texts: Given notice of redundancy before 2 years employment, end date is after 2 years of employment - entitled to statutory redundancy pay?

texts:
I work for a small company and due to lack of business they are changing their business model; as part of this my role is now being made redundant.

I was given my notice (a duration of 1 month) before 2 years of continuous employment.

On my confirmed last day of employment, I will have been working at the company for 2 years and 14 days.

My employer states I am not entitled to statutory redundancy pay because I have worked with the company for less than 2 years.

So my question is - Is the relevant date calculated from when you were given notice, or your effective end date that decides if you are eligible for statutory redundancy?

Food for thought...

If it turns out I am eligible for statutory redundancy, could the employer enforce gardening leave before the 2 years deadline to cancel my eligibility? (curious!)
Halfway through my employment, I relocated abroad and now work remotely. Would this have any impact on my eligibility?


texts: Do accelerators or incubators help to getting visa?

texts:
If I have a MVP(Minimum viable Product = creating a prototype of a tech invention or idea) that I like to find an investor or create a startup around it in UK/Germany/US/Canada, applying for accelerators or incubators can help me to get visa or I must go for visa in other ways?

I live in Iran.


texts: Is the description of number of rooms prescriptive or descriptive in Massachusetts condo docs?

texts:
We live in a three-unit condo, with three trustees (one per unit) who act by majority vote. We're interested in adding a second bathroom to ours — by converting an existing small room rather than building or taking common area. Even though we're not changing the footprint, this is an improvement which affects the common areas (because of the plumbing) and therefore needs trustee approval. We have that, with a 2-1 vote. But, the people voting no are saying that since there is a page in the condo docs which describes the number of rooms and notes on a chart "1B", where B is bathroom, that the project requires an amendment to this part of the Master Deed to change this and cannot go forward without.

Is this true? Is this chart a prescription, or is it intended to describe the condo at formation and should be changed to follow reality but does not block it? Or, something else?


texts: Placed on 24 hour shift under National Minimum Wage (UK)

texts:
A friend of mine works in a care home for young adults with severe learning difficulties. These people need 24-hour care.

She is paid approximately £7 per hour. She has today been placed on a rota for the following shifts:

14:15 - 21:45 followed by 21:45 - 07:15 followed by 07:15 - 14.45

She is concerned about working over 24 hours in a row (the overnight shift 21:45 to 07:15 is a shift where she is in the workplace allowed to sleep, but can be woken at any time to help the patients).

She is concerned that this will have a negative impact on her own health (if she is woken, she will get no sleep) and also on the quality of care that she can give to the patients.

Furthermore, for the overnight shift (21:45 to 07:15) she is paid a lump sum of £30 which is £3.15 an hour - she is entitled to a National Minimum Wage of £5.55 per hour.

Exactly which laws and regulations are being breached here so that she can effectively raise the issue to her boss?


texts: Is Mongolia a good place to host a no-moderation social media website?

texts: Between Mongolia and Canada, can you tell which country is less censored in terms of online freedom of speech?


texts: How do I file a criminal complaint in Germany?

texts:
How can I lay a criminal complaint before the governmental prosecutor according to § 158 (Strafanzeige; Strafantrag) StPO?  Need I follow a particular format?  where do I send it?  Can I submit an anonymous complaint, and if so does the prosecutor take those seriously?

I read the following tweet from Henry B. Poquelin*: "Fakt bleibt, man muss Positionen und Personal der Rechtspopulisten attackieren,weil sie gestrig,intolerant, rechtsaußen und gefährlich sind!" I hate AfD and its politics, but still I don't like the call for criminal violence against people and property. I thought of a prosecution based on §111 and §130 StGB.

Well, I will certainly not prosecute him, but I still would like to write a correct letter to the government lawyers and knowing how to send it anonymously to them.

*I'm using a pseudonym here to avoid listing the name of the famous SPD politician. I don't want to start a witch hunt on him.


texts: Are there actual cases where a woman got jailed for being raped by an underage rapist?

texts:
This PDF says that if a minor rapes an adult it is statutory rape.

The case is Henyard  v. State.

It goes on showing a sample of a 15-year-old man using a gun to rape a mother in front of her 2 daughters.

The case ended badly. The mother is shot. The 2 daughters are also murdered.

The PDF argues that the mother, if she survived somehow, would still be guilty of statutory rape. However, I cannot find any info whether she is actually charged for that or not. It seems that no sane DA would charge her with that. I may be wrong.

Imagine a similar case.

A 15-year-old male pulls gun in front of a 21-year-old woman. They have sex.

Now, the rapist is guilty of many things of course. But under the law, both are guilty of rape. The rapist for well, rape. The woman for having sex with an underage rapist.

Are there any actual cases that are like this?

Are there cases like this where the rape victim does not report the crime knowing that she will be found guilty too?


texts: What stops you from invoking §19.6 if a police officer attempts to seize your mobile phone?

texts:
Section 19 of PACE (the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984) states:

(3) The constable may seize anything which is on the premises if he has reasonable grounds for believing—

(a) that it is evidence in relation to an offence which he is investigating or any other offence; and

(b) that it is necessary to seize it in order to prevent the evidence being concealed, lost, altered or destroyed.

It has been suggested by officers on YouTube videos that the person recording the video has evidence of a crime on their mobile, that they've recorded; thus they're seizing their phone under PACE. But section 19.6 states:

(6) No power of seizure conferred on a constable under any enactment (including an enactment contained in an Act passed after this Act) is to be taken to authorise the seizure of an item which the constable exercising the power has reasonable grounds for believing to be subject to legal privilege.

So my question is: what stops someone about to have their mobile seized from telling the police officer that there is legally privileged information on their phone? They could even keep an email from a solicitor on it, which would fulfil the requirement.
Would this legally prevent them from seizing the phone?


texts: Sham contest- does this work in practice?

texts:
Acme Co is putting together a big promotional mashup for something that's internal to the company, but they need images from outside that help illustrate the theme.  So they hold a photography contest on that theme.  They say they will award seven top prizes of $7K each, but there's a $100 entry fee (plus rights to use of the entered photo) to encourage pre-filtering.  One person can enter up to twice, each with a separate fee.  Winners are supposed to be selected based purely on skill, not on luck.  There are no geographic restrictions on eligibility.  Judges' decisions are final.

The contest gets run and the time comes for announcing the winners.  Acme says "Hi all, thanks much for your entries. We got 50 good entries that we plan to use in our mash-up, and we're pleased to announce four people who are our winners: Mike B., Janice D., Nannette C. and Mike B. again.  Congratulations to them and thanks everybody for entering!"

There are three people who are winners, which is less than both four and seven, and both of those are in turn well under 50.  Acme Co saves a bunch of money by not awarding the other prizes.  In practice, none of the other entrants can individually do anything because they can't prove they would have won, and it would be an even more expensive failure to get to that point.  (Is that true?)

Has Acme Co. found a way to save money that is safe under the law in practice?  If not, why not?  What are the real risks?  How and when can this strategy break down?

What would any of the non-winning entrants be able to do about this in practice?

CA, US is given as an example jurisdiction, but feel free to answer for others if you know others better.


texts: If a heavily famous person (let's suppose a famous football player [I don't call it soccer]) kills an other ordinary civilian  and there's proof of such an act, will he get away with his crime, realistically talking, by simply being wealthy or will he be landed to jail like everyone else?


texts: Help with the laws of inheritance as pertaining to a Home

texts:
Recently I learned that my Grandmother left her home in Visalia, California to her grandchildren in her will. There are 6 biological grandchildren. I do not know the specifics of the will and whether "the grandchildren" are specifically named.
My parents are in the possession of the will as well as this house which is on three acres of land.  I asked to see the will and they refused to show me. My cousin found out that my parents had given the other grand children $10,000 each for their part of the house that they believed they would receive if the house was sold. I asked my cousins about it and they confirmed that they had received the money.
I asked my parents if I could move into the home because I am living in their backyard with my three kids. I do have a good job but they kicked us out of the home when the pandemic hit. My parents told me, and I quote, "you can have it when we die!"
I only want a home to live in and I would pay them rent because they are now renting it out. At least give me my part then because I could actually use this to better my family's situation.
Is this legal for them to deny me my inheritance or even pay off the other cousins--leaving me in the dark? Do I have any legal recourse to their actions or to claim the home or my part of the home?
Are there laws being broken?


texts: Is a license necessary to produce patented inventions?

texts:
Say I am a malicious CEO of Company A which has patented one of our products.  At a later point in time, I then publicly give verbal permission to Company B to produce this product.  (Permission is not given over any other avenue of communication)

After Company B has made a fortune off of our product, would I be on good grounds for infringement?  Does it change if I have given them written permission but not filled out a licensing agreement?

In short, can I use anything besides a licensing agreement to give permission to produce a patented product?

If the answer is different from country to country, then assume we are talking about US law.


texts: Can I require all communications with police to be written?

texts:
Suppose I was being spoken to by an officer during a traffic stop.  Can I choose to respond to him only in writing?  (To be clear, I am able to speak.)

My question is: If you are able to respond verbally to an officer, is it legal to respond by writing instead?

Furthermore, could I insist that all questions from an officer to me be made in writing?


texts: Am I required to report my Multiple Sclerosis to the DMV?

texts:
I was recently told that in every state, you must report to the DMV if you have MS.  However, I can not find anything to verify this.  Is this correct?

Specifically, I live in Alabama, but would be curious if the general claim is true.


texts: What does an officer mean by custodial statement?

texts: If (in Canada) a police officer asks you to come in to make a custodial statement does this mean you will be placed under arrest?


texts: Can one use already said sentences as examples on a language lesson?

texts:
Suppose I teach English (at school or I'm a private teacher, or I'm writing a book, or I'm creating an app - the point is that people pay me). In my teaching materials I give examples of correct sentences written in English. In the world there are correct English sentences which are already said or written: in books, in songs, in vlogs, in the comments on StackExchange.
Can I use such sentences (in the written form) in my teaching materials without asking permission to or paying anyone? If so, must I put the source of the sentence? Let's assume I'd just take one sentence from one context (1). I'd like to spread my teaching materials internationally. Are there any catches?
(1) I mean that, for example, I wouldn't write "We are the champions, my friend. We'll keep on fighting till the end", I would write at most one of these sentences.


texts: Can a non-California private resident transfer a handgun (used) not on the DOJ roster to a California resident? If so,what would the procedure be?

texts: I have a friend in Oregon who has some 1911 frames that i would like to buy from him.  Is this possible with me being a California resident.  Also, can a non-California resident, who will be relocating to California, bring into California his handguns if they are not on the Californian roster?


texts: Can results from a criminal conviction be transplanted into a corresponding civil case?

texts:
There is some overlap between crimes and torts, for example deliberately smacking a person in the head is the crime of battery and the tort of battery. If a person deliberately smacks another in the head, and causes harm to the other, they can be prosecuted and convicted for that crime. They can also be sued by the victim for the resulting damage.

If a person is prosecuted and convicted for the crime, can that fact subsequently be entered into evidence in a tort action against the person, as proof that the act happened and was caused by the defendant, making the only open legal question be what the damage was? Or, does the victim have to re-prove (to a different jury) that the act happened and that the defendant did it intentionally, as well as proving harm?

(My expectation is that the proof has to be replicated and the conviction cannot be introduced as evidence). Definitive case law, statutory or evidence-rule citations appreciated, as always. Any common law jurisdiction.


texts: Has anyone dealt with issues with non-compliance of CRC 8.124(c) in California appellate cases?

texts:
The appeal proceeds with 8.124 appendix. The opposing party / counsel (appellee) has been withholding trial exhibits (which were returned after the trial). A 8.124(c)(2) notice was filed in the appellate court and served on the opposing counsel, but no response was received from them. At least 10 days have passed since the notice was given.
Based on a quick search of CA case laws, there is only 1 case that mentioned 8.124 (c), and it is an unpublished opinion which in most parts, just admonishing an appellant who basically had no idea what he was doing (Wolff v. Banerjee, A144094, Cal. Ct. App. Mar. 2, 2016). It is unclear from CRC what the remedy or next steps should be to seek compliance of 8.124(c). Has anyone dealt with that before?


texts: Public domain status of works by the state of Texas

texts:
Stuff written by employees of the US government as part of their employment are supposed to be public domain simply because they're a US government employee, per Wikipedia.

So what about for the state of Texas? More specifically, what about student publications like The Daily Texan that are owned by a state-owned university?


texts: Copyrights of an application with similar name to another application

texts:
i has writing a php framework that its features is most important features that are exists in codeigniter and laravel and very very another features that is not exists in another frameworks. it's a full framework with many features and capablities. actually my framework is not complatly global and i wanna create it for my country programmers but non-iranians can use it and it's not dedicated to iran and iranians. becuase in iran we haven't a powerful framework such as CI or Symfony or ... that be iranian and have an iranian community to my compatriots could ask their questions with their own language on it. becuase as i'm a codeigniter developer, i know the problems of all of my compatriots programmers so about 6 month ago started writing my framework and from first i called it LaunchPad and its terminal countdown. actually the LaunchPad terminal (countdown) is similar to CI Spark or Laravel artisan
and about my question: i know we have an application with launchpad name, that all of us known what is its activity area. if i call my framework to launchpad, it's incorrect ? i mean this work break the rights of copyright or trademarks rules or not and it's ok ?


texts:
I would like to find out how much my school district is paying a private lawyer to work on a particular matter. Can I use FOIA (the Freedom of Information Act) or a similar state statute for this information?

For purposes of this question, the "particular matter" is not a lawsuit exactly. It is the lawyer doing compliance work for the school district, such as attending meetings, following procedures, responding to U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigation questions, preparing and arguing a special education impartial hearing case, and other matters related to special education advocacy.


texts: I currently am 21 years old and I had a great memorial weekend that ended with me getting the blue lights... I received a speeding ticket for I was going 71 in a 55mph zone.. I currently have been looking into hiring a lawyer to see if I could get this off of my record, but I am still looking into it. My 2 questions are: is it worth the money to have a lawyer and see if they could help me get this ticket off my record? Since I am only 21 years old if I would get caught again it would definitely not help my case... I got quoted for one of the lawyers I talked with and they were asking a very steep price. I then again realize that breaking the law you have to pay a significant price.


texts: Can an employer force me to quit my old job, claiming it's a conflict of interest, if I never agree to it in an employment contract?

texts:
This question is about when is something legally binding. Say I am an interview for a new company. They advise me that continuing to work for my old one (even on a part-time basis) would be a conflict of interest. I agree to quit. However it is never agreed to in any contract, for example, the employment contract contains no non-compete clauses.
Would I still be obligated to quit my old job and not work at it on a part-time basis?
In general for non-compete clauses, must the plaintiff prove that the two jobs are actually competitors? For example, would it be enough to say an employee is working at two different restaurants, or does that not mean they are necessarily competitors?


texts: In the New Mexico, US do you have to pay someone for work if after completion you do not feel the work is worth the original amount agreed upon. For example a plumber who gives you a quote, finishes the job, but it is not done as good as you would have liked it to be or it wasn’t all that you originally thought it would be or if they took longer than originally indicated, do you have to pay them the full amount or can you hold some back? If you don’t pay the agreed amount what could they do?


texts: Voicemail recordings and transcription email fall under GDPR

texts:
A client calls, leaves a voicemail with his name and number.

A vendor calls, leaves account information and address information. This call is also transcribed and sent via email.

The above are common communications left to individual employees' voicemail.
Do these fall under GDPR protection laws, and how are they to be handled?

I understand when a consumer calls, they  are informed that call may be recorded, but with the above type of communication is this implicitly assumed?


texts: Application to a new job requires applicant to solve a programing problem, what about intellectual property?

texts:
I recently clicked on an advertisement on StackOverflow about a job as a professional front end designer because I was interested.

I passed through the first stage of the application which was an online quiz to test my knowledge about front end programming plus some questions for personality test.

The day after, I got an email from the company saying that I have been invited to a solve a problem on Hackerrank as part of the application process so that they can assess my coding design.

The challenge was about creating a well-coded interview manager. (almost like a complete application). It was a 8 hours challenge. I did it.

After that, I haven't heard anything from the company anymore. Did they just steal my code? Made me work for 8 hours for free and ran away?
Can I sue them for stealing my intellectual property?


texts: Are jurors allowed to teach law to one another?

texts:
I vaguely recall in the case of Oracle v. Google in regards to Java v. Android that was happening in a district court physically located in San Jose, California, that one of the jurors was familiar with the process and procedure of acquiring patents, and there was some controversy in regards to this fact (he was sharing his experience with the rest of the jurors).

Is a juror having a prior knowledge of law, other than what has been presented to them in the specific court case, allowed to teach others about any such understandings they have held prior to the start of the proceedings?  Is it cause for them to be disqualified, or even for the whole panel to be disqualified?


texts: Are there any recommended or prescribed time limits for ambulance to reach a special need patient in case of emergency?

texts:
When I look for ambulance and how fast it should come, I find information regarding allowed driving speed.

However, for planning hospitals and roads, one should no how much time is on average required to reach a hospital. Depending on the region and the roads it can be quite different than approximating from the actual distance like in this contribution.

Are there any norms on that, or laws, or regulations? How does this compare internationally?

Special need patients:
- common issue, prenatal and newborn deceases require specialized teams and specially equipped environments
- rare genetic deceases may require for specialized emergency teams


texts: Is it permissible by law to charge tenants for additional roommates?

texts:
Preface:

I plan to purchase a single family home and rent it out to university students. Originally, it was expected that there would be one student per room (as communal areas would be sized according to how many rooms there are); however, some students expressing interest in renting have mentioned that they'd like their significant other to also live with them.

This presents a slight problem to my system. The house is meant for X amount of people, where there would now be Z amount. Utility usage would increase; additional space would be used to accommodate their possessions; also, it would increase liability on my end.

I wouldn't mind this situation if I'm making up for it in additional income. To reasonable limits of course. Five people in a tiny room would be quite silly.

Edit:

For the purposes of this question, consider only the actual act of charging the tenants extra simply for adding another person to the room. I’m not concerned with zoning and other occupancy restrictions.

Research:

I have been referencing Title 42 of US Code (USC) under chapter 45.

"Sec. §3604.a" states that it is unlawful:

  To refuse to sell or rent after the making
  of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for
  the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of
  race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.

What I'm reading from this, is that I cannot alter (increase) my proposed baseline rate once I'm aware of an individual having familial status.

"Sec. §3602.k" says:

  "Familial status" means one or more individuals (who have not attained the age of 18 years) being domiciled with

  a parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or individuals

  or
  the designee of such parent or other person having such custody, with the written permission of such parent or other person.

Here looks like the sole definition of familial status; but I'm not quite sure if its only a contextual fragment; meaning there might be other ways of interpreting what that status might be.

Summary:

It seems that familial status only applies to parents who are in custody of a minor.

Is that really the case? Do spouses, significant others, or other familiar relationships not matter? Are there states that tack on additional discrimination criteria?

Am I able to charge my tenants an extra fee for adding another resident to the their room and subsequently my property?


texts: Does paid parking require official signs?

texts:
I recently got ticketed for parking in a parking spot that is, supposedly, paid parking. The only official sign on the premises is the generic "P" sign that, unless I'm mistaken, means I can park there freely for up to 24h. The only sign on the premises that says anything about paid parking is a paper plaque (facing away from the entrance, no less...) that says "you need to pay for parking starting from October 1st".

I disputed the ticket with the issuer but they said that according to "tax laws" (why would tax laws mention this?) this signage is completely legal. When I asked them to tell me which law so I could look it up they ceased communications.

Here's an image of the sign (click to enlarge) and translation for any non-swedish speaking readers:

  Parkingfees on {redacted} from October 1st. Same fee applies within the entire area, payment is issued through the {redacted} app or our ticketless parking meters.

This company is known for ticketing emergency vehicles on-call (most recently an ambulance responding to a heart attack) so I'm already extremely suspicious of their business.


texts: How hard is it to sue and win an employer wrongful termination or other suit

texts:
A person was hired for computer programming work. He was hired on salary. It was expected to be a full-time, 40 hours per week thing.

The company has traditionally, when asking people to work a little overtime, has allowed comp time later to make up for it.

Soon after being hired, the employee discovered the group he was hired into to be on a 'death-march'

Within a few week of the hire date, the company then required the employee to work late every night, often until 10 or 11pm. They still required the employee to be in at the normal time of 9am and no later.

They then required mandatory Saturday, Sunday AND holiday work with the same hours.

The employee averaged 70, 80 and often 90 hours of work per week. The company kept saying that the project should be finished soon and after that they could offer return to normal work ours and with comp time.

This went on and on with excuse after excuse being given to the employee as to why the project kept going on and on.

After 6 months of this much work, the project was finished.

The employer terminated the employee as soon as it was finished with no explanation.

Even if the position was classified as 'exempt' couldn't this be classified as so egregious as to be negligent or even abuse of the employee.

What would the chances be of being able to sue for some form of back make-up pay?

The company terminated 5 people on that day, all over the age of 40. They hired several others near the same time, all in their 20s. Could that be a reason for suing as well?


texts: Is it legal to copy large amount of data peer to peer in Canada

texts:
Is it legal to transfer large amounts of encrypted data peer to peer in Canada?

I transfer data from my friend PC in another country.
The data is encrypted, so nobody can ever know which data it is.

An article from 2006 states the following:

  In Canada, the Copyright Act protects all works and prohibits the confection of copies or the communication to the public without authorization. Thus, as a general rule, Internet file-sharing is illegal.

Is it true? Is it about any file-sharing or only for copyrighted works? Does it mean that file-transfer is also illegal because I don't share I copy onto my PC.


texts:
Say you have a website that has a gallery of many, many high quality images that you want to provide to your users. Because the images are high quality with large dimensions, their filesizes are huge.

If you wanted to reduce the load on your own server, especially if people download many images many times everyday, you could theoretically upload the images somewhere else, such as imgur, and use the links for your gallery.

Would this be OK to do, or are there any legal repercussions?


texts:
I live in Chesapeake, Virginia and I haven't been able to find a reference as to what my legal options are when it comes to a neighbor's tree and my yard.  I could only find a "general rule" for America that says one can trim the portions of a neighbor's tree that hangs over your yard, however you have to offer the trimmings to the neighbor if they want it.

Its a magnolia tree, which sheds leaves year round.  Its hard to see in the picture below, but all those yellow spots in the green leaves are dead leaves about to fall.  If I don't mow or rake at least every other week, my backyard looks like it's the middle of fall year-round.  It also drops seed pods - similar to pine cones,  but much denser - that get stuck in my lawnmower. The tree shades the ground near its trunk, so nothing grows there.  There is roughly a 20 foot radius of dirt, leaves, and weeds that looks terrible.  That bottom branch has grown significantly over the last two years and is staying low, which is causing the dead area to grow.  The Sun rises from the right side of the picture, so the tree in front of the magnolia blocks much of the light.  That means, the magnolia has to creep into my yard to get light.

As you can see, about half - and likely more - of the tree is over my yard.  I would love to get rid of the tree entirely, to keep my yard from the constant rain of leaves and pods, but I don't think I can do that.  If I were to trim off all the parts over my yard, I would expect the tree to die, which I think my neighbor would not be happy about.  At the least, I could get rid of that bottom branch, but that wouldn't solve much of my significant annoyance with this tree.

What are my options?


texts: How Could the Winklevoss Twins Have Legally Prevented Anyone from Stealing their Facebook Idea

texts:
Please give me legal, black-and-white answer.

Winklevoss Twins say someone stole their idea for Facebook and Judge awarded them some millions.

But how could have Winklevoss Twins protected themselves from being cheated in the beginning.

What legal things could they have in place so

They are not cheated to begin with (hence get credit for their idea)
If programmer decides to cheat them anyway, the case is open-and-shut and Judge rules in their favor without case dragging for years.

On the flip side, let say programmer did in fact create Facebook.

How does programmer legally protect himself from people who claim idea was stolen, takes him to court, and ends up paying the accuser (even though the idea was his from the start)?


texts: Is using a photo reference for pose fair use?

texts: If I draw an imaginary character and use a photograph as reference for human body/pose, is that legal, copyright-wise? Let's say I change the hair and the face? I know it needs to be 80% different, but not sure how much % a figure pose is worth.


texts: Is the NSO Group guilty of computer crimes?

texts:
The NSO Group is the company (based in Israel but American-owned) which appears to be responsible for the software used to penetrate WhatsApp.

The case seems to have a lot of parallels with the Marcus Hutchins case. Hutchins was originally indicted on 6 counts for selling malware which was subsequently used by an unknown person to hack banks. The indictments were under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and also under 18 U.S.C. 2512, which prohibits the sale of wiretap devices. Orin Kerr wrote an analysis of the indictments at the time. Hutchins subsequently pleaded guilty, so the legal theories in the indictments were never tested in court.

In the WhatsApp case NSO Group appear to have sold malware to a number of governments, and at least one of these governments has used the malware to spy on legal activities, including at least one lawyer engaged in a lawsuit against NSO.

If NSO Group has sold software to governments who are known to target dissidents carrying out legal activities, and those governments then used that software in this way, would that be a crime by the NSO Group under either US law or Israeli law?


texts: When the matter is sub judice then does a person have the right to speak the truth in public?

texts:
I've filed a case against my husband including my in-laws for dowry torture, on the basis of which police arrested them before sunset in my presence. But my mother-in-law filed a false case that she was arrested after sunset and got Rs.50,000 as compensation.

In a public website I mentioned that they have lied and NHRC has awarded compensation to her without taking my statement, as I am the prime witness and the action was done on the basis of my case.

Now my question is, in a democratic country like India do I have the right to speak the truth when the matter is sub judice?


texts: Who is responsible for proving the validity / invalidity of a license for a song should it be challenged?

texts:
I have a YouTube video which uses a song that I found on http://freemusicarchive.org/.  The website gives me permission to use the song under the CC 3.0 Attribution license.  Appropriate credit is given in the video description.  I have not had any direct contact with the artist.  I live in the US.

A company presumably representing the artist has filed a claim on my video and ignored the proof of license that I provided (a link to the song on the website and a link to the license itself).

I don't expect it will come to this, but I found myself wondering - if they were to come after me through legal channels, would it be my responsibility to prove that my license is valid or would it be their responsibility to prove that it is invalid?  Would a license obtained in this manner hold up in court?


texts: Is it legal to submit fake digital identification documents to private companies?

texts: Suppose that Facebook asks me to verify my identity. Is it then legal for me to create a fake digital image of a passport showing my pseudonym as the real name and submit that as if it were an image of a real passport?


texts: Do I have legal standing to force a website to remove my Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?

texts:
I recently learned a high school coach of mine used a website (athletic.net) to track meets, etc, and posted there is quite a bit of PII (full name, High school, graduation year, events competed in, etc.). I would obviously like this deleted but according to their forum Q&A section they can't / don't do that:

"Coaches use Athletic.net for meet entry, tracking athlete results and progress, as well as compiling school history and records in the sport. For all of the above reasons, athlete profiles, and results are never deleted."

Do I have any legal standing to make them either delete, anonymize, or privatize (make not publicly searchable) the information posted about me?


texts: What kinds of treason are there in Turkey?

texts:
I have read that a Turkish MP has publicized that Sarin gas has been sent through Turkey to Syria, and that he is now wanted for treason.

I am from Germany, and in our law, it is treason ("Landesverrat") if you leak state secrets to the enemy or the public, with the intent to harm the F.R.G. or to benefit a foreign power.

Telling outright lies is not punishable under that law.

Now if I understand correctly, the allegations of that Turkish MP are vague and would have been plausibly deniable, which they are no longer if the Turkish head of state orders an investigation for treason as per the German definition of "Landesverrat".

Is the assumption correct that by ordering a treason investigation, Erdogan has given away that the story is true? Or what other "kinds" of treason are there in Turkey, that may allow for plausible deniability despite an investigation?


texts: When do I need a licence to play music in a public place and how do I get it?

texts:
I would like to know if restaurants, lounges, clubs and places like that need a licence to play music. I'm a developer and I would like to develop a solution that would allow them to play music in a convenient way, but I'm not sure if this should be considered as a "commercial use". I live in West Africa, but I would like to sell my software in other parts of the world if possible so I would like a solution that is rather generic.

I can see that the prices for licences are quite high, so if I do need one, what solutions do I have? Do I need to purchase a licence for every single song, or is there any way to have a discount, a monthly fee or something like that? I'm pretty new to all this and I'd like to know who I should contact and how all this works. I've contacted Sony via their website but I haven't received any reply yet. However, I've seen on forums people claiming to have received a reply from Sony and having to pay over $2500 for a single song (to be played in a video).

Thanks


texts: Clicking ads as a form of protest or boycott

texts:
Would it be legal to click on ads on the internet, as a form of protest or boycott, making the advertisers waste time, money, or resources for something that you are not actually interested in? What exactly would make it legal or illegal, and why? Would there be a difference if such a thing was done by a single person privately, or if it was promoted publicly?
Some examples of what I mean:

John Doe hates McDonald's, for whatever ethical reason (maybe he's against junk food, meat, etc.). He therefore decides to click on every McDonald's advertisement he comes across (links, banners, YouTube ads, etc.). Note that McDonald's probably spends money every time somebody clicks on one of those ads, and that John Doe is not interested in buying anything from McDonald's.
John Doe hates McDonald's. He decides to do what is described in point #1, but he will also promote such behavior, hoping that more people will do the same. The goal is to get as much people as possible to boycott McDonald's by clicking the ads.
John Doe hates online advertising in general, for whatever ethical reasons (maybe he thinks that it is based on an unethical business model, it degrades the internet, etc.). He decides to begin clicking on ads at random, whenever he feels like it, even though he's not interested in the advertised product at all. He also decides to start a movement called JDCA (John Doe Clicks Ads) to promote such behavior, maybe even suggesting that programmers should write plugins to automate such behavior.

Jurisdictions I'm interested in: US and EU.


texts: Changing price of item after order has been confirmed

texts: I recently made a purchase on an online shop for an item listed as $42 + 15% GST, this was fine so I made my order and I was sent conformation that my order had been received. The next day I received an email from the company sending me an invoice with the price almost doubled explaining "There had been an increase in price to $70 + GST". My question is, is this legal? Is a store owner allowed to change the price after an order? Am I legally obliged to pay the invoice now?


texts: Why does the US FLSA have a separate classification for "Computer Employees"?

texts: I've been reading a Fair Labor Standards Act fact sheet. I don't understand why "Computer Employees" are classified differently from Professional employees. What is the justification for that difference?


texts: Is it proper to use "I" in a privacy policy?

texts:
I am creating a privacy policy for an app that I have developed by myself. Since there is no other person legally responsible, is it ok if I use the word "I" in the privacy policy?
Extra info:

This app will be on the app store and google play store
"I" refers to me (the creator of the app)

Example:

  I use analytics services to analyze how users use the app. These services may track how long users use the app, what pages inside the
  app users visit, and errors users encounter.


texts: What buildings are people not allowed to take photographs of in Japan? (from public street, no humans in pic)

texts:
In Japan, what buildings are illegal to take pictures of?

Notes:

Building only. Zero humans on the picture.
Taken from public street only. No entering private property/shops/transportation or similar.

Context: Loving architecture I always take tons of pictures when walking in the street, and sometimes get scolded by security guards. When talking with them they sometimes claim that some laws ban taking pictures of the building they protect, but without being able to tell me what law in particular.


texts: Logic or reasons for DA not bringing felony charges after an arrest warrant is issued

texts: What might lead a district attorney to decide not to bring felony charges after an arrest warrant is issued?  Are decisions not to press charges influenced by pending, unrelated felony charges in other counties - on the logic that the person will be behind bars soon anyway?  Or is the decision to bring charges always based on the likelihood of the prosecution prevailing in court? Or is the decision based on other factors?  (This question pertains to several counties in the state of Georgia, USA.)


texts: What is the advantage of setting up separate IP holding companies?

texts:
I find that many companies set up separate companies to hold intellectual property. Examples follow:

Dunkin' Brands Group, the company which operates the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins chains, has associated intellectual properties assigned to DD IP Holder, LLC and BR IP Holder, LLC, respectively.
Gearbox Software, developer of the Borderlands franchise and Battleborn, has associated intellectual properties assigned to IPerion, LLC, and Necromonger, LLC, respectively.

What are the advantages of maintaining an IP holding company(ies) separate from the operating company? What disadvantages might there be for doing this? Answers should be in the context of United States law.


texts: Who owns copyright for program created during an unpaid research position

texts:
I have been doing part-time unpaid research at a prominent medical institution. While here I created an app at the request of the department head to be distributed by the institution. This program is unrelated to the work I agreed to come on board to take part in, though it does concern a project that they have been working on for many years.
This institution is now requesting I recognize that the copyright belongs to them. I did not use any of their resources to create it, was not compensated for it and designed and built the program with little input. I don't mind giving them the technology, but am worried that I won't be recognized as its creator, and that the copyright can be used to claim ownership rights to my future projects, since I frequently recycle code that I've written. On the other hand, I need a reference and don't want to strain any relationships. Any thoughts on how to proceed is welcome.


texts: Distributing estate amongst children created from donated gametes

texts:
Let's say we have an individual called Aphrodite. She has an extremely high risk lifestyle and isn't expected to live much more than five years from now.

She goes to a specialized agency that screens individuals for eligibility to donate gametes. After going through the various procedures, she is deemed acceptable and thereafter donates her eggs.

Aphrodite wants to setup a last will that distributes her estate amongst all children that are of her genetic line once they obtain a certain age after she dies.
How could this be done in conjunction with both estate planning and an egg-donating agency?

Important Considerations:

The donator (Aphrodite) is not anonymous and her identify is disclosed to the recipients.
The recipients sign an agreement to not use the gametes for third-party donation or medical research.
Aphrodite will likely not be directly informed by the donation agency or recipients about who receives her eggs and if children are actually created with them.


texts: I was fired for refusing to work with Typhoid, do I have any recourse?

texts:
I was fired for not showing up to work as ordered.  This is after explaining to my boss over the phone that I have Typhoid, and working with food would endanger the guests to the restaurant/arcade at which I work.

Do I have any recourse at all in this situation?  As it stands, I should've just went to work anyway.  This is a followup to this question: May I legally work in a restaurant with typhoid if the employer knows?


texts:
Western Union processed an unauthorized withdrawal of $840 from my bank account, but the reversed the transaction.

I am very concerned and a bit stressed out about this given all the security and identity breaches going on. I recently received noticed I was affected by the Equifax breach.

Do I have any legal options to protect myself?


texts: How long can you be detained before the police are legally required to feed you?

texts:
Just like the title says, I'm wondering how long somebody can be held in custody before the police are legally required to feed them. Is there any legal limit, or is it at the discretion of the officers?

As a bonus/optional question: are there any legal precedents of people starving to death (from not being fed, not by them deciding not to eat) while being held by the police?

Update Specifically in regards to the USA (although info about more places is always welcome).


texts: Is it possible for an artist to retain the rights to their artwork while also allowing the client to reproduce the artwork?

texts:
I'm designing an album cover for a client and they want the rights to put the album cover art on a multitude of items (posters, tshirts, etc).

Is there a way for the artist (me) to retain the rights to my work while giving the client limited rights to reproduce the art for any means of marketing the album? If so how would I word this in a contract?


texts: Facilitated Swiss citizenship for Non-Eu citizens

texts:
I'm curious about the facilitated Swiss citizenship process for a Non-EU citizen, but without being in registered partnership nor marriage with a Swiss citizen. As a side-note, the job that person would work would be a high paying job in the IT industry.

There is this 'Article 22' that I found here, where it says the following:

  Anyone who has lived in good faith for five years and has Swiss citizenship, and during which time has actually been treated as Swiss by cantonal or municipal authorities, can apply for easier naturalization.

What does 'good faith' mean and how can someone determine if a person 'has been treated as a Swiss by cantonal and municipal authorities'? Also, does that mean living for 5 years on a C-permit?

A few more paragraphs can be found here under the 'Irrtümlich angenommenes Schweizer Bürgerrecht' chapter.

I know many of these things vary between cantons, but I just wanted to make more sense by asking here as I'm not a native German speaker.


texts: Using a trademarked item in another product

texts: There is a trademarked product used in therapy that is used to increase breathing capacity. I would like to use that product in a kit with protocols and instructions that would improve its current use and expand its uses. How do I do that without infringing on the trademark or being limited by the trademark owners?


texts: Does volunteer photographer own copyright?

texts:
An amateur photographer at a scenic rest stop sees a couple trying to compose a decent photo of themselves with the beautiful river in the background.  This happens so often that as he approaches nobody even needs to say a word: They hand him their camera, and then step back so he can take their picture with it.

But in this hypothetical scenario something extraordinary happens: As he takes their picture a commercial airplane doing an emergency landing hits the river in the frame of the photo.  So he happens to have pressed the shutter button on what turned out to be a very valuable picture.  Let us supposed that a media buyer offers $10k to license the photo.  Who owns the copyright to that photo?

On the one hand, the camera owners could argue that the photographer exercised no more "creative expression" than does a tripod or selfie stick.  They just didn't have one handy, so they composed the photo and the photographer was just a mechanism to hold the camera and release the shutter.  Therefore, they must own the copyright.

On the other hand, the photographer could argue that he "fixed the expression" of the creative work.  As an experienced photographer he made subtle decisions regarding framing and timing of the photo that were outside of the control of the couple.  Alternatively, if he hadn't been volunteering to photograph the couple with their camera, he could have instead been holding his own camera and captured the valuable element of the photo, which was the serendipitous emergency landing.

Does any law or jurisprudence inform who owns the copyright in this scenario?

If the aforementioned facts suggest it is the couple (and owners of the camera), then let us change one fact: After taking the couple's desired photo, the photographer sees the airplane out of the corner of his eye and, with no time to spare, shifts the camera to capture a separate spectacular photo of the water landing.  Does he now have firm claim on the copyright to that photo?

And if so, can the photographer enforce his property rights in the photo, given that it was captured and is stored on equipment he does not own and cannot legitimately possess?  I.e., can't the camera owner say, "OK, you own the photo copyright, but I own the medium where you put its only copy, and I will not sell or grant you access to that medium except for the full value of the photo."


texts: Can the Supreme Court of Ireland overrule itself?

texts:
The President of Ireland may, under Article 26 of the Constitution of Ireland, refer a bill to the Supreme Court of Ireland to decide on its constitutionality before he signs it.
Article 34.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland states that:

No Court whatever shall have jurisdiction to question the validity of a law, or any provision of a law, the Bill for which shall have been referred to the Supreme Court by the President under Article 26 of this Constitution, or to question the validity of a provision of a law where the corresponding provision in the Bill for such law shall have been referred to the Supreme Court by the President under the said Article 26.

Does this mean that even the Supreme Court of Ireland cannot
overrule its decisions made under the Article 26?

Is it different in other cases, i. e. when the Court decides on the
constitutionality of a law outside of the Article 26 procedure? If so, how?


texts: If a computer program qualifies as "orphaned technology" can it be recreated and sold legally?

texts:
Particularly MSBOB otherwise known as Microsoft Bob. Can I legally recreate and sell it? And if so are than any restrictions present?

Please no comments about "Why you recreate such a piece of junk?"


texts:
I had a 401k plan with a company that I left several years ago and since went out of business and so their 401k plan was rolled over into a generic IRA plan.

I want to roll the IRA over into the 401k plan for my current company. However, the old company had entered my birthdate incorrectly in the account forms. So when I call the company now or submit forms to them, they claim that they are not able to verify my identity and thus they won't talk to me.

What recourse do I have?


texts:
Ameer is driving in fast traffic on a highway when Bob, a police officer driving behind him, lights up the blues for a traffic stop on reasonable suspicion of speeding.  Ameer looks for a safe place to pull over, but the shoulder is consistently the same width, matching that of the car.  Bob thinks this has gone on too long and gets on the loudspeaker informing Ameer he must pull over immediately.  Ameer does so.  Bob approaches in the small space between the car and guardrail on the passenger side, pissed, with his gun drawn, and asks some questions about Ameer's speed.  Ameer gives some snarky answer about not wanting to meet the driver behind him.

The conversation escalates as the officer comes around to the driver's side and performs an "extraction maneuver" to get Ameer out of the car, as Ameer has not complied with an order to do so sufficiently quickly (though he did unbuckle his seatbelt after the order).  Ameer claims it was a rather rough extraction, but Bob's dash cam was coincidentally not operating at the time (and Bob's department does not have body cameras).  The officer gets Ameer up and requires him to stand next to the vehicle with his hands up on the top of the driver's door and his feet about body width apart and the same distance away from the vehicle.

The officer moves back to being in front of the vehicle, facing Ameer.  A third car (for convenience, I'll call the driver C) driving along the same highway in the same fast traffic comes along and strikes Ameer, throwing his body a good distance.

As a result of the accident, Ameer has severe injuries including a broken back and permanent paralysis from the waist down.  His car is undamaged, but he is unable to drive it anymore (even with assistive technology, and he must sell it to help pay the huge medical bills that rack up during his long hospital stay).

C immediately leaves the scene, before the officer can switch focus away from his efforts to get out of the way of the flying body; the officer does not notice enough to identify C or C's vehicle.  C cannot be tracked down,  thus successfully evading any legal responsibility.

Does the officer and/or his department and/or municipality carry legal responsibility for this?  Or is it indeed all Ameer's fault, for having made the snarky comment (but for which he would arguably not have been forced out of the car to begin with)?


texts: Can the employer fully access employee data according to EU law?

texts:
The computers at the company I work for recently show the message below during log on.

  This computer system is the property of Company. It is for authorised
  use only. All activities conducted on and information accessed,
  processed, stored or sent using this system may be examined. By using
  this system, all users aknowledge notice of, and agree to comply with,
  the Company IT Acceptable Use standard. Unauthorised or improver use
  of this system may result in disciplinary action. By continuing to use
  this system you indicate your awareness of and consent to these terms
  and conditions of use. Log off immediately if you do not agree to the
  condictions stated in this warning.

Is the statement legal according to European regulations?

Besides, it is my work computer, it is not that I have an option not to log on.

Related question for Norway


texts:
I am aware that ebooks actually have a license (usually) which prohibits a user from sharing an ebook.

I am curious, if, as a programmer, I can have a system (say an online session) where only one user (not necessarily the original purchaser) can use/view an ebook (i.e. it is not replicated or distributed) at any given time, will it be legal for me to share my ebooks?


texts: Can an open source licence be revoked if it violates employer's IP?

texts:
Suppose a developer's contract says that all intellectual property (IP) rights to her code belong to her UK employer. While employed, she develops a library and  open-sources it under the Apache 2.0 licence. The employer is not initially informed, but  later finds the library's public repo on GitHub.

Questions:

Can the employer force revocation of the licence?
What would then happen to those who forked and started using the library before revocation?

There are related questions on OS SE, such as https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/4012/are-licenses-irrevocable-by-default.
But they do not seem to address the situation when a library is open-sourced in violation of an employer's IP.


texts: Can my landlord force me to sign an agreement whereby I'd have to pay their legal fees?

texts:
Canada, Ontario:

My landlord included this item in the additional terms for a lease they want me to sign:

  Tenants agree to pay all reasonable costs, Lawyer’s fees and expenses
  made or incurred by Landlord enforcing this agreement.

This is a major red flag for me since this would seem to imply that if my landlord wants to take me to court for anything (reasonable or not) I'd have to pay for their lawyer as well as my own lawyer. If they wanted to hire an expensive lawyer and drag it out they could easily bankrupt me.

Is this even legal? It feels like signing away your rights which I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to do.


texts: In law, would this be considered as gambling - an investment tournament where people pay an entree fee and then pick a portfolio of 3 stocks. After some period the top 3 portfolios share the pot of entry fees.


texts: What Is the Impact of Liability on Billing for Work Not Done?

texts:
First things first, sorry for the uninspiring title. Please edit it if you have a better one for the question!

This question arose from a comment on a related question which I posted. The question was deemed worth of its own post.
I rephrase it a bit here to apply more generally.

Suppose I have a barn which needs refurbishing for the big Stack Exchange Gala[*] I'm holding at the end of the year. I contract a builder to do the repair work; we agree £10k for the work, to be paid on completion.
There is a clause in the contract which states something along the lines of, "the builder cannot be held liable if the work cannot be done due to sickness or circumstances outside of her control".
(An example of this might be some type of force majeure clause.)
Pandemic hits. She can't do the work. Pandemic clears in time for party (wishful thinking) but I can't host because she didn't do the work. I lose out on earnings I would have got from hosting.
I can't sue her for those lost earnings due to the lack of liability clause. (I'm pretty sure this is the case.)
However, does the liability clause mean that can she still charge me £10k for the building work which wasn't done?

[*] Not a real gala, but if it ever happens you heard it here first!


texts: How can felons be denied Constitutional rights?

texts:
The 2nd Amendment grant all people a right to bear arms:

  A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

However felons are somehow denied that right.  Ignoring whether it would be desirable to have armed felons, then why would that not be unconstitutional?


texts: Who owns the copyright on a Watson recording?

texts:
If I record my own work using IBM's Watson demo, who owns the copyright on those recordings?

I couldn't find the terms of use for the demo service, nor the full service after registration.


texts:
This sign is posted on private property in New Mexico, USA at:
35.47212, -106.15719

COPYRIGHT NOTICE Photos and videos taken of Lone Butte Mountain may
not be directly or indirectly published, reproduced, stored, modified,
published, copied, transmitted, sold, projected, redistributed and
used in any way without the permission of the owner, to avoid
copyright infringement.

Issues/Questions:

Just a comment. Given the poor writing, this sign does not appear to have been written by an attorney.

Is it legally valid to copyright a land feature?

Does this make it illegal for me to photograph (and publish) a photo taken while I'm standing on public land (in this case County Road 45)

Same as 2, but supposed I own the land on the other side of the road and take the photo

Supposing that the land owner has no legal right to copyright, is it illegal to post this sign?

Edit:
I showed this to an attorney friend this morning and he said "kind of like trying to copyright air".


texts:
On slashdot.org the following case was discussed: A owns a laptop, and has software installed that allows to log into the laptop remotely. B steals the laptop, and uses it to log into their Facebook account. A logs remotely into his stolen laptop, notices the Facebook account, and finds the name, address, and phone number of the thief using the Facebook account.

There is the question what the owner of the laptop is allowed to do:

Is the owner of a laptop authorized to access information put there by a thief – i.e., a person who definitely knew they had no right to use the laptop at all?
Is the owner of a laptop authorized to access a Facebook account of a laptop thief?  I.e., does the thief authorize the laptop owner by logging in to his account on the stolen laptop?
Would the identity of a laptop thief be protected from the legitimate owner because of privacy laws?


texts:
What liability do I have if I make an opensource piece of malware (registered under MIT), and then someone takes it and uses it to infect hundreds of computers? Could I be taken to court for that? Or are they purely accountable?

If I could be held accountable for that, is there a license which would prevent this?

The duplicate is incorrect, as that is about paid program (I believe) rather than an open source program anyone can use. It's not like I'm writing the malware and giving it to people to use, I'm releasing the source for people to take a look and see how it works.


texts: To what extent would a civil court defer to a criminal court (jury) decision?

texts:
To what extent does the doctrine of stare decisis bind civil courts to the decisions, especially the jury determinations, of criminal courts?

If someone was convicted of an act that was both a crime and a tort, (fraud, for example), and was afterwards sued for fraud, to what extent (if any) is the criminal court's determination (to a standard of "beyond all reasonable doubt) binding on the civil court trying the same person for the same instance of the same offense, to a standard of "on the balance of probabilities"?


texts: Is it legal to record someone who explicitly tells you not to?

texts: If I demand that someone with whom I am having a private conversation not record it, and they surreptitiously do so, is that recording illegal?


texts: legal to use company property for personal use?

texts:
I own an LLC (limited liability company) in Arizona, United States. More accurately, I am the sole member. I have no creditors, no investors, no board, no on else to worry about. This is federally taxed as a disregarded entity, and is not a non-profit.

Is it legal to spend company money, and use items spent with it it for personal use? For example, if I purchase a printer with company money (i.e. company bank/card), and intend to use it for company purpose(s), and I print something for my personal college, or something of that nature, is that legal? Or, buying 1,000ft of CAT6 (network cable), and cutting myself a cable for personal use? What about if I purchase an item with a company purpose, but later find it doesn't fulfill the purpose and use it for personal use, or transfer the property to myself or to a friend? Can I purchase an item, and the business excuse is "making an employee/person happy"? Am I "piercing the corporate veil"? Are there any tax considerations I have to consider?

It seems awkward, as there is a conflict-of-interest between myself and my company, as I both make decisions for it, and there is no check-and-balance.


texts: Are there tests to apply to wills to check their validity?

texts: What kinds of tests can one reasonably apply to wills to check to see that each stipulation holds up without going before a judge and can withstand a courtroom challenge?


texts: Using Copyrighted Material in Class Lectures or Projects

texts:
What kind of permission or citation is required to reference copyrighted material in a course lecture? (e.g. movie scenes and characters)

What limits are there on course projects that relate to such content? For example, can a project be to re-create a scene from a movie or use identifiable imagery from movies in student works of art?


texts: Can an employer force a salaried employee to take a sick day if employee has worked 40 hours?

texts:
My friend works for a company that is regularly asking for 50 hours of work a week from her.  She recently had to take the day off due to illness, and the manager made a statement making it sound as if he expected her to use some of her very limited sick days for the day off.  However, due to the 10 hour days she has already worked 40 hours in the week.

She is salaried, and was told occasional overtime may be required, but it wasn't until the company fired many of her coworkers that they started trying to push her to do 10 hour days.

I believe that legally they can't force her to use sick leave since she has met the 40 hours minimum required as a salaried employee.  Is this correct?

She lives in Atlanta, Georgia


texts: Bypassing website's paywall by modifying HTTP request headers

texts:
Recently I see some debates about bypassing paywalls by modifying browser's HTTP request as stated on ghack.

Most paywalled websites allow users to read a certain number of free articles before blocking them outside of the paywall. They do it by saving a record in browser's cookies or by checking the request referrer to identify whether the user exceeds his / hers daily reading limit.

There's some browser extensions that clears the browser cookies and modify the request referrer before user send out a HTTP request. By this way they can gain access to unlimited articles since it's harder for websites to identify them.

Are making or spreading these kind of extensions illegal? How about the users that use the extension?


texts: Is it legal for an IT technician to register a Microsoft Office serial key onto his Microsoft account that I purchased?

texts:
Good day,
I bought an office 2016 microsoft product from an IT store in 2018, or rather a work colleague did and I ended up taking over the whole process of sorting it out.
Until recently we've had no issues, and we ended up taking the notebook in to have the office 2016 issue sorted out, they told us there has to be a format and all sorts of technical mumbo jumbo that will cost us money in order for them to resolve the issue.
not being clued up with how microsoft product registration and such works i did some research and contacted microsofts support team, they helped me sort out the product without any problems, now I'm at the menu where I've to provide the login credentials for my purchased office 2016 product..
Upon purchase in 2018 the tax invoice has a username and password but not the purchased serial key, speaking to microsoft they said the provided username(email address) is not associated with the product we purchased, and in the research i found that the IT store registered the serial key to their own microsoft account!
I don't want to add too much, but bottom line, upon purchase they provided us with incorrect details, did not include the serial key of the purchased product and now when calling the guy that I need to speak to is apparently 'not in' the entire time. I'm wondering if it's illegal for them to register a product we purchased onto their name ?
So the above is my first primary question, I'll just add some additional train of thought here, I believe they registered it onto their account so that they can cause issues with the account and cause us to go in and claim all sorts of problems just so they can bill us, which seems like another illegal move ?


texts: What is the legality of an individual of dismantling very clearly abandoned bikes locked to fixtures and fences in a public area?

texts:
I live in New York City. Brooklyn to be exact. And while this city is far from bike friendly, there are still a lot of bikes here. Including many bikes that are clearly abandoned and utter garbage in many cases.
While the city often will go to abandoned bikes and remove them if you call in a complaint, this process is far from consistent or perfect.
So as a citizen who sees more than  a few bike racks clogged with rusting bikes chained to them, what is the legality of me — as a private citizen — going up to these bikes with a few simple tools and stripping the bikes down to the bare frame?
To be clear, the bikes I am talking about are just junk at this point: Rusting drive chains and decrepit wheels with tires that are disintegrating and such. In many cases, small items such as the seat post and the stuff attached to the handle bars are gone. To any objective observer, these bikes are junk.
But my personal goal would be to dismantle them further — such as removing wheels and front forks and such — so they take up less space and thus freeing space up for people who want to legitimately lock their own bikes up?
I realize in many localities, garbage is considered municipal property and you can’t just legally pick someone’s garbage — even though people indeed do this — but in the case of an abandoned bike, does where and what the bike is locked to matter? I assume if it were private property I own, I can just snip off the chains of anything locked to my fence without issue. But I have a feeling that bikes locked to public bike racks and sign posts fall under another legal umbrella.


texts: It is well-known that during a divorce (UK) Courts can over-rule 'Pre-nupitals' for whatever reason. If on the other hand, before the Wedding any property belonging only to one partner is protected in a Trust purely involving the (pre-marriage) family of that partner (i.e. to protect it from a divorce and any other claims against it), is there any set of circumstances which can cause the divorce Court to completely overrule the Trust and declare it as 'null and void' (e.g. deliberate deprivation of wealth)?


texts: What is the difference between an organizational identification number and a DOS ID #?

texts:
When searching through the New York Department of State Corporation and Business Identity database, all information pages in the results have this note at the bottom:

NOTE: New York State does not issue organizational identification numbers

But at the very same time, each result has a DOS ID# (Department of State ID) that uniquely identifies the entity:

This strikes me as confusing and inconsistent. Does an "organizational identification number" have special significance that a DOS ID is not designed to convey?


texts: Accident with a truck stopped on the road side to do road work with no sign

texts:
Today I had an accident with a truck stopped on the roadside for doing some road work with no signs showing that. Only the flashers were on.

My question is Should that truck have had. Only the hazards were on.
I live in the state of Georgia.

Thanks


texts: Am I required to render medical aid when off-duty if I am a doctor?

texts:
My family is dragging me along to a politician's ball.  I'm not a very big fan of this particular group of attendees, to put it mildly, and have recently been day-dreaming of one choking while I raid the buffet table.  I would not feel a single pang if they ate the dust.  But would I be liable to a civil or criminal charge if I refused to give medical aid in this situation, given my occupation as a surgeon?

And if so, is there any way I can escape this?  Perhaps by taking a stiff belt of scotch the moment I see trouble?


texts: What is the precedent for what a Supreme Court nominee can or cannot say during their hearing with the Senate Committee on the Judiciary?

texts:
Senators have asked Brett Kavanaugh about a wide number of issues these last two days. A number of exchanges have become very predictable:

Q: How do you feel about a past decision? A: It is precedent. Q: Sure, but precedent can be overturned based on judge's interpretations. How do you feel about it? A: I am a judge, I just follow precedent—stare decisis, etc.
Q: How do you feel about a case currently in the court system, which might come before you? A: I cannot give hints as to how I will vote in pending cases.
Q: How do you feel about a case that might come up in the future? A: I cannot speak to hypotheticals.

As to the why he is not able to answer these questions, he says that he studied previous nomination proceedings and is following what these other judges did. He calls this "nominee precedent." However, he always says that is what "I call it." This implies to me that "nominee precedent" is not a widely-used term.

I do not have a background in law. The questions I have are:

What is the precedent for what a Supreme Court nominee can and cannot say? How different is his approach from what people have done in the past? For lack of a better phrasing, is Kavanaugh just saying this to dodge questions, or is there actually a tradition of precedent supporting his pattern non-answers?
What are the consequences if he does not follow this precedent? It seems to me to be unlikely that there is any legal consequence—the only negative consequence he could face for not following this precedent is just that the Senate would not vote to confirm him.
If there is solid, non-partisan, defensible precedent for him not answering questions, then what is the point of questioning the nominee? If a nominee cannot comment on past decisions by others, says to "read the opinion" on their own previous decisions, cannot comment on current cases, and cannot comment on hypotheticals of future cases, then what is the point of a hearing in the first place? It seems naive to believe that a person is a machine that follows predecent.


texts: What to do when a company charges a credit card on authorized payments that go against regulations, though terms and conditions were agreed on?

texts: In Quebec, a company is not allowed to automatically charge after a free trial period (see section 230c of the consumer protection act), they have to cancel the subscription, then they can ask if the customer wants start a new subscription and pay at the regular rate (this was confirmed with the office of consumer protection). However, in other parts of the country, merchants are allowed to charge automatically after a free trial period. So most companies make the terms and conditions that one agrees on say that the charge will be automatic after the free trial period for most of the country, but make it clear the terms are different for Quebec. Some companies have not done this, and automatically charge people, even though it's not allowed (the terms and conditions go against regulations). People often don't read the terms and assume merchants are following regulations. What does someone do if the terms and conditions were agreed upon, and the company charged automatically after the free trial period, even though they aren't allowed? The company was contacted and they contend that they are following regulations. The office of consumer protection says a formal complaint can be made, where the business could be fined (even having a website in the first place saying one is automatically charged after a free trial is not allowed, unless it states rules are different for Quebec) and should refund the money. If one is curious what businesses do this, searching for online movie services that offer free trials, without special cases for Quebec, probably give good examples.


texts: Is a company required to supply sufficient car parking spots for its employees?

texts:
Is a company required to supply sufficient car parking spaces for its employees?
There are not enough parking spaces at my office, causing some employees to park at the neighbour's lot, who have now started threatening to tow the cars away.

Is there anything an employee can do to force the company to arrange more parking spaces?

Carpooling or public transport is no option as I live in a very remote area.


texts: Faulty/incorrect Parking Charge Notice (PCN)?: showing only evidence of entry and exit (for a 'pay and display' car park)

texts:
I live in the UK. I received a PCN "...for the alleged breach of advertised terms and conditions..."(described in footnotes). They are around registering or 'paying and displaying' a valid car parking permit. The only evidence given of this alleged breach are two photos, one each of my entry and exit.

[I had bought and displayed a ticket/parking permit completely covering the length of time parked, but this is a separate issue which I am not exploring in this present query]

What I would like to ask is specifically whether this an adequate/correct/valid charge? I would've thought they'd need to 1) show in a photo that I have no valid parking permit displayed and then 2) state that they have no record of an online or telephone registration of my parking permit. These would then show evidence of breaching their terms and conditions.

I don't think showing photos of entry and exit alone proves that the terms and conditions have been breached. If I had registered, or paid and displayed a valid parking permit, I would still have a photo of entry and exiting too. So such photos cannot distinguish between someone who has or has not breached the terms and conditions.

I'd think that 'entry and exit photos' as evidence in a PCN only works at a 'pay before exit' type of parking, as it can distinguish those who have or not paid before exiting.

If the entry and exit photos are legally adequate, I would be grateful if this can be explained: on what basis is this adequate?

I would be grateful for any responses.

Thank you.

Footnote:
The terms and conditions :

"parking and payment terms

*where you are in possession of a valid permit you agree to park in accordance with the terms set out in the permit. All permits must be registered or clearly displayed during your parking period (please see signage for additional details)
*if you do not have a valid permit and payment is required for parking, you agree to make a payment in accordance with the tariff set out on the signage throughout the car park.
*where your vehicle registration is necessary for making payment for parking you agree to enter your full and correct vehicle registration into the payment machine and make the appropriate payment upon entry or before removing your vehicle from the car park (as specified on the tariff signage).
*we use anpr cameras. the parking time is calculated by the anpr cameras from the point of entry to the point of exit. where anpr is not in use our parking attendants will record entry and exit times. you agree to park fully within the confines of a marked parking bay.
*[about disabled blue badge]
*[about disabled concessions]
*[about parent and child]
*[about not being responsible for damage or loss]
..."


texts: Can a foreign tourist buy a gun magazines in the USA?

texts:
I want to buy an empty Magpul 30 rds magazine as a souvenir.

Just magazines, not the gun. Can I buy them in California or Nevada without a licence or anything?


texts:
This question came up because I read that Bolsonaro, Brazil's president, was criticized by the opposition for saying that COVID-19 vaccinations won't be mandatory. The opposition said that the vaccine should be a requirement, which means that if they were in power, then everyone in Brazil would be forced to get vaccinated.
Specifically for the United States, is it possible that getting vaccinated become a law? In other words, I would be breaking the law if I decide not to get vaccinated.
Is something like this remotely possible?
The reason I ask: countries are trying to develop a vaccine as fast as humanly possible and possibly trying to cut corners to have the vaccine approved. Superpowers like the US, Russia, and China are all making claims.
Here in the US, being an election year, the CDC is already saying that two unidentified vaccines will be available in October or November. I feel this is being done in a hurry, and I wouldn't want the government to force me to get vaccinated with a brand-new drug with limited testing.


texts: Does a law require the Chief Justice to administer the president's oath?

texts: When a president of the United States is sworn in, normally the person administering the oath is the Chief Justice of the United States. Is that required by some law?


texts: CC-BY-NC (or CC-BY-NC-SA) technical tutorials

texts:
This question is about using material under non-commercial licenses, rather than distributing them.

There are quite a few technical tutorials out there that are licensed under non-commercial CC licenses. An example is the Git book on Git's website, which is under CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Does reading the tutorial to learn the technical subject for work violate the NC terms?

What about downloading the file locally first? What about if the only way to access the work was to download it?

I think the answer to these questions may hinge upon whether any of these count as reproducing the work, since the NC condition only relates to reproducing and sharing, and sharing of course does not apply here. Version 3.0 makes the word "reproduce" a defined term. Version 4.0 does not.


texts: Would it be interstate fraud for a company to advertise a brand-new 1957 car?

texts:
A company advertises a brand-new 1957 car.  They claim to have several in stock and will ship it right away.  They know they don't have those cars and cant get them because they don't exist and never will be built again.  You order a car and they take your money knowing the sale cannot happen.
Isn't this fraud? If so, at what jurisdictional level would stealing money this way online relate to? State, interstate or federal government laws?


texts: Can multiple lawyers speak for the same party at trial?

texts: I know that sometimes a party in a civil or criminal trial will show up with multiple lawyers. Can any of their lawyers speak at the trial? For example, if an objection is made to questioning of a witness, can any of the attorneys make the objection, or does the objection have to come from a specific designated attorney?


texts: Can I solicit investments in a private Facebook group?

texts:
I was told that soliciting investments for my business in public without registering at the bursa is illegal.
Is it legal to solicit investment in a closed/private Facebook group? Is a private group public?
I am in Israel. The business is international.


texts: When a defendant is making a Part 36 offer (using form N242A) to whom are they (or their solicitor) required to send the form to? The Claimant only, the Court only, or both?


texts: Let's say someone found $2,000, but as a trail it lead to a dead person. The police obviously need it. But after they're done with the case, do the founders get to keep it?


texts: How to determine what frequency of GDPR SAR is not excessive?

texts:
Repeat Subject Access Requests are limited in frequency by the Manifestly unfounded and excessive requests rules.  The critical bit seems to be "A request may be excessive if it: repeats the substance of previous requests and a reasonable interval has not elapsed".  This is clarified "how often the data is altered – if information is unlikely to have changed between requests, you may decide you do not need to respond to the same request twice."  The actual legislation says even less, but does say that it up to the controller to show that it is excessive.
I was in the process of setting up a cron job to make an SAR to the DVLA requesting a list of organisations that have received my data.  This is to know about claims such as parking fines being made under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 when something goes wrong with the letters sent.  I thought I had read that every 3 months was considered "not excessive" but I cannot find that now.
I can think of 2 ways to make this decision, depending on what factors are important in the definition:

If the important factor is the use to which the data is to be put, then there is timing defined by the act, and this gives 14 days for a letter to be posted, received, acted upon than the response posted and received.  I would say in this context 7 days would not be excessive for a process that could be completely automated.

If the important factor is "information is unlikely to have changed between requests" then I would take the distribution of information sharing events in the response to the 1st request, put them into a bayesian model and make requests at the frequency of the low end of the 95% credible interval of getting a change in the time period.  It is quite possible, depending on the frequency of information sharing events , the time period for which information is provided as well as the model and prior, that this would be less than 7 days.

I either case I would provide this rational in the initial data request, as well as informing them of my intention to make these follow up requests.  It would then be up to the data controller to demonstrate that my rules are manifestly excessive.
As well as the DVLA, a similar argument could be made for many other organisations such as credit reference agencies.  Many people may be interested in making these requests if it was demonstrated useful.
As a data subject, what aspects should be considered when making these decisions?


texts: Can I request a copy of my password hash with GDPR?

texts:
People often use personal information to create them, like first name / date of birth, and people often reuse passwords across several sites, so I guess passwords are considered personal data since they could identify its owner.

If a website doesn't follow best practices regarding password hashing, it could make the whole hashing process basically useless, so I guess password hashes are also considered personal data.

With GDPR, can I request a copy of my password hash?


texts: Does encrypting Internet traffic (possibly) create a reasonable expectation of privacy?

texts:
The fourth amendment to the US constitution protects people from seizures and searches in certain situations for reasons of privacy.

In Katz v United States, the US Supreme Court has defined a two-part test on whether a search violates a person's right to privacy:

The person must have had an expectation of privacy
The expectation must be reasonable

When a person sends a letter, the contents of the letter are protected by the Fourth Amendment, because the letter is sealed.

When a person sends data on the Internet, would the same argument hold?

This question is asked in the light of recent attempts to force companies to create backdoors in encryption, so that they can decrypt data when requested to do so.


texts: Is something considered stolen if it possibly could have been lost?

texts:
I had lived in a rental house where the landlord had the notion he could "immediately evict someone" if he felt like it. I installed a security camera. I have a video of the landlord and a couple other people entering my suite and snooping around. While I did I not see them take anything, the camera was limited by its viewing angel and I couldn't always see their hands. I moved homes and months latter I notice my passport was missing. The video shows the landlord going into the closet I had stored it in, but doesn't show him take anything out (though he could've put it in his pocket while still in the closet).

I've reported this to the passport office and police. They didn't really care, saying I could have just lost it. This is possible. There's other circumstantial evidence like how he falsely accused me of stealing his passport.

Can this be brought to small claims court? Should the police or some other government agency care?


texts: Derivative softwares copyrigths from a more generic software

texts:
Imagine consultancy C has a generic software for analyzing data S.
Now C has a client C1 and from the software S it derives a software S1 to analyzed some specific data for C1. The overall dependency may be the same but the overall structure and purpose is specific to the need of client C1 which owns the IP (copyrights) over S1. Again, C has another client C2 and again they do something specific to analyze the data of that company C2 with software S2. C2 owns the IP (copyrights) over S2. Since both these softwares S1, S2 are derivative work of S is there any infringements betweeen C1 and C2?


texts: Does a will have to be probated in every state in which property exists?

texts:
From my understanding the probate of a will only applies to property located in the state where the property is located. So, according to this apparently if a person has property in many states, then the person's will must be probated in every one of those states. Is that correct?
In other words, let's say a person lives in Maine, but has property in 20 different states. Various houses, boats, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, you name it. Does the will have to then be probated in every one of the states in which the various property resides? What happens if the probate laws of the states conflict?


texts:
I am living in a shared house in the NI, UK with five people. One of my flatmates has eight pet rats in her room for three months now. Me and the rest of my flatmates have concluded that our health is in risk.

According to my contract and the rest of my flatmates contract, no pets are allowed.

We all want the rats to be removed from our house, is there anything we can do about it?


texts:
Is the copyright mentioned in GPL v3 used just for the sake of defining the word? (It's not copyrighted, but the word encompasses the same actions that would violate the copyright if it was copyrighted.)

  To “propagate” a work means to do anything with it that, without permission, would make you directly or secondarily liable for infringement under applicable copyright law, except executing it on a computer or modifying a private copy. Propagation includes copying, distribution (with or without modification), making available to the public, and in some countries other activities as well.


texts: In the United States, can someone take the death penalty for someone else?

texts: Could a person be executed in the place of someone else in United States?


texts: Is it ever illegal to quit a job without warning?

texts:
I know 2 weeks notice is customary but not required by law when quitting a job. Is it ever illegal not to give notice? For example could a surgeon quit just before he was supposed to do surgery, or a cop quit after being ordered to report to a shooting?

Is this illegal per se or is it that it opens them up to people suing for damages?

I received a job offer with a non-abandonment clause saying if I quit before the contract was up I owed the company $15000 for the damage to reputation. I sort of don't get the point of such a clause, because if I did cause that much damage, then wouldn't they be able to sue me anyway even without it being in the contract?

If this is how it works what's stopping a company for suing for damages even if you gave 2 weeks notice? They could argue "he's responsible for the incurred cost of finding a new suitable employee to replace him, and training him".


texts: Options for beneficiary of insurance policy when parents divorced?

texts:
A divorced parent in excellent health wants to buy a life insurance policy on himself but he is concerned that the ex-wife cannot be trusted with money.

The goal is to help support the 6 year old child in event of premature death.

What are the options for naming a beneficiary of the life insurance policy?


texts: Plumbing repairs delayed, done, then undone in UK rental flat

texts:
Short version

We wasted two days waiting for plumber who didn't come until the third day.

When he came, he did the job, but then came back and un-did it the day after (claiming the landlord hadn't paid him) - leaving the flat in a worse situation than beforehand.

Now we have to waste another day waiting for the plumber to come back to re-do the job.

We are tech entrepreneurs with seed investment ranging from ~£15k to £300k so time=money and we have had to waste a lot of time with this problem now.

We don't know who exactly is at fault here - what can we do to "encourage" the landlord to manage things properly, and the plumber to do his job?  We don't really have time to take legal action - we just want a working flat so we can build our businesses.  If there is some way we could create a perceived threat of legal action, it might help the landlord and/or the plumber to do their jobs.  Assuming this problem continued another week, what courses of action may be available to us?  What information should we record during that time?

To give an example of "encouragement" - in a past problem with a USA-based clothing seller, simply the mention of the phrase "small claims court" in a letter to them was sufficient to make them take us seriously.

Detailed info

Myself and two friends recently started renting a flat in London.  We are renting from a previous tennant who is subletting (authorized by her landlord/owner).  We are on an "assured shorthold tenancy".

Last week, we received notification that the flat below was taking on water from above.  This was identified as a leaky pipe in our flat

We were told that a plumber would come on Monday to repair the pipe.  I stayed home for the day, no plumber came.
We were told that the plumber would come on Tuesday.  A flatmate stayed home for that day, but again - no plumber.
On Wednesday, the other flatmate stayed at home.  The plumber came and repaired the pipe.  The plumber claimed that he had only been ordered to do the job since Tuesday.
On Thursday (today), the plumber came and said that he wanted to do a "check up".  The only flatmate in at the time let the plumber in.  The plumber then turned the water off and took his pipes out.  The flatmate protested, the plumber said that he hadn't been paid by the landlord so the pipes were his property, then he left.

One flatmate turned the water back on briefly - predictably, this resulted in water freely flowing from where a pipe had been removed.

We contacted the landlord and he said that he would pay the plumber on Friday (tomorrow) and that one of us would need to be in the flat to let the plumber in, and to verify that he had done the job properly.

We have no water in our kitchen and probably no hot water (I don't want to risk running the on-demand boiler if there's a chance that it the pipes will fill with air).  We have wasted three days and now one of us needs to waste (at least) one more.

How can we give the impression that we're prepared to take swift legal action if the situation isn't resolved within the next 24 hours?
If the situation isn't resolved within a few days, what courses of action would be available to us, and what information should we be recording during that time?

We understand that this site is purely "friendly community advice" not "professional legal advice", and is no substitute for formally talking to a lawyer :)


texts: Would I get myself into trouble if I say that I'm using pirated material?

texts:
Let's say that I am downloading pirated material (pdf books) via bittorrent because I can not afford to pay for the items.

If I later say (admit) that I'm downloading and using these pirated materials, would I be fined / jailed?

What are the legal risks I'm exposing myself to if I say it? How likely am I to be arrested / charged?

I'm living in the U.S.


texts: Undertakings have expired - am I allowed to do whatever I want?

texts:
Previously I’ve asked question about undertakings
- Non-molestation - undertakings - Legal Aid - is it possible to appeal? - whether there is a way to dispute them.

(what I did not realize at the time, it could have been a plot to obtain Legal Aid)

Back then agreed to not publish on social media.

These undertakings have now expired.

(potentially native) understanding:

Someone invites me to the court
I say OK, no worries, I will comply.
Six months period is gone, am I allowed to publish stuff again?

Alternative approach:

If someone commits a crime, they are released on probation.
Second time they got caught, they are likely to end up in prison.
Third time the penalty is even higher.

I made a mistake by not challenging the allegations.

Now as the undertakings have expired, am I allowed to do whatever I want?

Or - following the crime example - the next time situation occurs I’m likely to be penalised more?


texts: Why are mercenaries illegal but military servicemen serving voluntarily are not?

texts:
It looks like mercenaries are outlawed and are considered "unlawful combatants". Mercenaries are people who engage in combat for compensation.

Many states have armies where at least some of the servicemen are not drafted - they decide themselves that they want to serve but the state may motivate them by a reasonably high salary, neat life/health insurance, various other benefits such as early pensions or assistance with buying estate. Such servicemen are not outlawed - they are considered "lawful combatants".

What's the difference? Both categories seem to have some compensation for their service. Why are mercenaries illegal and state servicemen legal?