texts: Would a search engine be allowed to prioritize their content?

texts: I notice that when I type anything into google, google-related searches appear first. I know this is probably not what's happening, but it begs the question, could a search engine prioritize its own products and services legally?


texts: Is Foreign Qualification necessary if I work from home?

texts:
My cofounder & I just started a Delaware C Corp for an app we're building. The app is comparable to Instagram. We both work from home on our laptops. I work from Connecticut, and he works from Colorado. Do we need to file for Foreign Qualification in either state? If not, we'd like to avoid doing so to save time & money.

Please cite Connecticut & Colorado law to back up your answer.

Note: Feel free to also include the answers for other states.


texts: Does the hit and run statutes also apply for accidents in private property in California?

texts: I know that a hit and run is a misdemeanor in California when there are only property damages, but does this also applies to a collision in a private property? How is a typical bump in a parking lot handled by California law?


texts: Multiple deals in a row and reasonable expectation

texts:
I once heard that there is a certain level of reasonable expectation that is guaranteed by law when it comes to making multiple deals with others.

For instance, is the following legal or illegal to do.

Bill offered to Mow Janes lawn for $1, which is agreeable.
Bill mows the lawn, and gives Jane a bill for $1.
Jane happily pays.
A week pasts, and Jane asks Bill to mow her lawn again.
Bill mows the lawn again, and give Jane a bill for $2
Jane asks why $2 and not $1, like last week
Bill says that he changed the price within the last week due to high demand of his services, and that is what he charges everyone now.

I do not mind which country the law exists, or if it exists at all; I was told that this was illegal to do (anecdotally), and I just want to get a quick opinion (not used in any legal way, just to cure my curiosity) and see if they were telling the truth or not.

Thanks!


texts: Why is the trade name of a drug always written in all caps, even when the wordmark isn't?

texts:
One thing I've consistently noticed in TV commercials and other marketing materials for drugs is that the trade name for a drug, especially a prescription drug, is almost always written in all caps within text (e.g. NEXIUM):

Important Safety Information About NEXIUM

Symptom relief does not rule out the presence of other serious conditions. Talk with your doctor
Talk to your doctor about serious side effects, including:

Kidney problems (acute interstitial nephritis) may happen at any time during treatment with NEXIUM. Call your doctor if you have a decrease in the amount that you urinate or if you have blood in your urine
NEXIUM may increase your risk of getting severe diarrhea. Call your doctor right away if you have watery stool, stomach pain and fever that does not go away
Bone fractures if you take multiple daily doses of NEXIUM for a year or longer
Some people who take PPIs, including NEXIUM, develop certain types of lupus or have worsening of the lupus they already have. Call your doctor right away if you have joint pain or rash on your cheeks or arms that gets worse in the sun
Low vitamin B12 if you have been on NEXIUM for a long time (more than 3 years)
Low magnesium levels if you take NEXIUM (for 3 months or more)
Stomach growths (fundic gland polyps), especially if you take PPIs for more than 1 year

Tell your doctor about all of the medicines you take, prescription and nonprescription drugs, including clopidogrel, vitamins and herbal supplements. NEXIUM may affect how other medicines work and other medicines may affect how NEXIUM works
Do not take NEXIUM if you are allergic to esomeprazole magnesium or any of the ingredients in NEXIUM or are allergic to any other PPI
The most common side effects with NEXIUM may include headache, diarrhea, nausea, gas, abdominal pain, constipation, dry mouth and drowsiness
In adults 18 and older, the most common side effects with NEXIUM may include headache, diarrhea, nausea, gas, abdominal pain, constipation, and dry mouth
In children 1 to 17 years of age, the most common side effects with NEXIUM may include headache, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and drowsiness

However, the wordmark and logo write the trade name with only the first letter capitalized:

Why is this done? Does this reduce the risk of genericization? Is there any other legal advantage to doing this?


texts: What ever happened to the Nixon Pocket veto case? This is the case where members of congress sued over President Nixon's recess veto of a spending bill.


texts: Can a civil action started under Ontario's Simplified Procedure be moved to Small Claims Court?

texts:
Under Ontario law, is it possible for a plaintiff bringing a wrongful dismissal civil action to change venues some time after pleadings have been filed, but before the action has been set down for trial? Assume the action was started under the Simplified Procedure (Rule 76).
Imagine a scenario where e.g. the plaintiff mitigated their damages by finding another job, so potential damages sought would be limited, ending up closer to the Small Claims Court limit (vs. when the action was first commenced).
Is a venue change to Small Claims Court in these circumstances possible? Does the Simplified Procedure specifically allow for this? If not, can the action be withdrawn and started again in Small Claims Court, and what could be the consequences of doing this?


texts:
Is there a set / standard format for a deposition? Not the process - the format of the text document.

For example are page numbers and line numbers always the same?

If so what are the rules around the format?

I need to parse the document down for a computer application.

This is really more of a comment but I think it presents better up here:
There are not that many steno machines.  They were around before computer  files so do not look at it as as an interchange format.  Cannot find specs on them but I suspect they only put out so many formats so I just need to chase them all down.


texts: Paypal payment with credit card chargeback. Is it fraud?

texts:
This is a complex tale based in Kentucky, USA. I did independent work for a company, fixing computers, and other minor IT work. They payed me via paypal, and used a credit card to do it. As the months went on, they would put money in my paypal, for me to buy them stuff online, and let me keep a little for fees and the trouble. Nothing in writing. Few months later, they did a chargeback for everything. The total, fittingly, was $2,666 dollars.

I always took money out of paypal asap, since I don't trust them to hold money, so now my paypal balance is massively negative. I know it is my fault for trusting them. But all seemed well.

The question is, will I get charged with credit card fraud? I understand getting ripped off, but don't want to goto jail.


texts:
Can a lyrics web site be legal, assuming there are no special agreements with the artists?

Is publishing song lyrics considered "fair use?"


texts:
Someone spoofed the headers on an email to a redirecting address I own today and it's laughably written, but raised a question for me.

The message claims to have kompromat on me that absolutely does not exist. Clearly it is sent to a large number of email addresses in the hopes that it reaches someone gullible with a guilty conscience that decides to pay. Whether it works or not is questionable (with a sufficiently large email list, I imagine it would). But it makes me wonder about the legality of this kind of scam.

If a person A threatens to blackmail person B with kompromat they don't actually have, but person B is gullible enough to believe it, is it still illegal blackmail?

I will add, per advice in the comments, that I am in the  United States.

I will further add, per advice in the comments, that I am in Florida.

Since this is, of course, virtually untraceable and not worth the effort to prosecute anyway, I should say I am asking this question purely out of intellectual curiosity.

  Hello,

  As you may have noticed, I sent this email from your email account (if you didn't see, check the from email id). In other words, I have fullccess to your email account.

  I infected you with a malware a few months back when you visited an adult site, and since then, I have been observing your actions.

  The malware gave me full access and control over your system, meaning, I can see everything on your screen, turn on your camera or microphon and you won't even notice about it.

  I also have access to all your contacts.

  Why your antivirus did not detect malware?
      It's simple. My malware updates its signature every 10 minutes, and there is nothing your antivirus can do about it.

  I made a video showing both you (through your webcam) and the video
      you were watching (on the screen) while satisfying yourself.
      With one click, I can send this video to all your contacts (email, social network, and messengers you use).

  You can prevent me from doing this.
      To stop me, transfer $950 to my bitcoin address.
      If you do not know how to do this, Google - "Buy Bitcoin".

  My bitcoin address (BTC Wallet) is 1LfiwESci8U5iRNn2XwfrcjtVn5CLNZ7LQ

  After receiving the payment, I will delete the video,
      and you will never hear from me again.
      You have 48 hours to pay. Since I already have access to your system
      I now know that you have read this email, so your countdown has begun.

  Filing a complaint will not do any good
      because this email cannot be tracked.
      I have not made any mistakes.

  If I find that you have shared this message with someone else, I will immediately send the video to all of your contacts.

  Take care


texts: What are the rules surrounding the communication of religious rites via voice amplification in England?

texts: Is it legal in England to use voice amplification to communicate (without specific notification) religious rites (on a day significant to that group) such that it is audible to hundreds of domestic properties in the vicinity?


texts: Interpreting the meaning of "additonal considerations" in Covid-19 reopening guidelines for cosmetology business

texts:
My wife and I are trying to interpret the document

Reopening Protocol for Personal Care Establishments:
Appendix R Effective as of June 19, 2020t the document from LA County
Department of Public Health,

The confusion is in a section titled:  "ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR NAIL SALONS"
The confusion is wether the word considerations implies "optional".
Also, the first line in "Addtional Considerations" list:

A plastic partition between worker and client with ample space cut out where hands or feet can be slid
underneath to conduct the manicure or pedicure has been provided, when feasible.

Does that mean we determine what is feasible, or does the Dept. or Health?
This is a bit confusiong for someone with limited English.


texts: Must US public agencies accept electronic notarizations performed in other US states?

texts:
In the vast majority of the United States, notarizations are required to be performed on physical paper while physically in front of a notary. However, Virginia has authorized notaries within their state to notarize electronic documents on the basis of a digital signature & stamp, once the person seeking the notarization appears in front of the said notary (and verifies their identity) via video.

Are state or federal agencies located in other states required to accept such notarizations, if electronic notarizations aren't authorized in their location?

The National Notary Association suggests that such notarizations might be valid nation-wide on the basis of the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution:

  Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts,
  records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.

However, I am not sure that a notarization qualifies as a public act or record.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of State of California has released an alert advising California notaries that they may not perform online notarizations. Although it does not touch upon whether Californians get receive valid notarizations from other states via the internet, it does say

  California law requires a person to appear personally before a notary
  public to obtain notarial acts like acknowledgments or jurats. This
  means the party must be physically present before the notary public.

Hence my question. If a state or federal agency is operating in a jurisdiction that does not allow online notarizations, are such notarizations from other states over the internet valid? In other words, must a public agency in CA, for example, accept the notarization received by a Californian over the internet from an electronic notary in Virginia?


texts:
Say an author sells the paperback rights of a book for $300,000

What does that mean? The author gets $300,000 and then nothing else, even if the book sells five hundred million copies?


texts: Is there a benefit to leaving out a poor defendant from a suit and only suing the rich defendant?

texts:
If the poor defendant is sued as well as the rich defendant, could the jury end up assigning too much of the award to the poor defendant? Is that a reason to only sue the rich defendant?

Assume that the poorer defendants are either co-conspirators or agents of the rich defendant.


texts: If I don't patent my invention, how closely can a competitor copy my product?

texts:
Introduction:

I had an idea for how to make a certain product much better. I'm currently in the prototyping stage for a product based on that idea. That idea (the solution to the problem of improving that product in certain ways) is patentable according to all the stuff I read about patents. But patents are really expensive: My primary market would be western Europe (member states of the European Patent Convention) and possibly later the US, that would cost a 4-digit USD amount upfront and in total a 5-digit amount within a couple of years, as far as I can tell.

So I'm evaluating the possibility of just keeping my invention secret until I'm ready to sell a product based on it and then publishing the full details to make sure no one else can patent it.

Question:

But when I'm selling such a product: Would competitors need to design a new product based on my idea, involving all the prototyping and too easy to patent but still not trivial problems - or would it be legal to take my product apart, put the parts in a 3D scanner and produce the exact same product? Where is the border between what is allowed and what not, exactly?

Hypothetical example:

Say I found a new method to make car chassis more aerodynamic. There are certain equations and methods which are applied during the development process, and to keep anyone else from patenting them, I publish them (in my case, the invention is obvious from the final product). Are the competitors allowed to take the chassis I developed and use that, or do they need to design their own using my methods?


texts: Copyright restriction in other countries

texts:
Amazon.com sometimes refuses to sell me audiobooks. The message is as follows:

I don't understand how a copyright can be enforced in other countries. Surely copyright holds for a specific country where it is registered, and has no enforceable jurisdiction in others. Is this type of copyright restriction valid? Under what law?

I can buy the digital text, so this issue is with the copyright for the audio only.


texts: Our landlord(s) want to charge us $30 or $30 per car for parking. We have a garage and a driveway, but mostly have to street park. Just wondering the legality of that. We live in Dane County, Wisconsin if that matters.


texts: GDPR: can vendors accept core dumps or logs

texts:
As a software vendor, am I allowed to accept core dumps or application logs from my customers to investigate a crash or malfunction even though they most likely contain personally identifiable information that may be subject to GDPR law?

It sounds like the rule of thumb "Do not keep personal information longer than necessary" covers this: the dump/logs are essential to help resolve a critical problem, and I would of course delete the dump and any logs sent to me as soon as I've found a solution.

However, since I am a software vendor external to the company the data was entrusted to, I am not so sure.


texts: How can I request an ISP to disclose their customer's identity?

texts:
As far as I know, breaking the law online in Germany (such as sharing copyrighted content) often results in a fine from a private law firm which gets your personal data from your provider by sending them some sort of "cease and desist" letter mentioning the violation. I understand that this process doesn't involve an actual lawsuit. I wonder what kind of proof of the client's wrong-doing is actually required for the ISP to disclose their personal data.
For instance, I have an open SSH port in my home network, and there are regular attempts to login using default usernames/passwords, which AFAIK is just as illegal as sharing copyrighted files. If I see a German IP in the logs, what kind of proof do I have to send to the ISP in order to get the offender's identity from them?


texts: Is it considered piracy to put in game music into music library

texts: Various games I have legally purchaced have music files that can easily found by looking through the game files. Is it piracy to put this music onto a mp3 player or phone if it is just for personal use.


texts: Limited Duration Alimony - do I need to do anything to stop the payments after the period ends?

texts:
My ex-wife was granted LDA for 10 years, which ends in December 2020. Do I need to do anything -fill any paperwork, etc.- to stop the payments or do they stop automatically?

Both, my child support payments and my alimony payments are automatically deducted from my paycheck bi-weekly. My divorce was in New Jersey.


texts: Can a landlord fine me for a non-existent business being listed at my address on Google Maps

texts:
Backstory: When I moved into my rented house, I setup a personal bar and had a house warming party where we named the bar. As part of the celebration, it was listed on Google Maps as a business. To clarify, it was not and is not an actual business, it was set up as a joke amongst friends.
Issue: I was recently contacted by my landlord claiming that I was running a business out of the house and that it violated the HOA agreement, citing the aforementioned google listing. They have threatened to fine me for running a business out of my house, which I am not, and also have asked to prove that I'm not, which seems impossible as it would be trying to prove a negative. I showed them that there is no official listing on any official website of me running a business out of this house or with me listed as the owner of any business. They then followed up and said that the listing had to be removed from Google or else the violation would stand.
Question: Do they actually have any say or grounds for the claims that they are making?


texts: Selling custom electronic projects online in the uk

texts: (Sorry if I am posting in the wrong forum) I am wanting to have a go at selling some of my projects (mostly lighting: epoxy, led strips) after doing a search, it sounds like there are a lot of regulations about this sort of stuff. I have also read about CE which it sounds like I would need in order to sell online (I am looking at eBay), the product would use an led strip that most likely already comes with a CE mark. So I am here to ask if that would allow me to sell this lighting product straight to eBay without problems occurring with regulations? If there are problems with regulations would it be an idea to think about selling it as individual parts that the end user builds?


texts: Is it illegal to "sell" a pro golfer's swing?

texts:
Say I use three cameramen to record a pro golfer's swing at a public event in order to subsequently digitize the path of the swing in 3-space.  Say I then program a baton (like a Wii remote or a smart phone taped to a golf club) to vibrate and/or beep when the device doesn't move through space along the same path and at the same speed as the original golf swing.  (In other words, the device lets you "feel" what the pro's swing is really like:  as you swing, the more the device will vibrate and beep the more you deviate from the programmed swing.  On the other hand, the closer you duplicate the speed and position of the original swing, the quieter the device remains, so you can try to find the preferred "groove".)

Would it be legal to sell the program and data, without any consideration going to the golfer whose swing is being duplicated?

Say the software is embedded with the necessary hardware in a golf club handle that could be attached to any club.

Say the software or device being sold didn't replicate a particular golfer, but instead let you download "path" files from servers, so that if someone posted a "Tiger Woods 5-iron" file or a "Bubba Watson 3-wood" file, you could load that "training" file into the device.  Would that be like song or movie players, where the device is legal, but the file being downloaded or played might not be?


texts: Is there anything I can do legally when my daughter lets her boyfriend in our home without our permission?

texts:
My daughter is 16, and my wife and I just found she's been sneaking her boyfriend (who is 17) into our house while we're not home. His parents don't seem to be doing anything about it.

Does this count as breaking and entering if my daughter, a minor, allows him into the house without our permission? Or is it trespassing? Or both?


texts: Easiest way to divorce same-sex marriage for residents of country where it's not recognized?

texts:
My situation: my spouse and I (both Russian citizens and residents) married in Denmark in 2014 (tourist marriage is legal and fast there). Now as we want to divorce, we can't do that in Russia because our same-sex marriage isn't recognized there. Looks like we can't divorce in Denmark, either, because to file a divorce there at least one of us should be a permanent resident there for two years. Is there any option for us to get divorced? I can reside somewhere for several months, if that's necessary.

Our goal is to get a divorce that would be recognized by the US. We don't have children or property.


texts: My lease specifically stated that the landlord pays, hot water, water (it's a well so he would pay to pump the water) and sewer ( septic pump) I found out, by accident, that for the last SEVEN years I have been paying these bills. I might add, this well is shared by another residence on the property AND his barn where he kept livestock. The breakers for the hot water heater, well pump and septic pump are in MY electrical box. He knew I found out, so when he renewed my lease this year, he omitted who pays for those utilities. The fact remains,   I have 6 years of lease contracts that state otherwise and electric bills to prove I've been paying for what he stated he would pay.  What recourse do I have to recover some of these expenses? After 7 years, I will be moving. He blatantly lied to my face too. At one point he was thinking of selling this property and in front of a potential buyer stated that HE pays the hot water, well and septic pump bills. I'm beside myself. I have been a good tenant, always paid my rent by the 1st.  I don't want to lose my security deposit but do know I was absorbing at least $50 a month for the past 7 years that he should have been paying. Is this something for small claims court or are there other legal advocates for renters that I could contact?


texts:
A lot of googling didn't help me with the following questions:

Given I own a website which only creates one cookie that identifies a users session - is it okay to embed said website in an iframe without prior consent? Accessing the webpage in a logged-out state does not create a cookie, but being logged in makes the value accessible to the websites server / javascript that is loaded in the iframe.

Furthermore: given an identifier that is added as a parameter to my webpages url that identifies the embedding page (e.g. www.asd.com embeds my page www.mypage.com with ?id=35235) - is that GDPR compliant or not?


texts: UK - can you run a criminal records check on a customer?

texts:
Had an interesting conversation with a friend who runs a labour agency which sends people to businesses for temp jobs.  I asked her whether she conducted criminal records checks of the directors of the SMEs she sends labour to.  She said no, and that she didn't know whether that would be legal.
Which is an interesting question.  How does she know that the person who runs the pub she's sending agency labour to isn't a murderer?
Can you do a CRB check on a prospective customer? My thinking is not, but this seems like an exceptional situation.


texts: Where can one go to find caselaw of US federal criminal statutes?

texts:
I'm interested in a website or other starting point where I can see an index of all the high level prosecutions undertaken under USC XX s.s. YYYY over the course of the given law's history on the books.

Does anyone have any advice? I'm a lay intellectual researching various laws for personal reasons.


texts: What should I do if a website opens with the exact same name as mine?

texts: I’m a 17 year-old student from France and I built a small-time web app in 2015 that allows high-school juniors and seniors like me to give them an estimate of their final grade at the exams (French baccalauréat). Another app with the same functionality and the exact same name appeared a few days ago. Now there are plenty of apps like mine out there that do what mine does so functionality isn't a problem at all, but it really bothers me that my app name was used by someone else for the same purpose. The name isn’t legally registered with the INPI (French equivalent for the USPTO), but this situation really bothers me.What can I do? I was thinking about sending a polite email asking if the person could maybe change the name, is this the way to go?


texts: Excuse in Negligence Per Se: why bother with excuses?

texts:
When it comes to deciding what kind of weight excuse should have in negligence-per-se cases there is a 3 way split of authority.

AUTHORITY 1: Duty and breach are conclusively presumed or established by the violation of the statute.  Defendant has no opportunity to rebut, but defendant can show excuse.  Trial goes on to causation and damages

AUTHORITY 2: Duty and breach are rebuttably presumed by the violation of the statute.  Burden shifts to defendant to rebut the presumption by showing that defendant acted as a reasonable person.  If defendant does not rebut, defendant loses on duty and breach. Defendant may show excuse

AUTHORITY 3: The violation of the statute is merely evidence of the duty and breach which may be ignored by the trier of fact.  Defendant can win even if there is no rebuttal

Regarding authority 1, what is the point of showing excuse if the trial goes on to causation and damages anyways?

Regarding authority 2, what is the point of showing excuse after failure to rebut results in defendant losing on duty and breach?


texts: Children and grandchildren must be explicitly disinherited in wills?

texts:
I was reading the following clause in the NH Wills Act:

551:10 Child Not Named, Etc. – Every child born after the decease of
the testator, and every child or issue of a child of the deceased not
named or referred to in his will, and who is not a devisee or legatee,
shall be entitled to the same portion of the estate, real and
personal, as he would be if the deceased were intestate.

This appears to say that a person making out a will in NH must explicitly disinherit any children or grandchildren or great grandchildren, otherwise they can claim part of the estate "as though the testator was intestate". Is that right? Seems kind of crazy. What if the person has a child they do not know about? Then they are really screwed aren't they.


texts: Apportion of revenue tax: how would it be implemented?

texts:
The following is a quote of The Triumph of Injustice by Saez and Zucman.

According to the Constitution, direct taxes had to be apportioned
among the states according to the population of each state. For
example, if 10% of the US population lived in the state of New York,
10% of tax revenue had to come from there—even if a third of national
income was earned in that state (which was roughly the case at the end
of the nineteenth century), and even if most taxable individuals
(those earning more than $4,000) lived there. Neither the 1894 income
tax nor the one of 1862 were apportioned among the states, because
apportioning them would have been nonsensical: it would have forced
the government to tax the rich very little in the states where they
were over-represented (such as New York), defeating the whole purpose
of progressive income taxation.

I don't understand how this apportioning would be implemented, if the original tax would be a percentage on the upper tiers of incomes. Maybe I'm just not understanding the English here...


texts: copyright of teaching (in video) learned coding techniques

texts:
I'm having a hard time finding what the copyright law would be on teaching others through videos, what I've learned from professors in college. How does copyright apply to such a thing? Can I make a video of me writing out what I've learned, or should I change the material completely?

Even if I change it, isn't it still considered getting the information from my previous instructors? And possibly copyright infringement?

But if so, then pretty much every bit of code that any one has ever learned was learned from some source, and if they teach any thing in a video, it's copyright infringement. So I'm very confused on this topic.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Does a deed supercede a will when a house is transferred to one sibling?

texts: I have been taking care of my elderly mom who has dementia the past three years basically with no help from siblings.  I live with my mom . She transferred the house to me. We did a life estate.  I am now listed as the owner of the home. However many years ago my mother made a will and had the house being shared among her three children. Now my question is if I am paying all the bills and the property taxes on this house and living there and taking care of my mom do I have to  divide the house equally when it's sold even if I am listed on the deed as owner.  My siblings keep talking about their share of the house and it makes me crazy since they refuse to help take care of our mother with me.


texts: Gorilla glue, when does a court decide to permit a trial

texts:
If a plaintiff brings a civil suit against another party (aka say the Gorilla glue hair suit), what role does the court play in whether to permit a trial, how has that role changed over the decades, and are there large inconsistencies between federal judicial districts? Federal, as I believe this type of suit would be brought there.
I understand and know that a suit can be thrown out, but how far can a court judge a case before trial? And do lawyers pick certain courts where they believe their odds are better?


texts: A company (EU) sells potentially dangerous chemicals to anybody. What can I do as a citizen?

texts:
I have read a report by a high-schooler doing "experiments" by injecting himself with custom-synthesized peptides (small proteins). I emailed the author who confirmed that his report was no joke.

This kid needs to have a serious conversation with a physician and a biology teacher (and maybe a psychologist).

But there's another serious issue there: the company from which he bought these peptides sells uncharacterized molecules to people who clearly have no idea what they are and what their effects can be. Worse, it also means that anybody can buy lethal toxins (some of them are small in size and can be made in vitro by the same process) from them. The kid in in high school and for all I know may very well be a minor - I don't know that for sure, though.

As a concerned biomedical science researcher, what is the best course of action to check whether that is legal?

If it is not, who should I contact to report this? I doubt that's business for the local police. Maybe French or European regulatory agencies, but then which one (the one that deals with chemicals? or pharmaceuticals?).

It it is indeed legal, who can I contact (regulatory agencies? politicians? journalists?) to highlight the fact that this is a potentially dangerous situation and that action needs to be taken?

In the US I guess the FDA or the EPA would be the best organizations for this kind of matter, but I'm not sure about the European context.


texts: Ontario non-compete clause: can new employer hide NCC requirement, until time of job start?

texts:
This is in Ontario, Canada in an IT company.

Recently I have received a job offer from a US based company, at their branch in Ottawa. The company and I have been in discussion for weeks negotiating the terms, at no point I was told about a non-compete clause. The offer letter I was sent also did not mention about it,  it said there is a privacy agreement that will need to be signed, but the privacy agreement was not sent to me. I assumed this is a standard privacy agreement to keep information private and I took the offer. May be this was my mistake, I should have explicitly asked to send the privacy document before accepting the offer.

One day before the start date, the company sent me the privacy agreement, to my surprise, includes a non-compete clause, which states if I am terminated by myself or by the company for any just or unjust cause, I cannot take employment of any of their competitor for 12 months. There is no clarification what is meant by competitor.

By this time, I have already resigned from my old job and made significant plans to join the new one. When I asked the new company why they kept it hidden or what is the definition of competitor, they do not provide any straight answer, just keeps hinting this is not a big deal, everyone signs it. They say they cannot strike out the clause and want me to sign with acknowledgement that it was done voluntarily and without any duress or undue influence by the Company. I do have emails where I expressed my concerns and their reply.

I would not have taken the offer if I knew about the non-compete or at least negotiated before I resigned from my previous company. I feel I have been deliberately put into this position, where it is difficult to walk out and become jobless, which I am not in a position to become.

Is it lawful for a company in Canada to hide substantial clause on the contract until the very last moment?

Do I have any other option than to be forced into the NCC?


texts: If I find a meteorite do I get to keep it? Does it make a difference if I find it in my own lawn or on public land? I am especially interested how law is in European countries.


texts: Are NBA players ,who sign 10 day short term contracts, classified as employees or independent contractors?

texts:
Question

When in the NBA, a player with a two-way contract will accrue a day of service and make money consistent with an NBA rookie minimum...

Those are the words that struck me to ask:

whether NBA players  who sign 10 day short term contracts, classified as employees or independent contractors?

My Opinion
From reading the articles , it seems like they are employees because of their inability to move freely to other teams because

teams have a the right but not the obligation to sign the players
"But the other reason agents are wary of two-way contracts is that it restricts the player’s freedom of movement. Players who once
could be called up by 30 different NBA teams now are linked
exclusively with just one — and on a limited basis, at that." But
it’s not the perfect solution it may seem

My Research / Background

Short Term Contract
How do short term contracts work in the NBA?

Article on Short Term Contracts

NBA
The Planes, Trains And Automobiles That Begin 10-Day Contracts
How the NBA's new 2-way contracts work and why some agents are worried about them

In the new collective bargaining agreement, the league has introduced two new roster slots where teams can sign players to “a two-way contract,” which allows them to spend a finite amount of time with their respective NBA team and the rest of their season with a G-League affiliate.


texts: Can two companies have the same name if they are from unrelated industries?

texts:
I've been trying to figure out a name for my new videogame company - and just when I thought that I got the perfect idea, a quick google search shows me there is a small business in the UK with that name, but they are completely unrelated to videogames (they manufacture signs/adverts/etc).

If both companies work on completely unrelated industries, would they be able to share the same name?

And what if there are two companies from the same industry (videogames), but one is just a publisher and mine is just a developer?


texts: Do I have video rights over my software?

texts:
If one creates software and chooses to sell it, are they able to control any video footage of the software in use? If so, must they go about that by stating explicitly in the license that users may not take video of the software?

Assuming that you successfully prohibit users from videoing the software, if someone uploaded a video to a platform such as YouTube (say a video of a person using the software), what would the best way to remove it be (you wouldn't necessarily have the person's full name, or contact info)?


texts:
I have a simple question, actually two, that I've searched for a good answer about. I'm looking at the disputes in the South China Sea.
First, what happens if two Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) overlap? How do you determine rights if, for example, the 220 mile EEZ of Vietnam overlaps the EEZ of China?
Second, can a sovereign be wholly territory inside another country's EEZ? Since an island generate its own EEZ, you would have question #1 above where the EEZs overlapped if your island was inside the EEZ of another country. For example, if the People's Republic of China assert its authority over an island in the Philippines's EEZ, what respective rights do the parties have for resource extraction, fishing, etc?


texts: Were two black men legally removed from a Philadelphia Starbucks?

texts:
Recently, two black men who were not patronizing a Starbucks - but waiting inside for a friend - were arrested for trespassing. Starbucks Philadelphia arrest: CEO apologizes to two black men arrested in a store after an employee call to police - The Washington Post

I recognize that a business owner has the right to remove a person from their property who is trespassing and that a business does not have the right to refuse service to someone based on their race. However, if you are a business like Starbucks that goes out of its way to make its environment welcoming and inviting for customers to stay, do you have the right to kick people out because of their race after you serve them?

Is the ability to stay in the store considered part of the purchase; or did the manager who called the cops to remove the two black men still had that right if they had purchased something from the store?


texts: Software licence where no licence is found

texts:
Is it correct that I can't take the source code from an educational book and write/use in my website or use it for my own teaching purposes?

Or can such code be considered "generic code" without copyright e.g. basic examples of what is new in Java 8 and the study code for Java 8 in the study guide from Oracle.

It would surprise me if I could do what I want with the code, and it would also surprise me if I'm forbidden to use the code, especially if I improve the code and put it in an executable context (now the code is just printed on the page in snippets and never in an executional environment).

Same question for computer science books, I suppose sometimes there is a licence found in computer science books for the source code, and sometimes we may use the source any way we like.

Spec. I'm wondering about the source code in the Java study guides for the Java certificates. I find it cumbersome to use a CD and I would like simple HTMLforms with the code to practice and even run the examples where I can and step thru the code examples with a debugger if/when I don'e understand.


texts: Meaning of "The right to disclaim property or an interest therein is barred by..."?

texts:
I am reading Utah Probate Code, 75-2-801 Disclaimer of property interests -- Time -- Form -- Effect -- Waiver and bar -- Remedy not exclusive -- Application.

Can someone state in plain English the meaning of paragraph 5 from two perspectives:

someone who is steadfast is wanting to disclaim
someone who is flip-flopping about wanting to disclaim

I copied the paragraph of interest below (fetched from https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-P8_1800010118000101.pdf)

=======

(5) The right to disclaim property or an interest therein is barred by:

(a) an assignment, conveyance, encumbrance, pledge, or transfer of the property or interest, or a contract therefor;

(b) a written waiver of the right to disclaim;

(c) an acceptance of the property or interest or a benefit under it; or

(d) a sale of the property or interest under judicial sale made before the disclaimer is made.

======

Note: After reading it a dozen times, I think maybe it means that the only way to disclaim is to (a) disclaim the specific thing in writing, and (b) anything that happened before that is irrelevant. So if you state or sign something to "waive the right to claim or to disclaim," then that is also irrelevant. You have not disclaimed anything at all.


texts: Which Country's Law Should a Citizen abide when Travelling abroad?which state law when travelling between States?

texts:
Let's assume that an 18 Years Old(Adult) US Citizen Travels from US To  Japan where the age of majority is 20 there ,does the 18 year old US Citizen automatically become minor because the age of majority is 20 there?
Or the same US Citizen travels from a state where the age of majority is 18 to another state where the age of majority is 20?


texts: Can a witness safely admit to committing illegal actions?

texts:
Can someone who is testifying as a witness in a U.S. civil (small claims) case receive immunity from criminal acts?

Consider this hypothetical:

The defendant is accused of stealing something from the plaintiff. However, the stolen item was a bottle of alcohol and the witness who wants immunity is under the legal drinking age.

The witness wants immunity from any claims that he illegally obtained
or consumed alcohol.

Is there any precedent saying that a witness is immune to any crime he admits to while being a witness?


texts: How to react to a non-formal copyright complaint in Germany?

texts:
Our team is going to host a new web application with user generated content. We are wary of a scenario where a user uploads copyrighted material and the copyright owner comes after us. We are located in Germany and define a German court as the relevant jurisdiction in the TOS, the application has international audience.

We found information on how to react in the case of a proper Abmahnung (a German copyright complaint) which conforms to the requirements of German Urheberrecht (copyright law): https://irights.info/artikel/abmahnung-grundregeln-richtig-verhalten-fristverlaengerung-unterlassungserklaerung/26088. But we can imagine getting either a free-form copyright complaint or one according to some other law (e.g. a DMCA notice).

Are we expected to react to a non-conforming copyright request? Do the same rules work as for the standard Abmahnung, or is there some other procedure? Or can we ignore anything which does not fulfill the legal requirements of an Abmahnung? Also, if there is some definition of what a valid Abmahnung should contain, where do we find that definition?

Our application will contain scientific material, and the copyright holders will be mostly scientific publishers who have the staff to write a proper Abmahnung. But there are also people who self-publish articles or books and they could try writing one on their own. We don't want to be found guilty of neglecting a valid complaint just because it looked amateurish, but also don't want to massively remove legit content because of someone's claims.


texts:
I use a free, open source font called "Metropolis" for my webpages.
However, apparently there now is a legal issue due to similarities to a licensed font called "Gotham", owned by Hoefler&Co.
See https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/metropolis-font-repo-missing/69415 for more infos. The author Chris Simpson had to put his Github repo to private.
I wondered if there now are any legal consequences for new and old projects which actively use this font. I actually still see it in use of many big players too, i.e. https://www.vmware.com
Any ideas?


texts: What's the impact of this late fee typo?

texts:
My landlord has a late fee clause in our lease, which says that if the lessee is late with the rent, the lessor must pay a (poorly defined) late fee.
What would be the effect of this clause?

The lessor pays the late fee to themselves, making the clause inoperable?
The lessor pays the late fee to the lessee, making me happy?
The clause would be considered invalid?
Something else?

Also, the lease contains no severability clause, so if it's option 3, would the whole lease be void? Or voidable?


texts: What can I do if I signed an excessively restrictive contract?

texts:
Situation
I was offered a "small work opportunity" to provide consulting for a company operated by someone I met locally.
They told me to sign some agreements, which I did.
The problem is that the agreements seem to be very restrictive.
The #1 problem I have is that I am extremely innovative and create a lot of companies, I don't want the contracts to possibly allow the theft of my intellectual property or put me at any risk for being sued.
A few key notes regarding the situation

I have not done any work for the company or invoiced them.
The contract is invalid, for example in the contract you will see "domain name auctioning business" this is nothing like the work they have requested me to do.
They have not disclosed any "trade secrets" or "proprietary" information to me as they said they would in the contract.

Would this automatically void the contract?
My Goal
Essentially I want to be 100% sure that if I create a Facebook for example or some other great invention that these contracts won't be able to screw me over in some way or somehow take some credit for my inventions in any way.
I don't mind continuing business with this person (if it is possible) although I need to approach the resolution of these contracts as soon as possible.
How can I cancel these agreements as soon as possible (and if possible start to do business with this company under new or no terms)?
It reads in there that I can voluntarily cancel the agreements, will this forever remove all terms in the agreement? Essentially I just to be absolutely sure that this company can not claim any part of my inventions.
Would they even be able to claim any of my inventions that I make even while I am on the contract (since they have nothing to do with their company and I haven't even done any work for them).
I have attached the contracts for you to review if you would like to see the exact citations.
I have already contacted a lawyer and paid all the money I had and they didn't help me resolve anything, the guy just talked to me for a little bit. He essentially just took my $600 and no action was made. He said the best thing to do would be to wait it out because the contracts were never fulfilled by them and they can't claim my inventions etc if I am an independent contractor.  To me it just sounded like a bunch of BS and not a real solution to this.
I don't want to have any uncertainty regarding these documents.
Here is my thoughts

Hello Company,
There has been a breach of contract on your end in regards to your obligations and description of the work which voids this contract. I voluntarily terminate these agreements as of today's date. As the agreements have been breached and do are too restrictive and affect the quality of my life.
I don't mind starting business with you, but the current contracts must be voided and new terms must be set before this happens.
Thank you,
Me

I realize I was foolish to sign some agreements without seeking legal review, and I will definitely never make the same mistake again.


texts:
I used a scorewriter to notate a musical piece. I did so by ear and I do not own the original sheet music. (If it makes any difference: I wasn't able to find the sheet music for sale anywhere online)

Would it be legal to publish it on a site like www.jellynote.com?

To be clear: I do not intend to make any profit from it. I just want to share my work with other people.

I would be especially interested in German Law. (And maybe US-Law since it will probably be uploaded to a server located in the US. Although I don't know if that's relevant)


texts: Is it an error for a judge to not consider all pieces of evidence?

texts:
A prosecutor attempts to lay charges against an alleged perpetrator (in New Zealand anyone can do this under the private prosecution provisions).

The judge is presented with a set of pieces of circumstantial evidence and has to decide whether they are sufficient to justify a trial. If they are, he issues summons to the defendant and the process kicks off. If they are not, he drops the charges.

Any one of those pieces of evidence in isolation cannot prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. However, looking at them all together one can see that they corroborate and draw inferences of fact. Such inferences can well be sufficient to prove criminal charges.

The judge considers only some of the pieces of evidence, not all, and drops the charges saying that there was no direct evidence. He does not explain why the rest of the evidence was not considered.

Is this an error of law, or any other judicial error?


texts: How would copyright law affect a seedable random text generator?

texts:
Lets say I create a program that generates random text based on a seed value.

I then create a secondary program, which uses incremental seeds with the initial program to generate several trillion strings of text. It compares each string against a library of copyrighted works to see if there are matches, and writes down the seed alongside the name of the work if it does.

The end result is a list of seeds that can be used with the original program to generate a specific copyrighted work.

What would then be the legal status of these seeds? Would sharing them be considered copyright infringement?


texts: How to challenge probable cause of search based on "I smell illegal drug X in your car"?

texts: In the United States, a police officer may search a car without a warrant by invoking a probable cause, such as "I smell illegal drug X in your car"? Assuming the police officer made it up and that there exist no recording of the police officer admitting he lied, how to challenge in court such a claim?


texts: paying debt collector's invalid rent claim, then suing landlord for money back

texts:
TLDR: terminated lease after continued upstairs noise, landlord sent debt collector, trying to decide if should pay debt collector and sue landlord for money back.

We had been renting an apartment in Massachusetts. For over a year, we had trouble with our upstairs neighbors' noise which got worse until we couldn't sleep more than 3-5 hours at night (we have thoroughly documented these issues and our requests to the landlord to resolve them). After this lead to degraded performance at work, we obtained legal consultation which advised us to terminate the lease since the landlord did not provide a safe and habitable environment (State Sanitary Code, 105 CMR 410.00) which we did. The landlord, a property management, did not agree with this, did not refund us our security deposit despite no issues with the apartment, and wanted us to pay the rent until they find a new renter which we declined. We think they also did not immediately advertise the apartment as for rent as it did not show up on their website.
After some months, we were contacted by a debt collector, asking us to pay two months of rent. We told them the claim was invalid for the reasons stated above, but they said they will report the claim to credit agencies as disputed.

We don't want this issue to adversely affect our credit and got legal consulting which suggested we should pay the debt collector to protect our credit score, and then sue the landlord for the money back in small claims court. I'm a little worried about this strategy since it requires to hand away the money first, and am trying to get second opinions.


texts: Should I take permission from the game owner to provide a guide of the game

texts:
I am planning to publish a guide to play a game which is available for mobile platform like, iPhone, android...etc. It is a very popular game, like many millions play this game.

To publish the game on iPhone AppStore or google play store, is it required to take permission from the owner of the game?
Of course, I am making the application to earn money, so if I have to take permission to publish their content, do they ask for revenue share?
Overall, what are the best practices to start using others digital content.

Thanks In Advance.


texts: What are the legal requirements around mp3 or mp4 files?

texts:
I know this isn't a law site.  I am not looking for law advice or how to get around the law.  I just don't understand the licensing around mp3/4 (and yes I know these are different).

Our use case:

very big corporation
creating demos/videos/Captivates/Articulates for helping clients out
all of the tools that we use to create is licensed and we are paying for it per license agreements
we are mainly concerned about the mp3/audio segment.  We currently do not offer audio directly but the audio files help create the video (think Camtasia and similar things) or are used in Captivate/Articulate.

So where I am confused is do how-to videos (non-revenue generating) need licensing support?  Then if we are already using a tool to create the audio/video isn't the fact that they are supporting mp3 and allowing output already conforming to the licensing?

And then if we do need licensing - how much?  And what is the easiest way to assure that we don't need licensing given the how-to outputs we are creating?  (we have talked about moving to .wav files but those are HUGE)


texts: Is it legal to develop and sell software that operates in a similar fashion to available software?

texts:
I'm currently working on a project that can provide remote desktop assistance like RealVNC. There are many programs already available providing similar services (like these programs).  I wrote all code myself.

Can I sell my program or it's not legal because there are already programs providing same features?


texts: Can Donald Trump sue if I use his name in my product name?

texts: I have an app that I want to call "Donald Trump". Now that Donald Trump is a political figure, is it okay to name my app after him (first amendment)? Or does he have a trademark or something over his name? I don't want to get sued but I'm wondering if his political status allows me to use his name openly.


texts: Do "the laws" mentioned in the U.S. Oath of Allegiance have to be constitutional?

texts:
U.S. Oath of Allegiance
From a purely technical interpretation of the law does the oath cover laws that are unconstitutional?
To whom does the obediance allegiance lie with those who took the oath? The law? The constitution? Their direct superior? Their superior's superior?
Help me out please. The U.S. Oath of Allegiance is a lot more vague than I used to think.


texts: What do the last four words of the Tenth Amendment mean?

texts:
The Tenth Amendment to US Constitution says (emphasis added):

  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I am curious about those last four words.  Their inclusion, separate from the mention of the States, seems to imply some distinction, but its nature is unclear.  Has there ever been any legal investigation of this?  Has anyone ever attempted to support any legal position with those words?  Did they succeed?  Who, in short, are "the people", and what powers (if any) do these words grant them?  Or are the words legally inert?


texts: How to cite an Act of Parliament that varies by jurisdiction?

texts:
By way of example, the following is a citation using the OSCOLA style:

  Companies Act 2006, s 162(7)

However, that provision contains different text depending on whether the jurisdiction is Scotland (which relies on the original text of the Act) or England and Wales (which relies on amended text). I couldn't find anything in OSCOLA which deals with this situation.

My proposed solution is to write it as above for the case of Scotland, and for the case of England and Wales to write it with reference to the instrument which amended the text:

  Companies Act 2006, s 162(7) as amended by Legal Aid, Sentencing and
  Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Fines on Summary Conviction)
  Regulations 2015, sch 3 pt 1 para 9(5)

Does anyone know if my approach is correct? Answers don't have to be specific to OSCOLA; it's the general approach I am interested in rather than the specific citation style.


texts: Do old buildings have to conform to "modern" building code in California?

texts:
I've only got the 2016 building codes on me, but there don't seem to be major changes in the relevant 2019 building codes according to what information I've been able to find.

Section 402.5 (Chapter 4) of the California Mechanical Code states:

  Each bathroom shall be mechanically ventilated in accordance with Division 4.5 of the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen).

Section 4.506.1 of the 2016 CALGreen measures state that:

  Each bathroom shall be mechanically ventilated and shall comply with the following:

  Fans shall be ENERGY STAR compliant and be ducted to terminate outside the building.
  Unless functioning as a component of a whole house ventilation system, fans must be controlled by a humidity control.

I'm living in a relatively old building, and the restroom has a high vaulted ceiling and no mechanical venting. As a result, the restroom regularly gets moldy, and my landlord has been dragging their feet on fixing this. I suspect it would violate Section 17920.3 of the health and safety code, but I'm not certain:

  Visible mold growth, as determined by a health officer or a code enforcement officer, as defined in Section 829.5 of the Penal Code, excluding the presence of mold that is minor and found on surfaces that can accumulate moisture as part of their properly functioning and intended use.

I've yet to ask about mechanical venting (which would almost certainly prevent the mold problem once it's been cleaned) because I'm not sure there's any obligation for this to be provided given that the apartment is old.


texts:
Assume Trump willingly leaves the White House on January 20th, but acts like a bad tenant being evicted, and decides to destroy existing paintings, busts, etc.  Would he be legally allowed to do this as the current President?  Can he destroy parts or all of the White House?  I know the White House hires interior decorators, so I'm guessing some parts of the house are removed/destoryed as taste and fashions change.  How is "priceless part of American History" vs. "Shag Carpet" determined?
EDIT
I'm guessing someone would stop Trump if he tried to destroy Bush's Presidential Portrait (or any number of other historical items).  On what grounds would they do this?  We know from the news he can move them out of sight.
EDIT 2
Has no president ever tried to get back at an enemy by destroying a portrait?  Trump can't even rip up a document without having someone tape it back together.


texts: Verbal contract involving illegal act: was a law broken?

texts:
A friend and I were discussing a hypothetical situation (taking place in the U.S.). It seems like one party has committed a misdeed, but we were not able to identify the specific crime or tort that took place.

Here is the situation. Alice and Bob make a deal. Alice pays Bob now, and Bob agrees that by tomorrow, he will acquire or create a controlled substance and deliver it to Alice. But before tomorrow, Bob changes his mind and backs out of the deal. He keeps the money Alice gave him.

  What crime(s) or tort(s) has Bob committed in this situation?

Our naive legal analysis:

Bob did not commit fraud because he entered into the verbal contract with Alice in good faith.
Bob is not guilty of breach of contract, because a contract requiring an illegal act is unenforceable.
Bob never possessed or distributed a controlled substance.
Possibly this is a conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance. But at a criminal trial, it might very hard to prove that Bob ever intended to provide a controlled substance, rather than just to cheat Alice out of money.


texts: How to find audio of US Supreme Court oral arguments?

texts:
The newer audio (starting with 2010) are available on the Supreme Court's website. Older arguments are available at www.oyez.org. Oyez page shows the written transcript of the oral arguments as well as the audio recording. While this is wonderful for listening to the audio on the computer, the page has no feature to download the audio file.

(I found a page which explained how to access the audio file (mp3) directly. This involved entering the URL for the source file, which follows a certain formula based on the case number and the URL of the Oyez page. Alas I have forgotten how to do this.)

Does anyone know... How can the audio file be accessed to save or copy?
UPDATE: Apparently there is indeed an download feature. Maybe this is a new update?


texts:
I’m a IT contractor based in the United Kingdom, I have my own limited company. Recently I have been working on a project for a client through a recruitment company. My contract is with the recruitment company who has then sub contracted me to the end client. Last month the end client went into administration. The client went into administration at the start of October, the recruitment company is now refusing to pay me for the work I completed during the previous month September, as they will not get paid by the end client.

The recruitment company claims they have the right to do this because I the contractor opted out of "The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003" and our contract states under the sections termination.

"The Company reserves the right to terminate a Project with immediate effect with out liability in the event of any of the Client entering into liquidation/becoming insolvent, dissolved or subject to a winding up petition or administration order, or having its credit rating revoked or materially reduced."

As the recruitment company is still operational and they themselves have not gone into liquidation can they refuse to pay me the subcontractor for work I have already completed? The section on terminations seems to be referring to cost that maybe occurred from the sudden termination of the project not work already completed. Where does a contractor stand in this situation?


texts: Is Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms limited by Section 1?

texts:
Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides as follows:

Exception where express declaration
33 (1) Parliament or the legislature of a province may expressly declare in an Act of Parliament or of the legislature, as the case may be, that the Act or a provision thereof shall operate notwithstanding a provision included in section 2 or sections 7 to 15 [of the Charter]
[...]

Section 1 of the Charter states that:

Rights and freedoms in Canada
1 The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Does Section 1 imply that all uses of Section 33 are potentially subject to judicial review and may be invalidated upon a finding by a court that the limitation of Charter rights that was imposed by the legislature through Section 33 is not justifiable in a free and democratic society?
Related: Could the Holocaust legally happen in modern day Canada?


texts: Does the GDPR allow me to access data from public sources, store it and anaylize it?

texts:
I've been researching about the GDPR on the internet to find an answer to my question, but I have not found a concrete answer.

Does the GDPR allow me (my software/server) to derive data, store it and use it for any purpose?

For example: perform an analysis of a person via their ex: (twitter feed) and store the analysis. All of this without needing to inform the person of the analysis or them having the right to transfer/remove/get a copy of the analysis from me(my software/server)?

Could a loophole be to perform the analysis and store only the "connections"? Almost like giving a person a mathematical function without any plotted data, You give the end user a pre-made "template" (the analysis report) that they fill out by fetching the feed themselves?


texts: First amendment and employment: Can a police department terminate an officer for speech?

texts:
The following article from CNN describes a Michigan police officer being put on administrative leave for having KKK material at his home: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/10/us/michigan-officer-placed-on-leave-kkk-document-house/index.html. The materials were discovered while a potential buyer was touring his house.

Although I vehemently condemn the KKK, doesn't this officer have the right to display whatever he wants in his home so long as it doesn't actively and deliberately call for violence? Aren't these articles protected under the first amendment? I realize this is an extreme example, and as a police officer his job requires interacting with all races, but unless it can be shown that he's bigoted and that it negatively affected his job performance, isn't it illegal to fire him?

Employers can restrict speech according to company policy while at work, but we all have to go home at some point. Can those restrictions follow us after clocking out?


texts:
Here are "Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights" from Apple.

They say:

  These guidelines are for Apple licensees, authorized resellers,
  developers, customers, and other parties wishing to use Apple’s
  trademarks, service marks or images in promotional, advertising,
  instructional, or reference materials, or on their web sites,
  products, labels, or packaging.

Further in text, under title "Unauthorized Use of Apple Trademarks", #3, we see:

  Variations, Takeoffs or Abbreviations: You may not use an image of a real apple or other variation of the Apple logo for any purpose. ...

So, my questions are:

Does Apple consider an image of a real apple to be a variation of
the Apple logo?
Is it therefore true that no one may use an image of a real apple on their website?

I know there is a thing called "trademark fair use" and that its restrictions are in fact much smaller than they are of "copyright fair use" so there is a lot of cases where you can use the Apple logo itself, but Apple didn't even mention fair use in this document. And therefore my third question is:

Did Apple break any law here by not mentioning "fair use" or by any other means?


texts: How can a company compel a W2 employee to sign a non-compete agreement?

texts:
Assume the company is in Delaware and been taken over by a larger corporation: If one already has the job, is it possible to for the larger corporation to compel existing employees to sign non-compete agreements?

Assume subject is in DE and is a W2 employee (no contract or 'term')


texts: Does studying philosophy make you a better law student more than other subjects?

texts:
Though many excellent jurisprudents have studied philosophy, I recognise the Fallacy of Composition and so the question is: do philosophy enhances someone's abilities as a law student more than other subjects (eg: history, linguistics)?

PS: I am trying to discover the secrets and tricks on how to excel in law school; is the study of philosophy the key? For example, SCOTUS Justices Breyer and Souter majored in philosophy as undergraduates, and Jessica Boyd and Harry Adamson have PhDs in Philosophy.


texts: Must doctors and other medical practicioners give treatments based on science?

texts:
I went to see a counsellor at my university and he said he wanted to do dream interpretation with me. After talking to other doctors and google searching, I found dream interpretation is complete quackery; there's no science to it. Also the reason I went to see him had nothing at all to do with dreams.

Is it legal for medical provider to use something that's not based on science and not tell the patient?Where is the line drawn, for example surely a doctor can't prescribe medicine that hasn't been tested?


texts: Is it a violation of due process for a public committee to have no regular rules of order?

texts: Many committees operate by Robert's Rules of Order, but there are others that have no fixed rules and I have observed public committees in some cases acting arbitrarily. Is it a violation of due process if a public committee that governs administration of municipality to act with no written rules or procedures?


texts: Is it illegal to NOT store logs within the UK? (VPN related)

texts:
Introduction:
I co-run a VPN company. I have a few legal questions since our service has a strict NO-LOG policy enforced.

Question:
In the UK, it is illegal to store sensitive and private customer data without their acknowledgment. My question is that if someone uses my VPN service for illegal activity, and Law Enforcement asks for this specific customer's data, would I be committing an offense by not storing this customer's data? By "data" I mean IP logs, access logs or any other pieces of data which could help Law Enforcement.

Thank you, Bobo


texts: Is everything between me and my lawyer confidential?

texts: From the law point of view can I tell my lawyer EVERYTHING knowing that he is NOT allowed to disclose anything I tell him including crimes I did in the past or crimes I am planning to commit in the future?


texts: Administrative Subpoena - Do you have to comply?

texts:
This is purely academic.

I am following the ExxonMobil and Attorney General Maura Healey lawsuit because it interests me from a purely academic standpoint.  Here's a link from the Boston Hearld

Basically, I find it interesting (from a Constitutional 1st, 4th and 5th  Amendment perspectives) that a State AG is suing not only a company for what it stated about climate change, but also (conservative) think tanks for what they said as well.

But, this little detail is niggling me:

Can a State AG issue a discovery subpoena without a judge's signature and still be enforced?

From my understanding Healey issued this subpoena to ExxonMobil, but it's without a judge's signature.  Why wouldn't EM just tell the State AG to pound sand?

Even if this is a civil case, can any attorney at any time just show up at your door and say "give me documents because we are suing you?"

And if it is civil litigation, do the same rules of discovery apply (as in prosecution is allowed no surprises)?


texts: What type of lawyer would I need to help me deal with issues of academic misconduct?

texts:
What can stop a university from doing whatever they want and screwing students over in terms of accusing them of cheating, plagiarism, or a misunderstanding of professor authorization of essay re-submission in a second class, trying to take a student's degree or credit away after the course is completed/graduated with little evidence and no proof of circumstantial evidence that truly happened at the time of the incident? Since they are private and go by their own rules and apparently there is no standard policy for how all universities are supposed to deal with issues.

This is in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Thanks.


texts: How and to what extent does the US constitution force state legislatures to be democratic?

texts:
So there are a lot of provisions related to voting on a federal level, e.g. the electoral college is described in article II (interestingly, clause 2 says: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors […]") and the 17th amendment prescribes the direct election of senators in each state ("[…] two Senators from each State, elected by the people […]"). Now what about the state legislatures themselves? Is there some provision I missed?

In short: Could Hawaii become a somewhat absolutistic kingdom again and still remain a U.S. state? ;)


texts: Can I use a PCI-DSS compliant image because our payment gateway provider is complaint?

texts:
Our company is not compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). But all our payments are only handled by one payment gateway provider who is PCI-DSS compliant.

Am I allowed to place a PCI-DSS compliant logo on our website?

This way I'd like to point out to our customers that the transactions are safe with our payment provider and that they are PCI-DSS compliant.


texts: Are passenger services legally obligated to provide the names of passengers?

texts:
By "passenger services" I mean planes, cruise ships, trains, etc. – any company that transports paying passengers. I ask because a few years ago a friend of mine had a sister who became very ill on a cruise ship, and wanted to get in direct contact with her (she lost her phone) and narrowed down the few possible ships she would be on to get confirmation of her health status.

He intended on contacting the cruise line and cross-referencing his sister's name with the cruise ship identifier (which would designate the cruise ship itself). He never did this since she called, but it does bring up an important question: are passenger services obligated to provide the names of ALL passengers on board in certain circumstances, or is this information private and it can't be given?

Everyone who boards a plane, ship, etc. has their name known by the company.


texts: I recently moved to the Downtown Baltimore, Maryland area and as you may know it's an extremely high crime area that has a lot of homicides. As a result I've been trying to find ways I can defend myself. I've been walking around with pepper spray but I'm curious if I can legally walk around with a concealed knife. I spent a lot of time reading the various laws around knives in Baltimore and Maryland but it's a little hard making sense of which knives are actually legal. I understand that pretty much any folding knife that doesn't mechanically open is legal but it's the pen knife that is hard for me to determine whether or not it's legal. Below is an example knife I have that does not fold but is rather kept inside a sheath. I'm wondering if I can conceal carry this knife legally.


texts: Is printing a personal card using some parts of a board game considered Fair Use?

texts:
I'm planning on doing a personal card using only the original layout and background design of a Magic The Gathering card.

I have read that the art, mana symbols, "Tapping" symbol and Font have copyright so I'm not using them. I'm doing this as a parody of the original cards with a picture of myself on the image frame, trying to add some fun to my personal card and replacing the copyrighted content with some custom of my own.

Should I worry?


texts:
I'm trying to find any US case law addressing the issue of copyright in origami patterns. Copyright itself does not protect functionality, methods, processes, etc.; and the merger doctrine of copyright law would not allow protection of the expression of an origami pattern if there are only a limited number of patterns to create a particular resultant origami sculpture.
That being said, many origami creators claim copyright in their work and books on origami have been registered with the US Copyright Office (although the protection of such registration may only extend to the protectable elements of such book, i.e. the text, photographs, compilation of articles, etc.).
However, I cannot find a single case that addresses the issue of copyrightability of origami. Any citations or suggestions?


texts: Are non-guaranteed delivery service contacts legal? [EU]

texts:
I had a parcel shipped with a company (not courier itself). Delivery took over 10 days instead of 2 days. During the order below message was displayed.

  Parcel delivery within 2 working days throughout. Collection and
  delivery are not guaranteed but currently enjoy a very high success
  rate.

Is this legal for them to simply say they can provide the service or not without any responsibility? What's to stop them from simply taking the payment and then simply doing nothing since it's not guaranteed? It seems like gambling to me since it's pure chance that your parcel will even get delivered at all let alone within specified time frame. They also take no responsibility for lost packages regardless of the cause.

This is within the EU so any EU law would apply.


texts: Rape/Sexual assault: Any tort laws apply? (US)

texts: The statistics for how rare convictions are in rape cases are well known, due to the high burden of proof in something that often differs from something completely legal only by the giving or denying of consent.  This got me to wondering...are there any tort laws that one could sue over in a civil venue, and thus face the lower standard of proof? (Albeit with only civil penalties available, still some penalty better than nothing...)


texts: Should an employee be made to pay for mandatory training in the uk?

texts: I work for an agency in the uk and the zero hour contract staff are charged for yearly mandatory training by the company. Other agencies appear to not ask for payment for the training or take payment and then reimburse staff after their first shift. Is this legal practice to say they need the training to work, not pay them for their time and insist on a substantial amount being paid to the employer to provide the training?


texts:
Background: My parents were having a discussion of how name suffixes can be utilized if I started having children, how would name suffixes occur. This was all hypothetical.

My father, and let's call him, Bob, claims that if I (who has a different name from Bob) have a child named, "Bob", then I will be able to name my child Bob II (Bob, the second) or Bob Jr. He thinks that regardless of a generational gap between the child and father, his grandson is allowed to have a suffix for his own name that indicates a succeeding suffix for the name of Bob.

My mother claims that I would not be able to name my child Bob II or Bob Jr. because in order to have such suffix requires a continual generational naming convention. For instance, if my name was Bob, then I can name my child Bob II or Bob Jr. if and only if my name was Bob. Therefore, if my father's and child's name was Bob, it has to be Bob and only Bob without any suffixes.

I've tried looking for laws in the United States that says anything about suffixes for names but I haven't found anything.

Question: Are there any laws in the United States or any of its states that restrict the usage of name suffixes, such as II, or Jr., or IV, etc.? Whose claim was correct about when it is legal to use name suffixes?


texts: Can I lien a public building in the U.S. or how to collect on a judgment against a public entity?

texts:
I have a signed contract and performed the work, but the public entity refuses to pay the invoice. My contract stipulates an interest rate for non-payment, which I have been adding to each invoice (interest on interest) for the past 11 months.

The contract has a termination clause for both parties. They sent me notice last month that they are terminating the contract with 7 days notice, (as per contract).

The contract has an arbitration clause, which I assume I still must go to arbitration. If I'm successful with arbitration, which is probably expensive, how do I get my money?


texts: Is rendering Markdown to HTML considered an "adaptation" under CC BY-SA 3.0?

texts: Title pretty much sums it up. Are the rights given to adaptations granted if someone renders Markdown?


texts: What is the exact breach and remedy in the following situation?

texts:
On the 20th of the "previous" month, a tenant signs a lease with a landlord for an apartment, to be occupied on the 1st of the following month, or immediately thereafter. The lease "warrants and represents" that the apartment will be broom clean, and fit for habitation on the first of the following month.
The tenant observes that the apartment is not "broom clean" because there is a lot of waste on the floor, and it is not "fit for habitation" because it is infested with rats, cockroaches, etc. The landlord said, "yes, I know, but we have ten days until the first of the month, and the apartment will be ready by then."
Come of the first of the month, the tenant wants to move in, but the landlord has not fixed the apartment, which is still dirty and "infested." That is to say, the landlord has not "made good" on the lease terms. Given that the key condition was a "representation and warranty" is the landlord "merely" guilty of breach of contract, or something more serious like fraud? And in any event, what are the tenant's likely rights if s/he goes to court?


texts: How to use free sound for commercial use?

texts:
I discovered that some sound effects in Minecraft comes from web sites that offers free sfx, some of these sounds are under the 'CC BY-NC 3.0' licence which is a non-commercial one.

Yet, Minecraft use these sounds commercially as the game is not free.

How is it possible?


texts: About enforcement of Supreme Court decisions?

texts: How are the judgements of the Supreme court of India regarding central and state governments enforced? What's stopping the central government to go its own way than listen to a few dozen judges? Is it just the 'good nature' of the governments that they follow supreme court decisions?


texts:
In the so-called common-law countries (or common law adversarial system, or common law jurisdictions) are prosecutors members of the (state) bar? If so, is that a requirement?

If so, does that mean that they are somehow under the bar's disciplinary jurisdiction?

My references on the subject:

Definition of Prosecutor
Definition of Bar association.

In this scene from The Client Susan Sarandon threatens to sue Tommy Lee Jones, who I understand acts as a Prosecutor, in front of the State Bar

Would something like that be possible in common-law jurisdictions?


texts: Public Domain provisions in Norwegian law

texts:
According to this, Norway has a "joint collecting society in Norway for musicians, performing artists and phonogram producers", Gramo, that performing artists must pay a levy to Gramo when publicly performing works that are in the public domain.

According to this, there are "legal provisions" in place that ensure this.

What exactly are these legal provisions?


texts: Online crime, subpoena, search, and arrest

texts:
Suppose that someone hacks a website, and suppose that the police find what the hacker's IP address was at the time of hack, and they contact the Internet Service Provider to resolve the IP address to the real person behind it.
Phase 1: Now, for this, the police need to submit a subpoena to the ISP. After this, the ISP would search which one of its subscribers was using the IP address (submitted by the police) at the time mentioned by the police (the time of the hack). The ISP would find the subscriber and submit it to the police.
Phase 2: The police will have the address of the subscriber (the hacker) and arrest him/her.
I want to get a general idea as to what is the maximum possible time that Phase 1 should usually take. How long could "the search for someone by their IP address by their ISP" take, assuming that merely submitting a subpoena itself is a very very short process (1-5 days; but do correct me if I am wrong)?
Is the "searching for the person from their IP address by their ISP" a quick process like searching for a Wikipedia article about Stack Exchange? Or is it a time consuming process?


texts: is it illegal to publish videos or photos of someone without their consent?

texts:
It it lawful for someone to publish on social media an audio-video clip of a private conversation without the other party's consent?
Does the fact that the clip is accompanied by "nasty" comments make a difference?
Similarly, is it lawful to post images showing the inside of a person's private bedroom and/or home?


texts: Is other party by law required to give you a copy of contract, if you don't have one, but he does?

texts:
I am helping a friend who has signed some documents for her business with a Credit Card Processor company. However, at the time of signing up for this service she forgot to ask for a copy of all documents that she actually signed.

Now this credit card processor company is bullying my friend by charging fees without even sending a monthly bill and also charging ridiculous early termination fee.

I would like to help my friend, however, since she does not have any documents that I can look at, I really do not know what are the terms they have agreed upon. Also, I am not sure about contract existence in the first place, because another person on Better Business Bureau website has left a bad review for this company, because they did not leave him a copy of contract as well and he had to go through the same mess. Also, my friend called them today and this company simply dropped phone, so it seems that there is no friendly option on table anymore.

My questions are:

Is sales person required by law to give a copy of signed contract at the time you sign up for service?
If I would ask for copy of all documents from that company are they required by law to send her these copies?
Is there a law that mandates process on how contracts should be signed in California?

I would find it kinda silly if there is no law that requires them to provide a copy, because, then, if contract simply gets lost and the other party knows this, then there is no way for you to know, if other party is imitating new contract terms that are better for him. Of course eventually, if case goes all the way to the court, then judge would ask them to provide a copy.


texts:
In local regulation at a place I wish to wildcamp there is something like this (translated):

  1) Within the city limits of Werfen, Austria it is not allowed to place tents, trailers. mobile homes etc. for the purpose of sleeping over night in public (generally accessible) places. This does not apply to licensed camp sites

But now my question is, how is 'generally accessible' defined by law? How could I interpret this? I thought I could reason a contrario and say that I'm allowed to place camping gear in places not generally accessible (from roads or trails). Is this a valid argument?


texts: Would Veronica Theriault Have Been Arrested in the US?

texts:
There is a viral news story about an Australian woman named Veronica Hilda Theriault, who falsified her resume and used fake pictures and references to get a high-paying job. She was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison.

While her actions are obviously distasteful (and certainly grounds for dismissal), would this be criminal in the US? It seems unusual to me that ordinary lying (not in court) would be treated as a criminal matter.


texts: Is a patient legally obligated to pay for non-emergency medical services that were not requested by the patient?

texts:
Is a patient required to pay for non-emergency services they did not request from a medical provider?

For example, a radiology clinic takes an x-ray and then sends it to a 3rd party radiologist for interpretation without the patient having requested any analysis of the x-ray nor having participated in the selection of the third party who would perform the analysis.

I view this as the medical equivalent of cleaning someone's windshield at a red light without them asking for it and then demanding money for the windshield washing service.

If that's not so, why is the medical industry treated differently than other services such as painters; if I asked someone to paint my house, and then they also decided to paint my shed without me asking, no one would expect that I be obligated to pay the painter for painting my shed.

I understand that in emergency medical situations, it may be implied that the patient cannot consent or decline services, so it is by default considered to be agreed to.  This question is about non-emergency services only.


texts: What problems would a celebrity releasing software patchers cause from a legal standpoint?

texts:
I've heard claims that Gigi Hadid has admitted to releasing the now-infamous Adobe Zii patcher for Adobe CC products (it was on her social media some time ago, now-removed by the hosts) and providing Adobe CC serials for people.

I don't know if this is an urban legend or not, but from a legal standpoint, would this ever reach open court, and could it be a PR disaster for Gigi Hadid?

Is this likely to go unenforced in terms of downloading, or would Adobe pursue this? I read on straightdope.com it said:

  The law goes after people DISTRIBUTING the thing, not downloading it.

Adobe CC products are not abandonware, so what could this whole situation mean for Ms. Hadid from a legal standpoint?

I've heard that Taylor Swift has also done a similar thing, but with Photoshop CC serials for download, and that Karlie Kloss has admitted to releasing software patchers and promoting them via AppKed (so my source who works in Hollywood tells me).

Also, what's the legal status of AppKed (which is famously used by celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Gigi Hadid, Ellie Goulding, Joe Jonas, Ariel Winter) - is this a violation of US law? (you'd have to google AppKed to know what i mean!)

I work in the celebrity sphere, but not from the legal side of things, only as an assistant / virtual assistant etc. to some celebrities in addition to being their personal driver (of a black minivan or SUV usually), so aren't sure what the full social and legal consequences of their actions would be? I only really tend to deal with traffic law, not consumer or software stuff.


texts:
I live (rent) a condo where every back yard is approx. 14 x 20 feet.  Each back yard has a fence that's 6 feet high or so.  I put up a trampoline in the back yard but the safety net is over the height of the fence. The HOA has a rule that I can not have anything taller than the fence.

There are some exceptions to the rule of having something taller than the fence (e.g umbrella, trees).  I asked for an exception for the safety net and was denied and was instructed to take it down.  I was told that the trampoline itself is not a violation.  The safety net is 95% see through.

It's clearly an attempt to persuade me to remove the trampoline all together. Again the trampoline itself is not considered a violation.

There have been noise complaints. The kids get loud sometimes. This is not a violation of any rules either.

It is possible for me to take the net down and put it back up when the kids want to jump. It's a bit of a pain in the butt though.  Each time I put it back when the kids want to jump. I get a message from the HOA to take it down… which I do.

My girlfriend doesn't want me to remove it completely for safety. I'm at a point where I want to remove it completely though.

If I remove the net and someone gets hurt, can I sue the HOA?
Can I fight the HOA as a renter? Can I be evicted?


texts: What rights do I have to the software I created partially on company time?

texts:
I work for a large, international company.  As a hobby, and in my free time, I began learning software development.

To learn, I began creating a small tool that I could use at work to assist with my duties there. However, its usefulness soon caught the eye of coworkers who also wanted to use it.

Long story short, my application is now being used in multiple departments, with myself still as the sole developer. It has continued to grow and I now have leadership making specific requests for additional changes to be made to the software.

The majority of the early work on the software was done at home, on my own time. However, within the past 6 months, I have spent some company time working on it as well. I am now working on it nearly full time at the request of my managers.

My question is this: What are my legal rights to this software? Would I be able to sell it? Or deny its use to my company?  There have been no contracts signed at all, no change in my salary, and no offers to pay for the work I've done on it (and no, I do not make a developer's salary; I actually make a relatively low salary-grade).

Did I lose all of my legal rights or bargaining power the moment I brought it to work and used company time to work on it?

Thank you for your help!


texts: Court order to seize property with negative equity

texts: If I have a money judgement  against someone, order their house or car to be seized and the proceeds from the sale are less than the value of loans on that property what happens? Does the creditor have to pay the bank or does the debt stay with the debtor?


texts:
Strange question. I had been contacted by a recruiter for a job. Tomorrow is my final round interview. I had been getting a strange feeling and today the recruiter basically told me that when I work for the company, they will rewrite my resume and I have to be ok with them lying on it (e.g. adding work experience where none actually exists). They asked me if I was ok with this, and they said I will be asked tomorrow in the interview to. The interview is by Skype. The company trains software developers and then gets them contracts with other companies.

2 questions:

Is it illegal to lie in the interview? E.g., is it illegal to tell them that I am ok with them embellishing my resume, when in fact I am not and have no intention.
If I did allow them to embellish my resume, would I be breaking the law?

At this point I'm just curious to see where things go, but I'm wondering is it legal for me to say "yes, you can fake information on my resume" as it could be a verbal agreement?


texts: What is "hostilities" in the context of the Military Commissions Act of 2006?

texts:
According to the Military Commissions Act of 2006:

The term 'unlawful enemy combatant' means —
(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States

What exactly does "hostilities" mean here?


texts:
Is it illegal to produce and sell malware?

If no, is there any data I need to collect on the customers?

Is it illegal to produce and sell Crypters(programs that hide other programs from antivirus)?

If no, is there any data I need to collect on the customers?


texts: Is it legal to provide online therapy outside of your country?

texts: I am based in Pakistan and I want to provide therapy for depression around the world using an app. I want the people around the world to use this app. Is it legal to provide online therapy in different countries?


texts: What stops collectors from filing unserved lawsuits for default judgment?

texts:
Say I'm a collector and want to make money fraudulently. I find  someone with a debt, claim it has not been paid, and instead of serving them find a fake address in a random state and do a "nail and mail" service. Then, they never appear in court so I get a default judgment. At what stage is this most  likely  to fail first?

My guesses  are

If they never appear in court do the police  look for them on contempt of court then find nobody is at that address?
Does the court do any background  checking  to see if the address is correct?
Does it work and I get the judgment but then the debtor files a counter suit when their funds are seized?

I am guessing (3) is most likely where it fails but this seems very late in the process. Does the court do any diligence  to ensure the service actually happened?


texts: Can I be arrested if I'm not home and there are drugs in my room?

texts: If I am out somewhere, and say my door is open and there are drugs in plain view, if a cop was in the house could I be arrested even though I'm not there?


texts: License ambiguity - When license version is not specified by author?

texts:
I am tasked with making a due diligence of legacy software. Part of this is to reassess all software dependencies and their licensing. However, there are various ambiguities, occurring most commonly in old code.

I am now facing this particular issue:
I have a dependency that I have seen to be indicated in the code to be licensed under L-GPL. With a fair amount of certainty this can be identified as the GNU Lesser GPL. However, I cannot find information about the version this refers to.

My question is what version should I assume, and I can think of several options:

The version of the time of creation of the software, namely LGPL 2.1, or
The version of the time of our use of the software, which practically would allow me to choose today's most recent version, i.e. LGPL 3.0.

To my understanding the difference between the two is negligible, but the combination of legal and technical context urges me to try to be specific as much as possible.

Please, excuse me if this question has already been asked in some other form and I haven't been able to identify it with my searches.