texts: Can I accept a food delivery addressed to my house?

texts:
Earlier today the local cookie delivery service knocked on my door with cookies that were already paid for that I did not order.

The guy said it was addressed to my townhouse (eg 555 E Cardboard St). However, tenants sometimes confuse their house number with a unit number and will use my street address for deliveries (eg 555 E Cardboard St #575). I told the guy that I didn't order it, and he said he would call the customer to clarify.

So if someone addresses a cookie delivery to me, am I allowed to keep the cookies? I wouldn't suspect that this would fall into the jurisdiction of mail theft.

One could argue that I believed it was sent as a gift from a family member or friend anonymously and that the cookie company never expected anything in return from me for the delivery (as it was already paid for). I also considered it could fall under unjust enrichment even though I never made an agreement with the company to have cookies delivered.


texts: County Government: Titles and differences between states

texts:
I am seeking information on the structure of county/parish governments in the United States.

I am specifically seeking information on those bodies that are comparable in nature and authority to the Quorum Courts that exist in the State of Arkansas.

I've given a brief detail of the Quorum Courts below. Something similar for another state would be fantastic, or direction to any resource that covers this layer of government reliably.

In the State of Arkansas, the primary County Government is comprised of a body known as Quorum Court and populated by elected Justice of the Peace positions under the guidance of the County Judge. These are partisan positions. The Quorum Court operates independently of municipal governments, and most of their authority does not extend into municipalities.

The existence and duties of Justices of the Peace and the Quorum Court are defined by the Arkansas Constitution and elaborated upon in Arkansas Code Title 14. County Government and Title 16. Practice, Procedure, and Courts. They are also mentioned elsewhere within the Arkansas Code to a lesser extent.

Comparable details on governments outside of the United States would be welcome for academic purposes.


texts: What protection does Accident Investigation Authority Act really offer to airlines and pilots?

texts:
ICAO's Accident Investigation Authority Act defines as one of the objectives to protect the evidence discovered during investigation from being used in court, presumably in order to obtain truthful information about the accident that otherwise people would rather hide:

Final reports shall not be used as evidence in any court proceeding or in other proceedings related to apportioning blame or liability.

No  finding,  cause  or  contributing  factor  determined  under  this  Act  shall  be  construed  as  assigning fault or determining civil or criminal liability.

However, airlines still get sued after an accident, so I wonder, what protection does this act really brings to the table.
If it helps, let's discuss an imaginary situation where a pilot didn't go through a proper drug test before flight, although the paperwork was done as if the test took place. After a hard landing, the test was not immediately done (medics were busy helping injured passengers) and when it was finally performed it came out negative.
Would it be safe for the pilot to tell the ICAO investigators about the skipped drug test, without the fear that this information will be used against him in court? Could the airline be sued for negligence based on such information?


texts: Is there a requirement to delete already illegally downloaded music?

texts: If someone has illegally pirated music and has it downloaded is there a legal requirement for him to delete it?


texts:
Most governments don't consider Bitcoin to be currency, so it's somewhat of a legal gray zone regarding regulation.  I know most exchanges must follow KYC/AML systems because they trade with fiat too, but for services which only exchange cryptocurrency, is there any regulation?

For example, Bitcoin gambling sites or mixers don't follow regulation, do they?


texts:
By a defective trust, I mean a trust that meets the definition of a trust for estate tax purposes but not income tax purposes.

Consider an irrevocable defective trust that is setup without going to court and without getting a separate EIN number for the trust. Can such a trust be amended? Would it require a motion to be filed with a court?

The trust was setup in New Jersey.


texts: I want to add a "like" functionality to my site, but will i get into hot water with Facebook?

texts:
I have a site that would I would like to add some "like" functionality to. After lots of digging I couldn't find any evidence to suggest that I would get into any bother with Facebook if I did.

Does anyone happen to know if this is ok to do? There are literally hundreds of sites with star ratings, hearts and who knows what else. But nobody seems to be doing the "like" except Facebook.


texts: Talking to a Psychiatrist about a Sexual Action AS A Young child

texts:
Recently I found my entire real bio family along with a stepfather who was listed as my bio father on my birth cert. from his kids, I learned my history and what happened to me when I was 0-5 years. I learned so many bad things and almost nothing positive about the first 5 years of my life. So much to tell but most of it isn't relevant to this particular question directly.

(We were both 5 years old at the time of this incident)

I was in the bathroom with my step sister and apparently, she came running out with her pants around her legs and bleeding from her private area. The family immediately took me and gave me to the state that day.

I have zero memory of this ever happening and we were both apparently 5 years old when this event happened. It has been suggested by friends and bio family that this might have never happened and was just an excuse to get rid of me by my stepfather and stepmother but from the time I have spent talking to my step sister and the rest of her side of the family I have no reason to think they are lying to me. trouble is I will never know for sure and can only assume they are telling me the truth and as such, I hate myself and feel like a horrible monster and really kind of just want to disappear from the world if you catch my drift. I decided to see a therapist and went to see her and I attempted to discuss the situation as its a HUGE part of what brought in to her but she heavily suggested that I don't bring it up because she will have to report anything suspicious in this particular topic. IDK what to do because I need to discuss it but now I'm worried I will get arrested or something else and this has only exasperated how I now feel about myself. I just don't know what to do to resolve this issue but the question is pretty much what's going to happen if I talk to her about it?

I cannot express to you how it feels to find out that you were abandoned by your family at age 5 for something you never knew you did and to realize every bad event in my childhood was all my own fault and stemmed from this one event. not to mention how horrible of a person I feel like I am.


texts: Scope of the false statement in a libel action

texts:
Given the statement, "John failed to respond to a criminal court summons, and he moved out of the state."

Assuming that it is false that John failed to respond to a criminal court summons, but it is true that he moved out of state, but a year before charges were filed (in other words, it is true that he moved out of state just not for the purpose of evading the summons).

As presented in the statement above, is the statement "and he moved out of the state" a defamatory and should it therefore be plead as such in a libel complaint as written above?


texts: Broadness of definition of treason in the US constitution

texts:
Does article 3 only refer to adhering to state enemies, or can these enemies be corporate, or individual?

Corporate as akin to private armies before the barons got checked (even say aiding ISIS though it was never fully a state actor de jure), and individual as those that have enough resources to cause equivalent damage to state use of force (say aiding Osama and 9/11)?


texts: Is defacing currency such as coins illegal?

texts:
So on reddit today I saw this quarter that was artistically carved and made into a necklace/medallion. I've also seen people that create rings out of quarters and not to mention those penny-pressing souvenir machines in many places... which led me to ponder whether this was illegal as many people claim and point to USC 18 Section 331 or thereabouts...

USC 18 Section 331 starts with:

  Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs,
      diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined
      at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins...

(emphasis mine)

I'm not a lawyer, but I've always thought this meant that it was illegal to alter or deface currency only if there was intend to defraud with such "altered" currency? Is my interpretation correct? now I'm not quite sure, since I recall that recently Obama pardoned a person convicted of "mutilation of coins"...?


texts: How do I challenge a public transport fine when I was never there at the time? And suspect a scam

texts:
Today I received a message in my postbox regarding an unpaid fee for not showing a valid ticket on public transport.

The address and name are correct in the message. However:

I use what they call "die Umweltskarte" - a monthly ticket
I never been asked for any tickets by anyone. I never had an experience of showing my ticket to controllers.
There is a street name, the date and the time where the so-called "violation" happened. On that date, I never traveled anywhere using public transport and I am always at home during the time stated.

So I am pretty sure that I did not do anything remotely close to what the claim states.

A brief search tells me "just pay, you will have more trouble opposing them". Especially since I live alone and nobody can prove that I was in fact at home, that I never travel to that street and that I never used public transport that day or never had issues with controllers.

Can I at least require them to provide evidence I did it? If so, what can I request?

The message states that the collector agency, "infoscore Forderungsmanagement GmbH" was requested by "S-Bahn Berlin GmbH". They also "warn" that I will be fined more should I not pay the fine of around 150 euro.

I have found an "EBE Nr." in the form. BVG (Berlin public transport) has a portal dedicated to fines, including an English version. There it is possible to enter the "EBE Number" to object.

The number in the form starts with 506230 - so I suspect it is not real. What can I do about checking whether it is a valid fine?


texts: Can my landlord charge me a fee that does not appear in the lease?

texts:
I was added as an occupant (not as the tenant) to the lease of an apartment in Alexandria, VA. I paid a $50 fee to management to run a credit check; all good so far.

A few months later, I moved out of the apartment and removed myself from the lease accordingly. The apartment building now wants to charge my former roommate (the tenant in the lease) $400 to remove me from the lease as an occupant.

This fee is nowhere to be found in the lease that my roommate initially signed, or the amendment we both signed afterwards when I was added to the lease. Can they legally charge this fee if it was not stated in the lease we signed?


texts: Is an email answer for an apartment rental legally binding?

texts:
Here's the situation. We are looking to rent a flat in Munich, where the market is not exactly favorable for the tenants. We received a positive answer today from an agency, for flat A, but the flat is... not very good. Long commute, expensive, and we are quite sure that they lied to us about its size. We are waiting for an answer from a landlord, for flat B, which is really good.

We don't want to wait too much to answer for flat A, fearing that we might lose our chance. On the other hand, we should receive the answer from flat B very soon (tomorrow ?)

I hate even thinking about that because I'm not usually an asshole, but long story short our situation is close to desperate, so what happens if we answer yes by email to the agency for flat A, but if we get flat B before actually signing the contract we ditch the agency ? Could we get into trouble doing that ?

Google has not been too helpful, closest I could find was that, but it's not a transfer of real estate I guess.

Any advice or pointers welcome.


texts: Using accessible taxicab rides as a medical deduction if labeled as a therapy

texts:
I once heard my tax accountant saying that taxi rides can only be used as a medical expense if they are for a medical appointment.

Let's assume a disabled person cannot drive a handicap vehicle, but they still need to get to work.  Suppose this person's home is outside the regulated boundary of the federally funded complimentary paratransit in the municipality in which they live.  In other words, they do not have any other form of transportation other than an accessible taxi service.  Their employer lets them work from home, but their health has gotten worse because of it, because they don't leave their home very often.  This person is also not eligible for Medical Assistance, Social Security Disability Income, nor any transportation services funded through these programs because their income is too high.  It's greater than 250% FPL (federal poverty level).  But this person depends on a wheelchair and cannot take other modes of transportation because they are unable to transfer.  These details might be irrelevant to the tax situation, but they are true nonetheless.

Suppose they get a script from their doctor saying that taxi rides to work (or anywhere) are a form of medical therapy to improve their health because they need to be around more people and not be isolated at home alone all the time.  Can those taxi rides be a medical deduction on their tax return?


texts: Can bones be willed to a family member after death?

texts:
Suppose I wish to leave some or all of my bones to a loved one after my demise (properly cleaned and bleached), or have a loved one leave me bones, is that something I am able to legally do (assuming I or my loved ones are interested in receiving them)?

For instance, my grandma has the ashes of her father (which I assume are human remains) in an urn above her fireplace. Would you be able to take that one step further and instead have a bone given for display purposes as sort of a family heirloom (think a skull mounted on a plaque with your name and birth-death dates, or your finger bone with a wedding ring around it)? At that point, can it be easily handed down from generation to generation (my grandma is passing the ashes down to her oldest son), or would it be difficult to transfer ownership of the bones after you receive it?


texts: Police not accepting "Signature Forgery" report only because in the past we have signed some other authentic papers with perpetrator

texts:
One company made us sign Application Form and then they forged our signature on "extension contract" that we never had a chance to see. This forged contract is very disadvantageous to us.

Today we went to police department to report signature forgery. However, police officer rejected our report and redirected us to civil court, because "we are in business with this company" (ie signed application form in the past) and because of this police can't help us.

Then I explicitly asked police officer if they would have accepted our report if we hadn't signed anything with this company in the first place and she said "yes, in that case this would be typical scam and we would initiate criminal case."

I have two questions:

Did the police officer have rights to reject our report and not initiate criminal case only because in the past we had signed Application Form with this fraudulent company?
Isn't this a hole in the legal system that we have to go through court to have criminal case initiated against this company? I mean if we go to court then the court will send notice to this company with forgery accusation and then this company has golden opportunity to "fix" documents at their end (opposed to police confiscating the evidence as-is)?

Update#1
This company already charged these fees from us - they are credit card processor company so they had control control over our account that we applied for through this application form. If I understand correctly then this implies that burden of proof falls on us because we are trying to reverse fees.

Update#2. I just found out that another victim of the same company in a different state was able to get CAPIAS (Civil Warrant Of Arrest) for the same forgery issue. Can this be used in California so that police would initiate criminal case against this company also in our state?

In the answer regarding question #1 I would appreciate a link to police processes (or law) that would justify police officers choice to reject our case (US, California). Regarding question #2 I would like to hear your opinion, that is argumented, on why this is or isn't a hole in the legal system.


texts: Temporary Tenancy Agreement Until Estates are Settled

texts:
I find myself in an unusual position. My wife and I were renting a house from her father, and he recently passed away without a will. Her father has no wife, and 3 natural children (all over 18).

The estates are in the process of being settled but it's likely to take a long time. Until then, we intend to continue living in the house. Is it possible to get some kind of temporary tenancy agreement or something that basically says we can continue to live here until a formal arrangement is made with the estate? Something the 3 children would sign? Is this even necessary?

The house has a mortgage on one third of it under her fathers name. And all the children know we live here and expect us to stay. We all live and operate in the UK.


texts: If I create slightly altered version of apple emoji glyphs, would that protect me legally?

texts: I want to use apple's emoji font in my android application. Both ios and android market is flooded with the apps that use apple emoji glyphs in their app and I am sure none of them are licensed with apple. I want to use same emoji glyphs as well however I want to be sure there won't be any legal problem in future because of IP or un licensed design assets. Now most viable options seems to be making my own glyphs that is very similar to apple emoji fonts, however I am not sure if that would protect me legally, since it will still look like apple's original work.


texts: Is CNN Chris Cuomo right about Clinton's emails: "it's different for the media"?

texts:
In 2016, CNN reporter Chris Cuomo, said about Hillary Clinton's hacked emails:

  Also interesting is remember...it's illegal to possess the stolen documents. It's different for the media. So everything you learn about this, you're learning from us...let's take a look at what is in there.

That is, I could not download and read the emails from Wikileaks, but I could listen to Cuomo as he download and read them to me.

Is it legal for citizens to possess hacked emails?
Is it legal for CNN to possess hacked emails?


texts: Does a contractual notice period apply to internal transfers?

texts:
I work for a UK company. My contractual notice period is one month.

Recently I've successfully applied for an internal post at a higher salary. My understanding is that I will start work in the new post in one months time, at the new salary. My manager says that the amount of time before I start in the new role is up to their discretion, say about 3 months. Moreover, that because I'll be working in my current role with my current responsibilities, then I'll be paid my old salary.

My questions are: is this legal and what can I do about it?


texts: Under what circumstances is summary judgment or an expedited trial granted?

texts:
From what I understand, a summary judgment is granted by a judge if the facts are not in dispute. So what is the threshold for this?
Example: A hits B, and B sues for assault and battery. During the discovery/deposition process, A admits to hitting B, and also admits to having been drunk at the time. The extent of B's injuries is established by medical records. The only unresolved issue is that A disclaims intent (pleading drunkenness), which might make it a criminal, rather than civil, matter.
Can there be a summary judgment, or at least an expedited or abbreviated trial based only on the established facts? In this instance, can there be a civil summary judgment given the agreement of both parties to the facts, if A waives a criminal trial?


texts: Is lying/faking income for loans illegal?

texts:
From what I gather people sometimes may devise fake proof of income to be granted loans -- loans they don't expect to pay back anytime soon or in some cases ever.

It's probably very easy to fake proof of income in digital documents. Lenders may only consider bank statements or taxes and that can all easily be faked as well. Given that you lied about income, when or why would it be a crime in the case of obtaining a loan vs. just lying about it in general?

I doubt there's a specific, particular law that states lying about income to obtain income is illegal.

Fraud is a very gray area kind of criminal act -- often it's excessively hard or impossible to define it.

In such an example, a person may get a $100,000.00 loan when they make $9,000/year through the deception. I assume, if you can pay any of it back at any rate, you'd have no reason to be in trouble.

But how might it really go down?

As an example, a friend needs some fast money to go to Canada, but he in no way can get $6,000 he needs for what he plans to do in just 5 days. His plan? Lie about income and obtain that amount from a lender, with intention to pay back -- just probably not within the means/rate/amount the lender may establish. So he does intend to pay back -- just wants to use deception to convince the lender that he has the capability/income to pay that amount back when he doesn't as of right now.


texts: What is it called when a pre-defined penalty is specified in a contract?

texts:
In contract law, what is a pre-defined penalty for non-performance called?

For example, if the contract says something like: "so-and-so will do xyz by May 5, 2021, and if so-and-so should fail to do so by that date then so-and-so will be liable for $100,000 due to the party of the first part." What is the $100,000 penalty called?


texts:
Say a service is offered with pricing for 1 hour, 2 hours ... 12 hours. Assume there is some sort of custom calculation used to determine discounts after the first hour (e.g. if the first hour is $100, the second hour isn't necessarily $200 -- it would be less, and subsequent hours would be progressively less).

If a competitor copies the exact pricing structure -- could that possibly considered copyright infringement?


texts: At what point does a shady business practice become criminal fraud?

texts:
I recently bought a house which required getting oil service started for it. The oil company I called (which had already been servicing the house previously) insisted on inspecting the oil tank first. The man who came told me that the tank was unsound and had to be replaced and refused to deliver oil to me unless I replaced the tank. Replacing that type of tank would cost about $2500.

I had already had a specialist inspect the heating system when I bought the house, so I knew what he was telling me was false and designed to trick a naive homeowner into unnecessarily buying a new oil tank.

Is something like this just a shady business practice or does it cross the line into criminal fraud?


texts: Is a lie by ommission to make it seem like a legal offices services are required legal?

texts:
A friend was researching using a sperm donor she knows to do IVF.  she got concerned when she read this website's legal 'advice'  They basically say that unlike most states PA has no law that says a sperm donor is not considered the legal father if he donates through a clinic, and lacking such a law the situation comes down to case law which will be ruled based off of the specifics of the case; with the clear implication that even donating at a doctor offices has a high chance to lead to the sperm donor being considered the legal father.

What they fail to mention is that the case law in this situation seems pretty clear, as there is already a ruling stating that a donation through a clinic does not make a sperm donor the legal father.

So unless I'm misunderstanding what looks to be a pretty clear cut example of case law it would seem that the legal office's website is quite misleading, and likely this is done intentionally as fear mongering to scare people into using their legal office to have a contract written up to protect them.  This is extra ironic because as far as I can tell by scanning the previous brief it looks like PA case law falls strongly on the side of not respecting donor contracts (though I haven't fully researched the fact, the presidents the brief cites definitely support the idea that parent's can't sign away their child's right), so it seems like the firm is misleading people about the law so they can offer to write contracts that likely won't be respected.

I know the website is not technically lying in what they say, but it seems intentional misleading.  I doubt a legal firm would break the law so blatantly, so I assume the claims on the website must be legal.  However, that surprises me since what little I do know about common law situations it seems like 'technical truths' that are intentionally misleading usually are treated as falsehoods in other situations, for instance slander/libel laws or contract rulings trying to emphasis intent of contract instead of just the letter of the contract.

So, why is a claim like this allowed?  Is this either not as clear cut a lie of omission as it seems to be to me, or are such lies by omission actually allowed?


texts: Can an apartment contractually prohbit tenants from saying certain words?

texts: This is a semi-ridiculous question from a law-ignorant but curious person.  My apartment prohibits tenants from having firearms on the property, by the lease.  in the United States, the "right to bear arms" is a constitutional right.  (I understand there's disagreement about what that means, that things are more complicated than just that phrase, and etc.)  So, theoretically, can an apartment 'infringe' on other constitutional rights as well, such as freedom of speech, as long as it's in the lease, and the tenant signs?


texts: Do "National Councils" have national or international legal authority?

texts:
Really not sure if this is the correct stack exchange for this, but this seems like the right place. If there is a national council for for something, doesn't really matter what, but they are the only council for this in all the world, are their rulings technically correct all over the world?

I'm not sure if I explained this properly, please ask anything, and I will try to clarify if I was not clear enough.


texts: Could members of a minority use collective action to negotiate with racist employers?

texts: Some employers are more frequently accused of committing unlawful discrimination. Since union membership can encompass multiple businesses and since union membership does not have to include every labor employee in a department, could members of minority groups form a union that only admitted members of their own race and forced employers to collectively bargain when racism was being alleged?


texts: Copyright issue of recorded video game when publishing research paper about it?

texts:
I'm preparing research about a music-based arcade game, playable in the arcade game center. Requiring video dataset (including music in it), I recorded videos from the game playing by myself. I'm supposed to do two kinds of researches below:

using both video and its music
using only video (excluding its music)

Is it legal to use the videos for publishing an academic paper of each kind of works above, even though they are just a kind of replay-videos? Like many published research about games (e.g., Super Mario, League of Legend, ...), it seems to be possible to use in-game contents for research. I know there is a copyright issue especially using audio data for commercial use and in that case permission must be required, but I'm wondering if it is still an issue in terms of academic research. Actually, I don't know where to start searching keywords about this. Any help will be valuable to me. Thank you!


texts: Can a public school in the USA force a 14yr old to create a Twitter account for a passing grade?

texts:
My youngest is a freshman & signed up for a program the school refers to as "co-lab". At my insistence.
2yrs ago, I attended a board meeting where the formation of the program was introduced. At the time, I was jumping out of my skin, I was so excited.it incorporates 5-6 subjects into 1 5-6hr block.

Without getting into the boring details, the bottom line is what they proposed vaguely resembles what is in play.
All the subjects are still being taught, but separately instead of seamlessly together.

He has As & Bs in all but 1 subject  - Digital Literacy. The sole reason being that the school expects him to create a public Twitter account, with his real information, in order to promote the program & the results of the program.
The results being, if I understand correctly, their personality, family history/tree, how their life experiences have shaped them into who they are today. These details were NOT part of the initial proposal nor part of anything sent home to me, to my knowledge.

On 2 separate occasions, during school functions I attended, his reluctance to do this step has come up. He has stated that he does NOT want to create an account on FB or  Twitter. He's not comfortable with that. No questions asked, I turned back to the teacher & said  - you have your answer. I will not force him to do that.

Yesterday, I received a call from the teacher regarding this, after reviewing his progress report which shows him failing that subject. She explained his failing grade was due to his resistance in creating the acct.
He tried to compromise with them & created a fake acct using a nickname a teacher had given him in 8th grade. (HE informed me of that, not the teacher). During the call, not knowing he had attempted that already, I suggested that as a compromise. But they won't accept that. Their claim is that it needs to be seen by the public, he needs to create a digital footprint, yadda, yadda.

When asked how this would affect his grades in the other, now separate, subjects, she could not give me an answer.
This class is ONLY available for a freshman. It will have nothing to do with his next 3yrs of education. Yet his information will forever be out there even if never utilized or deleted after.
There's a parallel story to this which has bugged me, but this is the crux of THIS situation.

My question is, is this public school allowed to force him to create a digital footprint on an already worldwide controversial platform, POSSIBLY holding his entire freshman year over his head? At the very least, forcing him to retake the one class, which may end the same way?

Given the current environment, I'm one pissed off Mama bear. And he's ready to cave to the bullies, something I drilled into both my boys to never do.

Thoughts?


texts: In the UK, can you seek legal advice from non-lawyers in confidential matters?

texts:
Suppose an employer is trying to gag a former employee from speaking out about certain issues, citing confidentiality clauses that were present in the former employee's employment contract. However, the former employee feels the need to get proper advice on the matter. Also, this case happens to be in a highly specialised area of law, where it is difficult to find lawyers with the right mix of expertise. Whom can the employee talk to about this case and whom can she not?
In the UK, I believe everyone has a right to obtain proper legal advice. In a case like this, can the employee disclose the facts of the case to her friend, colleague, or another professional who may not be formally qualified in law, or be practicing lawyers, but may still have the knowledge about the legal aspects of the case nevertheless?
What are the rules when it comes to balancing confidentiality and the right to obtain legal advice?


texts:
I am building a game that stores score/level on the local device and uses non-personalized AdMob.

Do I need to inform the user about storing the score locally?

Do I need consent for using non-personal AdMob?

Do I need to ask for the age? How should I handle kids?

Can I disallow a user from using the app if consent is not given?


texts: Does legality of an computerized action depend on user location or computer location?

texts:
Now of days it's quite easy to have a computer in a completely different part of the world from where I'm located that I'm working on.  This makes me wonder how 'criminality' is defined if the laws of my home country differ from the country the computer is in.  I'm wondering at what point the location of a server/computer decide the laws that apply to it and at what point it's the location of the user that matters.

To give some examples, not so much expecting answers to all of the below so much as explaining my confusion of distinction in case it informs an answer.

For example, lets say I choose to view material that is not legal for me to view in my home state (copyright material I haven't payed for, some type of outlawed pornography, some sort of state secret I'm not suppose to see etc), but which is legal to view in the country in which some server I connect to is located.  I'm pretty sure I've committed a crime, even if the computer providing the data is illegal, but is this only because the data was copied to my computer?  If I use some VNC technology that shows me the screen of another computer located outside of the US to view this data without any of it stored or cached on my computer, am I still committing a crime (I think so?)

On the other hand I see servers located outside of the US doing things that would be illegal in the US, online gambling, 'spamming' people, selling things without paying US taxes etc.  Can I connect to a server for any reason and still be legal?  If amazon want's to have a server in some country X and pay that countries taxes instead of US taxes can someone from the US still connect to that server to do anything at all with it without suddenly being guilty of violating a law because that server isn't abiding by US law?

If it's the location of the user that matters then does that mean I can use a computer outside the US to do something that is illegal in that country?  If I'm in the US and using a cloud computer hosted in say the UK and for some reason I end up doing something with that computer that is 100% legal in the US but isn't legal in UK (maybe some data is allowed to view here that isn't there?) have I broken the law in UK?  If I happen to travel to UK at some later date could a zealous prosecute arrest me because of the location of my computer?   (I realize this last question is probably comes down to "it depends on the country", but generally speaking for countries that practice common law is there a consensus that most countries agree on?)


texts: Would it be a bad idea to ask for a copy of all contracts that I signed from my former employer?

texts:
We parted on bad terms. I'm afraid to ask for copies, because such a request might spook them. On the other hand, asking for copies shows that I am making a good faith effort to comply with my agreements with them.
The company is publicly traded and has thousands of employees. Would fulfilling this request be a routine or obligatory task for them?
Are there any other reasons I should be afraid to ask for copies?


texts: Can the US congress "break any deadlock that crops up between the president and the judiciary by ... impeaching a president or judge"?

texts:
According to a BBCnews article:

  Congress could break any deadlock that crops up between the president and the judiciary by creating a law that overturns his decision - or even impeaching a president or judge.

Is it true that impeachment is a constitutional option to break any deadlock that crops up, as the BBC describes?


texts: What is the purpose of the inheritance tax in the United States?

texts: I know the United States has the inheritance tax. But I do not really know the purpose or the point behind it. What is the point of the inheritance tax? Why must the inheritance assets be taxed instead of given directly to the heir(s)?


texts: Can a company instruct employees to not call police?

texts:
As a manager, I received this email from my store manager that came from the district manager.

Team, you cannot call the police without my approval,  if I am not available it would fall to (Blank) or (Blank). This is not optional.
I need every store manager to review this with their team today. All Managers need to know this. Your night crew leaders need to know this policy, as well.

Is this instruction legally valid? Can I legally ignore it?


texts: Is peer-to-peer drug dealing illegal for the developer?

texts:
If a developer were to develop a distributed web app which essentially connected drug dealers to clients in the physical world, what would the legal ramifications be for the developer?

Details

Suppose a developer created a peer-to-peer drug distribution app (as an excersize), similar to 'Uber Eats' that uses the Etherium blockchain to store critical pieces of data and transactions. Could the developer be charged for drug dealing on a large scale, or with other crimes, for creating this distribution network.


texts: Are gender identity and sexual orientation federally protected?

texts:
This conservative outlet makes a somewhat good point:

  No law designates homosexuality and gender confusion as federally protected civil rights. Just like the disguise of a “drag queen,” the rationale for much of this report is a lie.
  http://www.wnd.com/2016/09/the-left-to-christians-your-turn-in-the-closet/

According to this case law debunks her; https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/enforcement_protections_lgbt_workers.cfm So who is right


texts: Why are lawyers typically excluded from juries?

texts: At least in the United States practicing lawyers are called to serve on juries.  But my understanding is at least one side will always remove them before trial.  Why would it always be the case that at least one side would not want someone with legal training on a jury?


texts: Can you be shot in "self-defense" for attempting to disarm someone?

texts:
"I'd like to see you try and take my gun" is a common mantra among 2nd amendment enthusiasts, the implied sentiment being they'll kill anyone who tries, but I'm interested in what would happen if this actually occurred.

If, for instance, a student brought an AR-15 slinged across her back challenging others to take it, and another student abruptly tried to disarm her but was shot and killed, would the student who brought the gun be able to argue a successful self-defense case to a court, or would she likely be found guilty of homicide?


texts: Source of permission/license to use song on a cruise ship?

texts:
When I was on a cruise ship, the song "Hungry Heart" was played on a daily, almost hourly basis on the ship over its p.a. system. Does the ship need to get a license/pay royalties for the right to do this? Or is this "fair use?" Put another way, does a DJ need to pay royalties every time s/he plays a song over e.g. the radio? Or can they get a "pass" by claiming that they are not earning money on the song itself, only the advertising that the radio sells? (It could be any song, but the Bruce Springsteen song was the one I remembered.)

Is there a legal mechanism whereby the cruise ship can "escape" paying royalties? Theory 1 is that the cruise is in international waters. 2) Theory 2 is that the cruise ship is merely "rebroadcastng" a radio or TV show that contained the song. Obviously, the radio or TV show had to pay for the original song use, but does that apply to viewers/listeners of a TV show?

My understanding is that the cruise ship has to pay royalties on "live" performances on the ship, so my question is about "canned" performances. For example, does a bar have to pay directly for the  playing of say, songs on a jukebox, or is that the responsibility of the jukebox lessor? Put another way, does the responsibility for paying for "canned" music fall on the "canner", (radio/TV/jukebox provider), or on the "can opener," (ship or bar)?


texts: Business and Customer Responsibilities for Terms of Contract

texts:
I hired a mowing company to mow my lawn. In the "NOTES" section of the contract, I specified I wanted mowing to occur every other week rather than weekly. In addition, I stated the same in my e-mail when I sent in the scanned/signed copy of the contract.

4 weeks later, I was informed that the owner of the mowing company did not read the contract until then and did not notice my request. He stated that he does not allow for anything other than weekly mowing services. His own contract even says that customers can skip mowing for a week whenever so long as they give him 2 days advance notice, but clearly he does not even abide by his own contract. I cancelled services with him and he sent me a bill for the full 4 weeks.

I am thinking that his failure to read my requested terms and inform me that he could not meet my requested terms until 4 weeks after services began was his own negligence.

Legally speaking, am I responsible for paying the full 4 weeks billed? Do I have the right to pay for just 2 weeks considering that he breached the terms requested in the contract?


texts: What subcontracting rights does court-ordered daycare have?

texts:
I live in the United States.  A woman asked my wife to provide daycare for her children.  The woman is going through a divorce and isn't on speaking terms with her husband.  The husband, who has moved out of state, has been ordered by the court to pay 70% of the daycare expenses.  The husband is okay with paying my wife for daycare and plans on paying his share to her directly.  He's also okay with his wife's family members caring for the children, but not for pay.  (He doesn't like them and refuses to agree to pay them anything.)

Is my wife within her rights to pay the children's grandmother to help out with some of the daycare?  My wife would be paid by the children's parents and then she would forward a portion to the grandmother in exchange for her help.  Would it make a difference if the children's mother paid her portion directly to the grandmother instead of having it forwarded via my wife?  What sort of legal risk would my wife and I be exposing ourselves to?


texts: Is there any country or state where the intellectual author of a homicide has twice or more the penalty than the physical author?

texts:
Discussing about what's worse, being the planner of a homicide or the actual killer, I found a proposal in a country for the planner to have twice the penalty of the killer.

Is there any country or state where such a proposal has been taken forward and applied in law?


texts: If a film was based on text content under CC BY-SA 3.0 and released in theaters, would there be any way to stop people from ripping the film and uploading it to YouTube or similar content sharing sites? Also would that still be considered Piracy?


texts: USA: What happens if I do not file form 990 for a nonprofit?

texts:
I have a nonprofit that I cannot liquidate because I do not have a US credit card to pay for liquidation. (I paid for another person to liqudate it for me, but Colorado Secretary of State office claims it was not paid.)

Is it a good idea just to stop filing the form 990?

What bad consequences may I have if I don't file 990?

I don't expect that they would require me to pay a fine because the fine is limited by as I remember 10% of the total finances of the organization that are zero now.

So, is it a good idea to stop filing?

I am not a US citizen and am located outside of the US.


texts: Does Prepaying the Last Month of Rent Lock in the Rate?

texts:
Suppose A rents a property to B for six months. Initially, the rent is $500 per month, but A requires first and last upfront, so B pays $1000 plus deposit to move in.

During month 4, A raises the rent to $550 (following proper procedures). Does B have to pay the difference ($50) for the last month?


texts: Are sentences taught in the context of language learning copyrighted on youtube? Or in any other setting?

texts:
I am a college student aspiring to learn Chinese.
Youtube has a wealth of resources available for learning Chinese - intructors, videos with subtitles, example sentences, movies... I was wondering the legality of writing down, recording, learning and even reproducing sentences I've learned from Youtube, but I don't want to violate copyright.
According to this article it seems that all youtube videos are copyrighted. And according to what I've researched on copyright, I've had difficulty trying to apply what I've found to this very niche situation. Although this quora question somewhat relates - someone asking about if dictionary example sentences are copyrighted.
The problem I face is that if someone has content in a YouTube video, does that automatically make it copyrighted? Can sentences be copyrighted? Or is it just the "video" -> the collection of ideas and - not the "content" inside of the video that is copyrighted? Provided the content is not copyrighted in the first place. After all, any sentence is conveying an idea in a specific combination of words. How can this be copyrighted even though it seems that is the condition for copyright - a specific way of expressing a certain idea?
In one case, I want to learn/copy example sentences from this video which is a compilation of common Chinese sentences/phrases. Another case, these sentences are already transcribed by this YouTuber. Thank you. I'm willing to elaborate more if needed.


texts: Can Chelsea Manning be sued in civil court by anyone named in the documents that were leaked?

texts:
Since Chelsea Manning's name is in the news, the following question seems interesting:

Manning leaked a large set of documents
Some of them could have clearly had a negative effect on specific persons (e.g. loss of reputation).

As such, can a person who was negatively affected by the leak sue Manning in civil court? (assuming they have a reasonable claim that they were indeed damaged by the leaks meaningfully).

By "can," I mean "has a reasonable chance of having a meaningful lawsuit that proceeds, instead of it being thrown out by a judge as ridiculous due to obvious legal problems".


texts: Defence against civil claim from a non-contractual party

texts:
There are three parties A, B, and C.
A provides X service on a contractual basis to B. B on the other hand provides Y service (which is related to X, think about door service and parking service) to C on a contractual basis, but has a waiver stating:

Party C indemnifies party B harmless from any damages that party
A may cause.

There was a damage incurred by party C. C is holding B harmless, as there is no contractual agreement between A and C. B requires C to hold B harmless against any negligence from A. No info on jurisdiction, please assume US.
Can party C still bring a claim against B? Or should they sue party A directly? There is no contractual agreement between A and C.


texts: Does a Constitutional Amendment Overruling a Court Decision Reinstate Any Applicable Laws?

texts:
Suppose the Supreme Court of the United States rules on an issue of a federal law and decides that a certain law is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced.

Then suppose Congress proposes an amendment to the states to amend the constitution to remove the language that made the law unconstitutional. This amendment is then ratified and becomes part of the constitution.

Does this in turn make the original law enforceable again? Or does Congress have to pass the law again in order for it to be enforceable?

Essentially my question is if the doctrine of stare decisis (or similar doctrine) prevents the enforcement of the old law until a new law is passed after adoption of the constitutional amendment.

Additionally, as there may be limited federal examples, I would be interested in similar situations which occur during interpretations of state constitutions.


texts: Is it legal to track a scammer's IP address?

texts:
One of my contacts has messaged me asking for help about a scam. He was saying that one same person keeps harassing him with scam messages threatening to put some videos of him online if he doesn't pay them a certain amount of money.

So I was thinking of just somehow fooling the scammer to click on a link such as grabify.link so that my contact could get their IP address (hoping they are not using a VPN) and go to the police with it, is this actually a legal thing to do?


texts: Out of country court case related to employee / employer financial claim

texts:
I am a contractor in Ontario, Canada. However, I am not a citizen of Canada or the US. I am contemplating a court case against my contract-employer in the US, regarding non-payment of my salary invoice. The contract jurisdiction falls in the state of California.
Right now my contract-employer is threatening a counter claim court case against me, if I file a court case against him.
My question is this - if my contract-employer files a financial claim court case against me in the state of California, and I am obviously not able to show up in the court. What would happen?
Thanks for your help!


texts: Legal issues working multiple part-time tech jobs at the same time - CA, United States

texts:
I have had multiple companies/entities (universities, tech companies, defense contractors, etc.) request me to work for them at the same time. Common sense would tell me to not bill multiple groups for the same work, not share work across groups, etc.

What legal issues must I be careful with when working for multiple
tech companies at the same time?
Does it matter is if the jobs are
W2/1099/etc.?
Am I required to tell the companies that I am working
for someone else?


texts: Does Title VII prevent employers from diversifying their workplace by refusing to hire people who aren't of a specific ethnic minority?

texts:
Can a private university announce that they are going to hire two new employees for a teaching department and require that they are of a certain ethnicity? I know of an educational institution that has said they will exclusively consider people of a specific ethnic minority for a general English department position, in order to increase diversity. In other words, despite people of multiple ethnicities having applied, only people of ethnicity X are being considered.

Is this a violation of Title VII? I know that it is illegal to not hire someone because of their ethnicity. However, I also know that the federal government has encouraged universities to hire more minorities, so how is this balanced with Title VII?


texts: So I met this talented guy who designs graphics for apps and such and I asked him if he can make a background image for my app..He agreed and made one for me and I asked him if it was ok if I use the image for my app and he said yes..Now the question is, does it mean I can freely use the image in my app WITHOUT crediting him or paying him?


texts:
When I passed a security camera in the house i'm currently in, while watching Netflix on my phone, I wondered how legal that would be, considering that you are not allowed to make copies or photos of the content within, but the CCTVs purpose is not to record stuff on Streaming sites.
I was just curious if that would break any law or if this would be one of the rare exceptions where such a thing is legal. I'm also not saying I would put my phone in front of that camera, i'm just talking about copyrighted stuff that's visible on CCTV and recorded by it


texts: Is it possible for one's own invention to be patented by others?

texts:
If a person invented something new but didn't file a patent:

Is it legal for other people to file a patent for it?
Is it possible for other people to be granted a patent for it if they are not the original inventor?
If other people file a patent and claim they invented it independently at about the same time, what evidence do they need to show?
If the original inventor has clear evidence to prove his/her originality, is there a way to stop other people from patenting this invention?


texts: Can Clinton be pardoned without being charged or convicted?

texts: Is it possible for someone to be pardoned if they haven't been convicted or even charged with a crime?


texts: What legal liability does one's participation on Stack Exchange carry?

texts:
This question is motivated by a question which came up recently on engineering.SE: Cracks on the wall.  It may be closed in the future so I will summarize.  The user posted pictures of (very large) cracks in the wall of his house and asked the community "could you please advice to do continue the construction as per proper standard or I have demolish the house and re-built again?"

A professional engineer advising this individual under the auspices of a hired firm would have certain legal obligations to the correctness of their opinion.  If one were to advise this individual in a way that led to him living in an unsafe structure on Stack Exchange, what legal repercussions could they face?

In particular, is there any legal precedent (read prior court case) which absolves freely offered online advice from liability?


texts: Are there databases that collect historical state and local government-initiated lawsuits against corporations?

texts:
For instance, this database collects federal lawsuits against corporations.
Is there an equivalent one that collects state and local government initiated lawsuits?


texts:
We have around 15 plants on our balcony which are patented but planning to move overseas. So I was thinking to sell them on gum tree or eBay.

Is that allowed? I did not breed them, just had the plants for 3 years.


texts: Is it allowed to use an Apple/Google logo on an QR code linking to their app stores?

texts:
Typically, online you have got badges with links to app stores. However, in print media it makes sense to use QR code. But then, if you have two QR codes, one for Apple and one for Google, they will look very similar.
Is it allowed to use an Apple/Google logo on an QR code image linking to their app stores?


texts: Can I take a picture of my company server room and post it on Facebook?

texts:
Is there a law that prohibits the taking of photos of a company server room and posting it as a status in Facebook? Every component is exposed but... no software ID, usernames or passwords even IP addresses where taken. Or is it under company jurisdiction?

EDIT: Reason... Rule of Cool?

Location: South East Asia, Philippines.


texts: Is listening to a song or watching a music video on YouTube legal? If yes, is Spotiffy also?

texts:
For a school assignment we need to listen to a song on YouTube and take screen shots of it. Out of curiosity, is it legal? I thought it was technically copyright infringement to listen to a song on YouTube. Does it matter if the song is put on by the company that owns it, like Vevo?

If yes, then what's the difference between YouTube and Spottily or similar.


texts: Landlord billing me for previous tenant's charges

texts:
I have subleased a studio in Illinois, and did paperwork officially with the leasing office. The original lease was until July 31, 2019, so I signed the lease to take responsibility of the lease (and charges) starting from Dec 1, 2018.

As I moved in, in all surprises, the landlord give me bills for October and November, asking me to pay. I only moved in on Dec 1. The previous tenant is not responsive, and says they moved out and handed keys on Nov 1.

Only thing I know is I should not pay for utility bills, and I'm planning to raise it to BBB. The bills, just like how electricity and internet billing works, should be billed to the right person who used them.

What should I do? And what are my options? I feel very stupid and scammed right now.


texts: Is the creation and usage of a full-text index (for full-text search in a document) a copyright infringement (EU)?

texts:
My research points towards "no".
From here:

Full Text Indexes Are Data About Books, and That’s Fair Use

From here:

full-text indexing is allowed as fair use under US copyright law. Indices are allowed as "transformative uses".

This source also suggests a technical way of full-text indexing without copyright infringement under two assumptions:

You can't infringe the copyright to a work if you don't copy the work.
If you can't reconstruct a work from its index, then distributing copies of the index doesn't infringe on the work's copyright.

However, most of the sources I could find online focus on the US and are some 10 year old. What is the latest development in this field (with focus on the EU)? Are there technical ways of avoiding an infringement of copyright?
Technical Introduction
In contrast to a metadata search that searches documents (web content, books, and other) by means of metadata (e.g. the author, date of creation, etc.) a full-text search is looking for occurrences of words, phrases, whole sentences, paragraphs, or - generally speaking - strings of characters in the document's text corpus.
A full-text index is a rather broad term for a technical solution to the problem of finding strings of characters in a text corpus without having to scan the whole document every time.
Usually, a full-text index is created by scanning the whole document and collecting statistics on the frequency of words (and so on) and often also the words' position in the document. That depends on the purpose of the index. Some indexes answer whether a words is in the document at all, others how often, or even where in the document.
To directly address the question raised by @DPenner1 in the comments: In general, indexes can identify arbitrary long phrases.
I don't know whether this is of importance but, as also the second source points out, it is sometimes technically possible to calculate (accurately) or guess the original text corpus from the index.
Once the index has been created, it is (technically) possible to copy and disseminate the index without the original text-corpus.


texts: USA: Is it legal to take naked non-abusive pictures of my child?

texts: I was wondering if it's illegal to take pictures of a baby while he's naked, for example. I'm mostly asking for babies, but it would be nice to know what age is ok to do it.


texts: Can having a company in the same industry with the similar names but different continents cause problems?

texts:
I have a web app that is currently small but has predispositions to grow in the European market, however a similar company exists in the US market already for a long time.

We both have similar name.

Their company (just an example): BRAINHEART (upper case)

My company (just an example): simplyheart (lower case)

We both offer similar softwares and our target market is the same but my company is located in Europe and focused on European clients while the other company is located in the USA but they have European clients as well.

We both have different logos, fonts, just the part of the name HEART is in common.
Will that be considered name conflict and can my company be sued for that?


texts: Is a landlord required to give 24 hours notice of entry again if they previously did so but cancelled?

texts:
Our landlord has typically been good about emailing us at least a day in advance as they've been showing our leased house almost 3 times a week for the past month. However, they recently sent an email saying they would be holding a showing today but later followed up and said that it had been cancelled and that no one would be coming. Then, with 30 minutes of notice, they notified us that the showing would be happening after all and let themselves in with almost 15 people attending.

Normally I wouldn't take issue with this for the sake of common decency, but our landlord has a bad habit of allowing prospective tenants to walk through the rooms (specifically my attached unit) unsupervised. Given that I have some very expensive computing equipment that I'm contractually obligated through work to keep secure (as well as not wanting people walking off with my own stuff), I ensure that I'm home during the showings.

I don't think any of us intend to take legal action, but it would be nice to know whether the law around reasonable notice protects us in this case as we discuss things with our landlord to prevent this from occurring in the future.


texts: Can one publish an assignment completed during a hiring process?

texts:
Say a company gives a week long assignment during the hiring process of a Software Engineer role and ask for the project´s codebase to remain private.

Can they morally and legally ask to keep that private? Who has right / ownership of this project?


texts: What are the implications of the Good Friday Agreement for customs controls?

texts: After the Good Friday Agreement was concluded, customs and security controls between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom were removed (From Wikipedia).  The Irish border is one of the major problems in the Brexit negotiations.  If the UK leaves the EU Customs Union, it maywill almost certainly be inevitable to reintroduce customs controls at the UK-Republic of Ireland border.  Does the Good Friday Agreement necessarily mean that such controls must not take place, or can customs controls exist without violating the Good Friday Agreement?


texts:
Some countries provide grants for their citizens to study abroad on the condition that the student will return to work in the country after graduation.  For example, the Thai government offers such scholarships (http://www.thailande.campusfrance.org/en/page/royal-thai-government-scholarship-program).  Students who do not return to work in Thailand are expected to pay back three times the cost of tuition.

How could the Thai government enforce this?  For example, if a student went to study in the UK and stayed long enough to obtain citizenship (perhaps through marriage), it seems that the only means of enforcement would be through the UK courts.  Would a UK court enforce a penalty clause like this one, or only require the student to pay back the actual cost of tuition (plus interest)?


texts: Perjury on Petition grounds for dismissal?

texts:
In a family court matter, a petitioner for more support funds completed a form, signed it (perjury?) certifying he was a resident in a county he does not live in. Is the readily provable false statement grounds for dismissal?

The state is New York, and I am not a party to the action. I am curious how to attack this type of situation.  I could not find anything in Siegel's New York Practice.

In summary, the application form (Petition) and applicant statement is impeached by their testimony on the form, under penalty of perjury.  (I am not certain that the penalty of perjury statement is appropriate on such a form, but that is a different matter.)  Certainly one could attack the credibility of the applicant, but I am curious if such an issue is more fundamental than that.


texts: What's the difference between inquisitorial and adversarial systems?

texts:
This question was inspired by this answer while trying to learn the difference between common and civil law. Two questions:

What's the difference between an inquisitorial system and an adversarial system?
Is an inquisitorial system limited to only civil law and an adversarial system to common law, or can either system exist in either body of law?


texts: School tricking/forcing students to create content for school's website

texts:
A Computer Engineer school (which shall remain anonymous) has issued an assignment to almost every student, which is to produce a short (3-5min) tutorial of a given student-specific subject.

The school website coincidentally has a "Tutorial video" section, but no content yet.

When asked about this, the teacher said the assignment will not be used for the school website, even though the assignment requires students to concatenate their videos with a "For more tutorials, check school.name.com" at the end.

If the student videos end up on the website, is the school breaking any laws or infringing any rights?

The country I'm interested in is France.

Note: This is a private school, and while the contract asks the students to give up image rights, there is no mention of the status of work produced in the school.

Additional information:

I've read the contract again in search of intellectual property. I've specifically refused to give up intellectual rights in the contract, but did concede image rights.


texts: How long can my university ask for Erasmus+ money back?

texts:
I just got an email from my university claiming that they paid too much Erasmus+ money for my study-abroad period and asking me to pay back the amount within the next two weeks.
Since I received my first installment of the grant more than a year ago, I was wondering whether they can still ask me for the money back? After all, there is no way that any person would wait more than a year to see whether they have been paid too much.


texts: What is the legal penalty for "contempt of Congress"?

texts:
In reading a recent article that suggested Steve Bannon might be found in "contempt of congress", I realized that there's no information on what the penalty for that might be, unlike the statutorily defined penalties for contempt of court.

Further searches on the matter only seem to confuse the issue, with most sources saying nothing about the legal penalties, and others alternating saying it's a federal misdemeanor, or it amounts to nothing.

So what are the potential legal consequences for being found in contempt of [US federal] congress?


texts: Can town administrative "code" overule state laws like those forbidding trespassing?

texts:
I notice that a lot of towns have "right of entry" rules which ostensibly permit firefighters to trespass onto private property essentially whenever they want to "inspect" things to "prevent fire". Basically, it's carte blanche to trespass on people's property to snoop on them. For example, linked is a typical town "code" to this effect.

Does "code" like this overrule somehow laws against trespassing?

This is relevant to me because I have a property with private road and the firefighters in town feel free to drive onto my property and snoop around.


texts: Can someone on maternity leave in the UK earn money by taking freelance work?

texts:
Let's say I work as a social worker (taxes through PAYE) and am on (statutory) maternity leave.

Let's say a local contact centre are looking for people to work there, on a freelance basis.

Am I allowed to work for them and continue to get statutory pay through my permanent social work contract?


texts:
NJ EZ Pass claims that a vehicle registered to me violated a toll. The vehicle is neither mine, nor is it registered to me. I mailed my dispute with a copy of my registration of the vehicle I own.

NJ EZ Pass replied stating that my dispute required documentation from the DMV regarding all the vehicles registered to me for the past 5 years. I sent them this documentation of vehicles I've had registered to me for the past 15 yrs (which had the raised seal of the DMV) through certified mail so that I would get the receipt of delivery.

I just got ANOTHER notification about the original violation of this vehicle which is not registered to me, but which they insist is.

I would appreciate any guidance with this situation. The phone numbers on the website are automated only.


texts: Accidentally took something wasn't mine. Can I get in trouble for returning it?

texts:
I recently moved out of a shared living accommodation. After moving out someone complained that the (shared) glove for removing hot items from the oven was missing. I had my own glove that I took and when I checked I now have two. They look almost the same so I guess I took theirs.

My ex-landlord (who is actually just the lease holder with the owner) is looking for all kinds of reasons not to return my damage deposit. In general money was always a source of conflict and both of us believe the other owes more money. Though I hope not, I suspect I'm going to have to take the ex-landlord to court.

I had a desk which belonged to me. I left it in a shared storage area. The ex-landlord had taken it to his room to use. Upon moving out I told the ex-landlord he could keep it for $40 or put it by the door and I will take it. He never returned it. (though I only know he took it because he verbally said it once, so I can't prove it). When someone asked if I took it I replied "I thought it was mine". I also messaged the ex-landlord "you still have my desk, if you agree I can keep the glove I'll consider this resolved". He replied with a lie saying the desk is his.

So what should I do with the oven glove? I can return it by leaving it in the mailbox. Could "admitting" to this leave me open for legal attacks if we go to court? One oven glove is slightly nicer than the other so I'd like to know which is his. How can I find this out? Should I bring up the desk and say something like "you need to agree to return my desk if I return the oven glove"? Probably not worth thinking about but since it was a shared oven glove, I don't know if there is an "owner". Should I ask for a receipt?

The ex-landlord claimed the oven glove was $40 but I suspect it's more like $20 especially considering it's used. He also started complaining a hall near my room was left in a messy state. This hall was shared and I was never asked to clean it. I don't recall it being messy when I left. If it really is a concern I could go back to sweep it out.


texts: Can my parent consent to allow my school to search me?

texts: I am 16 and the situation was that I was making a map of my school's security cameras (I was pretty bored) and one of my teachers saw me working on it and reported it to the school authorities. They called me into the office and asked me if I had a map of the school's cameras and I replied yes. They then told me that they were going to search my bag which I replied they did not have any sort of consent to search me, and since I had broken no laws, I thought since they didn't have any probable cause or reasonable suspicion, they couldn't search me. They then called my parents and asked to search my bag and they gave consent and they went right ahead with the search. Is this really something that they can do? Would the same thing apply if they were attempting to search my body?


texts:
In order to fly out of Pereira, Colombia, today, I was forced to do a
full-body x-ray.  I was allowed
to see the x-ray and it was very detailed, showing bones and internal
organs, but I was not allowed to take a photo of the image.  I wanted the
photo for my own benefit since I've had some stomach problems lately
(and for future comparisons) and since I had already "suffered" the x-ray
radiation.

Can I legally fight the photo denial?  Is there a way to either
succesfully take a photo next time or to sue the government?  My thinking
is that the forced image of my body belongs more to me than to the police.

I imagine that this question is hard to answer for Colombia, so would
accept an answer which would apply in case this ever happened in
California, USA.


texts: I don't have a lease and my landlord is threatening to kick me out immediately

texts:
This is embarrassing and I realize I should have done things differently. I live in a shared home and pay rent to the lease holder. He doesn't want me to live here anymore and has given me a few days to move out. Between work and finding a new place, this is not enough time. He said if I sign additional terms and pay more money I can stay one more month. He said if I don't give him a key to my room he will kick me out immediately.

I have an agreement by email for the cost of rent and damage deposit etc. however it says nothing about ending the arrangement.

What rights do I have? I know if I did have a RTB tenancy agreement the landlord would have to go to court and hire a bailiff to kick someone out. What's the minimum amount of notice to vacate, I can't believe it's just one day? I'm afraid the lease holder, who lives in the same house as me, will

change the locks while I'm out
remove my belongings and put them outside
remove my belongings and keep them for himself
try to physically remove me from the house

If any of these happen should I call the police just to make a report? Should I tell the leaseholder it's illegal to kick me out without notice?


texts: Incentive for offering discounted services to NPO/Charity/501(c)(3)?

texts:
Backstory:

I am exploring options for a business that offers Software, Platform and Infrastructure as-a-service (SAAS, IAAS and PAAS) and Insurance-Billing services to Ambulance companies, Fire Departments, Schools, and other Charitable and Not-for-profit organizations.

These organizations tend to have strict budgets and often encounter financial impasses that directly affect their ability to maintain subscriptions and use productivity software and services that ultimately impact their businesses and their communities.

We would like to offer discounts to these organizations, but our profit margin is already quite low, and we would essentially be breaking even or paying clients to use our products and services.

Question:

Can such discounts be considered tax-deductible charitable donations?


texts: Who would have to pay for the damage resulting from sitting on a freshly painted bench?

texts:
When a bench in a public area gets repainted/lacquered, there’s typically a sign that reads "Wet paint!", which should warn people not to sit on the bench.

A blind person can’t read this sign, sits down, and gets dirty clothes.

Who would have to pay for the damage (dry cleaning / replacement)? The owner of the bench (typically the city), the painting business (for not sufficiently cordoning off the bench), or the blind person?

(I’m primarily interested in Germany, but it would be interesting to know if other jurisdictions handle this differently.)


texts: Do I have to formally accept a transfer of shares to me, in the UK? Or can they be transferred to me without my consent?

texts:
I have become estranged from my business partners. One of them insists that I am owed shares in the company, but I don't wish to accept them, not least for reason that I believe the shares to be worthless.
Can they register a transfer of shares to my name against my will? The shareholding would be substantial: 31%.
EDIT
My jurisdiction is the UK.


texts: Can the USA military be used as a police force domestically?

texts:
A discussion on a sister Stack Exchange site led me to ask this question.

Under what conditions can a branch of the military (excluding the Coast Guard for technical reasons) be used in an active role in law enforcement operations domestically in the United States?  By active, I am envisioning active duty soldiers from the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines breaking down doors and arresting suspects, so above and beyond manning checkpoints and road blocks or logistical operations in support of local law enforcement.

Can the President make this decision unilaterally acting under the Insurrection Act, or does he or she need the consent of Congress as specified in 18 U.S. Code § 1385?

If it depends, what does it depend on?


texts: In US do you have right to stop thieves from leaving?

texts:
https://9gag.com/gag/a3KMe67

A woman is caught shoplifting and in this video the guard called the police.

Is what the black man did illegal?

I've heard before that a thief have "right" to flee, and trying to knock him out is not justified because you can only use violence to protect your self, instead of yourmoney.


texts: Help! I wanting to start up a company... but my business name is taken

texts: I have recently wanted to start up a design company/photography business. I have chosen my name but found out someone else online was using it. Their website says copyright 2016. Another website I looked (different name) at said copyright 2016 all rights reserved. Is there a difference? Can I still use my original name or will I have to change my business name entirely?


texts: How can a different company make a sequel if the original game company goes bankrupt?

texts:
Say a game company goes bankrupt but another company wants to make a sequel. Is it possible for the other company to obtain rights to make a sequel?

Who would they even contact about this?


texts: Found mis-delivered parcel after receiving refund - must I tell the store?

texts:
A parcel ordered through a store was meant to be delivered to me on Saturday 30th. It wasn't. Going through the delivery firm's customer service, they couldn't determine where it had been delivered to and considered it a missing parcel. This led to the store submitting a refund to me and a fine to the delivery firm.

I have now canvassed the places it could have been miss-delivered to and found the parcel.

Do I have to notify the store?

If I do, do I have to agree to them cancelling the refund?


texts:
I am representing myself in arbitration proceedings against a large business.
The American Arbitration Association is orchestrating the proceedings and has stated that the Consumer Arbitration Rules apply.
The rules do not give any guidance on important non-procedural elements: the standard of proof (is it akin to civil? criminal?), determination of relevant law, what cases can be cited, admissibility of evidence, etc. Where can I find answers to these questions?


texts: Contractor v homeowner. Disparagement clause

texts: My husband and I would like to complete a remodeling job on our home. The relationship between us and the contractor has gotten tense as there are many errors that need correction. We have sought estimates for repairs from other contractors. Before the original contractor will approve the estimates to be deducted from our final payment the original contractor is trying to force us to sign a non disparagement contract. Can they do this legally?


texts: Does the new citizenship question for the 2020 census violate 13-USC-9?

texts:
The US Commerce Department (which is over the US Census Bureau) announced plans to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens during the 2020 Census. Commerce stated that they made this decision after the Department of Justice requested inclusion of the question "to better enforce the Voting Rights Act."

Certainly the Bureau has the general authority to gather demographic data including citizenship status, but U.S. Code, Title 13, Section 9 reads:

  Copies of census reports … shall be immune from legal process, and shall not, without the consent of the individual or establishment concerned, be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose in any action, suit, or other judicial or administrative proceeding. [emphasis added]

Since the explicit reason for including the question has been publicly declared to be for use as an aid in enforcing the Voting Rights Act wouldn't such intent make this question a flagrant violation of the above US Code?


texts: Ownership of items bought with credit card

texts:
Hypothetical question, assume US jurisdiction.

When someone buys an item with a credit card and then skips on the card bill payment, is there a legal provision for the card issuer to claim ownership over the bought item or service? Or is it then just a dispute over arrears?


texts: Are there any laws regarding the prohibition of selling rifles in Turkey? I have been going through the sites of various arms-dealers and all I can find is hunting-rifles, which take shells. What I am looking for are actual semi-automatic rifles. I'm going to live there in the future and am a gun-lover, and would love to own a couple. Anyone who lives there with experience or knowledge on this?


texts: Do Indonesians have laws that govern investment?

texts:
A friend of mine was offered an investment by an insurance agent.

We basically understood that we can arrange that the insurance ia "small" and the rest is for real investment.

Even though he is not interested in the insurance part, he sort of agree because he can set the insurance small. He also had a lawyer that he trusted would warn him in case things go wrong.

The thing is the insurance agent is his lawyer's wife.

So what seems to happen is the lawyer, the insurance company, and the agent works together. What they seems to do from my point of few is the following

They set the "benefit" of the insurance small. So the insurance
benefit can be bought for $40.
They set the premi high ($4000) to
max out the commission. They seem to be able to do this due to a
technique called unapplied premium.
They claim that all the money is
invested.

Basically he ended up buying a $40 worth of insurance protection for $4k because he thought the money is all invested.

Needless to say he sued the insurance company under customer protection laws.

Latter the agent said that the insurance is indeed small like he asked (the benefit is small) and that unit link is "long term investment".

That being said we wonder if there is any additional laws that protect investors like me from this kind of scam.

The corporation name is avrist insurance. I've heard it's related to AIA or something. Not sure.

We got to keep names secret because of indonesian anti defamation's laws and the court in indonesia is very malleable. We do however, want the case to get as much publicity as possible.

The case is quite similar with http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/sim-lim-scams-student-reduced-tears-after-being-charged-1k-iphone-warranty except that you change iphone to investment. A little insurance that should worth so small suddenly worth a lot without customer knowing it.

Update: The customer sued the avrist in bpsk. Avrist didn't even bother showing up. However, it seems to be a very long road between that and getting the money back. It probably cost way more than $5k.


texts: Can an unintentional creation due to a software glitch be trademarked or copyrighted?

texts:
Say that I write a computer game that involves a number of characters. I choose to trademark some of the characters I think are more marketable, and copyright my game. To my surprise, fans discover that it is possible to glitch the game in such a way that a new character is created (perhaps it's a Frankenstein-type character of other parts). It rises in popularity and becomes fairly recognizable.

Does the fact that it was an unintentional creation still mean it is eligible for trademark or copyright protection?

For reference, this sort of thing happened in Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version. It is possible to glitch the game to create what appears to be a Pokémon called "MissingNo.", which was clearly unintentional. It became pretty popular and is rather recognizable among those who played the games. To have a more specific version of the question, could Nintendo theoretically choose to trademark "MissingNo."? Is it protected under copyright?


texts: What are the legal ramifications of going public with corruption in academia?

texts:
Let us say that someone has been aware of scientific and professional misconduct in academia.  They blew the whistle, and they were heavily retaliated against.  A multi-million dollar grant was involved.  Also, the Feds are involved to some extent.

To my knowledge, it isn't libel if it is true.  I do know that going public would void any further investigations.  But what are the legal ramifications of going public with serious forms of corruption at this particular university?


texts: Can people (especially LEO) be prosecuted for deliberately helping illegal aliens?

texts:
Apologies if the question is somewhat naive. IANAL.

As far as I know, illegal immigration (well, technically speaking, "illegal entry" is a crime (misdemeanor or felony depending on particulars).
To the best of my understanding, if you help someone to commit a crime, you can be charged and prosecuted (aiding and abetting?). Concealing a crime can be prosecuted (accessory after the fact?). If you deliberately plan to do so in advance, presumably you can be prosecuted for conspiracy.

Combining the two points above, can people in general, and especially politicians or LEOs, be charged and prosecuted for intentionally violating immigration policies (e.g. failing to detain someone knowing their illegal status, etc...)?

Context for the question: http://fortune.com/2016/11/11/new-york-los-angeles-sanctuary-cities-donald-trump/


texts: What defines the responsibility of a shared/common wall/property in a town home?

texts:
I am looking to buy a home in Washington State, and many of the homes are town homes that share a common wall (or more). I want to better understand any risks with this type of arrangement.

My question is in regard to who 'owns' or is responsible/liable for any shared infrastructure? To be more specific, if there is an issue with the shared wall that needs repair, does something define who pays for that without any other agreement in place?


texts: How do will holders discover the will maker has died?

texts:
My question relates to the UK, though the question could apply to other locales.
Say I lodge a will with a legal representative in one part of the country (or even in another country) and years later in another part of the country or world I pass away; how does / should / will the legal representative know that I am deceased and that the will should be executed?


texts: What protocol is used in the case of Pleading Insanity?

texts:
I'm a writer, and in this chapter, the defendant is on trial for acts of terrorism. But he is pleading insanity, with no psychological evaluation because "his actions speak for themselves."

What would need to follow? I assume the Judge and defense attorney would be trying to prove whether or not he really is insane.

The story takes place in Paris, and I understand the Judicial System is different there. But I will take whatever answers I can get.


texts: What is the origin of trials by jury? Were juries used in Old Testament, Greek, Roman, or Inquisition trials?


texts: What is the purpose of a Money Mortgage Deed of Trust Affidavit?

texts:
I'm recently divorced and in the process of closing on a house, and was given the option by the title company of either having my ex sign a Subordination of Child Support Lien or executing a Money Mortgage Deed of Trust Affidavit (which apparently would automatically subordinate the Child Support Lien by Nebraska state law).

I read a couple sample affidavits I found online, and all of them basically just state that all proceeds of the loan were used for the property purchase. I understand the lien process, but it isn't clear as what the difference between signing the affidavit and obtaining an explicit lien subordination is. Would subsequent transactions (selling the house, or taking a home equity loan) be effected differently based on which route I go? My understanding is that in any case, I would have to have the Child Support Lien re-subordinated for new financing or released for a sale.


texts: If a cybercrime were committed while the attacker is on an aircraft, who has the jurisdiction?

texts: Say, the plane is flying from country A to B. A cybercrime was committed while the plane was above country C. The attacker hacked into country D. Who has the jurisdiction in this case?


texts: Can it be dangerous to forget your passwords?

texts:
Suppose I travel with my old notebook, where there is a lot of old stuff on hard drive, including the contents of the disk of my previous computer, including parts of disk content of my computer before that, all dating back to at least year 2000 or thereabouts. Some of the content is in encrypted archives. I am not 100% confident that I can remember all the passwords.

Reading about key disclosure law, traveling in this arrangement looks like a dangerous thing to do. Is it? Or not really? If not, please explain why not. If it is, are there any precedents?


texts: What are the laws regarding compiling SE answers and selling them for money?

texts:
Thanks to user @Abcd for pointing this out. It seems that there are some books floating around the internet, selling for $4.61, that are compilations of SE answers. What are the laws regarding this, and what makes them legal/illegal (i.e. attribution)?*

*Meta posts on this: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/273989/are-these-ebooks-that-copy-from-se-illegal, https://chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4217/is-publication-of-chem-se-stuff-in-the-form-of-e-books-legal. As a further note, I'm not looking for whether its legal, I'm looking for what makes it legal/illegal and where in civil law is it mentioned.


texts: GDPR question about processing personal data for research purposes that yield aggregated results

texts:
So my thesis proposal is about predicting mortality rates. I will work with a company (insuretech) that already has database of 2m+ people with death dates (if dead), birth date, transaction volume (money), and which collective insurance this person have (out of 4 possible).

Now, I'm will use machine learning to predict mortality rate of, for example, a group of people that are X years old, male and has insurance A. So the overall published results are very aggregated (For example: 40% of all 90 year old males will die this year, according to my predictions).

I will never ever publish the data of ANY individual, all the machine learning and data processing will be done in house of the company, locally on their computers. I also only have clearance to anonymised data (pseudo addresses and names).

This will be my research paper at my university, done together with a company for academic purposes as well as for the interests of the company.

So to sum this up:

Personal data will be used, it was already legally obtained as it's necessary information for my host company (insuretech).
The results are not targeted to any of the individuals from the database, but only aggregated statistical results are published regarding groups of people.
No data that can identify anyone is published whatsoever. Again, only aggregated results from personal data will be presented.
I will take precautions to process the data in a safe environment
This will be a published paper

Is this ok within the scope of GDPR?


texts: Are "slavish copies" of public domain work in the public domain?

texts:
I had previously been under the impression that the photographed reproductions of public domain artwork were copyrighted - further research has made me question whether this is always the case. I wanted to clarify whether the below is indeed an exception, and if so how strong a protection it is.

While searching for public domain images on Wikimedia I found the following: "The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that 'faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain'." After checking the subsection for the United States, where I live, I found another statement that "Under the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corporation, a mere 'record' photograph of a 2D work of art (i.e. a photograph which is an as-accurate-as-possible copy of the original) acquires no copyright protection."

After reading the article on this case, it seems to be correct that the above is a non-binding but influential precedent, if not law, so long as the reproduction is a "slavish copy" of the original. It's impressive to me that an organization as large as Wikimedia is willing to rely on this ruling, but I also wanted to get an outside opinion.

So, is all the above true, and if so how strong a legal protection is this precedent? Is there anything else I should know about using it?

A secondary question, if the above holds, would be whether this precedent would also allow the use of "slavish copies" that are on websites hosted outside of the United States if I myself live in the U.S.

Bounty Edit: While I'm grateful for the answer I received, I'm making a bounty available for someone who provides a robust and practicable answer directly applicable to the USA. Thanks.


texts: GDPR Article 13.4 - how do you know that the data subject already has the information?

texts:
Article 13.1 states:

  Where personal data relating to a data subject are collected from the data subject, the controller shall, at the time when personal data are obtained, provide the data subject with all of the following information:

..and lists a lot of different information about the controller, DPO, processing purposes, the recipients etc.

Now, article 13.4 states:

  Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply where and insofar as the data subject already has the information.

My question, is: how do you know that the data subject already has the information? Do I have to store some proof of the data subject recieving / reading provided information? How should I know which part of the information data subject knows and which part is unknown to her/him?

EDIT:

What about people from whom I have not previously collected any personal data, but who may have already been informed about me as a data controller? For example, if I were the owner of a website that offers e-learning courses, can I assume, that someone who wants to sign up for the course, knows who I am, how to contact me and what is the purpose of the processing? It should be obvious for him/her. If he did not know it, he/she wouldn't sign up for the course on this particular website. After all, his/her decision to come to the website is not random - he/she chose it from many other websites offering courses. Can I omit information that, in my opinion, should be known to the customer at this point? Article 13.4 requires me to refrain from providing information to the data subject when the data subject has the information.


texts: If the Residential Tenancy Act does not apply, what does?

texts:
In BC, the RTA stipulates laws regarding rental homes. However, it does not apply under certain circumstances, such as when the tenant shares the kitchen or bathroom with a home owner. My question is, what does apply in these situations if not the RTA? I'm assuming a landlord wouldn't be free to not return the damage deposit just because the tenant isn't covered by RTA?

I'm specifically interested in Quiet Enjoyment. Does such a thing apply when living with the owner? Obviously exclusive access wouldn't but what about the owner making excessive disturbances?

  Section 28 of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) covers “quiet
  enjoyment” – an important legal principle that gives every tenant the
  right to:

  reasonable privacy;
  freedom from unreasonable disturbances;
  exclusive use of their rental unit (unless their landlord is allowed to enter by law); and
  use of common areas for reasonable purposes.

Also assume an RTB-1 form has been signed, which in itself stipulates certain conditions, even if the RTA fails to apply.


texts: Options for dealing with smoking neighbors

texts:
I live in the city limits of Seattle. My next-door neighbors smoke cigarettes and marijuana outside their house multiple times a day, with one reliable smoke session between 10 and 10:30 PM. Due to the terrain and prevailing air flows, their smoke flows directly around and past my house on all sides (it's not clear to me if it depends on whether they do their smoking in the front yard, back yard, or what, but suffice it to say that smoke regularly comes on all sides).

As we don't have air conditioning, in the summer we cool our house at night by opening windows and running fans to circulate air. Needless to say, this means that when the neighbors light up, their smoke heads straight into our house, an extremely objectionable situation for us. It is not a faint whiff.

Do we have any legal options to try to put a stop to this? Are there any laws along the lines of "quiet enjoyment of my own home" that could help? Even though marijuana is not illegal in Washington state at the state level, does the fact that it is still illegal at the federal level make a difference?

I know for a fact that the neighbor rents. If I were able to get in touch with their landlord, could there be any action that the landlord could be forced to take to deal with the tenants?

The neighbors are not the type to care about the experience of others or to care much about observing inconvenient laws. One of their close relatives (who lives in the next house farther away) owns a marijuana shop. Their children have bullied mine, and they were unapologetic and angry when approached about it rather than open and receptive.

If we have no legal options here, then something is wrong. It's ridiculous that we would have recourse about objectionably loud noises, but not about sending smoke into our very bedrooms when we're trying to cool off.

[Help with tags would be appreciated.]


texts: Can an employer withhold a relocation repayment from an employee's last paycheck?

texts:
My current employer paid me $2500 to relocate to Tempe AZ from Chicago, roughly a year and a few months ago.

I'm leaving, though I have an agreement as part of that relocation that if I leave / quit / am terminated within 18 months, I must pay it back in full.

I was under the impression that when I did this, I'd simply owe them a check or something along those lines; When I spoke to my manager, he mentioned it would be with-held from my final paycheck.

This works out beneficially for me, as if they simply pay me fewer wages on that paycheck then I suppose I won't be paying as many taxes, and possibly it'll be paid pre-tax, but it brought up a question in my mind, of whether this is actually something they're supposed to be doing.

In Arizona, is there any statute on whether an employer can withhold expenses owed back to the company, like a repayment of a reimbursement fee from an employee's final paycheck?