respondents)
v
Secretary of State for Work and
Pensions (Appellant) [2013] UKSC 68


texts: Am I allowed to record people without their permission in Montgomery Maryland?

texts: Basically I suspect that someone I know is spreading malicious rumors about me, which I think falls under defamation. I've thought about trying to talk with them and find the answer, but if they do admit to it, I have nothing to go with but hearsay, so I thought about recording the convo without their knowledge. While trying to find an answer I've found mixed results. Some sources says under no circumstances, some say if a crime is being committed, and one says if it's within a public domain. Also if there is a good resource to find legal answers for local, state, and federal laws i'ld definitely appreciate it.


texts: What protects civilians from police corruption and lying if there isn't any video evidence?

texts:
Can't a police officer arrest someone on the street for anything and just lie about what happened?

For example, there are some drugs found near someone walking down the street. An officer just decides to arrest that person and say they were in possession of the item even though then weren't. How would one fight this if there's no video evidence?

Is it also possible for police to use DNA as evidence in drug cases such as these? For example, DNA is transferred from your body to the drugs through someone moving it or it falling onto it somehow but you never actually touched it or had possession of it in reality. I would think that DNA alone wouldn't prove this, so there isn't a point to use it as evidence, but I could be wrong, which is why I'm asking.


texts: "Counterfeiting" Ethereum tokens: is it considered illegal?

texts:
ERC20 tokens are cryptocurrencies built upon the Ethereum blockchain. These tokens can be used for buying, selling,smart contracts, etc. See more information here: https://cointelegraph.com/explained/erc-20-tokens-explained

Back in 2018, an unknown hacker exploited a previously-unknown programming error in an Ethereum smart contract and generated absurdly large amounts of ERC-20 tokens for himself. He tried selling them on cryptocurrency exchanges, but his actions were quickly discovered and the exchanges shut down ERC-20 token trading in response. See here: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/25/overflow-error-shuts-down-token-trading/

Would the above action of the hacker be considered illegal? While "counterfeiting" real currency is obviously illegal, cryptocurrencies are not considered real money in most countries (at best, they are viewed as a commodity). Plus, the hacker didn't really "steal" anything; he just exploited a bug and generated a lot of tokens for himself. It's sort of like cheating without actually breaking the rules, so to speak. So that's why I'm wondering - would "counterfeiting" ERC-20 tokens (like what the hacker did) be considered illegal?


texts:
I am writing a mobile app, and at the heart of it, I need to be able to leverage a large amount of food recipes. If I just scrape the internet and grab all of the recipes that I come across, is this legal? I've seen some different things with regards to whether or not a recipe can be copyrighted, but I'm still not totally clear on that. From what I've gathered, it seems like if a recipe is just a list of ingredients, then it cannot be copyrighted. However, if a recipe contains some sort of proprietary or new technique, then that particular technique could be copyrighted.

I just want to ensure that the method I use to get the recipes is totally legal.


texts: Under which circumstances does "loser pays" apply in the United States?

texts:
In the U.S., unlike e.g. Britain, both sides usually pay their own legal fees; seldom does the loser pay the winner's legal fees.

However, there are some exceptions. One that I know of is that if someone files a lawsuit that is dismissed for lack of merit, the original defendant can countersue for legal fees. And, of course, "loser pays" applies to contracts where the contract says so. What are other circumstances in the U.S. where the loser of a litigation pays both sets of legal fees?


texts: Can I write my signature in my conlang's script?

texts: Can I write my signature in my conlang's (constructed language) script, which consists entirely of straight lines? If not, why?


texts: Can I legally guess my customer's new credit card expiry date?

texts:
As a merchant, I offer online subscription services to my customers. Often, my customer's credit card will expire, despite having an active subscription service to my product.

Is it legal for me to guess my customers new credit card expiry date to continue charging them for their subscription,  if they haven't cancelled and their old card has simply expired?


texts: How is Christmas' status as a federal holiday legal?

texts:
It seems the United States federal government's establishment of Christmas, a religious holiday, as a federal holiday would be illegal under the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

How is it legal? Or is it case of no one has bothered to change it yet?


texts: Question about items left after a home sale

texts:
So I did a bit of research that anything that is stated in the contract are to be left to the buyer and that fixtures are also left to the buyer regardless of it being in the contract. My question is what happens if items are mentioned in the house description during the home sale (like what you see on sites on Redfin that's inputted from the MLS) but they weren't listed on the contract? An example is a beer tap cooler is in the house description of the sale but it was not in the contract. Also, the beer tap cooler is not a fixture as it has wheels at the bottom that can be moved.
Country:USA
State:CA
Residential home
And a follow-up question regarding this. If a built-in grill was not bolted in and is easily removed by sliding it out, is it a fixture? The space where the grill would be accounts for most 40-inch grills and not specifically made to the one that is currently placed.


texts: After a lease is signed, do the things said in emails become nul and void, or are they relevant in a dispute?

texts:
Before moving to a new town, I was in contact with a landlord about renting an apartment from her. In the emails, I specifically requested a month to month lease as I did not want to commit to a year, and she told me that I could do that with the penalty of an extra $100 per month. So if I signed the 1 year lease it would be $1050/month and for the month to month lease it would be $1150/month. I agreed that was exactly what I wanted, and we continued talking about when I would be moving in, etc. When I arrived in town, I met with her to sign the lease and get the keys, under the impression that everything we had discussed in the emails would be what was in the lease. I admit that it was my mistake that I should have read through the lease more thoroughly, but here is my current situation.

Around April 20th, I emailed my landlord asking to give her 30 days notice as I am wanting to move. Her reply was that if I do that, I will be breaking my 1 year lease, and if I want to do that, we will have to discuss my options. To my shock I replied to her that I did not sign a 1 year lease, we had discussed and agreed that I only wanted month to month, and I am paying the $1150/month that she had clearly stated in our emails was the cost for the month to month lease. She then replied, the lease states it is for 1 year, if I want to come in and speak with her about options then I can.

I then went to my lease, and sure enough, she had written the dates for 1 year rather than month to month. I understand that I should have more thoroughly looked through the lease and that is on me, but do the emails count as well?

When I went in to speak with her, I tried to bring up what she had said in the emails, she kept interrupting me and and her only response was that in any sort of misunderstanding or dispute, we always refer back to the lease. I brought up how she clearly stated in the emails about the different amounts per month whether I signed a month to month lease or a year long lease, and all she had to say was how that is not stated in the lease so it is not relevant. I tried to say that according to the emails, I am overpaying $100 per month and she now owes me money ($600 now as I have paid for 6 months) and she repeated, that is not stated in the lease so its not relevant. She is also saying that I owe $250 for breaking the one year lease.

I guess what I am asking is, can she do this, and is it true that the emails are not relevant?


texts: Is seed sharing/keeping/libraries illegal?

texts:
I've heard that keeping seeds is illegal. What do I need to do to keep them/distribute them to stay legal?

I heard about it in this video from someone with a huge gardening following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txRUeuuKex4


texts: What property rights do husbands have over their wife's hair?

texts:
There is a question floating around on Skeptics SE that asks if married woman in Michigan are required to have her husband's permission to cut her hair.
Here are some potentially relevant things included in an answer:
Michigan's 1850 Constitution:

The real and personal estate of every female, acquired before marriage, and all property to which she may afterwards become entitled, by gift, grant, inheritance or devise, shall be and remain the estate and property of such female, and shall not be liable for the debts, obligations or engagements of her husband, and may be devised or bequeathed by her as if she were unmarried.

1855 Michigan law titled "An Act relative to the rights of married women."
1981 Michigan law that includes something on "Rights and Liabilities of Married Women."
Do the above sources say anything about whether married woman in Michigan are required to have her husband's permission to cut her hair?


texts: Isn't statute of limitations irrelevant in real life?

texts:
Say someone steals a property title or somehow obtains property fraudulently.
Since the transfer of property was never legitimate, didn't the actual title never change, and therefore, the statute never runs?
For example if Zuckerberg stole Facebook from Paul Ceglia doesntt that mean if Paul can prove it he will always be the legitimate owner since the transfer to Zuckerberg was fraudulent? Why else would the case still exist 14 years later? Same with forging a car registration or anything similar?


texts: I live in France and I would like to know if it was legal to attack the Virtual Private Server I am renting in the US.


texts: What is the minimum time an employer must give before cancelling work?

texts:
I do sporadic work for a company. I had a shift scheduled for over a month. I messaged my manager the day before asking if there's anything else I needed to know. She told me the shift was cancelled. She said because it was more than 24 hours they didn't have to pay me anything.

Is there some law about not getting paid if warned 24 hours in advanced? Do I have a case worth pursuing or not really? I'm located in BC however the office is in Ontario. None of the paper work I signed said anything about how the company can cancel on me.

The company wants to think I'm a contractor, however I know it's not up to what the contract says if it's an employee relationship or contractor. Is this what the decision would come down to? Can regular employees have shifts cancelled with 24 hours notice? Notwithstanding the contract, I believe I would be considered an employee.


texts: Can the U.S. government sue medical marijuana dispensaries for copyright infringement?

texts:
US Patent 6630507, which was assigned by The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services, is loaded with the many medicinal values of cannabinoids, including Tetrahyrocannabinol. According to the patent:

  Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, and COCH.sub.3. ##STR1##

Many companies use the various cannabinoids, specifically THC and Cannabidiol, to earn a profit.

Can the U.S. government sue medical marijuana dispensaries, or any company that uses Cannabinoids, for copyright infringement?


texts:
Am I breaking copyright if use the Billboard Hot 100 chart on my own website but in a different format and adding data, I created, to it.

On the website I am displaying this modified chart and letting users interact with it.
The interaction is a form of gamification.

I have read this article which says:

  Charts, graphs, and tables are not subject to copyright protection
  because they do not meet the first requirement for copyright
  protection, that is, they are not “original works of authorship,”
  under the definitions in the Act.

The state of law seems really muddy on this topic and I would be grateful for some clarification.

Further clarification - what I am using is:

The list of songs for that week's billboard chart. So only the names of the songs, without particular ordering.
The facts whether the song has risen or fallen compared to the previous week.


texts: CC-0 derived work can it be locked by copyright?

texts:
Let's say someone released something, a detailed scene of a story, as a CC-0 work.

An author took that work, expanded on it (the work became a part of the story), and protected their complete work under copyright.

Then one day, I myself had an idea -- in whole, totally different from the aforementioned author's -- and I use that detailed scene as well in my work.

Can I get into hot water for basing the idea on the same CC-0 work?

And what if the original CC-0 work was actually my idea, and I can prove I'm the first one to release the work, can that protect me?


texts: Does attorney client privilege apply to free consultations?

texts:
Let's say you visit an attorney, and get half an hour or an hour of free consultation. And then decide not to use them.

Is the content of that free consultation covered by attorney client privilege? Or do you need to pay at least a nominal amount, say $1, for the privilege to hold?


texts: Ex-housemate cancelling NHS appointments (United Kingdom)

texts:
For a year or so, my wife and I lived in a shared household with largely random people in the UK. We did not get on well with one individual, and after a year we chose to move out into our own place. Whilst we were living in shared accommodation, my wife required a medical procedure on the NHS, but because the waiting time was so long, we did not hear back from them before moving out.

After moving out and not hearing anything from the NHS after ~6 months, my wife contacted the hospital that was supposed to schedule the appointment to find out when the procedure would be scheduled. The person at the hospital told her that an appointment had been scheduled for several months ago, and a letter was sent to our old property. She then went on to explain that someone had rung up to cancel the appointment. My wife informed them that she hadn't, and the person from the hospital provided the telephone number of the person who called. Needless to say the number was for our old housemate with which we had a number of disagreements.

As one final note, the ex-housemate, whose number matches that which called up to cancel my wife's appointment, is a full-time nurse employed in the NHS.

Has any crime been committed, and if so, is there any point in pursuing this with the police? If so, how do I go about it?
Even if a crime has not been committed, I would think that at the very least, opening someone's mail and then impersonating them and cancelling the surgery would at least be viewed as unprofessional, especially for someone employed in the NHS. Is there a procedure for making a complaint against an NHS worker?


texts: At what point can a computer-generated file infringe copyright?

texts:
In general it is illegal to download a copyrighted file without paying the copyright owner.

But is having metadata (hash) of the copyrighted material legal?

What if I've run a program (like Mathgen) that generates random documents and at some point it generated the copyrighted material?

Another example: my program generated a two-line program extracted from pi that by chance (or perhaps not) is copyrighted (like IEFBR14 which has around 10 words).  Does my program's output infringe that copyright?


texts: Lawyer billing the other party for writing a letter to them

texts:
(I'm in New Zealand, but I'm also interested in answers/data points from other jurisdictions)

A friend whose Intellectual Property (design patent) is being infringed engaged a lawyer who intends to write a cease and desist letter to the other party, and to send a bill to this other party for his letter!

Although it is likely the other party is aware they are infringing, my friend has not reasonably communicated with this other party asking them to stop prior to getting his lawyer involved.

I can't quite put my finger on why, but it is my distinct impression/feeling that if the other party challenges the bill, they could not be forced to pay it.  Are there any rules of law around this kind of thing?


texts: UK consumer law - is Burger King allowed to charge for 'no ice' in a drink?

texts:
My parents had visited a Burger King where, given they have small appetites, both ordered junior meals. One had asked for 'no ice' in their Coke, as it's often seen as a classic way for restaurants to increase profit margins by filling up their drinks with useless ice.

When they examined the receipt, they discovered they had appeared to have been charged 15p for 'no ice', which seems a bit bizarre because I didn't think you could be charged for something you don't actually receive. I was given the receipt to look over.

Furthermore, nowhere in the Burger King store was any notice put up of this 'additional charge' , nor did the cashier notify of this 15p surcharge for the removal of ice from a drink that is already prepaid.

This seems like a particularly dodgy scam, because Burger King are giving the false impression that 99p buys the entire drink, but add an additional 15p when they remove ice to 'add more'.

I'm wondering if this violates UK consumer law, and if so, what law would that be?

Attached is an image of the receipt with appropriate parts redacted. I've omitted the cashier's name because this seems like a general policy (as there is no signage). You'll find the 15p surcharge under Coke near the bottom where there's 15p next to it and 'no ice' under it (compared to the sprite which has no 15p next to it).


texts: Potential and comparatively minor second defendant in UK - name as party or join later?

texts:
I'm an onlooker in a substantial case in the UK, which has an interesting feature. Legal advice hasn't been sought (but will be), but in the meantime as an onlooker I'm curious about one aspect of the claim, and how it would usually be handled.

The case is in High Court rather than County Court limits (professional negligence > £50k). The case is almost entirely about D1's work, but for one part of the work (about 15% of the case), D1 recommended a second opinion, which was obtained from D2.

D1's work was undoubtedly negligent, but it's not clear whether or not D2's work was also negligent, and (if it was) whether in fact it made any difference to the damage in law. (Maybe D1's work tainted D2's work and was the primary work relied on;  alternatively the court might rule that D2's work was the main work relied on.)

My curiosity is raised about D2's position as a possible party, because of the pros and cons:

If D2 isn't a party, D1 can deflect concerns, requiring a second case on the same facts, and in a separate case D2 might re-deflect the matter back onto D1 which can't be claimed as that case is closed.
If D2 is a party, they will incur costs. If the eventual ruling finds D1 fully liable, then D2's costs will be bourne by the claimant under UK law, and they will be high because of the court.

Do UK court rules contain a way to notify a court in the claim, that a second party may exist and might need to be joined later if applicable, but not immediately have them as a party, for a specific aspect of the case where they are involved?

That would seem the obvious solution, but I am curious to find out the detail, such as how such a situation is usually handled in an initial claim, and how courts deal with it. (As a non-party onlooker I won't get to hear this from their solicitor)


texts: Define 11 months and 26 days legally from June 6th 2015

texts: I am currently moving out of a rented property. We assumed we had til the 1st July 2016 but were notified we were to return keys by today at 12. Our contract states the tenancy lasts for 11 months and 26 days. What date would this be legally?


texts: If Emoluments violations are tied to the governmental institution, do they go away when the violator leaves the government?

texts:
My question on Politics.SE around the recent DC Appeals Court dismissal of emoluments charges against the president on procedural grounds brought on a discussion better suited to here:

If an emoluments violation is an 'institutional' wrong that must be addressed by institutions, does an emoluments case continue after the violator leaves office? It doesn't seem like the same sort of case when a victim of police abuse sues the department, not the individual, but IANAL.


texts: My landlord wants me to move out within 30 days for renovation (Virginia), is that legal?

texts:
My lease is one year based and is about to end at the end of July, 2018. However, my landlord literally asked me if I would like to sign a new lease for the next school year on May 10 and I said yes. But she did not give me a response.

Now, on July 2, she told me that she will not be renewing my lease as she is deciding to renovate the bedrooms and bathroom; she asked me to leave before July 31.

This is very awkward for me as it is not enough time to find a good dwelling left for me and it is not a good time of a year to find new roommates and new rooms. I am wondering if what she is doing is legal or not?

(Also, there is one thing I forget to mention, there are two of us living in this place. However, I am the only one who has to move as she is only renovating the bedroom and bathroom I am using. So it just feels like she is trying to get me out of here while renovation is just an excuse.)

Thanks in advance!


texts: fortune-telling a NY crime, is it a dead letter?

texts:
Fortune-telling for pay is a misdemeanor in New York State if "he claims or pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give advice on personal matters or to exorcise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement." (Penal Law, section 165.35.)
Put aside cases in which the First Amendment religious defense (which doesn't apply to "claims or pretends to tell fortunes") or the entertainment/amusement exemption would be controlling.
Is a contracted business consultant, a salaried academic futurist, a serious (not for entertainment or amusement) war game player who's in the military and thus paid, a buddy for whom you bought a few drinks who predicts the outcome of a game on TV, an investment advisor on commission so you'll make a fortune, an insurance company accepting premiums, a NASA staff astronomer who predicts that the sun will rise tomorrow, a staff TV weather forecaster who predicts that it won't because a morning thunderstorm will block the view, a Roma (formerly called a Gypsy) who assures you that you'll find love soon, a salaried corporate executive who assesses upcoming sales or expenses, or a secretary on wages who predicts that the mailed letter will be delivered in two days subject to imprisonment for up to 3 months?
If I predict either nonenforcement or that the state would have to build a fleet of prisons, would I have to do hard labor just for that prediction?
Accenture is a consulting firm with nearly half a million employees worldwide, a NY office, and a market capitalization (stock price per share times number of shares outstanding) of over $100 billion. I think they predict the future for a lot of clients. For most of those clients, a client's executive who liaises with Accenture probably turns to other execs and predicts their company's future ("growth!"). There's gotta be at least a thousand execs ready for the pokey today.
I don't have the enactment date or any judicial interpretations handy, but I guess this was meant to regulate the Roma. They're around and, judging from storefronts, they do a good bit of business, but I don't think the type of economic crime they were known for decades ago is much of a problem anymore, since I don't see warnings about it.
Does the First Amendment speech/press defense wipe this out for everyone, not just the religious?


texts:
Is it legal to buy cheap virtual items (as game keys, in-game items, etc.) and then sell or trade them for a higher value?

I have some items that went up in price and I'm thinking of selling them. These items can be up to 400€ each, making about 60€ profit with each one.

Would it be legal to sell them? What if I was doing this weekly? Is there a maximum amount of money I can make a month with this type of "business"?

I know laws depend on countries, but in this case, I think it must be something international related.

In-game items are owned by my Steam account and they would be transferred to a buyer via Steam Trade Offer. In case of trading, I would receive his items the same way and in case of payment, I would receive the money on Paypal or PaysafeCard.


texts:
Would it lead to copyright protection if one were to record someone's speech, a speech in which the most half-baked ideas are advanced with such conviction that the general public takes them seriously?
What about a speech that someone worked so hard to give? Does that not fall under the 'expression' category?
Also, does recording a speech not constitute copyright at all?


texts: Does GDPR disclosure apply to European citizen temporarily in United States?

texts:
For some background: the EU "[Data Protection Directive][1]" is a European Union directive which regulates the processing of personal data within the European Union, as explained in [this Wikipedia article][2]. Among these regulations is the rule that individuals have right for a copy of the data that has been collected about them.

The question is, what about cases such as an EU citizen who is in United States on, say, a temporary 2-year work assignment sent by their employer? Let's say that during his stay in USA he becomes a member of an international organization that stores some details about him, or creates an account at some website that gathers information about his online behavior.

Questions:

Would data collected by the EU citizen in this case also be subject
to the GDPR disclosure laws?
Would the EU citizen have to return to EU in order to be able to
request a copy of his data?


texts: Possible consequences of bugging in game

texts: Is it possible to suffer any consequences for the using bugs or programs that use these bugs, in multiplayer game where enter usually 20 - 60 players at the same time? Headquarter of the company is in another country. These are ordinary bugs, without breaking into server.


texts: So, I've always been a fan of the medieval ages and chivalry and honor and all that good stuff, and recently as I was thinking about it, it got me wondering. Is it possible to have a duel to the death set up in a way where neither party receives any negative legal backlash (i.e. being labelled a murderer and tried as such)? I know back in the time of the civil war it was still legal (at least I believe it was) to have a death duel, but of course we also could have slaves so the laws have changed a lot since then. But is it possible now, maybe with a contract of some sort to ensure that both parties knew what they were getting themselves into, to legalize a duel to the death?


texts: Licensing - can any intangible thing of value to which an individual holds exclusive rights be licensed?

texts:
Provided an intangible thing is of value and an individual holds the exclusive rights to that thing of value, is there any limitation to what can and cannot be licensed? Can an individual license their consent for something that is usually freely given? Is prostitution a form of licensing of consent?
Background
Through an usual set of circumstances, I recently stumbled upon something a health care provider is doing with the health information of its patients, including my own. These are the most pertinent details:

What they are doing is probably unlawful to begin with
Without consent, they must delete the health information
Deleting the health information will cost several thousand of dollars per patient
These are very bad people who deserve what is about to happen

Consent-based health information brokerage
This got me thinking:

A patient could expressly refuse to consent to the use, requiring deletion of the health information.
The deletion will cost several thousand dollars
Rather than require the performance, the patient could sell a License back to them for say, 50% of the cost of deleting the records.
The health care provider will of course initially refuse this arrangement, but will eventually come around

Obviously, the key issue here is express refusal without enforcement means consent has no licensing value.
The market value of a consent-based License being fixed to the cost of deleting the records. As a consent-based broker, I would charge a 10% brokerage fee.
Everybody wins, except the health service provider, who now learn a valuable lesson that just because they were getting something for free did not mean it was worthless.
Is it possible for me to be a consent-based health information broker? That is, sell a consent-based Enterprise License back to a health provider so that they can continue to use people's health information?


texts: Why do United States Reports take so long to be published?

texts:
As an English-trained lawyer, I am used to seeing a decision of the UK Supreme Court (or formerly, the House of Lords) published within roughly a year in Appeal Cases (AC) (and sooner in the Weekly Law Reports [WLR]) by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting.  Other common-law jurisdictions of which I'm aware (such as in Australia's High Court with the Commonwealth Law Reports [CLR])
I was surprsied to learn, however, that the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) take a very long time to be published in United States Reports (US).  According to the website of SCOTUS, the current volume of US is only current to 2014 (!).  This means that there are cases which, six years later, still haven't been officially published and must be cited as 575 US  ____ (2015).
Given the enormous resources of the federal government (which enormously dwarf the ICLR's, for example), and the relatively small amount of work it takes to typeset and copy-edit slip opinions, why does the US take so long compared to other common-law jurisdictions to publish the decisions of its highest court?
(Note: I tried to add a 'law reporting' tag, but had insufficient reputation; I would be grateful if someone could do this on my behalf)


texts: Is it actually illegal to ask about things such as pregnancy/family status/etc in a job interview?

texts:
I often see articles saying questions are illegal to ask when interviewing a candidate. Something like this is a good example:

Are you planning on becoming pregnant in the near future?
Are you married?

etc. From the EEOC site it's obviously illegal to use this to hire based on this information.

However, is it actually illegal to ask this question or only illegal to act upon it? Does this change for a smaller company (say of <15 people, which is what the EEOC policies cover)?

Also, assuming that it's legal for a <15 person company, does that change if an intermediate such as a recruiting company exists which is larger than 15 employees?

Also, I understand that practically speaking it's a dumb question to ask and would never recommend it because there's effectively no way to take action based on the answer which is not illegal, if your company size is 15 or more (or ever depending on the answer to my questions). I am not actually sure if you legally could act on this with a smaller company as my read of the EEOC docs isn't clear.

I'm also asking this because I am curious given how often this comes up and how quickly people label such questions as "illegal."


texts: Can a leasor defer signing the lease agreement until the lessee actually moves in?

texts: I have just signed a new lease. The leasing agent says they countersign my lease after I move in. I still have a few days before I move in. Is this common/legal? Does it not expose the lessee to some risk?


texts: Change an S-Corp to a Sole Proprietorship

texts:
A bit of background: I'm working towards building a business selling on Amazon. I've been doing this for less than 2 months, and have less than $200 in sales, whereas I've spent about $700 on this. In other words, there's been no profit yet.

When I first started, I was advised to register as an S-Corp to avoid paying self employment taxes, and for various other reasons as well.

The problem: I'm beginning to think I should have just gone with a Sole Proprietorship. I mean, that's what I am, just one person doing business for herself.  The S-Corp requires me to pay myself a wage, have paychecks including income tax, etc, etc.

My question is two-fold. 1. Other than being taxed as self employed vs employed by the company, what are the differences between an SCorp and a Sole Proprietorship, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? I know so little about this sort of thing that I don't really even know how to present arguments for and against each side, other than that it seems like Sole Proprietorship seems to be more accurate for what I'm doing.

2. If I do need to switch, I assume that involves dissolving the S-Corp.  What do I need to do for that? I'm registered to collect sales tax in three states, though I don't owe anything to any of them. I assume I need to inform them and the federal government.  Or, is there some paperwork I can file that just changes the type of my business?

I would dearly love to hire a CPA, but I have extremely limited funds for starting this business, and can't afford one.

Many, many thanks in advance.


texts: Can I display my photo of a subject protected by intellectual property laws?

texts:
EDIT: the suggested duplicate: a) Refers to the UK. b) Only addresses one issue I mentioned. c) Perhaps wrong/misleading (at least in the US) - From the USPTO site: "To support a trademark infringement claim in court, a plaintiff must prove that ... and that the defendant's mark is likely to cause confusion in the minds of consumers about the source or sponsorship of the goods or services offered under the parties' marks." Additionally, as far as I know, a TM is only valid for its specific use - See USPTO: "Your trademark registration will only apply to those goods and/or services with which you claim that you are using, or intend to use, your applied-for mark. " while in my question (see below) the business using the photo is not using the name or logo for the same use as the TM holder. (This is besides my point above, that there is no implied source/endorsement from/by the TM holder.)
I'm not referring to simply creating a copy such as taking a picture of someone's painting and displaying it in an art gallery. I'll try providing examples to explain myself.
Let's say I'm creating a website for a car accessories' store and I want to use, as a background image, a photo I took of a sports car. The car manufacturer might have several types of intellectual property laws protecting the car, for example:

The company's name and logo appear on the car and are protected by a
registered trademark.
The car has a design patent on a pattern on the car.
The whole car is copyrighted as a work of art.

Or a case where the copyright issue is more apparent; A website for a store that sells television sets, and I want to use a photo (again, that I took) of a television set showing a cartoon featuring a famous animated round-eared mouse.
To make it clear - the company that the website is for would not make any claim that they represent the subject's creator-company, nor that they are affiliated in any way with them. Other than, perhaps, that they sell items of that (subject's) company, if applicable.
So, can I use such photos?


texts: Are FULL documents required for discovery or will portions suffice?

texts:
Simple question. When supplying documents for discovery must one supply the whole document or just pertinent portions?

Example - In dispute is a % or a closing date. The key info is available in a 10-page contract, on page 2. MUST one include the whole 10 pages or just the pages with the requested info?


texts: Legallity of contract that obliges a signatory to perform oral sex?

texts:
In the American animated series South Park, in Season 11 episode 10, a character is contractually obligated to perform oral sex.

I imagine this contract would be illegal to enforce? My suspicion is that if the signatory changes their mind, then current consent trumps prior consent. Otherwise this would be court enforced rape?

Two questions follow:

Could oral sex be legally enforced by a contract?
Could including this clause invalidate an otherwise legal contract? E.g. contract says pay 5 dollars and perform oral sex. Could the first part can be enforced, by ignoring the latter? Or does the inclusion of something illegal invalidate the entire contract?

I realise this is probably a stupid question, but it appears to be on topic - meta.


texts: What is the legal & tax position of a UK person working remotely for UK firm, in non-UK locations, in Europe and globally?

texts:
This question is inspired by this question on travel.stackexchange.com.
I am mainly asking about a UK viewpoint, but am interested others (Europe, USA, commonwealth, etc), because at its root, this is a cross-jurisdiction question.
Person X has a UK limited company Y, and his/her work on consultancy based, often remote, sometimes visiting clients in person. The consultancy reports and software are all delivered via internet. Invoicing and payments and all financial affairs are done in GBP via UK banks, and all tax affairs are in order with the UK HMRC.
The clients are based in various countries, UK, Europe and globally.
What is the legal & tax position of conducting this work various remote non-UK locations in Europe and globally?
And from a legal-philosophy viewpoint, is it any different from a UK author going travelling, taking lots and lots of notes, or even writing his/her next novel whilst in various locations, and publishing once returned to the UK?
Finally, in practical terms, if a government does get snotty about it, what basis does a government have for deciding "where" work was done?  How would that apply if a team of software developers had a virtual "pair programming" session, with one in USA, one in UK, and one in the Far East ?  "Where" has that software been written?


texts: When can someone legally act on the behalf of another person?

texts:
I moved out of my rental home and the landlord has not returned my security deposit. It would appear that the landlord is trying to avoid me and have her friend (who is apparently a lawyer) do all the talking. The friend said she could email-transfer my damage deposit back to me, to which I replied I would prefer to speak directly with the landlord (which is true because the landlord owes me prorated rent). Anyway, the landlord has ignored all my communications after her friends started emailing me. Just to be clear, the friend's name never appears on the lease or any agreement I signed.

Is it possible that the landlord has somehow delegated her responsibilities as the landlord to another person? If someone is "legally representing" someone else, must they tell me?


texts: Does an Oregon car rental agent have to explain what insurance I am accepting/waiving

texts: When renting a car in Oregon, does the agent have to explain to me what insurance options I am accepting/declining?


texts: In UK law how binding is judge precedent, and when can it be ignored?

texts: Once a court has set precedent, can it ever be ignored? Is it legally binding, or just very persuasive advice? Are there any examples of a judge ignoring precedent without setting new precedent, or is that paradoxical?


texts:
A demand letter is to be sent to remedy a breach of contract. I believe the request should be time-bound so that the defendant understands when expenses are will begin to accrue: expenses that they will be held liable (court filing fees, legal fees, etc.)

Is there a a rule of thumb for setting a response time?   My initial reaction is 5 business days, because the plaintiff has emailed the remedy to the defendant and has been documented that a board meeting voted against remedying the breach.


texts: Quora bots are copying a significant amount of Law Stack Exchange questions to Quora, without proper attribution

texts:
Quora users/bots are copying a significant amount of Stack Exchange questions to Quora, without proper attribution. It seems quite systematic.

For example:

Are passengers allowed to record the audio of their interactions with the US immigration officers when clearing the immigration as they enter the US? was copied to Quora just a few seconds after to https://www.quora.com//unanswered/Are-passengers-allowed-to-record-the-audio-of-their-interactions-with-the-US-immigration-officers-when-clearing-the-immigration-as-they-enter-the-US?share=1
Is it legal to completely retell a film in text? was copied to Quora: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-legal-to-completely-retell-a-film-in-text?share=1

This issue affects a few other Stack Exchange websites as well but I  thought that some users on Law Stack Exchange  may have the most suitable legal knowledge to find an appropriate course of action. Quora doesn't respond to my copyright violation complaints, and Stack Exchange employees aren't interested either.


texts: What is the opposite of the legal concept called ‘textualism’?

texts:
The concept of Textualism has as its main focus the precise letter of the law.

What is the name of the opposite concept?

An opposite concept would be where focus also is given to non-textual sources, such as:

intention of the law when passed,
the problem it was intended to remedy
Significant questions regarding the justice or rectitude of the law.


texts: Can the police require you to sit if you are not under arrest

texts:
In the following video, the narrative is that the police asked the young man to switch off his phone. He refused. They asked him to sit down. He refused. They then used violence to put him on the ground:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-QLZNTjqOQ

Do people have to comply with a policeman's order to sit on the ground?


texts: Can a plaintiff in a fiduciary breach of trust sue a particular director instead of the company?

texts:
I heard this story from Peter (not actual name):

Peter co-founded a company with John.
John earns 80% of shares while Peter owns 20% of shares.
John being greedy empties all company coffers transfering all assets to another company (his new company).
Peter brings John to court for fiduciary breach of trust.
Peter wins the lawsuit but the company has no money left to pay him! The company simply closes down.
John gets away with everything in his new company!

As mentioned, I heard this story from Peter but don't know the full nitty gritty details. My question, couldn't Peter sue John (and his new company) instead of the old company?


texts: State property immune from local taxation?

texts:
I know that Federal property is generally immune from local taxes, but what about property owned by the state? Is that just a matter of state law? Is there a term for this kind of immunity because I can't find it using standard searches.

Jurisdiction: New Hampshire


texts: What are the penalties for falsifying a DMCA notification?

texts:
I'd like to get your thoughts on the following scenario:

a host takes down content and informs the content creator, it was taken down for copyright reason
content creator asks to be forwarded the DMCA take-down notification
content creator immediately files DMCA counter notification
content creator asks if host follows standard DMCA procedure and laws
host(US based) confirms DMCA procedure and laws are followed
host confirms counter notification was received and forwarded to complainant
after repeated requests and almost 2 weeks later, the host finally provides the DMCA take-down notice
upon investigation of the PDF file, the content creator notices, that while the notice is dated properly in the letter head, through an XML snippet at the end of the file read with a text editor, the file has in fact been created the day it was received - almost 2 weeks after the take-down.
the host re-publishes the content, 3 weeks after the counter notice was filled(15 business days), as the complainant failed to sue the content creator

now, here's the interesting parts:

content creator has good reason to believe the content was not taken down through a DMCA take-down notice, but through a backroom deal the complainant had with an employee of the host
What legal penalties may the host be subject to?
more importantly though, there's proof(in form of the PDF/XML) the law firm, who filed the DMCA notice, did in fact back-date it, falsifying a legal document
What legal penalties may the law firm be subject to?


texts: Is it ever not legal to cause harm to escape non-institutionalised harm?

texts:
Is there ever a case where your legal duty to care/not harm someone causes you to not be able to legally retaliate against non-institutionalised harm?

Examples do not have to be specific to any jurisdiction or group of people, they can include such things as the attacker being a minor, the attacker lacking intent, etc.