texts: What is the fundamental meaning of a right?

texts: I am writing an essay about children's right and somewhere, it is stated that all kids should have the right to primary school, children have the right to good quality health care, and so on. I looked up the definition of a right and I found that it's moral or legal entitlement to have or do something. I am living in developing country and we don't have a lot of infrastructure such as public school or public hospital. But according to the definition of a right, can a child go to a private school or private hospital without paying any fee and tuition(their parent cannot afford) just because that's their right and they are entitled to get the service?


texts: Responsibility of accidental damage to supermarket items by customer

texts: I was wondering in the case that a customer accidentally drops an item in a supermarket that results in a damage, is he/she held responsible for paying the damage? What if the arrangement of the items has been in a way that has made the accident likely?


texts: If a stakeholder steals escrow/deposit in land sale contract, is the seller obligated to refund the deposit?

texts: In a more drastic case, if in a Sale and Purchase Agreement, the vendor authorizes the purchaser's solicitor as the escrow/stakeholder to receive not just the deposit but the purchase price on his behalf (required by law), and the contract states that if it is voided when neither parties at fault, the seller should refund the purchaser all money paid to the seller while the purchaser returns the seller's documents/property: but the stakeholder steals the money paid, is the seller still obligated to refund it? Or is it the job of a compensation fund to refund the purchaser?


texts: Why does the law use the word "Grand" when describing Grand Theft Auto. It's almost like they're glorifying it. Is there a lesser type of theft auto?


texts: Would drug intoxication be considered a "pre-existing condition" for the thin skull rule

texts:
The Thin Skull Rule, also known as Eggshell Skull Doctrine states that the unexpected vulnerability of an injured person is not a valid defense to the seriousness of any injury caused to them.
In the Derek Chauvin trial regarding the death of George Floyd, the defense argues that the levels of fentanyl in George Floyd's blood contributed to the hypoxia of which he died.
If it is true that the fentanyl was a contributing factor, would this be a valid argument, or would the drug intoxication be considered a pre-existing condition, therefore applying the Thin Skull Rule?


texts: Which year to put in copyright notice when mixing old content?

texts:
I'm from India and I know that copyright rules may vary from country to country, however, I hope that this question is much general and could be answered based on a general convention.

I'm writing a book and it'll be published this year. It is published by a publisher (i.e., not self-published). But I plan to hold the copyright myself, and include this notice in the title verso page:

Copyright (C) 2017 Nandakumar Edamana

The book may contain pictures from Wikimedia Commons or the public domain, for which I'll include separate notices. However, it also includes some content from my other works and articles published earlier. So how should be my copyright notice?

Copyright (C) 2017 Nandakumar Edamana
Some contents are from third-party sources or from the author's earlier works. See Page ? to know more about their copyright.

Copyright (C) 2014-2017 Nandakumar Edamana
Some contents are from third-party sources and their copyright details are included in the pages they appear.

Or doesn't that matter at all because if the copyright is held by the author, its duration is calculated based on his lifetime?

Update:
It is primarily a technical work, not a literary one.


texts: I believe my ex is using DHS to create problems for me, what can i do?

texts: I have recently received a visit from child protective services. The visit was due to a report of possible neglect regarding my youngest child. I am confident after speaking with the social worker that this will be closed and deemed non-founded within a weeks time. I understand that reports are made anonymously and the identity of the reporter cannot, under any circumstance, be released. I however do not need it to be. I know it was my ex who reported. we are currently in a custody battle, and things have not gone in his favor thus far. However there has been a huge problem, the sheriff accompanied the social worker. that fine, i understand the need to do so. However we live on company property. The day after the visit my husbands employer told him this type of thing could not happen again. It looks bad on the company and if it happens again my husband will loose his job and our home as well. i am confidant that i have nothing to fear from the matter of DHS or anything of the sort. But I am also positive that my ex has discovered he can make my life troubled, by making reports (even non founded ones) to DHS. is there anything i can do to prevent my ex from costing us our home and my husbands job by making false reports, thus sending more police to our home for no reason at all??


texts: Why do VISA and MasterCard comply with U.S. sanctions that erode their business?

texts:
On what basis does the U.S. government prohibit American companies like VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, et al, from doing business on the Crimean Peninsula?

Crimea is connected with, and backed by, the whole of Russia, which in turn is connected with China, with both being part of BRICS.

The fact that Visa and MasterCard could not be used all across Russia would naturally make Russian banks start transitioning to more friendly payment processors like Sberbank's Pro100 and China's UnionPay.  This, in turn, will simply erode the influence that American companies have across the whole of Russia (and also across the globe as more people switch to UnionPay, which is nowadays accepted in a whole lot of places including America), not simply the small area actually subject to the sanctions.

Aren't all of these companies like VISA and MasterCard actually incorporated in the Bahamas, etc., anyways?  Why do they comply with the request for sanctions?  What would happen if they don't comply?  What would they have to do to not be legally required to comply?

See also:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-05-06/the-biggest-loser-from-russia-sanctions-visa

  The Chinese experience inspires Putin's advisers: UnionPay, whose cards are accepted in 135 countries, is now bigger than Mastercard and second only to Visa in processing volume.


texts: In California, if a baseball lands in my yard, is it legally mine?

texts: Say some neighborhood kid was playing baseball and accidentally hit the ball into my yard. Theoretically, if I own the house or my lease permits, I have the right to control access to my yard and, therefore, access to the ball, even if I don't own the ball. If someone retrieves the ball without my permission, they are trespassing.


texts: UK - Early termination of Assured Shorthold Tenancy, but impossible to find new tenant

texts:
I am renting a flat in the UK, on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy without a break clause. The property is managed by an estate agency.
I need to leave 7 months earlier than agreed. I gave notice to the agency and they replied that the landlord can only agree to end the tenancy if:

A new tenancy is agreed.
I pay the landlord's administration fees for the whole period.
I keep paying the rent and bills until a new tenant moves in.
The new tenant will rent the flat with the same agency.

This all sounds fair and legit, but my worry is that my pre-covid rent is very high for today's standards. Covid-19 has created a huge supply of free flats, and a shortage of potential tenants looking for a new flat. This has affected the rents, as I've seen several reports of rents going down in my area.
The flat is on the market for some weeks now, the ad has hundreds of views, but we only had 4 viewings, and two of them got cancelled. Checking the market for similar properties, our flat is not very appealing, as there are many other similar flats in the same building with better features, available for the same price. They are also managed by more reputable agencies, as our agency has pretty bad reviews on google.
Our landlord will not consider lowering the rent price to a more competitive level. They are much better getting an overpriced rent from us for the rest of our tenancy term. And I have no negotiating power, as the contract allows them to rip me off.
Also I am not that sure that the agency is doing their best to rent the flat. For all I know, they could be suggesting other flats that they manage to potential tenants.
Is there anything I could do to convince them to lower their rent, so that we could find a new tenant in a reasonable time?


texts: Can an EU citizen spouse look for work before Stamp 4?

texts:
Say the non EU spouse of an EU citizen is due to get their Stamp 4/Card in a couple of weeks, enabling them to work in an EU country.

While they are waiting for the date to get the stamp, can they go for a job interview to enable them to get a job as soon as they get the card?

Is looking for a job during that period illegal?


texts: Are passengers allowed to record the audio of their interactions with the US immigration officers when clearing the immigration as they enter the US?

texts:
Are passengers allowed by law to record the audio of their interactions with the US immigration officers at the airport when clearing the US immigration as they enter the US via air travel?

If state-specific, I'm mostly interested in California.


texts: Are privacy policies and terms of service copyrighted?

texts: Can I just copy a site's privacy policy and terms of service and do a global search & replace for the name? They all pretty much say the same thing anyways.


texts: Can someone be forbidden to use a public service without the specification of an offence?

texts: I believe the manager of a private service can arbitrarily decide not to serve someone. But what about a public service, like a public health clinic?


texts: Recourse loan state and Non-Recourse loan state which one prevails?

texts: Someone that lives in a non-recourse state buys property in a recourse state.  All signatures where done by mail in their home state.  Is it automatically a recourse loan since the property is located in a state that allows recourse or is the loan automatically a non-recourse loan as the buyer resides in a non-recourse state and paperwork was signed in a non-recourse state?


texts: Copyright for unauthored articles in The Economist

texts: The Economist is a weekly magazine, where articles are never signed by authors. Is it then enough that the magazine itself is in the public domain? I have come across posts like this one stating that individual articles might be further protected under copyright. But if I do not know the author, how can I know?


texts:
Apparently there was a case in 2013 where the fan game My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic got taken down by Hasbro.

This makes me wonder, why did it not fall under fair use in terms of Parody?

This article by a legal information website says

  [...] a parody is a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule. It is regarded as a criticism or comment on the original copyrighted work. In simple terms, it has to convey to the audience some type of message about the original work. This “message” fits can be understood to transform the original work (the work that’s being parodied) because that message is adding something new; it takes all or part of the original work and gives it a different purpose or character. [...]

Making a game about characters from this TV show fighting each other, when in the series it's all about loving each other could be seen as criticism or comment on the peacefulness of the original characters. So why doesn't that count as parody?

In a related fashion, I'm thinking about a game where giant dynamaxed Pokemon  unleash death and destruction onto the world. If PETA's Pokemon clone is parody, wouldn't an overly brutal version of Pokemon be parody as well? I would be creating my own assets.

What exactly is and isn't parody?


texts: What is a "printed computer program" from a legal perspective?

texts:
When asking a computer scientist, I received a clear answer: does not exist. However from a legal perspective, "printed computer programs" do exist and a can be chosen as a class for CTM registration.

So what is a printed computer program?


texts: Is a teacher/school administrator allowed to force me to decrypt my phone?

texts:
As in: My phone was just confiscated, but not before I shut it off. If they wanted to look through it without a warrent, can they force me to decrypt it?

EDIT: USA is country-of-residency


texts:
Mindy Chen-Wishart. Contract Law (2018 6 edn). p 495.

If a judge awards claimant nominal damages, this means the defendant lost and must pay costs. Thus I'd guess 'attach' to mean 'impose' or 'award'? But the dictionary's definition doesn't fit.


texts: Does California require smoke detectors in a garage used as a laundry room?

texts: The building I live in is a 4 unit apartment that used to be one large single family residence. The garage is located under my unit, next to one unit on the ground floor. There is a door from the garage to the ground floor unit. Today my wife called while i was at work and told me she smelled smoke when she went into the garage. Our neighbor determined (unsure how) that the problem was our laundry dryer. He unplugged the machine. My wife called the landlord and they said they would come take a look some time later this week (it is Monday). The garage has no smoke detector. This has me worried, as a fire that started in the garage could get quite large before we were alerted to its presence in our upstairs unit, and our stairs go down a wall shared by the garage. The only thing I can find about california fire code on smoke detectors is that they have to be located inside and just outside of all sleeping areas. Is my landlord required to install a smoke detector in the garage/laundry room? If not is there anything else I can do other than ask the landlord to install a smoke detector? This landlord is historically incredibly cheap and loath to do anything to help their tenants.


texts: When two promissory notes represent the same debt, which one is legally valid?

texts:
An application was completed for a FFEL guaranteed student loan consolidation including a signature on the bottom, promissory note section. The guarantee company insisted a second, computer generated full promissory note be signed. I assumed they would void the first. The list of banks representing the loans to be consolidated on the second note are in conflict with the list on the first note. I am not sure which list is accurate.

Is either note valid and/or enforceable? The information is in conflict. Also, my signature is crossed out on the second, initialed and signed differently. I don't remember doing that and it's not on the copy I have. And lastly, both notes were printed years before the 1992 amendments so not all options for repayment are listed and the disclosure "this is a loan which must be repaid" is not present anywhere. I had read in the Colorado Student Loan Training Manual that duplicate notes are not enforceable.


texts: Is it legal for an HOA to require information on an owner's guests?

texts:
My HOA recently began requiring that overnight guests sign an authorization form wherein they must give their full name, relationship to the owner, phone number and photo ID.

This is a gross violation of privacy. Is it legal for an HOA to demand these things of an owner's guest?


texts: Should I assume a deceased person's work is public domain if I can find no evidence of an estate?

texts:
If I can find no evidence that a writer or artist left an estate, and their work was published over 100 years ago, is it safe to assume it is public domain and therefor, free to use?

Specifically I'm trying to find out if a poem by Wilfred Owen, an Englishman who died 1918 in France, is available to use in a book intended for public sale in America. The poem was published in 1918. So far I can't find any evidence that his family or an estate holds the copyright to his works. His wikipedia article mentioned:

  In 1975 Mrs. Harold Owen, Wilfred's sister-in-law, donated all of the
  manuscripts, photographs and letters which her late husband had owned
  to the University of Oxford's English Faculty Library.

If the poem was a part of those manuscripts, does it now belong to Oxford even though it was already published?


texts: Can tribal nations initiate gambling between states or are they subject to the same rules as everyone else?

texts: As I understand it, gambling in the U.S. is only illegal if it takes place between states. However, the large, Native American owned casinos permitted by states through due to the 1987 ruling of California v. the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians draw in people from many different states at a time. I am wondering if this is permitted because these casinos are constructed within the sovereign territory of tribal nations within states, or, if it is because that ruling itself loosened regulations for all gaming institutions, Native or not.


texts: What is position of International Treaty in the Law of United States?

texts: If United States is signatory of an treaty signed with another state which is still valid, what is position of that treaty which regulates something (for example giving citizen of state which is signatory of treaty some rights in US) according to valid laws of United States?


texts: How can you decide if a fact pattern involves the Free Movement of Goods AND/OR the Freedom (for Individuals) to Provide Services?

texts:
As in my previous posts, I've been struggling to decide whether a fact pattern involves the free movement of goods AND/OR freedom for individuals to provide services. I'm NOT asking about legal persons.
My struggle is worsened by the "rather anachronistic" and confusing "breadth" of Art 57(1) TFEU. See the red underlines below from Barnard's The Substantive Law of the EU (2020 6 edn), p. 290.

This scan from Craig and De Burca's EU Law (2020 7 edn) can assist.


texts: Is it illegal (under US law) to "manually" mass download from JSTOR?

texts:
Say I wish to determine the frequency of the use of the word "apple" in academic articles. And so I want to get as many academic articles as possible for analysis.

I have access (through my university) to JSTOR. Using my personal computer and my internet access from home, I "manually" (i.e. without any script or bot or tricks) download as many articles as I can everyday.

Let's say I can download 1,000 a day. I do this for a few years until I have 1 million articles from JSTOR.

This might violate JSTOR's T&C, but would I have done anything illegal under US law?


texts: Does a statute of limitation apply to Virginia's mask law?

texts:
Virginia § 18.2-422 makes wearing a KKK hood or other face covering a felony, both in public, and in private unless it is with the owner's written permission.

Could someone (not mentioning any names) still be prosecuted for violating this law in the 1980s?

(Also, if it matters, the "with the intent to conceal his identity" clause was recently added. That phrase was absent in the 1980s.)


texts:
The US Supreme Court Case Korematsu (1944) ruled that the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry was legal out of concern for national security.  This case is now generally regarded as a mistake, even though it has never been revisited or overturned.

Short of a new case involving the mass incarceration of another group of citizens based on their national origin, is there a legal means to have the precedent re-visited and overturned?  Are we effectively stuck with this decision remaining as case law that can be cited?


texts: What does the wording "wholly unconnected with your employment" mean in a UK Employment Contract

texts:
Having some trouble understanding some wording in a contract and how it affects the employee. The main passage is

You shall promptly disclose to the Company and to no-one else all copyright works or designs
originated, conceived, written or made by you alone or with others (except only those works
originated, conceived, written or made by you wholly unconnected with your employment) and
shall until such time as such rights shall be fully absolutely vested in the Company hold them in
trust for the Company.

What exactly does the term "wholly unconnected" really mean? Can a "connection" be something tenuous, for example...
If the job was a software engineering role, if the below were performed 100% out of work time, on personal hardware with no input from other employees at the company could they realistically be deemed as "connected" to the employment and owned by the employer?
I can understand the issue if company hardware was used for personal projects, but surely nobody can lay claim to things produced outside of work? It would be extremely tenuous in my opinion but could somebody argue something is connected because it required the same skills as the persons job, even if done on their own time?

Writing a book about software development
Releasing an open source piece of software not specifically aimed at the industry the company is in
Release a commercial piece of software not specifically aimed at or competing with the industry the company is in


texts: Facebook disabled my account; can I legally force them to restore it?

texts:
I was trying to sell adult goods on facebook as I sold other kind of products as usual to multiple facebook communities. I happened to forget nudity was forbidden on facebook. But the package contained a naked woman.

I made a mistake unintentionally. But I got my account disabled instantly. I am not able to login to my account. I tried to appeal to FB many time to recover my account. But they refused to do so.

This has made a huge loss to me as I have got so many personal data (including pictures and videos), so many friends' connection, and so many chat records(including some business details) in the server. I lost everything by their single act.

Is there any legal way to force facebook return my person data?

Thanks for any advice in advance.


texts: Why does the United States Supreme Court oppose cameras, when Australia's, Canada's, and UK's have permitted them?

texts:
SCOTUS Justices' arguments against televising (like Alito J at 21:03 and Kagan J at 26:17 who interestingly voted TO televise when he was on the 3rd Circuit), also pertain to the HCA, SCC, and UKSC. They include misinterpretation by the public and media, behavioral changes from being filmed). Yet these other courts have televised. So why not SCOTUS?  I can spot no distinction between televising SCOTUS and the HCA, SCC, UKSC.

"The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has permitted television coverage of all its hearings since the mid-1990s". Check out this joint interview with McLachlin CJC and Ginsburg J where McLachlin CJC upholds their decision to televise.

The HCA started televising on 2 Oct 2013.

The UKSC started televising on May 5 2015:

The new service will be funded by the Supreme Court until March 2016, at which point it will be reviewed in light of user feedback and the Court's other spending priorities.

The UKSC has obviously continued it, but why don't the SCOTUS Justices adopt this idea of a trial period?


texts: Can you take unpaid FMLA leave after already taking a paid leave?

texts:
New York State (upstate, if it makes a difference) here. My son was born this past March (2015) and I took a paid two-week leave of absence.

I work long hours and over the past 8 months I haven't had a chance to see him as much as I would like. My wife and I recently came into a bit of money, enough to supplement my income for 2 - 3 months, and I am wondering if it would be possible for me to take an unpaid FMLA leave so that I could spend some serious time with him before he's a toddler.

Let's assume my employer qualifies as an eligible FMLA employer (it does) and that I qualify as an eligible FMLA employee (I do).

According to the website, one can take an unpaid FMLA leave for:

  The birth of a child and to bond with the newborn child within one year of birth.

I assume this means that I would qualify, and that I could take the leave right up until the day before his 1st birthday. However, I did already take a paid leave, and later on in that document they state:

  Birth and bonding leave must be taken as a continuous block of leave unless the employer agrees to allow intermittent leave (e.g., allowing a parent to return to work on a part-time schedule for 10 weeks).

So I can't make heads or tails of the requirements here. I either qualify for the FMLA leave because my son was born within the last year, or I am disqualified because I already took a paid leave. Any thoughts?


texts: Why big corporations do not include the copyright notice into their WEB [HTML] code?

texts:
One of the first things that I learned when writing code was to copyright it. As far as I know, the things to do are:

Create a license file that describes the copyright and lists the
software files.

Add the copyright to each file containing code. Ex: # (C) Copyright <years> <name>. <license>.

[Optional] Register the software into official organizations of intellectual property.

the stages 1) and 2) I've always seen it in heavy client software, but I ignore why big corporations like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc... never do it in their web code (speaking about step 2). And they also don't even use the HTML meta tags:
<meta name="author" content="">
<meta name="copyright" content="">

Is there any legal reason behind this? Is their code already declared on step 3 so they don't bother doing step 2?


texts: Do sex specific apps violate any anti-discrimination law?

texts:
Would a private business that only intends to serve one sex or another be in violation of anti-discrimination law? if so which one?
I can think of a handful of examples of businesses that cater to clients of one sex or another:

Men's barbershops
Gynecologists
Women's Gyms
Single-sex sports clubs

I assumed that these types of consumer discrimination would be illegal under the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 but it doesn't include anything about sex

no business serving the public, even if it's privately owned, can discriminate because of a customer's national origin, religion, color, or race.

Understandably, there are employment protections against such discrimination but are there the same protections for consumers?


texts: Are leading-witness rules applied equally to prosecution and defence?

texts:
Preamble
I'm a scientist, not a lawyer, so please excuse this if it's obvious.
Background
In watching the Chauvin trial, I've noticed that the defence lawyer tends to ask questions by stating the desired answer and then saying "right?". And, sometimes, it seems that he follows a series of things that are easily agreed to, with the question he really wants to have answered in his favour. I notice that witnesses can sometimes be lulled into answering "yes" by the initial questions and then (am I imagining this) being tricked into answering "yes" to the final question in the sequence.
When the prosecution employs a similar pattern, there is usually an objection about leading the witness, and it's usually sustained.  But I don't tend to hear such objections when the defence does it.
Question.
Is this a normal pattern? If so, why? I can think of some reasons, e.g. (1) a preference to lean towards defence, so the state does not clobber citizens, (2) a choice of the prosecution not to appear to be bullying, (3) a pattern in this one trial, not reflective of others and (4) my misconception of events.


texts: Does preventing a murder justify breaking a "No Trespassing" law?

texts:
If I see a "No Tresapssing" sign on a house door, but I hear screems for help from inside. The window was left open by mistake and I see a big guy beating an unarmed man and getting ready to kill him.

Would I be justified in front of the law to break in and shoot for the big guy's gun? (I am also putting the big guy's life in danger by shootin but he comes out unharmed).

Question: Assuming that my claims about the imminent murder having been about to take place prove to be correct, will the law, as it stands written, find me guilty of any of the 2 crimes that I have just comitted?

The question is not about the morality or practicality of my actions. It is purely legal.


texts: GDPR and date of fields creation / update

texts:
Not sure if that's right site to ask about technical Database things but if I've a table that contains the following fields :

client_id
name
first_name

and that I want to be GPDR Complient does I need to add the following fields ?

client_id
name
name_date_created
name_date_updated
first_name
first_name_date_created
first_name_date_updated

Or I can just have ?

client_id
name
first_name
date_created
date_updated


texts: Whats the consumer's rights when an online account has been breached?

texts:
I have an online account with the Company "A". On that account my PayPal account is linked.

A few days ago I received a text from my Bank that my bank account has been charged ( The amount was not huge, thank god). I checked the transactions info and it was through PayPal, and Company "A" was listed under PayPal's Transaction details. I contacted that company, I explained what happen and soon they refunded the amount.

Then I asked them to explain me what happened but they refuse to answer. As a consumer do I have the legal right for an explanation? How the GDPR can enforce my legal rights on that case?

I totally understand that they refunded the amount but, in nowadays they should be more sensitive with cases like these.


texts: Does a lease agreement survive change of owner?

texts: I signed a year lease (August 2016-July 2017) with a realty company on a shared house (joint and several with individual rent responsibility). The company has an agreement with the house owner (whom I have never met) to manage the property. The realty company is cutting ties with the house owner after this month, and they have not yet heard back from him as to which company will be managing the house after this month. Since I signed the lease with the realty company and not the house owner, am I legally obligated to continue the lease? I would very much like to move out.


texts: Can a statement be defamatory if it is damaging "out of context?"

texts:
Suppose someone said that I was "telling lies" at the bridge table. The reasons are that 1) he is a better player and 2) my bids at the bridge table don't quite agree with what I have in my hand. That is not intentional, but I do make mistakes of this sort, and possibly mislead my partners.

Would the above constitute "telling lies," within the context of bridge? That is, suppose someone asked him what he meant, and he said, "Tom doesn't always have in his hand what he says he has." (In bridge, people occasionally bluff outright, and some others "shade" their bids up or down. What I did fell into the latter heading. That is, I had a "borderline" hand, and I put it into the wrong category.)

Suppose a non-bridge player heard this bridge player accuse me of "telling lies" at the bridge club, without understanding or inquiring into the context, and I lost business as a result. Would the statement constitute defamation?


texts: Could one claim self defense in killing if he could prove indirect, but not immediate threat?

texts:
I was just watching a movie, Training Day, (Edit: Spoiler - read no further if you'd like to not have the plot spoiled) where a good police officer is applying for a position on a narcotics unit, but he quickly finds himself in a position where his boss (leader of the unit) is requiring him to go along with a murder, and when he refuses, he's threatened with false testimony by multiple officers, and then the boss orders him killed by some criminals.

He ends up getting out alive, and then he's sitting on a bus with a loaded gun, wondering what to do next. He knows that the boss is in this operation with top people all across the government, and if he goes to the police, the feds, anyone, he'll be in great danger of being killed.

The one option that might possibly lead to him and his family surviving is to find and kill his boss, before his boss sends someone else to kill him.

That made me really curious, if we considered this to be a real life situation, lets say he finds his boss and kills him without imminent threat. Could he claim indirect fear for his life and possibly succeed in a self defense ruling?


texts: Why is the bond for a $500 fraud identical to that for a more than $20 000 fraud?

texts:
This man who was much advertised on the internet (see the links) has 19 charges, the bond for each of them being set to $40 000. The question is why, as long as some charges are for frauds ranging from $100 to $500 while others for frauds above $20 000? The total bond would be $760 000.

See the list of charges here:
https://www.donaanacounty.org/inmates/viewprofile/1700009732


texts: I want to do a piano tutorials platform and I have copyrights question

texts:
We are working on a solution to learn the piano, like this one, or this one.
I have read that for each song that I will add on the platform, I'll need to have the permission of the artist (and we will probably need to pay a fee each time a song is played or something like this).
Is it true even if we are not playing sound on the platform? (We will just show lights from our physical object to indicate the pianist how to play a song). Or is it considered as fair use?
If it is the case, is there a way to have a contract with a lot of artists easily? Or do we need to contact each artist individually?


texts: When did the US Supreme Court drop the 'Mr' before Justice?

texts:
Old US Supreme Court opinions—eg, here—follow the English and (some) Commonwealth practice of prefacing the title of the justice with 'Mr.'.  When and why did this, and only this usage, cease (given that the US still uses, for example, the titles Madam Speaker and Mr. President)? Were there state supreme courts which retained the traditional styling for longer or abolished it earlier?
Was it with the appointment of Justice O'Connor, or was she ever, if even for a brief period, referred to as Madam or Ms. Justice O'Connor in the official reports?


texts: Has omitting "but not limited to" ever resulted in a lost case?

texts:
Given the ubiquitous use of the phrase "including, but not limited to," have courts ever actually upheld a misinterpretation of the English word "including" to instead mean "limited to?"
For example, a waiver could be written that "The business isn't responsible for injuries from animal bites, including bites from cats and dogs." Have there been upheld cases where someone, say, was bitten by a rabbit and the court upheld that the business didn't specify that the animal bites were not limited exclusively to cats and dogs?


texts: Regarding the legal use of a trademarked name in my Android application's package name

texts:
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask, but I had a quick question regarding using the word/trademark "GitHub" in my Android application's source code (not that actual part that users can view).

I am considering developing and distributing an Android application on the Google Play Store. I was following along with the Android Developer docs on creating an Android app (https://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/creating-project) and came across Step 4, where I needed to "configure the project".

In the tutorial, the docs recommended entering the value "com.example.myfirstapp" for the package name. I am now attempting to create an actual application (not a Hello World app).

I am currently utilizing the free tier of GitHub Pages for my personal website, and plan to create an Organization Pages site that is structured like so: "https://myfirstapp.github.io/". If I used that site structure for my package name, it would look like this: "io.github.myfirstapp.myfirstapp" ("myfirstapp" is twice because it is the name of the website and then the name of the actual app).

However, I was wondering if I could legally use the word "GitHub" in my package name since I believe it is trademarked? I plan to sell this application to users, so I would be profiting from this app. Note that I am not planning to use the word "GitHub" in the name of my app when I market it on the Google Play Store (I wouldn't call my app "The GitHub App!", etc.).

I was trying to create my first app and I was on a low budget, so I decided that I should make use of the free option of GitHub Pages (pages.github.com) to market my app. The free option of GitHub Pages provides me with a URL that has the word "GitHub" in it: "example.github.io". The above is only background details - my question is not regarding that. I was inquiring specifically about using that URL with the word "GitHub" in the source code of my Android app. I plan to open-source the app on GitHub, so obviously, the source code would be visible to anyone who was interested in viewing it. So, I am in fact wondering if I can legally "use the word 'GitHub' in [the] source code 'not the part that users can view'". I know that I can use the domain name with GitHub because that is provided in their service. The part about using GitHub in my package name is elaborating on the source code part (the package name is in the source code - i.e. it's pretty much a way to organize "folders" in the Java programming language).Regarding GitHub's Terms of Service, do you know what general area I could find something like this? I tried looking at it (help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service) but the section about GitHub Pages does not answer my question - I don't know if there is some other section that would usually have the answer to questions like mine? Well, actually I just found this: help.github.com/en/articles/what-is-github-pages. And maybe this: https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#k-advertising-on-github. But I'm still a little confused...


texts: Why do television actors have to give permission for the use of old footage of their characters?

texts:
Inspired by this question on SciFi&Fantasy.SE. The background is that Terry Farrell, an actress on the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, left the show on bad terms after the sixth season. The following year, the series finale featured several montages of clips from old episodes, but Farrell's character was notably absent, despite her long involvement with the show.

When asked about the reasons for this, pretty much everyone agrees that it was a matter of permission; they needed Farrell's permission to use the clips, and couldn't get it. In the words of Ronald D. Moore, one of the show's main writers:

  In order to use a clip of someone from a previous episode, you first have to obtain permission from the actor in question.

I'm inclined to take Moore at his word, since he is involved in the industry and I am not, but I was surprised to read this; I would have thought the studio would retain full rights to use their old episodes in any way they see fit.

So, I was hoping Law.SE could help clarify my understanding. What legal grounds (if any) are behind this requirement?

Aside: since I have only a passing familiarity with the legal profession, plain English explanations of any citations is greatly appreciated


texts: Had a lapel/audio device during work in event a private perosnal issue arose

texts:
Basics,

Self bought, owned lapel camera with audio capability. Never used it illegally aware of the laws and open records act etc if you use a device for work related purposes.

It was for self protection against a ex and her friend or fling who is in law enforcement. Obviously it would be used and turned on in public spaces if I was approached to save character or false accusations since I had harassment from her before and she used her department and boyfriend as bias to harass me. She was terminated for illegal activity BTW year later from that entity.

Long story short I received a cease order of use of any cell phone recording device, audio, video. The employer claims they own any audio or video of private acts on it.

It is a public governemnt entity. My experience is local law enforcement had bias due to a ex who was employed by them and seeing someone there which threats, intimidation and harassment occured on my own property by them.

All in all private use, explained to others I have no interest in them being recorded or its purpose wasnt for them.

Is it legal for a local government employer to speculate use and claim ownership of personal use data in public for private self protection reasons in which tech they are part of the law enforcement and their attorney, threaten seizure of private use cell phone, audionvideo devices never used for work related purposes or the audio video lapel recorder.

Some would joke robocop and it was handy I had it on vest so it wouldn't fall out or be stolen as I had a audio recorder stolen before when it fell out of a jacket vest onto the seat of the work vehicle and someone swiped it up within ten minutes. I had this in event my ex approached me on personal matters in open public spaces.

Where does use of audio and recording devices for personal protection in public accessible spaces fall under illegal search and seizure and threats to seize for just having it in open public claiming ownership of self bought devices capable of recording in open space public accessible on public property over a supposed concerned public employee being seen or viewed by recordings in public?

I even told several it's use was for personal interest not involving them, or the governemnt entity.

The order gave a week to hand over everything data wise and it isn't a warrant, or court order and they claim ownership of the data if it exists, and called filming or audio in public vouyerism, stalking, harassment but said it can be "seen" as that in public accessible public property spaces.

Where I am it is a one side consent state if that helps to answering it.

I contacted several attorneys and none have got back minus 3 which didn't practice it or said they weren't interested.


texts: Should I pursue a lawsuit for legal misconduct?

texts:
This question is about a complex situation that I will try to keep as concise as possible.
I was named trustee for a moderate sized trust. The attorney who drafted the trust did so in such a way as to alter the intent of the deceased.  I believe he did this intentionally.  The same attorney lied on the witness stand.  His  testimony was directly countered by a witness whose veracity was beyond question.  The judge for the trial had already decided the outcome of the trial before it started.  This  is known because of statements he made to attorneys before trial.  The judge also actively advocated on behalf of the plaintiff, was very biased as well.  The net result was, I was removed as trustee.  An accounting was ordered.  The Judge retired.   Jump ahead 18 months.  A trial was set because of objections to my accounting.  After 3 days of trial,  the new judge over ruled all objections.  It was determined that the attorney for the trust I had hired had given me poor advice, bordering on malpractise.  My current trial attorney had, unfortunately, neglected to enter the exhibit that supported this conclusion as evidence.  Even though the judge had the information, he said he was unable to use it as it was not entered as evidence.  So I was surcharged these fees,  which is a high 5 figure.  This judge also stated that he was satisfied in all respects with my performance as trustee and expressed surprise that I was removed.  Now, my current trial attorney , the one who neglected to admit the exhibit, wants to go after the original attorney for those fees on a contingency basis, his fee to be 50% of the recovered money.  That would leave me with nothing except still owing the trust the other half of those fees.  I don't know where to go with this.
There is a lot more to the story, but I have tried to be concise.  Any ideas?


texts: Minecraft EULA | Am I allowed to publish my custom client (mod)?

texts:
I like Minecraft very much and want to publish a mod.
I used the "Mod Coder Pack" to decompile the sources and coded a custom Minecraft-Client.
The problem is that this exported client contains Minecraft Sources (obfuscated). Am I allowed to publish it (not selling it)? If not how can I code a custom client without breaking the Minecraft EULA?


texts:
In business law our lecturer asked,; Who pays for a good damaged after a customer selects items from a shop or super market to buy,is it the customer or the owner of the business
He therefore ask the class to make a group and do it.
As a new student who doesn't know how to write response to questions in business law,how do I write it.


texts: GDPR impact on genealogy website / uncontrolled user data

texts:
The past few months I've been working on a website which allows users to manage family trees, write stories about the family etcetera. Now the last few days the GDPR has come to my attention. This is mainly a hobby project (started working on it for my grandmother) but I want to make it available to the general public.

Before I put way too much effort in to the website I was wondering how this project is going to be affected by the GDPR.

The data the user inputs is only searchable, editable and removable by the person who creates the family tree and the users that are invited to do so by the creator. Using this system (and most genealogical systems) the user is able to input data about people who are still alive and have no knowledge of this.

As I understand, officially the person creating the family tree should have permission to enter the data from the people that are still alive, but in practice I fear that is not always the case.

From what I understand of the GDPR with my limited knowledge about the subject the processor (in this case the website) has to ask permission from the people of which it stores the data, but who is that in this case?

Is it enough to ask permission from the user inputting the data and inform them that they should have permission from the persons they are entering the data of?

If not, I am a bit lost on how to handle the GDPR in this case, it is next to impossible to get the permission of all the living people that are being added the family trees.


texts: Is it legal to download and host your own copy of a PDF (or any file) that you didn't originally author?

texts:
New York state (US) here. I am putting together a presentation for my company and found a PDF online that I would like to provide a link to, so that anyone reviewing my presentation after the fact can click, download and read.
I am not the author of the PDF nor do I have any association with the author or the company for whom the work was published. Its subject material is simply relevant to my presentation.
Because I need a reliable link to this PDF, and because I don't have any control over its online hosting, I would like to download this PDF, store it on a company drive, and then provide links to it (as its stored on the drive) from my presentation.
That way, if someone views my presentation, say, 5 years from now, they'll still have access to it because the PDF is hosted from our own infrastructure.
Is it legal to do this? That is, can I:

download the PDF from the external website where its hosted
save it on our drive
reference it (as its hosted from our drive) in my presentation
all without the express consent of the PDF author or the organization for whom the PDF is hosted by


texts: Does FFmpeg LGPL license apply in case if application is using FFmpeg via CLI

texts:
Does FFmpeg LGPL license applies when FFmpeg is being used from my application as an external tool, which is being called via command line interface? I do not compile, modify or even include FFmpeg with my application in any way or form. I do not statically link my application with FFmpeg or any of the FFmpeg libraries. My application just calls FFmpeg via its command line interface, assuming that FFmpeg is already available on user's computer. I have read through FFmpeg legal FAQ (https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html) page, but this is still not clear.

Many thanks,
Norm


texts: Impeach Pence if he deviates while counting presidential ballots

texts: If Vice President Pence deviates from simply announcing the ballots from the Electoral College on January 6, 2020, and instead attempts to unilaterally reject some ballots, can the House of Representatives impeach him, and the Senate convict him, on the spot?


texts:
I was watching a “true crime” type of TV show, which raised an interesting question (to me) regarding wills and inheritance.  Here’s the scenario:
An elderly wealthy man had a neighbor who was his caregiver.  The man decided to will all his assets to the caregiver, presumably as a reward for her service.  The caregiver was aware of this.
After some time, the man decided to change his will because of a disagreement with the caregiver.  The caregiver found out about this, and before the man could actually change the will, she murdered him.  The caregiver was found guilty and given a life sentence.
My question is, since the will was never changed, does the caregiver still inherit the man’s assets? Would it matter if she was guilty of a lesser crime such as manslaughter?  Or if her sentence was less than life?
The show didn't mention the jurisdiction (or I forgot it), but for the sake of argument, assume the state of Maryland.  If significantly different in other states, I'd be interested in that as well.


texts: Can an employer place someone on medical leave even though a doctor says they are ok to work?

texts: Hypothetically, if someone has a chronic mental illness and their employer is already aware of it (and made accommodations for it) for the time they have been employed, does the employer have the right/ability to place the employee on medical leave of absence and demand that they receive counseling/therapy before allowing them to return to work, even if the employee provides a clean bill of health from a psychiatrist?


texts: Under which conditions can a lawyer charge for services in Germany?

texts:
TL;DR
Person A went through a ridiculous situation and now, almost a year later, the Person B who didn't bother representing her at the court is asking for the money.

Situation

Person A - client
Person B - Lawyer

Around a year ago Person A was in a legal dispute with another party.
At this moment Person A decided they need a lawyer, and consulted Person B (Lawyer). The first thing the Person B asked was an insurance number and afterwards, didn't do much. Person A visited Person B a couple more times. Once more when they received first contact from opposite side and once more when they had some additional questions regarding the situation.
The whole time B seemed uninterested in the case, but as he was getting paid Person A expected Person B to at least do something. For example during on of the visit they had to ask Person B what did he do till that point since a couple of weeks have passed, for Person B to say that now he was going to let the opposition know that he is representing Person B. I'm not even sure if Person B did it.
The final straw was when Person A received the court's decision in which they not represented by anyone has lost and has to pay a hefty amount to the party they were in dispute with. At this point they decided they don't want to have anything to do with this Person B again and contacted their insurance company, letting them know Person B didn't do anything for its case, providing all the papers they received from the court. (In which it's clearly stated A wasn't represented by anyone.)
Now the Person B who didn't do anything is asking for payment, I'm guessing it's because they couldn't make the insurance pay him since they didn't do anything for its client (Person A) and Person B is looking for different ways to get its "hard-earned" money.
What legal services can Person B bill for in this case?


texts: Can a vigilante be useful for a police department?

texts:
(Just for reference, this question is for a story I'm working on, and I wanted a realistic look at the law's side of things.)

So, a lot of fiction likes to play off the trope of a Vigilante. This person, (superhero or otherwise) often cuffs the baddies, and leaves them gift wrapped for the police, along with providing damning evidence to go with that. So my question is, does that actually help the police in any way?

These situations are almost always portrayed as:

Acquiring evidence without a warrant
Falsely imprisoning a person/criminal (This does not always involve the Vigilante seeing the crime happen, but they are usually acting like a police officer and pre-empting the crime.
The Vigilante is generally unable to be present for the accused to 'face their accuser'.

So, if evidence came from a known Vigilante, can it be used in a court of law?


texts: can i record myself cooking with my camera, in the kitchen community space of the house that i rent a room at, and not be in violation of 9.73.030?

texts:
i rent a room with a few other housemates, and i was wondering if i can record myself in the kitchen cooking and not be in violation of 9.73.030
i understand that Washington State, is a two party consent state, and that it would be a violation of 9.73.030 to record audio or a private conversation of a person without the consent of everyone involved.
however, if i am making a cooking video in the kitchen for say youtube, and someone wants to use the kitchen before i am done with it, and they attempt to have a conversation with me, would that be a violation of 9.73.030?
ultimately, would it be a crime to record cooking videos in the community space of where i live, without the consent of other people? thanks


texts:
Can I form an LLC without a primary office physical address, preferably in Washington or Delaware?
I am a "digit nomad": I am a US citizen but have no long-term physical address anywhere in the world (neither in the US nor elsewhere).
I do have a Private Mailbox (PMB) in Washington state which is provided by a mail scanning service.
I tried to establish an LLC in Washington state, using the Washington PMB address as the primary office location, and using a commercial third-party registered agent address.
My business is a consulting service which is 100% online (no physical location).
The LLC formation application was declined by the Washington secretary of state because the "principal office address" must be a "physical address"; a PMB is explicitly not allowed. [1]
Question: is there some way to create the Washington LLC anyway, without any physical address?
I thought about using the registrar's address as the principal office address, but I think that is not allowed. (I have not tried it, though.)
I have heard about companies that offer "virtual office" services, but I suspect they will also be considered to be a Private Mailbox. (I have also not yet tried this.)
There are online "mail validation services" (e.g. [2]) that will check whether a particular address is a PMB or not.
Question: If a Washington LLC is not possible, then is it possible to create a Delaware LLC using the Washington PMB address and a Delaware registered agent? Or some other state?
I have heard that unlike Washington, Delaware does not have a "physical address for primary office" requirement (but I don't know if that is true).
If I create an LLC in Delaware, can it be a "domestic" LLC, even when the address is a Washington PMB? I ask, because if it is a "foreign" LLC I think that doesn't help me because I would still have to create an LLC somewhere else.
Note this is not a scheme trying to avoid taxes; I currently pay US Federal taxes every year and will continue to do so.
[1] https://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/what-addresses-to-use.aspx
[2] https://smartystreets.com/products/single-address


texts: Prosecutorial discretion and jurisdiction

texts:
Scenario
Let's say someone wanted to force a US State to get into a legal battle to resolve an open issue that the legal system has been reluctant to resolve and for which existing laws were murky.
If a person went to a solicitor and accused an entity of illegal activity knowing in advance that the solicitor or the district attorney would try to refuse to take the case, would it theoretically be possible to then file suit against the solicitor under 42 U.S.C. 1983:

"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable."

It is assumed:
The evidence for crimes will be solid, but the context of prosecution is not.  There is no clear procedure for what court would be responsible for bringing the case to court.  This is the primary reason that a DA or solicitor would refuse the case.  Criminal court would handle the charges, but before criminal court could hear the case, damage (personal injury) would have to be established.  Civil court would handle damages, but before a damage suit can be brought a criminal liability must be established.  Procedural catch-22.
Keep in mind that the goal of this is to force a state to address a question when both state and federal government want the other to take care of the problem so that they don't have to deal with the fallout.
The question:
Is there an existing governance process that exists to handle such a problem?  If there is, then this would be the correct answer. This could be a legal mechanism or a legislative mechanism.
Is there a legal procedure of which I am unaware? I cross-posted this into Politics.SE because I honestly don't think there is a clear area capable of resolving the question in isolation (yet).
Narrowing Scope:
As an example of this case in a hypothetical situation.  A person has their life threatened by a mobster.  The mobster is guilty of a crime for which solid evidence exists.  A private citizen brings the evidence to a solicitor, but due to being bought off or because of political pressure or some other reason that should be determined by the court the DA refuses to prosecute.  A person in the solicitor's office tips off the mobster and the mobster kills the individual's dog, burns down his house, and does other horrible things to the individual.  The mobster is found guilty of the crimes and punished.  The individual wishes to sue the DA in civil court.  Can this be done?  Updated: I suppose for the purposes of this discussion, suit of the county might be more appropriate than suit of the DA.
Context of the question and why it is here

This is a procedural question having to do with political management of legal entities, not of federal, state, criminal or common law.
This is a speculative question.  I do not expect anyone to have a firm definitive answer, but I do not rule out the possibility that one exists. I am asking here because of that choice not to rule out the possibility that an answer exists.

Tangential:
I found this article to put into better words than my own why prosecutorial immunity goes too far right now.  This doesn't bear directly on my question, but it does explain why my question is important.


texts: Does a merger clause nullify implied terms?

texts:
The SE legal link says that using SE constitutes an agreement to certain terms. Section 3 on subscriber content states that "all Subscriber Content that You contribute to the Network is perpetually and irrevocably licensed to Stack Exchange under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license" (I linked the actual code, saving a click). There is also a merger clause

  This Agreement (including the Privacy Policy), as modified from time
  to time, constitutes the entire agreement between You, the Network and
  Stack Exchange with respect to the subject matter hereof. This
  Agreement replaces all prior or contemporaneous understandings or
  agreements, written or oral, regarding the subject matter hereof.

Since The Agreement says that content is perpetually and irrevocably licensed to Stack Exchange under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license, it isn't clear whether the merger clause means "thus excluding any conditions which are not directly stated here", or does it mean "including those specifically contained in the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license". My understanding is that a merger clause is a way of disavowing terms that might have come out in previous negotiations, and saying that this is a CC license with a link to said license is like having an appendix (it is part of the contract).

It matters because the requirements of the two licenses are different: the SE license eliminates a number of CC restrictions, such as the self-perpetuating language, and the no-change language (you can't re-write the CC license, you can further restrict use of the material). However, it also imposes a restriction, the link-to-profile restriction, which is not part of the CC license, and dysfunctionally restricts which URI is to be provided by way of attribution, if material is taken from an answer (SE requires a link to the question, not the quoted answer but the CC license allows a choice). How is one supposed to interpret the union of these two licenses?


texts:
I was viewing this video, which is the Crash Course on Government and Politics #22 : judicial Decisions

The teacher says:

  "[Supreme Court] justices might be influenced by congress because they know
  that, unless the case involves the constitution directly, congress can
  respond to a decision overturning a law ... by passing a new law"

I don't understand. I thought that the Supreme court can strike down an act of congress only if it is unconstitutional. Don't you mean that by "judicial review"?
So how the congress can respond by a decision overturning a law (which should imply that the law is unconstitutional) by passing a new law? Wouldn't the new law be unconstitutional as well?


texts: Is it legal to mug someone for keys if they refuse to let you leave their locked house?

texts:
If you've been locked in someone's house against your consent, and they refuse to let you out when you directly ask them to unlock a door, is it legal to let them know you will take the keys by force if they don't let you leave, and then take the keys by force if they still refuse to let you out?

(Assume the keys are used to immediately unlock a door and exit the house, then thrown back into the house so that you've only possessed them for the necessary span to use them.)

This by necessity entails physical contact that would be considered assault in most cases (assuming they've kept the keys on their person) and I'm not sure if the threat is direct enough for self defence to apply.

If not, can you:
1. Break windows or doors to escape?
2. Call the police?
3. Call a locksmith?
4. Other options?

(country is Australia, mostly interested in Queensland but opinions for other states could help give an idea of the spread - states sometimes play follow-the-leader on obscure questions too.)


texts: Can you call the police over fraud in Tennessee?

texts:
I paid a guy to modify a keyboard over two months ago. I had been in frequent contact contact with him and suddenly he stopped contacting me late last February. He said it would take two weeks when I first came to him.
I met up with him in person at personal shop, not a store nor his home, to give him the gear. I asked him to hand over a bass as collateral so I’d have something to hold onto in case he didn’t make good and finish the mod, but my shrewdness wasn’t so shrewd; I didn’t check if the value was close enough. It’s a third of the gear I gave him.
Calling the cops over a six week delay of someone’s side project is too much, so don’t think I’m itching to call. But I’d like to have the knowledge for if this stretches for much longer; if you have been defrauded/scammed in this way, can you call the police?


texts: Conservator Investment Possibilities For Minor (Georgia USA)

texts:
In a minor's conservatory account, it is common for courts to allow conservators to purchase low yield investments such as municipal bonds, treasury bills, money market accounts, CD's and other low quality securities.
Some conservators will be interested in wisely investing a minor's money in more attractive securities to beat inflation and maintain or grow the minor's settlement.
So, is it common for courts to approve purchases of more attractive investments like S & P 500 index funds, safe mutual funds, diversified stocks, etc?


texts: Is it illegal to record someone located in a different state if you are in a one-party state?

texts: If there is a telephone conversation between two people and one of the parties in is a one-party state A and the other is in a two-party state, B, is it illegal for the caller in state A to record the conversation? In other words, could a prosecutor in state B bring a successful criminal complaint against the caller in state A for recording a conversation without consent?


texts: Use of TV show names on drop shipping website

texts:
I'm setting up my own drop shipping business. What are the legalities behind the use of trademarked TV show names? Some of the catogories of products I have for sale would be specific TV show merchandise.
Would I be allowed to use the names of the shows on my website as long as I informed visitors that I was not associated with the companies?

EDIT:
The servers are based in the US, and the items will not be produced by myself


texts: Is it possible, under the GDPR, to request publicly available information to be taken down from an aggregator?

texts:
In Sweden, there are many services available that collect publicly available personal information (such as telephone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, income, mortgages, registered cars) and sells those aggregations (or gives them away for ad-revenue).

Since the government provides this information, they probably argue that they are allowed to handle this data. Is that correct?

Can I request this information to be removed?

Does not, in fact, the GDPR require those companies to check with each person living in Sweden whether they allow this data aggregation?

These are privately owned entities, not government agencies.


texts: When is something considered a valid confession?

texts:
When is something considered a confession to a crime? For example if someone murdered John Doe and I asked Bob if he did, and Bob said yes, if I had recorded the conversation would this be a confession?

Lying, misunderstanding, or joking isn't illegal. But then what is the point of police trying to get confessions from suspects? Does it depend on context, for example it's unlikely someone would joke about being a murder to a police officer?

What is needed to make a confession stand up in a court? Is lying, misunderstanding, or joking a valid defense? Would it be up to the defendant to prove that they were in fact lying , misunderstanding, or joking (if so how? it's rather subjective to say "yea I was making a bad joke when I said I shot him in the head" is a bad joke).

I use murder as just an example, what about assault?


texts: Can I publish articles that are written by a writer who is 17?

texts: I have a news site running ads and I need to know if I can publish articles from a volunteer writer who is 17. This pertains to United States law.


texts:
If the execution of payment to HOA homeowners is specified in the HOA Governing document (specific term?), is it not a contract?  I ask because if the explicit payment instruction is not followed (e.g. the payment is less than formula prescribed in the document), does the owner not have cause to seek remedy in small claims court / mediation for small enough amounts?

Maybe the better question, is when would it not be a contract wherein the owner would be unable to seek remedy in court / mediation?


texts: To comply to GDPR, are social networks required to have a button to "Export your Data"?

texts:
Major social web services (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Microsoft and Google) have a page where you can click a button to export your data - posts, account data, login information, meta data, images, etc...

Most other companies (such as Insurance, Banks, etc) only allow exporting your data if you email/phone them with the request, not providing a way to do that through their website.

For social network websites to comply with GDPR, is there anything that says that they must provide a button to export user data, or is it enough to accept requests through emailing and the staff will securely send a PDF with the export?


texts:
I want to create a website in UK where people can share what they pay for rent at the address they currently stay. This would be community-driven and work like glassdoor (a website for sharing your salary). It would help tenants decide if a landlord is asking too much and landlords to decide their rental price.

Would you see any legal problems with that? You would input an address and get a history of rental prices (if there are any in the database).


texts: Which state telemarketing laws apply to interstate calls?

texts:
Base question:
Suppose a telemarketer in State T calls a consumer who is a resident of, has a phone number associated with, and is physically present in, State C.  In addition to federal law applying, which state's telemarketing laws apply?

Twist 1: What if the caller's location (State T) is unknown?

Twist 2: What if the consumer's physical/resident location is unknown?  That is, for this twist, suppose the consumer is not actually in State C when called, but still has a phone number from there.  (Assume State C remains identifiable by the consumer's phone number).

Twist 3: What if the product being sold is partially or completely geographically tied to State P, such that the consumer would have to travel to P to use any purchase?

Bonus points for case or law citations.


texts: Why doesn't Commonwealth law routinely use Acceptee, like Offeror?

texts:
The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes acceptee.
As the jurisprudes here know, Acceptee differs from Offeror, because offers don't have to be accepted. If you want to distinguish an accepted (from an unaccepted) offer,  indubitably you must use Acceptee and Acceptor! But BAILII resulted just 3 cases, and AustLII just 29 documents, for Acceptee. Why's Acceptee spurned, but not Offeror?
Cited in Akinola v Oyadare & Anor [2020] EWHC 2038 (Ch) (30 July 2020), Chitty on Contracts doesn't mention acceptee, but it mentions acceptor  alongside offeree.

That basic law is explained in Chitty on Contracts 33rd ed as consolidated with its 1st Supplement at paragraphs 2-001 to 2-003 as follows:

"2-001

The first requirement for the formation of a contract is that the parties should have reached agreement. Generally speaking, the law regards an agreement as having been reached when an offer made by one of the parties (the offeror) is accepted by the other to whom the offer is addressed (the offeree or acceptor).


texts: my Roomate has been calling my physician and disclosing my health information including when my appointments are and what medications I am taking.  I have not signed or told anyone working there that this was okay.  Do I have legal rights as I am now finding out they have contacted more people than my Roomate.


texts: Would an organization committed to non-violently supporting indiscriminate human annihilation be eligible for 501(c)(3) exemption?

texts:
Hypothetically, if someone formed an organization whose objective was dedicated to the annihilation of the human race, but did not permit violent acts from its members, would it in any way be precluded for tax exemption under 501(c)(3)?

I understand that any purpose that praises or calls for discrimination is ineligible for exemption; however, this does not apply as said hypothetical organization would be dedicated to the absolute destruction of all human beings without regard for race, age, gender or any other attribute.

If the sole purpose of the organization is to liberate humankind from the burden of their earthly existence, then it is beneficent in nature and is arguably in the interest of public needs.

Would tax exemption in this case be possible?


texts: Will net neutrality require me as an ISP to actively throttle my own users?

texts:
If I am an ISP, I have to pay some money to my upstream network provider in order to transfer data in and out at a certain speed for a certain ammount of data. This is reflected on the user by speed and data capping.

However, when two of my users want to communicate, they probably barely even touch my servers and it generally does not cost me anything to let someone, say, access a website their neighbours host from the same ISP.

As such, if I decide not to throttle or cap the network unless I have to, where it costs me more money, would I be in violation of Title II net neutrality? In order to stay compliant, will I have to start charging my customers for a service that is basically free to me, and actually takes more effort to regulate? And what happens when, say, netflix tries to buy a connection from me? Will I be compliant as long as I don't discriminate against who I give a connection to?


texts:
Thousands joined gang which kidnapped 'rapist' from Indian prison - then stripped him naked and beat him to death
Crowds attack Africans in India after teen's death
Indian mob beats two Muslims to death over suspected cow theft
Muslim man dies in India after attack by Hindu 'cow protectors'

Why are lynching and mob-justice so popular in India? What is wrong with their law and law enforcement?


texts: Online Service Requires 2-User Minimum Billing for Per-User Priced Product

texts:
Is this legal under Payment for Services Not Rendered if only one user account is ever used?
I'm using an online service, Hubstaff, to keep track of my time and invoice clients for the time I work on their projects. This service has flexible per-user billing plans. However, they require you sign up for a minimum of two users, even if you will only ever use one user account.
Here's an Explanation of their Per-User Pricing and details about their Available Plans.
They have a free plan, but it doesn't have the features I need. They have three additional paid plans starting at $7/month/user plan, but, like I said, you have to pay for two users so it costs a minimum of $14/month even though you may only ever use one account.
The reason this bothers me is I was using their service since 2018 and it was $5/user and I was accurately billed $5/month because I only had one user account with them. Since around February of 2020 they made this change and my bill went to $14/month but they also screwed up their billing changes and I got some additional $7 charges and $14 charges for some reason.
I feel like it's legal, but just extremely slimy. Like some business executive said they want to make more money per user and their solution was to say the service still only costs $7/user but you MUST pay for a minimum two-user plan. I can almost guarantee the vast majority of the users of their software are single user accounts.
There's absolutely no technical reason they require customers to have a two-user plan.


texts: Why can't self-represented litigants use "I" to refer to myself?

texts:
How can this be true for even pro se litigants in court? Why can't they use Singular First Person Pronouns in their pleadings, when they are alleging causes of action to them personally? How must they call themselves then?
Isn't it tedious and weird to keep calling themselves as "Plaintiff", or their own full name?

Use “we” for yourself and your client, and use “counsel for appellant or respondent” for opposing counsel. Do not use “you” to refer to the court. Do not use “I” to refer to yourself.

This book bases on US law. Bahrych (PhD University of Washington in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, JD University of Washington), McLellan (JD Santa Clara University), Merino (JD Stanford). Legal Writing and Analysis in a Nutshell 5th edition (2017). 163.


texts: Is it legal to download subscription based content from a website for personal use?

texts:
Is it legal to copy data from a subscription based education site using http://ricks-apps.com/osx/sitesucker/ or https://www.httrack.com. This is to be able to study the material when internet is not available or when my subscription to the online tool is ended. It will be strictly for my own personal use. The material will never be modified, posted somewhere else or sold in any shape or form. I can renew my subscription when I need access to new material but want to be able to do that only when I want the new content.

The site's terms mentions following which I completely agree with: "You will not modify, publish, transmit, reverse engineer, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part, found on this website. "

I see a similar question here as well but don't look like anyone was able to reply about legality of the issue: https://forum.httrack.com/readmsg/27396/index.html


texts: Should I let someone overtake my car if there is not enough space to do it?

texts:
This question came up in my driver license test (in Japan).
I found this question hard to answer because not allowing someone to overtake you may cause an accident (after all, you may be mistaken about the available space). However, if indeed there is no enough space, it may cause an accident.
I was unable to find the answer available in English here, so I'm guessing other countries may have similar rules.
The correct answer for this question will be a quote (and a link) to an official (or credible) source about this issue here in Japan or alternatively in any other country.


texts: How is "raising defences to summary judgment" an example of a contract being undermined that can be prevented with a NOM clause?

texts:
In Rock Advertising Ltd. v. MWB Bus. Exchange Centres Ltd [2018] UK 24 Lord Sumption lists reasons why No Oral Modification clauses are beneficial.

"The first is that it prevents attempts to undermine written agreements by informal means, a possibility which is open to abuse, for example in raising defences to summary judgment." at para 12.

I do not understand the example he gives, how does this undermine a contract?

Thanks


texts: UK: if you are being recorded by a business why don't you have a reciprocal right to record them at the same time?

texts:
I was in a car rental firm's mini-office at a UK airport, and there was a sign up saying you may be recorded. I got my digital voice recorder to start it off. The member of staff attending me might not have noticed, but I muttered "If you're recording me..." and tailed off with a smile as I held it before clicking the record button. The member of staff went to a forceful raised voice way of speaking immediately and told me it was illegal for me to record in their office. We went back and forth on the subject, me pointing out their sign, but he wouldn't progress with the car pickup until I showed him that the device was off.

What's the legal status of a person recording an interaction with a business, when the business has a blanket statements (sign in this case but it could easily be audio at the start of a telephone call too) about "you may be recorded"?

Surely if they broach the subject of recording to me, I can just start recording and use it with impunity. Specifically without notifying them, given that would seem equitable.

It seems to me that this is oddly ill-defined in UK law. There's a BBC article from 2006 on when it's legal to use a voice recording you may have surreptitiously made, but nothing appears simple here.  We also have unending dash-cam and helmet-cam footage from the UK, including Jeremy Vine's interaction with that aggressive driver when on his bicycle, and yet nobody is ever getting cautioned or arrested for footage without consent, yet there's a suggestion in the BBC article that you could record something but not rely on it a court case without the implicit consent step.

The US has one-party and two-party laws that vary by state (dmlp.org details that), but the UK sits in some weird imbalanced place that seems inequitous (my spell checker is telling me that's not a word).

Does EU law have a bearing on UK law here?  At least for the next 18 months?


texts: Can you copy a trademark's goods and services description?

texts:
Assume a trademark filed with the USPTO uses the language

  "software used to calculate PI, the square root of PI, and the cosine
  of PI"

in its description of goods and services.

Can another, subsequent, unrelated, trademark applicant to the USPTO use this exact same language in its goods and services description?

If yes, why?

If not, is the grievance with:

a) the USPTO, because directly copying goods and services language is forbidden, and/or

b) the original trademark holder, because the trademark goods and services description is the intellectual property of that original trademark holder


texts: Why does "Day 1" of the 20-day response time limit for FOIA requests begin the day AFTER agency receipt of a request?

texts:
Why does "Day 1" of the 20-day response time limit for FOIA requests begin the day AFTER [the proper component in an] agency receives a perfected request?

I understand that under Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure computation works that way, in that the day on which an event is triggered doesn't count. My confusion stems from the OPEN Government Act of 2007, which in part reads, "The 20-day period under clause (i) shall commence on the date on which the request is first received by the appropriate component of the agency, but in any event not later than ten days after the request is first received by any component of the agency that is designated in the agency’s regulations under this section to receive requests under this section."

Now, I get that the purpose of that section was really to grant an additional ten days in most cases, but it still says that "the 20-day period under clause (i) shall commence on the date on which the request is first received."

Assuming a perfected request is received by the appropriate agency component, why is the day upon which a request is received still considered to be "Day Zero?" What did that portion of the Open Government Act even change?

Thank you.


texts: Can I sell a Craigslist/FB Marketplace item in a local store?

texts:
I want to sell a high value cell phone but I also want to stay safe.

Are there any issues with me choosing a local grocery store or restaurant to conduct the transaction (goods for money)? Does it matter if it is in the parking lot vs inside? Should I choose a shopping mall instead so that I am not physically inside a store?

I know this is kind of vague but I was just wondering if the store could pursue legal action against me or anything if they notice the activity.

NY, USA


texts:
As far as I know, international students can't work off-campus in the USA (according to the law). What about Google AdSense?

I will be a graduate student in the upcoming fall 2016.

I have been working on my personal websites and I have activated AdSense on these websites. I have been getting paid in my native country and Google sends the payment to my local bank account.

Could I link my US bank account after I reach there? Will it be considered as off-campus job?

My earing isn't huge right now. I get paid around $200 to $500 per month right now. it may increase in future depending on my activites on website.


texts:
I know a trade secret must be kept secret. It can be shared with a third party if the third party signs a legally binding NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before being told about the trade secret.

What happens if X was supposed to sign an NDA, but didn't sign it for whatever reason, and was shown a trade secret without the NDA? Does the trade secret cease to be a trade secret because it was not kept secret, or is this only the case if X gives the trade secret away? If the "trade secret" status was lost, can this be fixed by making X sign an NDA after the fact?


texts:
I am intentionally not specifying a country for the following as I am interested in answers for different countries.

Lets say that instead of global warming we would have global cooling - the ice caps grow, seas shrink and with them a lot of land is uncovered. Who owns the new land uncovered in such a scenario?


texts: Is there any chance of getting a penalty for cookies with no notification for a private person with small site?

texts: I am planning a small demo application using DRF and when using the DRF web interface csrftoken cookies are saved by default. After reading tons of material about GDPR and cookies I completely disable cookies and csrf security, these cookies are known to be necessary for security reasons.  The site with this app worked about 2 days and used cookies without notifications, but now cookies are completely disabled. Is there any chance of getting a penalty for this 2 days? I don't know how it works and I read information about penalties for big companies, but what about small sites and private persons?


texts:
Consider the situation where a company claims someone owes them money. The person disavows this debt and believes it is falsely assigned to them.

Further, assume the company sells the debt to a debt collector or lists the debt as unpaid to a credit reporting agency.

Is there any legal remedy for the person who does not actually owe any money?


texts: What are the legal implications of the director and witnesses of the person who forged the signature?

texts: While my husband was traveling on business out of state, under time pressure he pushed my naive 24 year old son to take a legal document requiring my signature (without my prior knowledge or consent) to give him permission to execute construction flip loan documents on our company's behalf. My son only takes orders and does not direct anything. His father does all company directing. My son per his dad's instructions brought these papers to my husband's sister's house to have her forge my signature because his dad had said that it was "no big deal" and an "insignificant" 1 page document. I found out about it and was able to get my son to email me a copy of the forged document (a really poorly done forgery nothing like my signature). My son also sent an email (likely scripted by his dad) explaining why they had "no time" to get ahold of me for my actual signature or permission. Yet they had taken the time to get another family member's signature to trace and got her permission. So I also have that email stating that they didn't ask me first. My husband's sister did the actual forgery I'm told, but what are the legal ramification of the forgery for my husband who directed it to be done and my son who also knew about it and saw it? I believe my husband knew I had reservations about this flip loan and wanted to bypass getting my permission.


texts: Temporarily Relocating Car from California to Massachusetts

texts:
I am being temporarily (6 months) relocated to Boston, MA and will be taking my car from California to Massachusetts.

My car (and myself) will remain registered at my home address in California.

My question is, does Massachusetts require one to register a car for a temporary (6 months or less) relocation?


texts: Does the renter/owner of the home have to be present for a search warrant?

texts: Does a home owner or renter on the lease have to be present when police come with a warrant to search the home?


texts: Can you reuse the text of a contract you've signed with one party with another party?

texts:
Relations between individuals and business entities are governed by law; what's not specified in the law, can be specified by a mutually-executed contract.  Generally, one party provides the actual text of such contract, which, depending on circumstances, could potentially be modified by the other party prior to execution (especially when dealing B2B or between somewhat equal entities).

Realistically, in most circumstances, a multipage document is not legally required in order to execute most agreements like rent or services.  However, the perception exists that the legalese must be signed.  Vast majority of contracts don't explicitly specify the © copyright for the text of the contract itself.

From a copyright perspective, you can't really just take some work and republish it, even if the work in question may be missing the © copyright symbol, as it may still be copyrighted.  However:

What's the situation with reusing the text of the contracts you've been a party to?  Would that by default be prohibited by whoever the copyright owner of the contract may be?  And how would you even find out the owner, or if there is one?  Is copyright even at stake here, as neither the general public nor the copyright owner would possibly be aware of this copying and derivative work taking place?
Does it at all invalidate the agreement itself if the party that supplied the contract doesn't actually own the copyright to it?  After all, if you're not legally allowed to have a copy of the text that specifies the terms of the contract, how would it be possible to adhere to such terms?


texts:
Although a 2/3 majority is required for the Senate to convict an impeached US President, some of the rules governing the Senate trial can be amended by a simple majority of the Senators.

Could a simple majority of Senators vote to make the conviction vote a secret ballot?

EDIT in light of some interesting answers:

By secret, I mean no record exists to ascribe a particular vote to a specific senator.  Black balls, pieces of paper with "Convict" or "Don't convict" printed on them, whatever. Obtaining individual "Yays and Nays" to record in the Journal after the secret ballots have been collected and counted could prove impossible, but would that invalidate the result of the original, secret ballot?


texts: Naming cause of action against business d/b/a/ "business name"

texts:
Can a plaintiff suing a business d/b/a/ "business name" assert a cause of action as follows:

Count I Fraud
(against "business name")

or must he/she state:

Count I Fraud
(against "business")


texts: Does a ban on plea bargaining still permit defendants to plead guilty?

texts:
From my understanding, plea bargaining is the process where a defendant can plead guilty to a reduced charge. This means there is no trial, but a lesser sentence. I also know of fact bargaining - where a defendant says a certain fact is true in exchange for the prosecutor not using other facts in the case.

From this definition, I assumed that abolishing plea bargaining meant that defendants could no longer plead guilty at all.

However, then I read the following quote from a book:

"The evaluation also revealed that, contrary to predictions that defendants would refuse to plead guilty and that the Alaska criminal justice system would grind to a halt, guilty pleas did not decrease and trials did not increase dramatically".

This is in reference to the Alaska ban on plea bargaining. Here's the full paragraph for added context:

Image: https://imgur.com/a/9tYwT

Text (OCR):

  Given the controversy surrounding plea bargaining. it is not surprising that a number of jurisdictions have attempted to restrict, or even to eliminate. it. In 1975, for example, the Alaska attorney general issued an order that banned all forms of plea bargaining. Under this policy. prosecutors could not reduce charges or dismiss counts in exchange for guilty pleas; they also were not supposed to ask the court to impose a particular sentence if the defendant agreed to plead guilty. The attorney general imposed the ban on plea bargaining in an effort to increase convictions and restore public confidence in the justice system (Carns 8c Kruse, 1992). An evaluation of the impact of the ban found that explicit sentence bargaining disappeared and that charge bargaining continued for a few months and then “dried up" (Rubinstein 8: White. 1979). The evaluation also revealed that, contrary to predictions that defendants would refuse to plead guilty and that the Alaska criminal justice system would therefore grind to a halt, guilty pleas did not decrease and trials did not increase dramatically. Although the authors of the study concluded that the Alaska experience showed that “the incidence of plea bargaining can be substantially reduced without wrecking a criminal justice system," they also cautioned that the results of the Alaska reform could not necessarily be generalized to other. larger jurisdictions (Rubinstein 8: White, 1979, p. 382).

My question is, if there was a ban on plea bargaining in Alaska, then how could defendants still plead guilty, and why would they choose to do so? How could charge and sentence bargaining "dry up", but guilty pleas still exist?


texts: Buying a home from a 'sale by owner' that was previously listed by some agent and shown by my agent. My agent asking commission and raising price

texts:
The incident is based in Arizona.

An agent was assigned to us a part of our relocation. The agent showed some houses which I had done the research for. So I had found the house and asked them to show it to me. Later one of the houses got pulled out of the market which was listed by another agent. I later learned that the seller was going to advertise the home as 'Sale by Owner'. I contacted the seller directly and we negotiated the final price of the house. The seller wanted a letter from my agent stating that she will be waiving off her commission as the house is no longer on the market. I contacted my real estate agent asking for the letter, but she spoke to the seller and upped the home price to include her commission.

I have not signed anything with neither the relocation company nor the real estate agent agreeing to work with them.

Is it still right for the agent to ask for commission since the house has been pulled out of the market since my agent showing it to me.She spoke with the owner, added her commission and came back to us with the new updated higher price. If the seller is doing a sale by owner with zero percent commission, is it ethical for my agent to add her commission and charge me the commission as the seller is not willing to pay commission

Update:
This is how I understand based on what I learned: The agent can still insist on being the representative as they are technically the 'Procuring cause'. But it is incorrect for the agent to bump us the already negotiated price to reflect their commission. As this point the agent is working pro-commision and not pro buyer. It is highly unprofessional behavior. That is what was explained to me


texts: guest with tourette's syndrome and noise complaints [Ontario, Canada]

texts:
I have two tenants upstairs who live in rooms very close to each other - for privacy reasons I'll call them Left and Right based on their position relative to the staircase. Left frequently has a guest over who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, which is a disability protected against anti-discrimination laws. Right is making noise complaints against Left and threatening to go to the tenant board about it. I am legally not allowed to restrict guests unless they are causing problems, but a noise problem is beyond control for someone with TS and I am legally not allowed to discriminate against that either. I am ALSO legally not allowed to do nothing while Right's reasonable enjoyment of the property is compromised for the sake of Left's.

What can I do to ensure both tenants' reasonable enjoyment of the property?

For the record, it is a four-bedroom house. I am the homeowner's daughter and I act as his agent/property manager and live in this house, but he is the landlord and he does not live in the house. I believe this DOES mean we fall under the RTA. All rental agreements are month-to-month.

edit: i guess what i'm asking is if anti-discrimination laws DO extend to tenants' guests, or if i am not legally liable for discriminating against this guest with tourette's in the interest of Right's reasonable enjoyment of property.