texts: What laws apply to using speech to text software to generate a transcript of a conversation without the parties' consent?

texts:
Most jurisdictions have laws that limit the ability to record audio without the consent of those being recorded. The exact requirements vary, but generally speaking, recording audio is much more strictly regulated than simply listening in personally on a conversation. By my understanding, these stricter regulations would still not apply even if I were to employ a stenographer to listen to the conversation and produce a detailed written transcript.

What is the law around using a computer with speech to text software to generate a transcript of a conversation without saving an audio recording?


texts: Does Mojang break the law with restrictions in their EULA for Minecraft?

texts:
Minecraft is a world building game that is produced/sold by Mojang AB. Minecraft may be played both offline (local data) or online (connecting to a server).

Minecraft's EULA says that you may not sell items to players (real money) that give them in-game benefits outside of cosmetics. However, that is Minecraft's clients EULA.

How can they enforce servers to follow that rule if the servers are not owned by Mojang and they are not using Mojang's proprietary software.

Wouldn't this be like selling a television set and saying to broadcasters they must follow any rules I impose.


texts:
A couple of months ago, I overdosed on an illegal drug and called an ambulance. I was honest and told them what I took. Two cops came with them and while I was in the ambulance and also in the ER 20 minutes later, the cops and the paramedics entered my house, presumably to investigate it for drugs, but they did not have an official search warrant, and they didn't ask for permission. The paramedics took some of my legal supplements with them but never gave them back.

Were they allowed to do this?


texts: Credit union holding car note, refuses to provide details of how payments have been applied

texts: A credit union financed a car note for me.  I never knew them before the loan transaction and I only have the car note there.  Recently, my payments seem to not lower my loan balance as much as it should, meaning they are charging me for something I cannot see.  I asked for online access to my history so I could check it.  They said I had to open a depository account in order to have that feature.  How can I concisely ask for my history so that I can figure out what is going on?  Can they refuse to provide that?


texts: How does the mandate to report income from illegal activities in the US jibe with the Fifth Amendment?

texts:
Al Capone was famously taken down for tax evasion for not reporting income from his illegal activities. If someone were to report the income from illegal activities like a marijuana dispensary or a bribe, my understanding is that they would be then investigated/prosecuted for their disclosed activities. However, The Fifth Amendment states that:

  No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,...

Since reporting income, even if illegal, is a mandate and the Fifth Amendment protects against someone being held as a witness against themselves, the law seems to be inconsistent. How does the mandate to report income from illegal activities in the US jibe with the Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination?


texts: What if the President defies Congress and the courts?

texts:
So it is now a matter of public record that the President plans to defy all House subpoenas.

Do I correctly understand that Federal employees, notably including the Armed Forces, pledge their duty first to the Constitution of the United States and only secondarily to carry out legal orders? And that they have no legal obligation to execute an illegal order? What process allows a subordinate to defy an illegal order if a superior gives the order? What legal protection does the subordinate have?
Suppose the Congress holds someone in contempt. The Congress, as I understand it, goes to a court to enforce the contempt charge. The court turns to Federal law enforcement to bring action. What if the President directs Federal law enforcement to ignore the court order? What if law enforcement complies with the President?
Suppose Congress orders fines. What is to be done if no one will enforce the fines?
Same scenario as 1 but this time it’s impeachment and conviction: the President defies any action to remove him.
What if the President simply barricades himself in the White House and orders security and military personnel to protect him? Is there a protocol in the U.S. military hierarchy to deal with this scenario?
What should common citizens do if any of these scenarios play out?


texts:
Just moved to Virginia from Ohio, already have a job, and trying to go through the steps here.

I have a car right now, but my mom has the title, and she lives in Ohio. We are trying to transfer the title to me, with the least amount of fees.

I've found this form, which would appear to tell me I can transfer the car between mother to son without any taxes. However I cannot find any equivalent form in Ohio and I don't know how I can go about transferring the vehicle at all.

Here's one potential solution I was thinking of:
Could my mom sell the vehicle to me out of state using the instruction on the  Ohio DMV (I would post the link here, however "You need at least 10 reputation to post more than 2 links")? However, if I do, don't I need to prove that I paid taxes on it while in Virgina? If so how complicated is that process?

To summarize my question is:

How can I obtain the vehicle from my mom while paying the least amount of state taxes/fees, under the time constraint of about a week?

Or

If this isn't the right place to ask this, where can I go to get direction. I am very, very lost in this, and the more I read, honestly the more confused I am. Transferring between states is hard!


texts:
The provisions of this Act are in lieu of any right of action, statutory or otherwise, founded on a breach of duty of care or any other cause of action, whether that duty or cause of action is imposed by or arises by reason of law or contract, express of implied, to which an employee, dependant or member of the family of the employee is or may be intitled against the employer of the employee, or against any employer within the scope of this Act, or against any employee, in respect of any death, injury or disability arising out of and in the course of employment and whrere no action in respect of it lies.

I can not understand this provision completely... I can not imagine this situation. I am not an english-speaker. Help me.

PS. Especially, I don't know the expression 'in lieu of'... In dictionaries, it means 'replace' or sort of.


texts: What happens if a project mixes different licenses?

texts: If I have an open source project that includes both BSD and GPL licenses as well as my own license, what will the overall license be or would different licenses apply to different parts of the code?


texts: Is it legal to register & participate in one state's caucus but vote in another state's election?

texts:
A friend of mine is a lifelong Colorado resident currently studying at the University of Minnesota. Until now, she has maintained her voter registration at her family home in Colorado and voted absentee. She is strongly invested in local and state politics and cares more about having a voice in her home community than the place she currently attends school. She has a Colorado driver's license and receives most of her important mail at her address in Colorado, but spends the majority of her time in Minnesota.

This friend will be unable to participate in Colorado's presidential caucus, which has no mechanism for absentee voting. She could participate in Minnesota's caucus, which allows same-day registration and for which she certainly meets the requirements. However, she is concerned that doing so would force her to give up her registration in Colorado until she moves back permanently, which will not happen for at least a year and a half.

The question is, is it legal for her to register in Minnesota, participate in a caucus in March, and then switch her registration back to her parent's house in Colorado to vote in the next election there in November? That plan certainly seems shady, but her intention is simply to vote in every election, not to game the system or commit fraud. I suppose that if she were permanently relocating between the primary and general this wouldn't be a problem- does the fuzzy resident status associated with being a student change that?


texts: Wedding: Return of Deposit Due to Cancellation for Covid-19 Reasons

texts:
There are a couple of parts to this question, so I have tried to emphasise the specific questions using the quote function (>quote).
The location is UK (specifically England).
Additionally...

TL;DR. Can my reception venue without a deposit when they cannot confirm with any remote certainty that the event will go ahead?

I have my wedding booked for early September 2020. The ceremony and reception are at separate places, booked independently. Due to Covid-19, it is extremely unlikely that the reception will be able to proceed as planned.

To what extent is the reception venue required to provide the service we discussed? Eg, their room is no longer large enough to hold the requisite number of people while adhering to 2 metre physical distancing?
If they cannot provide this, do they have any legal grounds for keep hold of the deposit? (My thought being that they are the one not providing the service)

As a follow-up, until the very day before, they could argue "the rules may change so we are not cancelling yet".

Can they require that we pay them additional monies while they are unable to confirm with any reasonable certainty that the event will go ahead? Similarly, can they withhold a deposit if we wish to cancel due to their not being able to provide any certainty?

We have been offered to change dates without forfeit. In principle, this would be ideal for us. However, it's possible that they won't have suitable dates available. Further, they say that there will be an increase in price for 2021. Naturally, our contract is for the 2020 prices.

If we are not happy with an increase in price, can the without the deposit if we want to cancel as a result of this?


texts:
I used the YouTube API to play a series of videos hosted by one particular YouTube channel of national (US) prestige. About a month later, I received a letter from one of their attorneys requesting to remove the "republished" videos since permission was not granted. They pointed to the YouTube terms of service (5B):

  You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast,
  display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other
  purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the
  respective licensors of the Content.

However, my research and re-reading of the terms seems like it's pretty cut and dry that if the embedding functionality is offered, it's fair to use (non-monetary purposes at that) (6C):

  You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license
  to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce,
  distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the
  functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service.

These two sections seem in conflict with each other (You've granted permissions for users to do these things, but "under these Terms of Service" they must receive your permission?).

What I've read (Quora, blog posts, etc) suggests that what I had built violated no copyright and was well within the terms of service.

I've taken the material down, so I'm not looking for specific legal advice in this specific situation, but I am curious about how this community would interpret this situation. Right or wrong, I have no time, money, or energy to fight them for what was a single page side project, but given how pervasive embedding YouTube videos is, some clarity on the above two clauses would be valuable!


texts:
I was reading this link and it says at the bottom that:

  The panel data are copyrighted by the Initiative on Global Markets and are being analyzed for an article to appear in a leading peer-reviewed journal.

I also read that data is not copyrightable, as stated here. I suspect the latter is true but I am not sure - if so, is the former not legally enforceable?


texts: Is it legal to perform communication with authorities for money in Germany?

texts:
I've gone through some processes of communcation with the register of associations and noted that there's no clarity of the process except for law texts and obscure forum posts.

I thought, I'd would be nice to have a simple online plattform that offers standardized processes (founding/terminating an association, starting a small business) and takes you through the process by explaining what document and payments are required, what's already done, etc.

The customers pay an amount X for standardized texts and the intuitive explanation and overview provided by the platform. The platfrom makes no guarantee about the success of the actions, maybe refunds the fee if the process isn't successful. The platform also doesn't give any specific legal advice; it merely translates the law texts into concrete instructions for handing in documents. If there's need for notarial acts, it provides a connection to one like yellow/white pages, but doesn't interact with anyone on behalf of the customer.

Is it legal to run such a platform in Germany? For all cities in general?  If not, for a selection of cities if there's restrictions by state or municipal law?


texts: Company assets and minority share holders

texts: The majority share holder of this company allowed assets (land) to be auctioned off for non payment of municipal taxes through a deliberate scheme to escape paying profits to the minority share holders. One year later the land was repurchased from the buyer(his friend, with whom he arranged the whole thing) and placed the asset in his name. The minority share holders of this company are left with worthless shares totaling 48% of the company shares.They were kept in the dark about the whole thing and now want the $ value of their shares with the profits this man has gone on to make following several real estate transactions. Two questions: Is there a real chance of making a successful $ claim ? and was what the majority share holder do considered fraud by law in the province of Quebec? The company was formed in 1988 in Quebec.


texts: Can "No Thru Traffic" signs be enforced in New Hampshire

texts: I was reading an article that said in California "No Thru Traffic" signs cannot legally be enforced (aside from the temporary ones used for construction work). I searched Google but cannot find whether or not this is also true for New Hampshire. Does anyone here know whether it is also true in NH, or at least where I could find the laws on this issue?


texts: Discrimination to Fire after Maternity leave

texts:
In the U.S., my wife was fired 3-days after returning from maternity leave. She was the only employee in her small department (n = 5) to be fired, ~20% of the office was laid off, and she had very favorable reviews the whole time. She is in a company too small to provide her FMLA.

Does this sounds discriminatory?


texts: International enforcement of dirty ship "laws"

texts:
Apparently there are some "laws" that make it illegal to sail dirty ships in international waters. I read an article giving only the information that "Maritime laws prohibit stained tankers from navigating international waters." with no further information.

What "maritime law" is this referring to? How is it enforced? Can random countries just seize vessels in international waters if they decide the vessel is dirty?


texts: Can I reference the name of a museum in an art book title?

texts: I am self publishing a printed book of drawings I've made at a natural sciences museum. Is it okay to use the name of the museum in the title as Drawing at (insert museum name)? I do plan to sell copies of the book.


texts:
TL;DR
Can a retailer back out of their own Terms and Conditions because I used a discount code that I did not have explicit authorisation to use?
Full Details
I found a discount code online for a gift card provider. With this particular gift card, one can send it off to the provider to 'redeem the balance', minus a fee. This allowed me to buy the cards and return them and get back more than I paid. (For example, suppose you get 20% off a £100 card, ie £20 reduction, and the redemption fee is £10. You make a profit of £10.)
When I made the purchase, I entered the discount code, and it was accepted. I then ticked the Terms and Conditions box---the Ts and Cs make no reference to discount codes (but do say that I can redeem the money for the fee).
Upon my attempted redemption, the provider said that they would not be proceeding with the redemption, but rather refunding what I paid originally; their argument is that I didn't have authorisation to use that discount code, and that it was intended for a specific company (to which I have no connections), and that this discount code came with additional Ts and Cs, which include not passing the code onto a third party and that all cards are sold on a non-return basis. (The code was readily available on multiple voucher websites.)
I responded that I had not agreed to any of these Ts and Cs, but rather the ones I had agreed to made no reference to exceptions to the redemption clause (and no reference at all to discount codes).
They have now replied with the following statement.

Pending further legal advice we will be making a full refund [as you requested] to you less any card charges as this matter is dragging on.
We must make you aware however that we may be contacting you soon regarding the refund should our legal advisors advise us to do so. This may include contacting the police for the unauthorised use of a Corporate Discount Code.
We would advise that you refrain, in the future, from using Discount Codes not received directly from ourselves as you are now aware that they are not designed for the use of an individual for profit.

I had no knowledge that it was a corporate code, and were that the case my order should have been declined.
Is the comment about "contacting the police for the unauthorised use of a Corporate Discount Code" just trying to scare me, or legally am I at fault?
If necessary I can provide the name of the company and a link to their Ts and Cs, but I would rather keep it anonymous if possible


texts: If I turn the real money into fake currency will it still be gambling app?

texts:
My client wants to build some sort of gambling app. I said to him Google Play does not allow gambling apps and they will get removed.

I also mentioned that maybe like Facebook Poker, if you include fake currency which would be purchasable with real money maybe it would not be considered gambling application.

Here is his game idea:

  I want to make an app that people get on and put money in and
  raffle money, it's like gampling/raffling .  Let's say I raffle 20 bucks and you put in 1dollar/99c to try and win the raffle but only after 20
  people  have put in the raffle will began. If 20 people don't join
  within a certain amount of time they get refunded. So 1 dollar plus 20
  people=20 dollars I get 10 profit and a lucky winner gets 10. We can
  set smaller to bigger  raffles. It will be a fun addictive app. the whole world will be on it.

So if I implement these changes would this new application still be considered gambling application?

Google play Gambling terms


texts: How can the NFL assert copyright over "any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game"?

texts:
The NFL's copyright statement for today's big game, and presumably for other football games, contains language like "Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited".

How can they prohibit someone from making their own "descriptions or accounts" (or, indeed, their own pictures - if someone brings a camera phone into the audience they may be violating some stadium policy, but they're not violating copyright) under copyright law?


texts: Does LinkedIn act illegally if asking me whether I want to share my email contacts and send them invitations?

texts:
From time to time LinkedIn asks me whether I would like upload emails of my contacts. In terms of GDPR I would say it is not allowed action if I do not have signatures of my contacts that they agree I can do so.

But, does LinkedIn doing something wrong if it asks me to do an action which might be illegal, without giving any hint regarding that? And isn't wrong to further process the private data if there is a possibility I haven't cared about GDPR?


texts: Is it okay to upload a code 'based' on the book?

texts:
I would like to upload a code based on the book.
In other words, there is no code, but explanations or pseudo code, in the book, and I would like to upload a code based on those and some simple explanation on Github.

Would that be okay? What license should I use with the code?

If I chose a wrong page to ask such thing, please let me know.


texts:
Are witnesses evidence? and if so, cant a person just bribe/pay a person to be a witness so he can win a case?

In some countries especially Islamic countries they are counted as evidence as they swear that it is true


texts: The "focus" of a statute (RJR Nabisco v. European Community)

texts:
In the US Supreme Court's decision in RJR Nabisco v. European Community, the court utilizes a two-step framework for analyzing matters of extraterritoriality. In the second step of this framework, the court states:

"If the conduct relevant to the statute’s focus occurred in the United States, then the case involves a permissible domestic application even if other conduct occurred abroad; but if the conduct relevant to the focus occurred in a foreign country, then the case involves an impermissible extraterritorial application regardless of any other conduct that occurred in U. S. territory".

See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/15-138_5866.pdf

What exactly is meant by the "focus" of a statute?


texts: Can I return shoes that hurt one of my feet in Germany?

texts:
I just bought a reebook shoes and I wore it today but after walking about 30 minutes my left foot top side(bridge) is hurting me so much that I can not resist. I wrote an email to the seller but they say once I wore I cannot return it back.
All my other shoes with the same size is OK and having no pain. But this one is hurting my left foot.
Do I have the right to return it under consumer rights? To be mentioned I bought it through the internet from a company.

Best wishes,


texts: Unprofessional behaviour during interview

texts:
A friend of mine was in a job interview during Covid-times, therefore it was all done remotely. At half-way through the interview, an unprofessional incident happened which made that friend believe, that the last half of the interview did not go in their favor:
The 3 interviewers decided to make a short bio-break, at first the 2 interviewers went off screen, however the third interviewer turned around and apparently their pants were not closed properly and slipped including underwear off. My friend saw the whole naked bottom half of the human body.
After the pause, everyone went back to the interview and continued as normal. However, this incident could have raised an unfavored bias.
Is there any legal ground, in German law, to indemnity? Clearly, my friend has taken a lot of time and effort in this interviewing process and already was at the final stages.


texts: How would a company use this result of USA v David Nosal?

texts: After the ruling of USA v David Nosal in the Ninth Circuit Court, a news article "Federal court rules that sharing your Netflix password is a federal crime" indicates that this would give companies additional reason to say that password sharing, breaking ToS, is criminal. While it would be bad publicity for these big media companies (Netflix, HBO), how would a large internet company use the criminal ruling against customers (in the USA) violating the ToS? This is considering beyond specifically closing/canceling the account.


texts: Would a possible pardon of the US Capitol rioters stand if President Trump is convicted

texts: At the time of asking this question, President Trump has been impeached by the US House, but no trial date set by the US Senate. However, if Trump were to grant blanket pardons to all those who participated in the US Capitol riot today (Jan 15 2020) and he himself was convicted of inciting the same insurrection, would the pardon stand or would it be null and void?


texts: Can posted pictures of parts of a game that were not intended to be released count as breaking Copyright law of the producer?

texts: So in October a game publisher sent out a beta over Steam to which people who preordered the game could play. This beta had a fraction of the features that the full game had but a couple of clever people managed to alter the one line of code restricting people with the beta access to the full game. These people know have the full game and are posting screenshots from it but these screenshots keep on getting requested to be deleted saying that publisher will send a dmca for copyright. Is this correct?


texts: Landlord or tenant responsible for the furnishing damaged after a flooding?

texts:
I live in Sweden and the last 29th of July a flooding occurred in the basement of my building. I am renting a flat there and it goes with a small storage in the basement where I had some furnishings from the apartment there (bed, mattress, carpet).
I was abroad on holidays at that time, I came back the 14th of August (16 days after). The 15th of August I received a mail from the landlord asking all the tenants to remove all the moldering furnishings that were starting to smell. That's how I learnt about the disaster.

I threw away the items that were smelling as they were asking to do so if the items in the basement were damaged. There was a container for this purpose at our disposal. It was their only answer to my proposal of checking by themselves whether they wanted to decide if the items were salvable or not. They said that they would send an invoice to replace these items (my personal estimation of the invoice is about 350-450$).

I checked the contract and it says that their insurance doesn't cover my personal belongings. But these items are their belongings, not mine. In the contract, it also says that I am responsible to take care of the furnishings, and financially responsible to replace missing or damaged items. I did not directly damaged these items, I am not responsible of the flooding. If I was there during the flooding maybe I could have dry them faster which would have prevented the moldering? But I had no idea how much time it took them to remove the water and dry the basement.

My question is: am I really supposed to pay for these items? Were they responsible to warn me sooner about the disaster so I could have come back earlier to take care of it? Could I really have done something to avoid the moldering? Is it my responsibility to be informed of any sinister happening in the basement of my flat even if I am abroad?

------------------------Edit/Updates 1 -------------------------

Direct explanation from the responsible:

From the moment the tenant moves in, she/he is responsible for the apartment and the items that this includes.

As you removed these items from the apartment and unfortunately they were damaged you need to answer for them.

Our insurance does not cover those damages but you are welcome to ask your home insurance if they can take this costs for you.

You are also welcome to take a look at your contract:

“Furnishings
The tenant undertakes to take good care of the apartment and the furnishings. The tenant is financially responsible to the landlord for missing or damaged furnishings. If something is damaged upon arrival, the landlord has to be informed within one week after arrival.”

------------------------Edit/Updates 2 -------------------------

Parts from the leasing agreement

Insurance
The landlord has an insurance for the apartment regarding fire, break in or other damages. Personal belongings are not covered by this insurance, neither is health care. It is the responsibility of the tenant to have a proper insurance.

Damages
The tenant is responsible to take good care of the apartment. Costs for repairs of damages in the apartment caused by accident, neglect or on purpose will not be covered by the landlord or house owner. Only costs for repairs that can be considered as a result of normal use are covered.

Furnishings
The tenant undertakes to take good care of the apartment and the furnishings. The tenant is financially responsible to the landlord for missing or damaged furnishings. If something is damaged upon arrival, the landlord has to be informed within one week after arrival.


texts: Example of wills being declared forged without the signature being forged?

texts:
Is there case law in common-law-based legal systems regarding claims that a will is forged - but without the signature being forged, and without the text being altered after the signature?

For example: Someone wants to take over your assets when you die. So, they write a will leaving you everything, put a gun to your head and make you sign it. The signature has not been forged - you signed; and the text isn't changed after your signature. But clearly that is not your will, and in some legal systems (e.g. the UK's forgery act of 1981) would be considered a forged document AFAICT.

Another example: You're about to sign your will; but as you look away, someone exchanges the page for a different page which gives them more and others less. So, the signature wasn't forged, but the signed document is not your will.

These are the sorts of situations about which I'm interested in rulings on the question of forgery.

Notes:

I realize that a document can be an "invalid will" as opposed to a "forged will", and that undue influence is often invalidating. I'm interested in cases where the question of forgery was discussed.
I'm particularly interested in cases of softer coercion to sign than a literal gun to one's head.
The higher the legal forum the better.
Rulings that also kind of survey the legal situation rather than simply deciding a case are preferable.
Have a non-common-law example? Please provide a link a comment.


texts: In what ways are Google / Apple / FB beholden to US data collection laws

texts:
IANAL: Said American triumvirate collects significant user-data including communications as well as temporal geo-location: a jackpot for any agency (including non state actors).
What statutes (or any other authority) compel US companies to share user-data with US Agencies (with or without a court order)?


texts:
I came across this document today:

  Sometimes a married woman gives birth to a child whose biological father is
    not her husband. Although the husband is not the child’s biological parent,
    he is the child’s legal parent under Michigan law. The husband is the legal
    parent of every child born or conceived during the marriage.

  The reverse is not true. If a man fathers another woman’s child while he is
    married, his wife is not the legal mother of that child.

  As the legal father of the children born during his marriage, a husband may
    have custody and parenting time. He may also be responsible for providing
    child support and health insurance.

  The biological father of such a child has no parental rights or
    responsibilities for the child.

I'm not sure if the information is accurate, but according to the above text, when a wife cheats, it is marriage not biology that decides the paternity of the child. I got some questions:

If my wife cheats on me, I would still be the legal parent of the child. If I don't want this paternity, is there a legal process to disavow it?
If I fall in love with a married woman and we give birth to a child, I am the biological but not legal parent of the child. Is there a legal process for me to claim paternity of the child from the woman's husband?
The document says "The reverse is not true". Why the decision about paternity is different between a wife cheats on a husband and a husband cheats on a wife?


texts: Were the Christchurch gunman's guns really Category A?

texts:
Many people are in a state of shock at the moment after one of the worst mass shootings occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand. The incident has only just occurred, but there are many questions about what will happen. Many people speculated about possible gun law reforms, just as what happened in 1996 in Australia after it had its own massive shooting spree at Port Arthur.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a press conference has boldly announced:

  I can tell you one thing right now: our gun laws will change.
  Link to Video

She mentions at least twice that she believes that New Zealanders will welcome gun law reform given the shocking nature of the event and loss of life, and that the gunman was easily able to obtain a license and legally able to purchase the firearms.

  But the mere fact, when people hear that this individual acquired a gun license, and acquired weapons of that range, then obviously I think people will be seeking change, and I'm committing to that.
  Link to video

I've done reading on New Zealand gun laws, and the Category A firearm is one with a magazine capacity of 7 or fewer cartridges. Adding any of a number of prescribed modifications to the firearm, eg., fitting a larger magazine, a folding stock, flash suppressor etc., turns the firearm into a Category E firearm, also known as the military-style semi-automatic firearm, introduced in the 1992 legislation after the 1990 massacre.

I don't know if anyone has seen the footage of the shooting (as it was filmed by the murderer), but the gunman is clearly firing over 20 rounds before having to reload his AR-15 style rifles.

Here she emphasized that he held a Category A license and that with that license was able to legally acquire the guns he held:

  My understanding is he held a Category A gun license, and again I preface this, that my advice currently is that he under that gun license was able to legally acquire the guns he held. That will give you an indication of why we need to change our gun laws.
  Link to video

Now, this is where it subtle. Technically she says that with the Category A license the gunman was legally able to purchase the guns he held, that would be the semi-auto shotguns and the AR-15 style rifles, and that this is why gun law reform is needed. However the guns actually used in the shooting I'm pretty were Category E firearms, which would make them illegal firearms in his hands in any case. I find this to be quite misleading. Though I don't live in New Zealand and won't be affected by any changes, the results of any gun law change will likely be very significant, as it will most likely be a complete ban on semi-automatics, at least at Category A, which is what most New Zealanders have. Essentially it would be similar to doing what Australia did back in 1996, where most Australian recreational users own a Category A and B license, and being prohibited from owning a semi-automatic, which would fall under Category C.


texts: Are private social-media companies violating our Free Speech rights?

texts:
There's been a lot of talk about social media companies like Facebook, and their occasional removal of user content.  This removal is unilateral and not subject to any sort of judicial review, so it's often called censorship.

Is this illegal?  Do the social media companies have a duty under the First Amendment to not censor users?


texts:
Recently, Trump placed a travel ‘ban’ on non-citizens of the US and people from some other countries without direct relations with citizens of the US from travelling to the US during the pandemic.

All executive powers are explicitly stated in Article II of the United States Constitution no? If so, what part of Article II gives the president the ability to ban travel in any way, as no part of the Constitution even states the word “travel”. What executive powers for the president of the United States are implied? The president has the ability to make executive orders without congressional approval, and they take the same affect as a law. Where in Article II is there anything about executive orders?

What implied powers are not stated in Article II of the US Constituion, but are also non-disputed over and why is this?


texts: Why are claims not mandatory in provisional application?

texts:
Well, a claim refers to the extent of the protection conferred by a patent. If claims are so important so why they are not mandatory for the provisional application?
There has to be a reason for such a loose attitude towards mentioning a claim.


texts: Where negligence is enough for criminal liability, then a fortiori there's liability for intention or recklessness?

texts:
I accept  Concentrate Criminal Law (2020 7 edn) p. 31

So, it is generally thought that intention is the most serious
kind of mens rea, recklessness the next most serious, and negligence the least serious.

Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law (2019 7 edn). p 166.

(i) The test for negligence

Even though negligence permits the finding of fault for inadvertent wrongdoing, it does
not actually matter whether the defendant attends to or contemplates the risks. As Glanville
Williams asserts, “the essential question, at any rate for legal purposes, is whether it was
reasonable for you to go ahead with your conduct in the circumstances”.188 Of course, normally
one who foresees and runs an unreasonable risk will be reckless as well as negligent.
Negligence does not, however, require inadvertence. This is for two reasons. [Quote 1] The first is that
in the criminal law, the lesser fault standard incorporates the greater. A defendant should
not be able to exculpate herself by pleading that her actions were reckless or intentional
rather than negligent. (Similarly, she should be unable to escape an allegation of recklessness
by pleading that her actions were intended.) [Quote 2] It follows that where negligence is enough
for criminal liability, then, a fortiori, there is liability for intention or recklessness.

p 167.

&nsbp; &nsbp; &nsbp; The second reason is that, as we mentioned earlier, a defendant can foresee the actus
reus without being reckless, yet may still be negligent. For example, an anaesthetist who
recognises there is a slight risk of killing his patient is not normally reckless. But if he
has unknowingly miscalculated the dose, then he is negligent even though not reckless.
Recklessness involves an objective assessment of running the subjectively perceived risk.
Negligence involves an objective assessment of running an objectively recognisable risk.189

Criminal Law Directions (2020 6 edn). p 76.

Negligence is a much wider fault element than intention or
recklessness.

Down the same page.

At common law, negligence is rarely sufficient for criminal liability.

How are the two embolded quotes above true?

How does "the lesser fault standard" incorporate the greater?

How can "where negligence is enough for criminal liability, then, a fortiori, there is liability for intention or recklessness"? You can be negligent without being reckless or intent.


texts: Must shoppers show receipts if they don't want to?

texts:
Scenario

Alice, a manager at Big Mart, observes Bob leaving Big Mart with three large flat panel plasma screen television sets.
Alice asks Bob to produce his receipt.
Bob refuses.
Alice calls a police officer, Charlotte, to the scene and informs Charlotte that Alice saw Bob leaving the store with store merchandise but did not see Bob pay for it and Bob refused to produce his receipt when questioned.
Charlotte asks Bob to produce his receipt for the items.
Bob refuses Charlotte's request.
Charlotte asks Bob if he paid for the merchandise. Bob responds by stating he is not legally required to produce his receipt nor answer any of Charlotte's questions.

Questions:

Is Bob under any legal obligation to show his receipt to either Alice or Charlotte?
Can Charlotte legally detain Bob?
What, if any, additional facts or evidence must come into play in order for Charlotte to arrest Bob?
In the absence of an arrest, can Charlotte forcibly handcuff Bob and force him into her police car to take him to the police office for questioning?
How does police procedure and the law work in this case?


texts: Would anything prevent a mortgage fixed to a property, portable between people in the UK?

texts:
Normally UK mortgages are fixed to a person, but portable/transferable between properties.

Disregarding the 80+% of flats which are leasehold with no share of the freehold, is there anything in law preventing the opposite?

(Motivation/curiosity: I have seen this in other countries where 20-30 year fixed rate mortgages are popular at the current low rates and don't give problems if people want to sell up, because they transfer the mortgage to the buyer of their property.

The only time a short/medium term mortgage would make sense there would be if interest rates were high and you expect them to drop – or to make up the price increase between the previous purchase price/mortgage and the current purchase price of a house if it is affordable and sensible to pay that off faster to pay less interest.)


texts:
I am considering writing an open source software, which would help writers and editors in their work.

For this means, it would incorporate suggestions based on statistical analysis of English book corpora (e.g., frequency of word, or word compositions, so-called n-grams).

To this end, I would need to statistically analyse English books, this means:

getting the text into an electronic system
analysing the text
incorporating the results of analysis into a database

Think of the results like available on the lotrproject about the Lord of the Rings books.

Now, of course, getting the text into an electronic system is against most disclaimers in books about copyright. However, I would argue that I am using the text for research and non-profit purposes, which according to my view passes the first factor of the four-factor balancing test.

The second factor is a harder nut to crack, as these are of course the blood and essence of copyright: works of fiction and non-fiction. However, I would argue that I will destroy the original work, I would just store statistics about it in my system, and the input I am using just for research purposes, which I will not distribute afterwards, nor read myself; I will just use it in a software for the analysis.

About factor three... I would of course need to use the whole work as input, otherwise the statistical analysis would be incorrect.

Factor four: the effect on the market value is zero or positive. I would not distribute which works were the basis of the statistics, or maybe just a list of the books which were included. The database itself would not contain a direct reference (e.g., it just would state that "in young-adult books" the phrase "c'mon mate" comes forth with this-and-this frequency, not that "in the Harry Potter books it's used n-times"). A sub-question would be, whether I'm allowed to distribute word frequencies and additional statistics about the books themselves (again cf. the above linked lotrproject page for examples).

But, of course IANAL, that's why I'm asking this question here.


texts: FERPA clarification: record disclosure vs personal knowledge

texts:
I am confused about what is and is not covered by ferpa regarding ‘personal knowledge/observations’. For example, could Professor A tell (orally or via email) Professor B at a different school (unprompted) that a student cheated on an exam which resulted in a conduct record? Even if Professor A was told secondhand?

While this incident is tied to educational records (exam and conduct record), technically Professor A ‘personally observed’ or has ‘personal knowledge’ the incident, correct? In which case telling Professor B unprompted is not protected by FERPA?


texts: Why is everyone afraid to give "legal advice"? What is the difference between legal advice and personal opinion?

texts:
Why is it illegal to give your opinion/advice about a legal problem or case if you are not licensed or do not have a lawyer/client contract?

Findlaw.com says it's ok if you are just a friend, or if you give general information but not to a specific case.

The reason I am asking is because as I look at it for the first time, it sounds a bit in contradiction with the principle of free speech, or the right to engage in a free non-binding exchange of opinions.

If the main reason is that you may be "dangerously wrong", why isn't the same logic applied to every other aspect of life like cooking, how to fix the foundation of your house.. etc? Putting wrong ingredients in your recipe can poison you. A weak foundation may cause your house to collapse and kill you.


texts:
Are search warrants public records? Does it matter whether an investigation ended up resulting in a prosecution? If so, does it matter whether the case goes to trial? If so, does it matter whether the prosecution is successful (defendant is convicted)?

If search warrants generally are public records, what is the best, most efficient, most compelling way to retrieve them?


texts: Which law in Australia prevent sunscreen manufacturers from displaying the PPD ratings on their sunscreens?

texts:
I read on https://labmuffin.com/sunscreen-review-2-bioderma-la-roche-posay/:

  The Canadian version has a PPD (UVA protection factor) of 42. Interestingly, even though there’s a known PPD value for the Australian version, they’re not allowed to publicise it due to some weird regulation.

Which law in Australia prevent sunscreen manufacturers from displaying the persistent pigment darkening (PPD) ratings on their sunscreens?


texts: Equivalent of the French SACEM in the USA?

texts:
In France, you can pay a yearly fee to an organisation called "SACEM" and use copyrighted works to make profit in various ways.

Is there an equivalent in the USA?


texts: Can I wear clothing with obvious profanity to a public school or council meeting?

texts:
I was trespassed for a year and criminally charged (with the case dismissed on constitutional grounds) because I was pushing the district to put in floor level exit signs for kids with autism in case of emergencies.

I want to wear a T-shirt using the F-word in a slogan to a city council meeting or school board meeting, which are public meetings. Can I be arrested or trespassed again for doing this?

Are there any relevant Supreme Court rulings I can refer to?


texts: Liability for information uploaded to an automated online service run by myself

texts:
As a toy project, I wanted to create an online service consisting of an e-mail address to which a user could send e-mails with attached pictures and it would automatically send them back to the user after having automatically removed the metadata in the pictures (something similar to this website).

It would operate with no supervision, and the emails would be deleted as soon as they were processed, with no chance for me as the administrator to see the content.

It then hit me that it might be used for nefarious purposes and could land me in trouble. If someone sent something illegal (e.g. child pornography), could I be held responsible for distributing said content, although I as a person never knew that content ever existed and only forwarding it automatically to the original sender's address?

It gets even trickier when one realises that e-mail return addresses can be trivially crafted, so Alice could send the service an e-mail claiming to be from Bob's e-mail (e.g. bob@gmail.com) and the service would forward the information to bob@gmail.com, although Bob never used the service himself. In this case, the service would actually be (unknowingly) distributing information outside the original sender.

What would be the liabilities, if any, in Spain for the administrator of a fully-automated service which forwards information without actually analysing it?


texts: What are the range of legal limits on guests in a rental apartment

texts:
let's say I rent an apartment long term 1-2yrs

what restrictions can a landlord place in me having guests?

I'm curious about the range for example my impression is the landlord and claim a long term guess is a tennent and needs to be added to the lease. Is that true? What the minimum limit? I can imagine a landlord saying in the rental agreement that a guest staying 8 weeks or longer is a tennent. How about 2 weeks? 2 days? 2 hours?

i'd guess this is different by state but what is the range. Do some state allow zero guests vs other set some specific legal minimum time before a guest becomes a tennent ?

PS: this question is not about AirBnB. Rather it's just wondering what control a landlord can place on a long term guest. Like say my long distance girlfriend visits for 4 months


texts:
There are UEFA statutes in which the criteria for membership in that organisation are next (on the 9th page):

https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/OfficialDocument/uefaorg/WhatUEFAis/02/48/30/28/2483028_DOWNLOAD.pdf

So, a football association must represent and govern all maters related to football, on the territory of the sovereign state (recognized by the majority of the UN members) in order to become an UEFA member. That led to problems when Kosovo football federation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_national_football_team) applied for the UEFA membership, because Serbian football association (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbia_national_football_team) didn't want them to join (this is crude simplification), because they aren't full UN member.

I am wondering could UEFA membership criteria be changed in such a way that excludes the necessity for the representation of UN member by an independent football association? Also, how much would that formulation be practical, because almost all current UEFA members represents sovereign states?

I am interested in this because current criteria obviously leave legal space for political games to be played through this way.


texts: criminal v. civil litigation what are the differences

texts:
hypothetically speaking

Someone is in civil litigation and the defendant says that their actions are justified because the plaintiff committed a crime and the civil judge dismisses the civil litigation in favor of the defendant based on the defendants bare allegation that the plaintiff committed a crime.

The question; is civil and criminal litigation different?  Is one adversarial (civil) and the other inquisitorial (criminal)?  Or, do I have those backwards?

If the trial court in the civil litigation has authority to decide criminal allegation(s) in favor of one party over another, does the party accused of committing a crime have the same rights as he would in a criminal case, specifically the right to a verified criminal complaint showing the elements of the alleged crime?


texts: Can a US bank disallow a lawful permanent US resident from opening an account?

texts:
Can a US bank disallow a lawful permanent US resident (LPR) from opening an account?

Definition of lawful permanent US resident:

  Lawful permanent residents (LPRs), also known as “green card” holders,
  are non-citizens who are lawfully authorized to live permanently
  within the United States.


texts: Does a medical center's acceptance of a partial payment imply establishment of a payment plan?

texts:
Related: Hospital billed me for services that I explicitly refused. Are there any legal ramifications for hospital?

After my wife went to the doctor I received a bill that I considered wholly unreasonable.  There were some serious mistakes on their bill (i.e. charged me for services that never happened) and it took months of phone calls and written requests to get the more egregious mistakes fixed.  I still ended up with a bill that is unreasonably high, but of course I'm stuck paying it anyway.  For many reasons, I have no desire to simply pay them the outstanding balance.  I figured I'd just pay off some (reasonably) small amount each month, which is common in my area.  So common in fact, that when I was first looking at the bill in their payment portal, there was an option "Don't want to pay your whole bill?  Pay $x amount a month".

When I finished arguing my bill with them I went to the payment portal to submit a partial payment.  I couldn't find that "Pay $x a month" button so I simply submitted a payment for a "reasonable" amount.  I eventually found that button again, and the requested amount is twice what I sent them.

A few days after sending my payment I received a phone call from the hospital.  Unfortunately I don't know what they wanted to say because they refused to talk until I proved I was me (by providing some personal information).  I respond to these requests by refusing to identify myself and instead asking for information about their department/extension so I can call them back quickly after I find their number on their website.  They refused to provide that information because I had not yet proven that I was me, and claimed they could not give away any information at all.  I ended the phone call shortly thereafter and told them that, therefore, if they wanted to inform me of anything, they should mail me.

I have since received confirmation that my partial payment was accepted.  What I would like to do right now is simply continue paying them that same amount until the bill is paid off (about 1.5 years).  What I don't want to do is call them (I've been on the phone with them enough and it is always painful).  I also don't want to get surprised with interest charges or threats of collections.  My expectation (hope?) is that, legally, their acceptance of my payment implies consent to a partial payment plan.  If I ever do get a phone call from them I would like to know if there are any applicable laws about this, or if I should plan on changing my payment plan if need be.  I suppose I can boil it down like this:

Does a contract have to be formally signed to establish a partial payment plan?  If not, what conditions must be met for a partial payment plan to be effectively agreed upon by both parties?


texts: Is it legal to let sister-in-law drive my vehicle in another state and have her on my insurance?

texts:
This is about my wife's sister who is a single parent mom and lives in a different state. Not sure if it matters but I live in Massachusetts and she lives in Georgia.

Because of her life situation she has not been able to afford car payments and I for this reason have allowed her to use one of the two cars that are in my name. In this case this means I make the monthly payments on these cars and I also pay for the car insurance for both of them.

Both of my cars are insured from the same company. On the insurance, she is listed as a driver for the car that she has with her in Georgia, and that car is also listed as garaged in Georgia.

Can the car insurance company legally deny insuring the vehicle she is driving in this kind of case?

Update: The reason for my question is that the car was in an accident where parts of the body (side front bumper, and side rear panel) got scratched. This happened when the car was parked outside a shopping center (someone tried to squeeze into a parking space next to it), meaning that she was not driving the car, or even inside it, at the time. A police report was made about this incident but it is not yet known if the driver of that other car had insurance, as they had left the scene after bumping into this car (some passerby got the tag# of that other car and gave it to my sister-in-law).

When we asked the insurance company about this, we eventually received the reply that the insurance company "is not going to insure the [car] that is garaged in Georgia,  they are going to issue legal notice to cancel the insurance since [my sister-in-law's] residence is there."

The insurance policy has listed her as the driver on the car garaged in Georgia for 3 years. So if there was an issue with this setup, I would have thought that we had been informed about it.

I am not particularly concerned about whether they are willing to cover the damage, as it is not major and the insurance in any case has a $500 deductible. The concern and question I have is about the "legal notice" from the insurance company, because that implies that this setup has been somehow illegal.


texts: Is there a law in the UK that makes possession of specific publications illegal?

texts:
I just read the following in an article in The Guardian (emphasis mine):

  In prison they met their co-defendant Rahman, 32, one of nine men prosecuted in connection with a plan to attack the London stock exchange, who was serving five years for owning copies of an al-Qaida magazine. On the witness stand, Hussain said Rahman was “domineering, paranoid, weird and had a lot of contact with MI5”.

Is there really any law that makes it illegal to own copies of a publication? We punish thoughtcrime, these days? Is this an error in the newspaper or is there actually a law that permits people to be prosecuted (and even jailed for years!) for simply possessing a document?

Please note that I am not asking about cases where the possession of the document was presented as evidence of someone's worldview when they have been caught committing a crime. I am asking if the possession of a document1 can ever be considered criminal.

1Obviously, I am not talking about stolen documents or even certain classes of pornography whose very existence (photographs) implies an illegal act took place.


texts: I am supposed to give a statement and was told I would have to sign an affidavit.


texts:
Does the president of the United States have the power to edict laws
to prevent the followers of a specific religion from entering the
United States?
If Donald Trump is elected president, will he have the power to ban
Muslims from entering the United States?


texts: is being threatened to death and toture enough to get refugee status in another country?

texts: Is claiming to be threatened to death or torture for political or religious beliefs without any supporting evidence that shows it actually happened (from a country which is prone to, and known for torturing, kidnapping and killing political oppositions without leaving traces) enough to get refugee status(get accepted as a refugee) in another country?


texts: Accident involving left turn into private drive and a passing vehicle

texts:
Where does fault lie in the following situation; and what tickets if any should be issued according to Illinois Motor Vehicle Code and why?
Please cite IL MVC code that applies.
A 3 lane (unmarked) road exists that traverses north/south.  Side street parking is allowed on the north bound lane.  Side street parking is not allowed on the south bound lane and is marked as such.
A vehicle traveling south is hugging their right curb as parked cars exist on the north bound lane. Traffic is moving in both directions with the center lane being used by north bound vehicles.
A vehicle traveling south signals to turn left while in the right portion of their lane and comes to a stop to allow a oncoming traffic to clear and allow a truck to exit the private drive that they wish to turn in. (There is insufficient space for the South bound vehicle and the truck to use the private drive at the same time.)
The south bound vehicle waits for the truck to finish its left turn and then proceed in front of the south bound vehicle. The south bound vehicle waits to ensure no additional north bound vehicles are coming (the truck obscures some of the road until it is further south) and then proceeds to make a left turn.  At this time a 2nd vehicle traveling south comes up behind the waiting vehicle and proceeds to pass the vehicle assuming it's a parked car.  The 1st vehicle proceeds to make a left turn and collides with the 2nd vehicle.  The 2nd vehicle swerves more to the left in an attempt to avoid the accident; but the accident occurs anyway.
The 2nd vehicle states the 1st vehicles hazard lights were on and that they thought they were parked being that far to the right.  They indicate as a stationary vehicle they have an obligation to ensure it is safe to proceed before pulling out into traffic.
The 1st vehicle states their turn signal was on; and had simply been waiting for a free and clear moment to turn left.  They indicate they were not parked; and therefore had no obligation to check if it was clear behind them.
Again who is at fault or what %'s of fault should be applied and why?
For purposes of explanation's the 1st south bound vehicle can be called vehicle #1(red).  The 2nd south bound vehicle can be called vehicle #2 (black).  The truck can be called Vehicle #3 (blue).
Example of Road:
At this time these are the two IL-MVC codes which seem to apply; but there very well may be others; and I'm not sure 801 applies at it seems to be for intersections which I'm unsure this is.

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=062500050K11-701
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=062500050K11-801


texts: To what extent can a trust be used to safeguard your assets against alimony

texts:
So in my reading I've come across a case (Prest v Petrodel)  where a man wholly owned several companies, and purchased property in their name, but basically treated it as his property.

Anyway, it was found by the UK Supreme Court that because he contributed 100% towards the purchase price of the properties, those properties were therefore held on resulting trust for this man.

And so in handling a divorce, these properties counted as his assets, and ownership of some properties were awarded to the wife.

Now my question is - resulting trust aside - what if he held those properties in a trust for himself and someone else (say, 1 percent beneficial interest towards another company he set up, and 99 percent for himself). For the sake of argument lets say he did this way before divorce proceedings, or even before marriage

Let's say the terms of this discretionary trust were that the trustees had to give the beneficiaries the property after 60 years. Since the man is trustee he essentially can do what he wants with the property except for selling it etc.

So if the court awarded his 99% interest in the trust to the wife. How could she access the trust property?

The man as trustee is not obliged to hand over beneficiaries the property until 60 years has passed. He can use it as his own since he is trustee, and she cannot dissolve the trust under Saunders v Vautier, because it requires unanimity by all beneficiaries, and since he controls the company that owns the 1% interest, he can direct it to refuse the dissolution of the trust.

Would such a trust arrangement effectively prevent her from enjoying the property before the trust ends?


texts:
In the UK there is a grassroots campaign in which participants hide newspaper publications they consider to be of a dubious moral or political standing with the intent of making it more difficult for the readers of said publication to obtain it, or at least it removing it from public view.  The newspaper most frequently targeted has branded judges and elected members of Parliament as traitors and is well known as a source of 'fake news' to the point where it cannot be cited as a source in Wikipedia.

Usually they cover the offending title with another, but in some cases move the goods to another unrelated part of the shop (often the toilet-roll section.)

In my research I saw Fiup's answer to "Proving Theft From a Store" which seems to suggest that since the legitimate owner (the shop) is not being deprived of the goods it would suggest that no criminal act is being committed.

Clearly a store can ask anyone partaking in the this activity to leave (and may choose to ban them from the premises) but is the mover of papers committing an offence since their intent is not to remove them from the store?

Note: I have no intent to join this movement, just curious.


texts: Using images from Instagram on my e-commerce website

texts:
We are in the process of making an e-commerce website selling our own established brand of makeup. However we would like to use the instagram API to fetch images that use a specific hashtag like #ourproduct.

What we would like to do with these images is have something like a gallery of "others who bought this" so that new customers can see content from our other customers before deciding.

Is this legal or violating the TOS of Instagram? I know Instagram says that users' images are "all rights reserved". But isn't it implied consent by using our hashtag?


texts: My mother recently passed leaving my two sisters and I to split the estate equally. I am in US and my mother lived in Oregon when she died. My sister is the executor and I don’t really get along with her nor do I necessarily trust her but I’m trying. The assets were sold and placed in Ladder CD leaving some to pay expense while my mother was alive. Her assets were managed using D.A.Davidson account. I recently asked her for the accounting for the D.ADavidson account, which I received but it only went back one month when the account was first opened. My sister says that she had to close the previous account and open a new account to replace my mothers SocialSecurity# with a TaxID#, because of her passing. Does this sound right? I didn’t understand why that would be necessary being that she has access enough that she was allowed to close the account no problem, which I might add, in a sense erased all transactions from the report I saw. What I’m asking is this normal or should I be concerned? If it’s not normal what should I do, taking in account I’m trying not to jump to conclusions which may blow up our relationship. Unless it’s necessary?


texts: Is it okay to paste pictures to non commercial book with proper attribution

texts:
Somebody anonymous write a "scripture". It's at http://getrichbangbabes.com . It's filled with comedic political satire I think.

Anyone can edit and copy the book. The e-book contains many links to pictures. However, those links may not work too long. What would happen if the e-book copy and paste pictures to the e-book itself but give attribution?

What happens if latter the e-book is made commercial?


texts: If the terms of service of a software change, do they only apply to versions released after the date?

texts:
A company offers a downloadable product on their website. The product has been in development for years and there have been many versions released. The company has a set of terms and conditions that apply to the software.
If at some point the company decides to change the terms of conditions, do the updated terms and conditions apply to all versions of the software, or versions released after the change? If the user does not download the new version of the software, can they perform actions that may not be legal under the new terms and conditions, but are legal under the ones that were in effect when they downloaded the software?


texts: Public disclosure of private conversation

texts: If I am party to a private conversation with a public figure, and that person either records (legally) the audio, a transcript, or if communication occurs via text, does that person have a legal right to publish the conversation if I explicitly state that I do not want it to be shared?


texts: If Statutory Instruments are used to enact Acts of Parliament, are their powers bounded?

texts:
If Statutory Instruments are (sometimes?/always?) used to enact Acts of Parliament, are their powers bounded to maintain democratic legitimacy?

Are there any controls in place to avoid Statutory Instruments - that can effectively bypass Parliament - from “overreaching”?


texts: Scraping legal disclosure reports to build a database?

texts:
I am thinking of scraping business related data from websites like the UK's National Storage Mechanism, where all UK publicly traded security issuers must periodically report various bits of information (think of it as equivalent to the US SEC's website). I would like to collect some data from it and other similar sites, enrich the data by linking various elements together and store the result in a database for distribution.
From questions like this one and that one, I understand that factual data (I am assuming that business related data such as company ownership is factual info) is not copyrightable, and the limitations to what I would like to do is in the Terms of Use of the sites I am getting information from.
Considering the ToS portion below, would the act of extracting information (for instance: extracting the name of directors from an annual report and storing it in a database) be considered as "modifying" what I have downloaded?
Also does the fact that such information must be made public by law give it any special status in terms of rights to reproduce?

PERMITTED USES
You may print off copies, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from NSM Website for your use and you may draw the attention of others to content posted on the NSM Website, subject to:

reasonable maximum network or facility limitations

you may not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way and

you  may not  use  any  illustrations, photographs, video or  audio sequences  or  any  graphics separately from any accompanying text.

(from UK NSM's Terms of Use)
This would be done under UK/EU law. I understand this is not legal advice, but I'm trying to figure out what questions to ask an actual lawyer.


texts: Enforcing academic integrity in light of Chegg's terms of service

texts:
According to Chegg's terms of service,

No materials from the Services may be copied, reproduced, modified, republished, downloaded, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means without Chegg's prior written permission or as expressly provided in these Terms of Use.

Moreover, according to Chegg, these terms apply "regardless of whether you are a registered user or a guest". It seems to me that this forbids:

a professor to discover answers to their questions on Chegg and alert a grading team to be alert for matching assignments.

a professor to introduce answers downloaded from Chegg as evidence at an academic integrity proceeding.

Does Chegg actually have the ability to forbid these actions?


texts: Legal to scrape data from a website if the data is not intellectual property?

texts:
I want to gather data on a catalog of types of products.
For example, lets say cars. I want to scrape a website (that is itself a catalog of information) for the different make and models of cars, parts, etc. All information that is factual and not opinion based or intellectual at all.

Even if they have a terms of service that speaks against it, I don't see how it could be illegal given the nature of the information?

If it is illegal, would someone explain to me why?


texts: Does this German company really control the use of the term 'emoji'?

texts:
Important disclaimer: this question is not about any particular set of emojis (designed by a company or whoever else). The pictures themselves are obviously intellectual property and belong to their creators. This question is about the word emoji and whether it can constitue a trademark or not.

The story behind this question is the following: I got lost on the Internet, and discovered that the French postal services were selling emoji stamps. Nothing too interesting here, except I noticed a detail which struck me: on the website, all the occurrences of the word 'emoji' were followed by a little ®, the registered trademark symbol. I never saw this symbol associated to the word emoji before. Digging further, I discovered that the emoji stamps were produced under licence from a German company called emoji company GmbH. I don't only mean that their pictures were used for the stamps. I also mean that (apparently) they seem to claim that the concept and the trademark emoji belong to them. Their website mentions:

  We are the emoji company, the owner of the official emoji® trademark. [...] emoji® is a registered trademark.

They also claim to be 'the official emoji brand' (what 'official' means here is up to you), to be the 'iconic' emoji source, and to have discovered their potential back in 2013. They do not seem to claim they are their creators, though.

It seems very strange to me that 'emoji' can be registered as a trademark. First, it is a legit Japanese word (絵文字・えもじ) meaning pictogram. Second, it's a common word of everyday language in many parts of the world, many languages, and became so presumably before the emoji brand registered it. Third, this company is not behind the spectacular expansion of emojis as a mean of expression and their internationalization (Apple and other tech companies were behind it), nor are they their creators (a Japanese guy, if I'm correct).

I did more research and discovered that the emoji company is in fact associated to various trademark agreements which allow such big companies as Sony to use the word emoji (exemple: The Emoji Movie), and various products featuring emojis (food, accessories, etc.). However, they seem to kinda mix (in a subtle way) their claim of 'emoji' being a trademark, and the IP for the icons they sell themselves.

So, are we now in a world where using the word 'emoji' without authorization is illegal? Should we really give royalties to this company whenever this word or this concept is used? Is there a strong base for their claim, or could it be challenged? And could even Apple or Facebook end up having to pay this company to provide emojis on their platforms?


texts: How can I legally petition for a home that has been in the family for generations but the deed has another name on it

texts:
There is a house in my family that has been lived in for almost 70 years. Originally the family member that purchased the house used a family friend to procure the mortgage (she did not know better as an emigrant in the 1930's) and so the original deed was in his name. Long story short, the family paid the down payment, mortgage, taxes, upkeep etc. for the house since the house was sold, and we have the documentation, but the family friend died before he had the chance to sign it back to her. As a result it is still in his name.

I've approached real estate lawyers about this and they have basically said that it's a strange situation and not something they felt like they were willing to take on.

I have a few questions:

What type of lawyer should I try and find who might be able to address this.
Is adverse possession a possibility? a family member has been living in the house and paying the taxes and upkeep for the last 20 years.
I have files full of papers (including all of the receipts for the mortgage payments) it possible among them is some sort of document detailing that the intention of the family friend was to sign the house back over. What should I be looking for? what kind of document would actually stand up in court ( it is alot of stuff to go through)

Also, it should be noted that the family friend did not have any any kids or living relatives.


texts: Landlord illegally copied drivers licences; already going to court, what should I ask for?

texts:
I'm not looking for personalized advice and I'm not looking for legal advice.

Where I live it's illegal for a landlord to copy the tenants drivers license.

  A landlord may not collect, copy or use a person’s driver’s  licence
  information because  it is not necessary in order to consider a
  prospective tenant’s rental application.   A landlord may not refuse
  the application of a tenant who refuses to prov ide his or her
  driver’s  licence .  A landlord may ask to examine a person’s driver’s
  licence in order to  verify the person’s identity.  However, the
  landlord must not write down or photocopy  this personal information.

https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1456

I had an ex-landlord do this. I normally wouldn't care but I'm taking him to court anyways to get my damage deposit and other things back. How should I bring this up?

I moved into the house with 3 other tenants. The landlord asked to see our driver licenses. He then took out his phone and took pictures of them without asking us. I can prove this, as he had taken me to court and included in his evidence package, pictures of mine and other tenants licenses (I won the case and had it dismissed).

How are these things normally brought up in court? Should I ask for monetary compensation? If so how much? Can the judge order the landlord to destroy the copies?


texts: Giving a fake name in a government contact form: illegal or no?

texts:
Say I want to contact a government agency from the U.S. This agency can be in any country/territory/state or province. For example, I want to contact the Nova Scotia government regarding zoning laws and etc. for a property I am building.

In the contact form I put a fake name or send an email from an account that gives a fake name. I am contacting a government agency. Is this illegal if I just use a fake name to inquire info about something? Nothing illegal or shifty -- just for an email/question, and no further actions are taken beyond this (for example, I may ask a question but won't show up at city hall and give fake info).


texts: Do US landline carriers have safe harbor for carrying illegal calls?

texts:
I am curious to know if US landline carriers have safe harbor for carrying illegal calls? That is, are the carriers somehow immune from an action when they carry illegal calls on their network?

The changing tide and specific details are (1) carriers are accepting and completing calls from known robocallers and other miscreants, and (2) the FTC's 2017 ruling that carriers can block the traffic at the network level.

The insight for (1) is, carriers have available lists of some robocallers and other miscreants. Two lists are (a) the FTC Do Not Call data files, and (b) reports of harassing calls from some robocallers and other miscreants via Unlawful Call Centers (i.e., *57).

The change for (2) is from the FTC. It is Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, CG Docket No. 17-59, published in FCC-CIRC1703-01. Specifically (D)(8) states:

  To aid the Strike Force and other providers’ call blocking efforts,
  the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (Bureau) released a
  Public Notice on September 30, 2016 clarifying that voice service
  providers may block calls using a spoofed Caller ID number if the
  number’s subscriber requests that they do so.[26] The 2016 Guidance PN
  built on the Commission’s earlier clarification,[27] which, among
  other things, clarified that nothing in the Communications Act
  prohibits voice service providers from offering call blocking tools to
  those consumers who request such services.[28] Following from that
  initial guidance, the Strike Force Report sought additional
  clarification regarding the permissibility of certain
  provider-initiated call blocking.[29] Specifically, it sought
  clarification that 1) providers may block calls where the Caller ID
  shows an unassigned number, and 2) providers may block calls that the
  provider has determined to be illegal robocalls, so long as the
  provider takes reasonable steps to confirm that the calls are illegal.

And to state the obvious, some of the robocalls violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009. Additionally, if the inbound call is carried over a person's or business' VoIP or computer network, then it could violate Computer Fraud and Abuse Act also.

And I am also aware of the illegal spying campaign carried out with the US government. However, it literally took an act of congress to let the carriers off the hook for that illegal activity.


texts: Using fictitious and forged document in personal injury case

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After a slip and fall that required surgery, I retained an attorney and filed a personal injury suit against the corporation.  At the time of the injury I filled out an Onsight Incident report.  I wrote on the form that I was hurt bad and in a lot of pain.  During discovery, we were sent a copy of this Incident Report.  The verbiage had been changed to read, "Subject said he had fallen but was okay".  My signature on the form was also forged.  I brought this to the attention of my attorneys but they said it was not relevant to my case.  It seems to me that this is a clear case of Spoliation of Evidence.  My attorneys did not want me to bring this up during my deposition and I didn't.  I did retain a well respected forgery expert to give me his opinion and he said there is no doubt that my signature was forged and would be happy to testify as to such.

Does anyone have any suggestions or feedback on this situation?  If so, it would be appreciated.  I believe I might want to change attorneys.

Thank You


texts: What constitutes elder abuse in the state of Missouri?

texts:
My wife has a friend who lives in Missouri, and has power of attorney over her mother, who cannot take care of herself. The mother is in some kind of assisted living home in Missouri, and just got approval for Medi(caide? Care?) to pay for the housing.

The friend has a tenuous relationship with her mother, who turned a blind eye to a lot of (unreported) abuse that the woman suffered from her childhood on. The mother is pretty toxic when it comes to how she interacts with the daughter. My wife witnessed firsthand a couple of instances where the daughter brought deodorant or shirts for the mom, and then the mother would complain about her not visiting, or getting her things.

The friend has her own medical issues and has a limited amount of what she can own, so she set up a trust with my wife as trustee.

The assisted living has threatened the daughter with legal action, saying they're going to file elder abuse charges if she doesn't give them all the money that's in this trust, check fraud, and that the daughter should never have had power of attorney.

Do they have a leg to stand on? What actually constitutes elder abuse in the state of Missouri?


texts:
Consider an aircraft registered in country A. On a flight operated by an airliner based in country B, it carries passengers on a flight from country X to country Y. The flight path overflies airspace of country C and international airspace.

Assume that countries A, B, C, X and Y all have different legal drinking ages.

What is the legal drinking age on this flight? Does the same apply on ships?


texts:
I am currently developing a website on which users can upload web comics and in return get paid from ad revenue.

The issue comes in when a user uploads copyrighted work and I'm held responsible for distribution of copyrighted work and I don't have ANY staff to monitor summations. It's just me.

So is it possible to state in the terms and conditions that it is the responsibility of the user to take down any copyrighted work and require the user to give a public email through which the affected party can contact them?

Another thing is, is that between the time where a user uploads copyrighted work and when it's taken down the user is being paid.

Thanks

P.S. In case this is important I live in England to this is a case of UK law


texts: Does Trump's Sept. 2017 travel ban violate the 1965 immigration act?

texts:
Most media coverage of the legality of the Trump travel bans has centered on whether they violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

However, David Bier of the Cato Institute has argued the relevance of the following USC clause (originating with the 1965 immigration law):

  ...no person shall receive any preference or priority or be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.

This clause seems to state that a blanket immigrant/refugee ban on any country would be illegal.

Has this argument been employed in any of the travel ban-related legal proceedings so far? If not, why not?

Edit (June 2018): How does the recent supreme court ruling deal with this issue?


texts: Can remuneration be accepted in the form of venture capital investment into a startup instead of usual formats like salary etc?

texts:
Consider the following situation: I provide consultancy services which saves the client a very significant sum of money while also generating significant cash flow.
I plan to charge him $2 million as compensation for my services. I also have a plan to launch a startup. My client is also wanting to jump on board and is willing to provide this $2 million as venture capital in return for a minority stake. Is it okay to accept compensation in the form of venture capital? Further can I continue to do this for as long as I want? Will this be considered a form of tax evasion?


texts: Why were books never published with a EULA?

texts:
Software companies write EULA to force users to relinquish their rights (such as first sale, decompiling/reverse engineering) before being allowed to use the software.

Why are books never published this way (by opening this book you agree to the license ...). There are many publishers that would love to remove right of first sale (textbooks et al.), yet I've never seen one that tried that?


texts: Is it legal for a non-profit to omit the salaries of their deputy director and other lower level directors on Form 990?

texts: I'm looking at a the Form 990 for a small non-profit, and I'm noticing that under administrative/management expenses only the Executive Director's salary is listed. I know there is a Deputy Director and a Director of Business Communications who draw salaries at the organization, but they are not listed. Is this legal? It's definitely misleading...


texts: Does testifying before Congress carry the obligation to be forthcoming?

texts:
During Congressional testimony today (03/20/17), Adm. Michael S. Rogers was asked (among other things) if US citizens were required to report all contacts with foreign nationals and if failure to report such a contact could result in a counter-intelligence investigation.  That seems like an obvious question, but he answered that he didn't know because he was not familiar with the law on that question.

If this were a question about US officials and foreign nationals or US officers and foreign nationals or US citizens and agents of foreign governments, then the lack of familiarity with the law would seem like a reasonable justification for not answering.  But the question was about US citizens interactions with foreign nationals.  That is such an incredibly broad category.  It encompasses any interaction of any US citizen with any foreign national.  Your cab driver had a strong accent?  Yep, that's within the category of that question.  So is every interaction with every customer support call if it's manned in India.  Or any interaction with any bank teller, flower or food delivery person who seems to have an accent.  They are all possibly foreign nationals and all fall within the category of such a question.

How could he answer that he "didn't know"?  How could the answer to that specific question be anything but a resounding "no, obviously not"?  Would it even be legal to impose such a requirement on all US citizens?  Is there any country in the world other than North Korea which has such a requirement on its citizens?

Having said that, he could have been trying to answer the broader question (which did entail asking about whether interactions between US officials and foreign agents have to be reported).  But he answered 2-3 questions asked together with 1 answer.  It seems like the answers should have been separate because the answer to this one specific question (out of all the ones asked) should have been very different from all the others.

I guess my question is whether he had to err on being as elucidating as possible when testifying before Congress and providing as much information as he was able to?  Or should he have erred on the side off not making statements if there was any chance of them being too broad?  Is not answering questions which are very narrow-tailored, by claiming that they are too general, tantamount to refusing to answer the questions?

Did he, as the head of the NSA, not just imply that it may be possible to legally require all US citizens to report to the government any and all interactions with foreign nationals?

I am not looking for snide shots of the "nsa is wiretapping all phone calls, anyway, so why do you care"-kind.  I am trying to understand if there is really any legal possibility of US going down this path of xenophobia because of Russia.  I don't mean culturally.  I mean legally.  Is there anything to legally preclude it from happening?  And wouldn't the NSA director have to know something like this?


texts: Paying for slightly more than claim amount after small court arbitration

texts:
I was wondering if there is a disposition for small claims court that was settled via arbitration (no appeal is allowed and the decision is final) - then would it be unlawful to pay more than the extra amount?

This may come into play during legal tender issues and denomination of the currency  and when relating to the Coinage Act of 1965 in the U.S. I would like to know how this would affect repayment for the defendant if the said defendant needs to pay out the arbitration ruling.


texts: During a traffic stop, does silence serve as probable cause for arrest and search?

texts:
Jurisdiction: Anywhere United States

Valid driver license is provided during the stop, along with insurance and registration as required by the traffic code.

Fifth Amendment provides a right against self incrimination. The law legally obligates a person to poses a driver license to operate a vehicle. Other than presenting a valid driver license, is a person required to answer any questions asked by a police officer?

Example:

I am driving in Dallas, Texas. I exceed speed limit by five miles. A police officer pulls me over for speeding. He approaches the window and asks for my ID. I provide a valid driver licence.

The Officer Asks me:
Where are you coming from?
Where are you going to?
Have you had something to drink?
Etc...

I respond:
I am only required to provide you with a valid driver license. I do not have to answer any of your questions.

I remain silent.

I have broken no law. Right?

Further, if police officer calls for back up, and searches my vehicle over my vociferous objections, I would have a valid §1983 Complaint for "unlawful search and seizure."

Is my understanding correct?


texts: I currently work in Portugal, and in this country, every full-time employee has 22 paid vacation days by law. The labor laws on this country also state that, of those 22 days, at least 10 of them must be consecutive work days (weekends, holidays, etc, don't count). Is it like this in other countries? Do other countries labor legislation also enforce employees to spend at least 10 consecutive work days of their paid vacations?


texts: Can an employer ask an employee about personal health matters (HIPAA) and COBRA decision in public?

texts:
Hypothetical Scenario (in the US):
Susan's employer, MoneySavers, offers COBRA to employees who separate from the company. Susan has given her two weeks' notice (she has quit her job) and will soon have her last day. She works in an open office without cubicles and little conversational privacy.
Susan asks Emily, an HR representative (at Emily's desk) how/when Susan might receive COBRA paperwork. Susan expects to hear something like, "You'll receive it in the mail within 4 weeks."
Instead, Emily responds, "Are you planning on using COBRA?"
Emily continues, "You have to elect if you are going to use COBRA," with the implication that Susan needs to answer "yes" or "no" immediately.
Several co-workers hear the conversation and add their own comments. One co-worker, Mike, the CFO, who arranged MoneySavers COBRA program, adds, "Susan, no former employee would ever plan to use COBRA."
Susan admittedly could have tried to make her conversation more private and her co-workers could have been more prudent in their comments. However, were any laws violated here?
Specifically, was it lawful for Emily to ask Susan, before she has left MoneySavers, if she will elect to use COBRA?
If it were lawful for Emily to ask, would it need to be asked in a private setting? What other legal issues are at play in this situation?
Financial (Not Legal) Factors:
Susan is still employed and thus could be treated differently in her last two weeks depending on how she responds because MoneySavers cuts costs whenever possible.
More context: In this specific scenario, MoneySavers may incur costs if an employee elects COBRA because of a health reimbursement (HRA) program it offers.
Financial question: Does anyone know if an employee elects COBRA, and then incurs a large claim while on COBRA, could increase MoneySavers health insurance renewal rate for the next year? Normally, health insurance claims made by current employees can increase MoneySavers health insurance renewal rate.


texts: Landlord renting parking space he doesn't own - UK

texts:
My girlfriend and I are renting a flat, it includes two parking spaces on a private communal car park. we've been renting this for over two years. the rent itself is higher then other places we looked at but as it included parking we decided to take it as parking is very limited around us. it IS included in our lease agreement.

the car park currently takes 16 cars, and this is split between 8 properties each entitled to 2 spaces, there are 4 "cottages" and a building containing 4 flats (of which we are renting one of them)

A friend of mine just looked at buying one of the cottages which comes with two of the aforementioned parking spaces, however his conveyancing turned up something interesting... there is actually no specified spaces on the communal car park each property has a 1/8th share, with the landlord of the flats owning 4/8ths of it. this is fine as the car park fits 16 cars so it still works out.

However

When the conveyance checked, the car park actually only has 12 parking spaces according to the council plans, 12 obviously doesn't divide nicely between 8... it so happens that OUR spaces are actually where there is supposed to be a turning area, so in theory we are not parking in actual spaces... and yet we've been paying for those two spaces included in our rent.

I've quietly checked with the other flat owners and they all have 2 spaces included in their rent agreement same as we do.

Am I right in assuming that the landlord is illegally charging rent for something he doesn't own?

Edit for clarification: we found out due to my friend having one of the cottages conveyanced, as a result we also found out that the Landlord is entirely aware of this situation, i'm not currently asking about whether we're entitled to compensation. My friend wants the cottage, but without the parking sorted its not suitable, my Landlord is not bothered about signing any paperwork  to sort it (at no cost other than time) because "it works fine at the moment whats the problem?"  i just want to help my friend so want to know if what the Landlord is doing is actually illegal (renting out more spaces than he actually owns) or is it a grey area as there is technically space

Further Edit: the car park is owned by the 5 properties, 4 cottages and 1 building of 4 flats, the landlord owns 4/8ths each of the cottages own 1/8th

Hope that makes more sense

This is in the UK


texts: I was lead to believe I signed a housing lease, but read the contract and found out I signed a limited license housing agreement. Is this legal?

texts: I was recently served a complaint stating I owe one year's rent on a housing lease I mistakenly renewed.I did not live on the property the whole year.  When reading the contract, it states that this is a limited license housing agreement, not a lease. I was not made aware of this during signing, and management did not point out the difference to me during signing. The property is also advertised as a student apartment,and makes no obvious distinction that potential renters would be signing a housing license, not a lease. I was also never notified that I should contact an attorney prior to signing.


texts:
In the school that I go to, we are occasionally (around 10 times a year) having to suffer inhumane changing conditions. There are 4 average sized groups and half the changing room is covered by desks and chairs for storage. Today, I physically couldn't get to my changing space without climbing over un-sturdy chairs which is a safety risk. There are 2-3 students per square meter. The air is also full of deodorant and is a risk for asthma attacks, the room is also full of Carbon Dioxide. We were so squashed we felt like animals in a cage in a zoo. When we were changing the second time I had to wait for two people to change to get to my space.

Can I report the school and is this a violation of Human Rights?