texts: Would an affidavit be admissible in criminal court to prove address fraud?

texts:
If I need to prove in California criminal court that the defendant did not reside at a certain address in 2017, it seems best to get the true "main resident" to testify in court: "I have never seen that man in my life".

But, in lieu of testimony, how can the same proof be made without the "main resident" coming to court?  Would a sworn affidavit work in this case or is it dismissed as hearsay?  More generally, how would the best lawyers establish that the defendant never lived at that address if no witnesses were able to come to court?


texts: Assignment and subletting of leasehold in UK

texts:
I am planning on buying a worn down property that has 4 big rooms to fix it up, and then rent out 2 out of 4 rooms - room by room. I would live with my family in the other two (at least for the starters and potentially rent everything out and move out somewhere else in couple of years or so). Today I got copy of existing lease agreement.
Couple of parts are especially worrying an confusing:

PART VIII
Assignment and Sub-letting
a) The tenant shall not assign charge or sublet or part with
possession of any part of the Demised Premises as distinct from the
whole
b) Upon any sub-letting or assignment of the whole the tenant shall
procure that the sub-tenant or assignee enter into a covenant with
the landlord and the tenant of the other flat in the terms of part xi
hereof to observe and perform the conditions and obligations of the
lease including this obligation

Within one month after any assignment sub-letting or other devolution of the Tenant's interest under this Lease the Tenant shall
produce to the Landlord the stamped original of the Deed of Covenant
above referred to and a certified copy of the document giving effect
to the assignment sub-letting or devolution and pay the Landlords
registration fee of ten pounds thereon plus VAT (or such other fee as
shall at such time be reasonable)

There's also other part

Part V
Tenants Convenant

Not to use or permit or suffer the Demised Premises or any part thereof to be used for any illegal or immoral purpose or for the
purpose of any trade or business and not to apply for planning
permission for any change of use of the Demised Premises nor to use or
occupy the Demised Premises other than as a private residential flat
in the occupation of one family.

Does this mean that I am not allowed to sublet, or that I have to pay 10 pounds every time I get new tenant, and inform Landlord about it?


texts: Can a paratransit company refuse to reimburse you even if you had a medical situation?

texts:
I'm asking on behalf of a friend of mine who is not on this site. They are blind and have a guide dog. We are both in Oregon, and we sometimes take the TriMet Lift paratransit service.

Last Sunday, my friend and their spouse, along with the guide dog were left stranded in the summer heat while waiting for the bus or cab to arrive. It was taking much longer than two hours. The dog started overheating and my friend, who is prediabetic, was beyond hungry.

Finally, the spouse ordered a Lyft to get back home. It was expensive, but what else could they do?

My friend's spouse asked the company the next morning to reimburse the cost of the Lyft ride, but they said that it was not their policy to do that, even under these circumstances.

Are they justified under state and federal law to say that?


texts: Using Tinder photos for machine learning

texts:
I would like to download images from Tinder to use with an image classification app. (Tensorflow with Imagenet to be precise.) Is it illegal to download those images for that purpose?

Also, can I post my findings and/or write a publication based on them?


texts: Can I be sued for acting as the US sales agent for a EU manufactured product that subsequently is accused of breaching a US patent?

texts: If I sell a product in the US as a US resident sales agent on behalf of an EU seller of a product they manufacture in the EU that subsequently breaches a US patent can I be sued?


texts: What happens to a company's negative value property if it is liquidated?

texts:
What happens to annoying burdensome assets during a company's liquidation?

Perhaps a company owns a mine filled with deadly arsenic trioxide  waiting to break out into the environment, or something more boring like a useless grade A listed building that must be maintained.

These aren't just debts that be cancelled. So what's meant to happen?


texts:
I am having difficulties with something I've been trying to find an answer to on my own.
Person A purchased a house from person B. Person B had never lived in the house prior to person A purchasing it.
Person A found an expensive object inside the house.
Who has the best claim of possession to that object?
Is it that after selling, person B no longer has any rights towards the property, and so the item can be claimed by person A?


texts: Can a university in the U.S. legally force students to get regularly tested for COVID-19?

texts:
I attend a university in the United States which has recently released its COVID-19 response plan, and part of that plan includes requiring that students get testing before coming to campus, and then get tested regularly while on campus.
It should be noted that all contracts/agreements (school policies, dorm contracts, acceptable use policies, financial aid agreements, etc.) were signed months ago, and include no reference to COVID-19.
Can the private university legally require that students get tested before returning? And if they can (say, due to some new state law or something), can they also require you to submit to regular testing while on campus? My first reaction is that this would be a simple violation of 4th. amendment rights, but because there may be exigent circumstances, are there exceptions, or have I simply misinterpreted everything?
Say, for example, that a student returned without getting tested, and the administration then proceeded to expel the student, would the student have a strong legal case against the university? A case that they would be likely to win?
A few things to note:
I’m not providing an opinion as to whether or not mass testing of students is a good or a bad thing, and I’m not looking for moral arguments in return. I am simply looking for a healthy, factual debate as to whether or not it would be legal.
I suppose that the university could impose micro-restrictions. For example, they may require you to get tested before participating in clubs or sports, as those contracts haven’t been signed yet and they could make it part of the agreement. However, in this case, I’m simply referring to just returning to and living at school.


texts: What are the consequences of forging a will, in common law and in civil law?

texts:
In any legal system (in which individuals can transfer property ownership upon their death through wills), there are probably criteria for when a will is admissible (e.g. the deceased was cognitively able to author one, no excessive influence etc); and if a will cannot be trusted to be valid, it will not be upheld (I presume).

My question is about the sanctions in the more extreme case, in which not only is a will not "trustworthy" enough set aside, but rather is the result of factually-established acts such as forging the signature, forging the text, forcing someone to sign against their will and so on. To clarify, I mean the cases in which there is strong, direct, irrefutable evidence forgery/coersion did occur.

I'm interested in examples of different approaches, especially in common-law and vs civil-law legal systems.

Notes:

The will being set aside is not really a sanction... like the failure to get the loot from a bank robbery is not a sanction.  I'm talking about what happens to someone who's commited such acts and has been discovered/proven to have done so.
The UK, the US, France or Germany are particularly interesting.
A related question is more general w.r.t. the legal ramifications of forgery; more specific w.r.t. the kind of forgery; and does not assume the forgery can be established in court. The answers to that question therefore do not address mine, and certainly do not regard the differences between legal systems.


texts: Is it really an abduction if the protest or resistance ends before the "victim" is "released"?

texts:
My friend ran into her ex-boyfriend at a store. They began arguing, he grabbed her and carried her to his truck, then drove off with her and didn't have her consent.

She tells me that he was going to take her home after "dragging her to Burger King". She says he made her go. The police pulled them over on the way back and arrested him. She later had the charges dropped claiming she didn't want to send him to jail because he didn't hurt her.

Was this an abduction and an illegal act? Does it become acceptable legally if she later is okay with being taken away? Was he therefore falsely arrested because there was no crime?


texts: Is it allowed to destroy political billboards?

texts:
I see that political posters in Germany during election get destroyed all the time. For example, NPD posters are always teard down or on a ground. Merkel's picture is often with beard and mustache. People write something or tear down AFD posters. Etc

So, is this accepted political fight? Am I allowed to destroy political posters? If not, what is the punishment?


texts: Found 200$, neighbor claims it's his but sounds suspicious

texts:
I recently found two 100$ bills on the grass in the space between my house and the neighbor's house. I asked my neighbor (who isn't a very trustworthy person) if it was his, and his response makes me very suspicious he's lying. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey, did you lose anything recently?
Him: No, why?
Me: I found some cash in my front yard.
Him: Oh right! I just remembered! It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was mowing the grass this morning.
Me: Didn't you mow the grass just two days ago?
Him: I missed a spot.
Me: How much did you lose, and in bills of which size?
Him: Why the **** are you asking me that? Just give me my money.
Me: Because I want to make sure it's yours.
Him: Just give back my ******* money before I call the police.
Me: I'll give it to you if you just answer my question.
Him: You don't trust your own ****** neighbor?! If I don't get it back by tomorrow I'm calling the police. [He slams the door in my face.]

What does the law say about money found like this?


texts: In which countries does the body of the dead become property of someone?

texts: It's been claimed on politics SE that the body of the dead becomes the property of his family. No country was specified, but is there really a country where this happens?


texts: How to pressure college covering-up incompetent professor?

texts:
I received a grade I deem unsatisfactory for the quality of work I completed, due to lateness penalties. The course instructor was partly responsible; he has never responded to several of my assignment inquiries. His non-response added several extra hours to my work, prompting lateness on said assignments - enough to lower the letter grade.

Furthermore, the professor has given zero feedback on any of my essay or research project submissions in this course of 'Engineering Ethics', only grades - and has remained 2-3 weeks avg. behind on grading.

I filed a complaint along a grade appeal to the Department Chair, describing said concerns, and proposing a resolution in form of raising the letter-grade (from which I am 0.2% away) - after failing to find a resolution with the professor. The chair denied the appeal. I forwarded the matter to the Dean of Students, who referred to the Vice Provost.

The response from all of them, in a nutshell, was "Policy was followed." None of them made any response to the complaint - which was detailed, and comprised majority of my letters. This was hardly a surprise*.

This said, there's zero intent on behalf of the administration to bulge on this matter. The only college official I'm yet to contact is the Provost - who I doubt will respond any different unless I shift gears.

That policy was followed in grading is true, but overlooks the fact that my grade suffered directly from the professor's negligence - unsure how to press on this point further (or pursue others).  Short of a lawsuit, what approach is advisable to increase the odds of winning the grade raise?

Additional info: It's a state university. Professor is a "Faculty Lecturer", untenured.

'* - the institution is ridden with incompetence: professors often lack basic understanding of course material, lab manuals are filled with faulty and ill-grammared instructions, outdated website, and a 'sheep'-like student culture that takes any sh*t from professors (hence the lack of accountability).

Worth noting, I called out the chair directly in my letter to the Dean, accusing "complicity with academic negligence" - and stated, "unless [college] is willing to risk being exposed as a scam institution, it should focus less on doing cover-ups and instead address the problem."


texts:
Is it legal to advertise something as "free" that requires membership fee or entrance fee or purchase?

Example 1:

Free drinks if you buy this meal for $20

vs

Unlimited refills if you buy this meal for $20

In other words can a restaurant advertise free drinks even if you have to purchase a meal to get one.
Example 2:

Free seat if you buy this train ticket

vs

Seat included in price of train ticket

In other words, assume you always get a seat when you ride the train (no standing). Would it be legal to advertise "Free sets on train, tickets $50" effectively claiming you're paying only for the ticket but the seat is free.
Example 3:

Free case with purchase of this phone

vs

Case included with purchase of this phone

Example 4:

Free games every month with $60 yearly subscription

vs

New game included every month with $60 yearly subscription

In other words, some game is advertised as free but it turns out it's only free if you pay $60 a year. The claim that $60 is covering your subscription but you can't play the game paying the $60.
Example 5:

Free use of all attractions with $200 park admission

vs

Use of all attractions included with $200 park admission

In other words could Disneyland advertise all their attractions as free if you pay $200 for admission to enter the park.
Example 6:

Free car with purchase of $35000 keys

vs

Car for $35000

In other words could some car dealer advertise "Free cars! (with purchase of $35k key)"

Are there any laws covering the use of the term "free"? Particularly in the USA but would be curious to know if any countries regulate this


texts: Under McCulloh vs Maryland can the Feds do anything?

texts: Under McCulloh vs Maryland (The Bank of United States case) which held that the supremacy clause precludes state taxation of Federal functions; can States and localities enforce traffic rules against federal officials? Zoning laws against federal buildings?


texts: Can a Corporation Exercise a Fifth-Amendment Right Against Self-Incrimination?

texts:
So I googled "can corporations plead the fifth?" and I got a bunch of non-cited sketchy sources.

Is there a precedent around a corporation refusing to produce documents as a result of a subpoena to prevent self-incrimination?

A hypothetical would be if my corporation was consulting for a foreign government and had documents that said my company had used my position in my home government to help the foreign government. If the corporation had documents that proved it had intentionally mishandled that relationship or a conflict of interest would the corporation be able to invoke the fifth amendment to not have to produce those doucments?


texts: Why don't companies supply all of the needed information about their DMCA designated agents?

texts:
I wrote "why" for lack of a better short way of saying: I'm assuming these large companies won't take a chance of being sued for this, and furthermore assume that they know the law requires it, so perhaps I misunderstood the law.

From this link (supplied by David Siegel)

  by making available through its service, ... the name, address, phone
  number, and electronic mail address of the agent.

See a very large company's DMCA page which seems to lack that.

So, "why" is the required (?) information absent?


texts: Determining gross income to calculate alimony

texts: Wife and husband have a 16 year marriage in Massachusetts. Wife owns business which has been support for household. Husband has refused to work. Husband wants alimony calculated on wife's gross salary plus car paid for by business plus health insurance premiums. The car and health insurance are paid 100% by business. Should health insurance premiums be added to wife's salary to compute her alimony payment? FYI: She provides health insurance for her children and husband. I cannot find case law on this issue.


texts:
Pardons are mentioned in the United States Constitution at Article 2, Section 2.

  ... The President ... shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Can Obama legally pardon Clinton for any potential crimes she might be convicted of in the future? Would such a pardon likely withstand challenge?


texts: Is evidence submitted in writting that came from a third party, hearsay?

texts:
I have a Dispute scheduled with my ex-landlord. Among other things I alleged that he infringed upon my Quiet Enjoyment by routinely pressuring me into moving out with in person meetings. The landlord rebuttled that he had received numerous complaints about me from other people in the building, and provided the hearing with the e-mailed complaints. Basically the landlord assumed these allegations were true and I wasn’t even able to defend myself because no evidence was given and the claims were very broad and generic.
Do the e-mails count as hearsay? If yes, would I just motion to have them not considered as hearsay? If they’re no hearsay, would I defend myself against the allegations maid in the emails? Or would I simply say that if the landlord wanted to evict me he had to have followed the proper channels.


texts: If (hypothetically) Congress sets a non-zero uninsured penalty, does that invalidate California v. Texas before it is even decided by SCOTUS?

texts:
Regarding the Affordable Care Act odyssey throughout the courts:

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) future continues to be uncertain as the law’s constitutionality will once again be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in California v. Texas. [...]  The individual mandate was upheld as a constitutional exercise of Congress’ taxing power by a five member majority of the Supreme Court in NFIB v. Sebelius in 2012.
In the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Congress set the shared responsibility payment at zero dollars as of January 1, 2019, leading to the current litigation. In December 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit affirmed the trial court’s decision that the individual mandate is no longer constitutional because the associated financial penalty no longer “produces at least some revenue” for the federal government. But, instead of deciding whether the rest of the ACA must be struck down, the 5th Circuit sent the case back to the trial court for additional analysis. However, the Supreme Court has now agreed to review the case.

Assuming Congress musters the necessary votes (including overriding a possible filibuster in the Senate) and then Biden signs into law a non-zero financial penalty, does that render moot California v. Texas before it is even decided by SCOTUS?
The KFF article also has this decision diagram

It looks like, in theory, SCOTUS could decide the case is moot but not vacate the lower court's decision which would strike down ACA even if California v. Texas is moot, but that seems nonsensical to me in view of NFIB v. Sebelius, unless there are additional premises in the lower court's decision in California v. Texas besides the non-zero penalty payment. So, are there such additional considerations or would Congress' (hypothetical) re-setting of a non-zero penalty payment "turn back the legal clock" all the way to NFIB v. Sebelius?


texts: Can work licensed under a Creative Commons license WITHOUT ShareAlike attribute be republished UNADAPTED without the CC license?

texts:
If I license a work under Creative Commons and do not apply the ShareAlike (SA) attribute, can someone else re-publish the UNADAPTED work without the license or with another license?  All I find about the ShareAlike (SA) attribute is about adaptations. But what about re-publishing a work unadapted?

For instance if I publish a work on my site (site 'A') under CC BY license -(only 'attribution') - without ShareAlike (SA) attribute, someone who re-publishes the work on a site 'B' should credit me and notify that the original work (on site 'A') is under CC BY license, but he or she need not share it alike. That gives the impression that the re-publisher could apply any license to the copy of the work on site 'B', e.g. open domain, or a copyright under own name. Then, what is the value of the original CC license?


texts: Protecting oneself from NDA and other forms

texts: I am blogger and product reviewer. As such I deal with a lot of prototype products, and "insider" information. There are times when I am asked to sign a Nondisclosure Form or something similar and I wanted to know if there was a way to supersede that with my own form or statement within my work profile to state something to the point of "should I find fault or other hazards or ethical issues with the product, my integrity and rights as a reviewer/blogger/etc hereby revoke any previously signed documents in order to maintain personal integrity and liability" Or is the document signed between me and said company/persons legally binding regardless of my Independent Contractor clauses?


texts: How does the first limb of the McRae test make the second limb unnecessary?

texts:
O'Sullivan & Hilliard's The Law of Contract (2018 8 ed). p. 312.

The green (party's believing a mistaken unreasonable belief) obviously can be distinguished from the red (about causation). Furthermore, I don't think the HCA Justices in McRae would be dumb enough to concoct two limbs that couldn't be distinguished.

Thus how can the orange contend that the green "is identical" to the purple, but that the purple makes unnecessary the red? With math symbols, if green ≠ red and green = purple, then how can purple make unnecessary red?


texts: One company buys another. Does it also take over existing contractual obligations?

texts:
Company A buys company B. Company B has contracts with additional parties (say Buyer X, Merchandiser Y, Consultant Z, and others).

Can Company A refuse to honour the contracts established by Company B, or cancel their validity, after the sale is complete?


texts: Sworn statement from Chief of Staff on President's intent:isn't that hearsay?

texts:
Trump made two tweets (here and here) which (on a surface reading) would seem to be him ordering the complete declassification of all documents related to the Russian investigation.  In response, several FOIA suits were filed demanding those unredacted documents.  The DoJ responded "not so fast, that's not what Trump meant", and now Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff, has declared under oath that Trump told him that wasn't what Trump meant.
My question is: isn't this hearsay?  IANAL, but this doesn't seem to fall under any of the hearsay exemptions.


texts: Is it legal for websites to keep Logs of a persons billing information after it's deleted from an account?

texts: For example, if I delete my billing info from my Microsoft account, is it gone forever? And if they keep it, is that legal?


texts:
A Reddit user registered the domain name slutsofinstagram.com, and has created a kind of parody cover story (Reddit; Imgur):

  Welcome to Slütsof In Stagrâm an online fantasy series about a Princess duck named Slütsof and her adventurous journey across the mystical lands of Stâgram.

Instagram allegedly sent this user a letter (image) asking them to which alludes to the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).  As a lay person, I cannot determine how the ACPA would apply in this specific case (if at all), and in particular it seems to fail the condition:

  ... has a bad faith intent to profit from that mark ...
  15 U.S. Code § 1125 - False designations of origin, false descriptions, and dilution forbidden

Question: On what grounds can Instagram contest the use of the domain name slutsofinstagram.com?

I found Trademarked name in domain name, but the answer there seems practical: they can just bully to get their way with expensive lawsuits.  I'm interested in the theoretical here: if they have actual grounds.


texts: What options does a wife have for cashing a check made out to both husband and wife?

texts: The specific situation in mind is a check from an insurance company in payment for an insurance claim for damages to a home jointly owned by H and W.  The check is made out to both.  It was sent to the W.  Can she cash the check or does it need to be signed by both.  (It appears the W does not want to share any of the funds with the H. The couple lives apart in Georgia and are not on speaking terms.)


texts: Is it legal to create a carbon copy of an application?

texts:
A couple of days ago, an acquaintance of mine asked for help with an application for his non-profit company. This application was already done previously by people who the client hired previously. He mistakenly hasn't put down a plan to pay them. So they decided to monetize it their own way. They asked him to pay for a set monthly fee as well as some other costs that honestly seem ridiculous to me.

I looked at his requierements and set a price for a bunch of user stories which I will  run by him later this week to see if he agrees. After the initial deployement I plan on maintaining the application for an hourly fee.

So far, he seemed to be content with both the price I proposed the first time we talked about the application and the maintaining fee. The problem is, that he sent me screenshots, basically detailing every single aspect and functionality of the application that was previously created for him.

Therefore I have a question. Is it legal for me to basically create a 1 for 1 carbon copy of something that other people have already created and "sell" it for a lower price?

P.s. I am also sceptical of the whole debacle that he had with his previous "employees". That's why I am determined to put everything in writing as to prevent any misunderstandings from happening.


texts: Is a local regulation preventing the operation of a UAV legal?

texts:
My local government bans drones from flying in any of the parks or open spaces (mountains). The wording they have on their website is:

  "You may not launch, land or otherwise operate any unmanned motorized vehicle from or on any City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks land."

I've previously read posts by ~lawyers saying that a local government cannot override the FAA—cannot prohibit flying a drone in the air over a local park—but that the local government is allowed to prohibit what's on their soil (hence the "launching" and "landing" wording). My question:

Is it legal for a local government to prohibit controlling a drone while standing in the park? "Sure, you can carry a drone controller in your backpack, and you can work the sticks with the power off if you want, but you cannot let it connect to and wirelessly control an aircraft. Also, no skipping on your left foot, unless you're wearing sandals." Can they legally prohibit me from taking off outside the airspace (no), flying the drone into the park (no) then walking into the park while controlling it?

I'm assuming that the answer is "Yes, they can tell you what to do if you want to be on 'their' lands" but I'm looking for any legal precedent or recent cases related to this.


texts: Am I legally obligated to pay for a medical bill?

texts:
During an annual checkup, my doctor requested blood work to be done, he told me there would be no charge. I later received a bill for the blood work for an amount I never consented to. I was told it was because the health insurance company rejected the claim.

Am I legal required to pay? What would be the consequences if I refuse to pay?


texts: Can I break a lease if there is construction noise outside that is not under control of my landlord?

texts: I moved in knowing that there is construction outsides. However, what I did not know is that this construction site would violate the law and start construction as early as 5:30 AM. They have been fined twice by the city of Seattle. If they keep ignoring the law and start construction early, can I break my lease? I know it's not my landlord's responsibility, but it's insufferable for me because I cannot sleep.


texts: How comparable are the "Law School Legends" series of audiobook-on-CD to 1L and 2L lectures of the same course name?

texts:
In particular, I have in mind Freer's Civil Procedure title. It consists of about 10 hours or so. However, most of the syllabi I can find for Civil Procedure indicate 20+ scheduled classes for this course.

Granted, not all of these will be lectures, there are exams and other instructional methods. It seems reasonable that 10 hours of audio might be roughly equivalent to the lectures one would experience in that course.

On the other hand, having listened to the intro and briefly glanced at the track listing... and it has a Cliff Notes-ish feel to it.

Can someone who has both sat through a full semester of Civil Procedure lectures and listened to this title briefly compare the two and explain what might be missing?


texts: Do you have to obey English-only traffic signs in Toronto?

texts:
Canada is bilingual, yet some major metros like the Greater Toronto Area have all of their traffic signs in English only, without a French duplicate.

Is this legal or not?  Do you have to respect such signs, e.g. no turn Mon-Fri, or are they effectively informational only?  What if you don't even speak any French?


texts: Is selling products at different prices depending on gender possible?

texts:
I noticed that a French nightclub in Nice (France) sold products at different prices according to the sex of the customers and according to their clothes, indeed women paid less for nightclub's ticket and those who wore short skirts paid less for drinks.
Is it possible to do that ? It seems like be price discrimination to me.


texts: Facebook vs GDPR - Private Messages I sent to others will never be deleted/erased from Facebook servers

texts:
I asked this question to Facebook:

  I would like to know how can I permanently delete private messages
  from both sides of the conversation. For example, conversations I had
  in the past with other Facebook users that I don't want them to be
  able to see/read anymore.

  If this is currently possible, or will be possible in the future, how
  can I apply this action also to messages I have already deleted from
  my side in the past?

And they replied this:

  Messenger works like texting (SMS) and other mobile messaging apps to
  let you reach people instantly on their phones. When you send a
  message on Messenger a copy will be saved to your device. Only you and
  the people you’re in a conversation with can see your messages.

  Deleting a message permanently removes it from your inbox and your
  copy is removed from our servers. Keep in mind that deleting a message
  or conversation from your inbox won't delete it from your another
  person's inbox. As with messages sent via text message or by email, it
  isn't possible to delete sent or received messages from another
  person's inbox.

Since I don't agree with this answer, I replied:

  While I understand what you mean regarding Messenger working like
  texting (SMS), there is a difference in that SMS messages do not stay
  saved on the servers permanently.

  Even with Whatsapp, as far as I know, messages are deleted from the
  servers once they reach the recipient's device. This seems more like
  texting (SMS).

  So, regarding Messenger, I would like to have a way to delete messages
  from Facebook's servers (including those I deleted so far), in both my
  side and recipient's side, even if a copy stays on recipients'
  devices.

With a final reply from Facebook:

  As previously mentioned deleting a message permanently removes it from
  your inbox and your copy is removed from our servers. However,
  deleting a message or conversation from your inbox won't delete it
  from your another person's inbox. As with messages sent via text
  message or by email, it isn't possible to delete sent or received
  messages from another person's inbox even if you delete your account.

Is this being GDPR compliant?

I'm sure they are aware that private messages can have a lot of PII data, such as photos, addresses, private information that can easily identify an individual, etc... (or even my name, if they keep it attached to the message threads)

If I decide to delete my account, apparently all the private messages I sent to others will never be deleted from Facebook servers, unless the recipients have deleted from their side.

I don't see this as being compliant to the Art. 17 GDPR - Right to erasure.
Am I correct?


texts: Why do UK Supreme Court Justices read aloud their judgments?

texts:
All UKSC (and Privy Council) judgments are published and can be read and downloaded for free. So why do Justices read parts of them aloud, as you can see on UKSC's official YouTube channel?
I'd certainly think that lawyers can read for themselves! Are they intended for the illiterate?

As you can also see, very few people attend these declamations, barring the landmark cases.


texts: Are only citizens "at the time of the adoption of this Constitution" eligible to be President?

texts:
While reading this answer, I noticed some odd wording in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution (emphasis mine):

  No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

Does this mean that, to be eligible for the office of President, one must have been a citizen when the Constitution was signed or otherwise 'adopted', presumably years ago? If not, what does "at the time of the adoption" mean in this context?


texts: Laws blocking the use of dogs to detect the coronavirus at airports?

texts: Is there a law or regulation that prevents the use of dogs to detect the coronavirus at airports in the United States as it is done already somewhere else? Do other countries have laws like these which block the use of dogs?


texts: So today at school (I go to a public high school in Texas) a substitute teacher told a kid to stop saying Jesus Christ. I was wondering if the teacher has the authority to do this? It was clearly for religious motives as the kid wasn't being a distraction or breaking any rules.


texts: How can private businesses compel the government to collect tax?

texts:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirimasters/2019/08/08/california-lawsuit-says-amazon-should-pay-billions-in-back-taxes/
Apparently an obscure business forced the California government to collect tax from amazon.
How does that make any sense? How can a private company force the government to collect taxes?


texts: Interpretation of termination clause of a License to Occupy

texts:
I find myself in a situation where I need to end my Licence to occupy contract for a property in London UK, 2 months in advance to the initially projected date. The licensor refuses to accept this and the terms in the contract are somewhat open to interpretation/speculation, in my opinion. Here is an exact excerpt from it:

  Termination

  This Licence shall end on the earliest of:

  9.1. 31 May 2020; and

  a) the expiry of a two weeks' notice given by the Licensor to the
  Licensee at any time of breach of any of the Licensee's obligations
  contained in clause 3; and

  b) the expiry of not less than 1 months' prior written notice given by
  the Licensee to the Licensor: if the Licensee does not to give notice
  to the Licensor the Licence will continue under the terms herewith in.
  To be clear: to end the Licence the Licensee MUST give one months'
  prior notice for the Licence end date or the Licence will NOT END and
  the Licensee will be responsible for the rent until the Licence is
  ended by either party as detailed herewith in.

  c) The Licensee may not serve notice to determine (end) in the months
  of July, December or prior to the 15th of January.

Does point 9.1.b) basically say that I can leave whenever (except in those cases mentioned at 9.1.c) ) as long as I notify them 30 days in advance?

If that is indeed the case, how do i make the landlord understand that they’ve got the wrong interpretation or how do i proceed in pursuing cancellation?

There are no other terms modifying the termination date in the contract, to the best of my knowledge.


texts: Is it legal to record conversations with police?

texts:
If I am stopped by the police for questioning on the street, would I be within my rights to record the conversation on my phone to avoid any looseness with accounts of what was said on either side? Would the police officer be allowed to refuse my request to record the conversation? And what if my phone just happened to be on my body recording before any conversation was initiated?

(I am asking this from the perspective of an Australian in Victoria - but I'm sure the answer from other jurisdictions would be interesting also.)


texts: Can I register a trademark after leaving a company in the UK?

texts:
I've been working on a new product for a company as a software developer (creating it from scratch). I've come up with a name for it as well which my manager didn't tell me to do but I decided to be creative. Now that I've resigned, can I register a trademark for the name of the product that I've come up with considering that my previous employer does not seem to be going forward with the product?

Also is there anything stopping me from registering a trademark for any of their existing product names if they haven't done it themselves?


texts: Under which country's jurisdiction does a website fall?

texts:
My site is hosted in the US. The domain was bought from an Indian vendor, and is being developed in India by an individual. There is no registered office or anything of that sort.

The site's content might be illegal in India, but is completely legal in the USA.

Is this website under USA or Indian jurisdiction, and how could it be moved from one to the other?


texts: Can contracts include irrevocable terms of imprisonment for breach?

texts:
As noted here:  At least in Israel, by agreeing to marry under religious law a person is irrevocably subject to that law's rulings, to the extent that a religious court can sentence one to a term in prison.

I.e., in Israel, people can opt to enter a marriage contract that subjects them to a separate legal system that can sentence them to prison, and the state will enforce such terms.

In the U.S., and in other civil law and common law countries: Will the state ever enforce a contractual term (marital or otherwise) involving imprisonment for something that is not a crime under the state's laws?  Or, when faced with prison under the terms of the contract, can one always default on the contract and thereby face only civil penalties?


texts: Is It Legal to Create A Virtual Copy of a Physical Board Game If I Own A Copy of the Physical Game?

texts:
Since COVID-19 has senior centers shut down, I'm thinking of holding a virtual game night at these centers. I'd like to allow the seniors to play games like Risk or Monopoly against each other on laptops.
Board game manufacturers often don't have very good digital versions of their games, so I was thinking of using Tabletop Simulator to recreate the game virtually. However, a virtual version of the game made with copyrighted artwork downloaded from the internet isn't legal.
I know you can make a digital copy of a book or CD you own. If I owned a board game and used digital copies of the game's artwork I made to create a virtual version of the game, would this be legal? The virtual game would only be used for this project, and I wouldn't distribute the artwork to anyone else.
Thank you!


texts: Can I use the names of famous people in an educational game about their works?

texts:
I want to create a philosophy educational card game video game that features philosophers on many of the cards. For most philosophers, this is fine, but for philosophers born in the last 100 years this is a real headache in knowing whether or not the likeness is protected.
The reason why they are cards is because it is supposed to represent how philosophers have been reduced to consumable toy ideas, mass produced by a company and used as teaching aids in the story, and the main characters learn more about the philosophy and works of each philosopher through researching the cards. The philosophers are not part of the story themselves, they are just there on the cards as teaching aids. All of the characters in the story are original creations.
For now, since the game is free, I am just using photos of the philosophers, but I plan to draw my own art for them. So the photo rights will not be a problem when/if I decide to go commercial. Any promotion for the game only features philosophers born over 100 years ago (like Karl Marx or Aristotle) so I can't imagine those images being zealously protected.
I have no intention to manufacture the cards physically outside of a limited art print production featuring my own artwork. So it won't be an official TCG or anything.
Does this fall under first-amendment rights?


texts:
Is "canceling" people tortious interference?
As a concrete example, Richard Stallman (RMS) is/was employed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), MIT and other organizations. He voiced opinions that some found disagreeable (For example, he publicly opposed the use of singular "they", and of the term "sexual assault" when applied to underage sex)
Ostensibly for this and possibly other  reasons, various individuals and organizations are trying to pressure the FSF and his other employers to fire Stallman. Can this be tortious interference?

From the RMS-open-letter:

There has been enough tolerance of RMS’s repugnant ideas and behavior.
We cannot continue to let one person ruin the meaning of our work. Our
communities have no space for people like Richard M. Stallman, and we
will not continue suffering his behavior, giving him a leadership
role, or otherwise holding him and his hurtful and dangerous ideology
as acceptable.
We are calling for the removal of the entire Board of the Free Software Foundation. These are people who have enabled and empowered
RMS for years. They demonstrate this again by permitting him to rejoin
the FSF Board. It is time for RMS to step back from the free software,
tech ethics, digital rights, and tech communities, for he cannot
provide the leadership we need. We are also calling for Richard M.
Stallman to be removed from all leadership positions, including the
GNU Project.
We urge those in a position to do so to stop supporting the Free
Software Foundation. Refuse to contribute to projects related to the
FSF and RMS. Do not speak at or attend FSF events, or events that
welcome RMS and his brand of intolerance. We ask for contributors to
free software projects to take a stand against bigotry and hate within
their projects. While doing these things, tell these communities and
the FSF why.

While the anti-RMS sentiment dominated the headlines, it appears to voice a minority opinion, as the pro-RMS letter currently has more signatures.
Nevertheless, some corporate sponsors, such as RedHat/IBM withdrew their support of the FSF.


texts: What counts as redistribution of copyrighted calculation?

texts: In quantitative finance SE, there is a question asking for help calculating an index.    If someone writes a program that performs the calculations described in the handbook and shares that program publicly, would it violate the index copywrite?  Or does the translation from English to computer program make it ok?


texts: Why would I need a section 85 roll over in Canada during incorporation?

texts:
I want to incorporate in Canada, and a law student told me I should do a "section 85 roll over" to transfer the cash I want to use to operate my corporation.
its not a lot of cash, just 40-50k, but this roll-over will cost me 3k to do.

it just seems strange. Why is this necessary? Does every business owner incorporating need to transfer cash this way?


texts: Can I use our sponsors as other compnay logos?

texts:
I have a blog related to web designing.

I make money via affiliate marketing.

Can I use our sponsors as other company ( the companies which I used to make money via affiliate marketing)  logos?

Is it legal?


texts: What is the law for sites like Fiverr in using purchased "creative works"

texts:
So Fiverr for those that aren't familiar is a site for buying and selling creative works essentially, from freelance artists. On some of them you can "add on" either (a) "Commercial Use Rights", or (b) "Full Broadcasting Rights". Most authors don't seem to mind about these things and instead make copyright free works and when asked will say "Of course you can use this however you like" sorts of things.

Meanwhile, there are the lawyers saying everything needs to be in a contract. Fiverr doesn't have any "contracts" other than your purchased transaction if that counts. You're left to wonder if you need to go out beyond and write up a "Content License Agreement" sort of thing that officially outlines everything in legalese.

My question is, broadly, what are the rules/laws for sites like Fiverr in terms of using the content you purchase? Doesn't purchasing it mean you have full rights to it?

If not, then what actions must be taken to ensure you have "full rights" to the content? Purchasing these "addons" hardly seems like a robust solution, would that even hold up? Does asking them casually in chat "Hey, can I use your content for commercial purposes?" and them answering "Yes of course :)" count as a contract? I think it does, but maybe I'm wrong. And if they instead say "No, you cannot use it for commercial purposes", what do you do then? Or perhaps they say "No, but if you buy my extra gig you can get the commercial license", how do you make this binding?


texts: In the UK, can a landlord/agent add new tenants to a joint tenancy agreement without the consent of the current tenants?

texts:
I am currently subject to a fixed-term joint tenancy (assured shorthold) agreement with two other tenants. One of the joint tenants wishes to exit the tenancy early. The tenancy agreement describes the procedure for leaving the tenancy before the end of the fixed term:

9 DEALINGS
9.1 The tenant must not assign the Property or any part of it although the Tenant may assign the whole of the Property after the first 3
months of the Term has expired subject to first obtaining the
Landlord's written consent (such consent not to be unreasonably
withheld).
9.2 Where one or more of the individuals comprising the Tenant (the Outgoing Tenant) wishes to leave before the end of the Term and has
found another person or persons (the New Tenant) acceptable to both
the Landlord and the remaining individual or individuals comprising
the Tenant (the Remaining Tenant), the Outgoing Tenant and the
Remaining Tenant may assign the Property to the Remaining Tenant and
the New Tenant subject to first obtaining the Landlord’s written
consent (such consent not to be unreasonably withheld).
9.3 The Landlord may reasonably withhold consent in these particular circumstances if, amongst other matters:
(a) The New Tenant (or where appropriate any individual comprising the New Tenant) is not a student pursuing a course of study at an education establishment or will not become such a student within 3 months of the date of assignment; or
(b) The New Tenant (or where appropriate any individual comprising the New Tenant) has not produced satisfactory financial and personal references; or
(c) The Remaining Tenant (or where appropriate any individual comprising the Remaining Tenant) informs the Landlord that the New Tenant (or where appropriate any individual comprising the New Tenant) is not acceptable; or
(d) The Landlord is reasonably of the opinion that the New Tenant (or where appropriate any individual comprising the New Tenant) would be incompatible with the Remaining Tenant (or where appropriate any individual comprising the Remaining Tenant).
9.4 The Tenant must not sublet or part with or share possession of the Property or any part of it.

However the candidate replacement tenants have not been acceptable to either me or the other remaining tenant. The letting agent has informed us that once three candidates have been nominated by the tenant wishing to leave the agreement, we must accept one of the candidates. This "three candidate" rule is not in the tenancy agreement.
Can a letting agent change a tenancy agreement without the consent of the tenants in this way?
Thank you.


texts: Do "homewrecker" laws exist in any other western country than United States?

texts: I was reading this article A North Carolina man just won U$S 750,000 lawsuit after suing his wife lover which mentions men earning figures such as U$S 750,000 or even U$S 8,800,000 for suing his wife's lover. Do laws like this exist in any other western country? And by western I mean the definition of western world which includes Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.


texts: SEC Act 1933 or 1934 Reporting Requirements triggered for sale over 10M?

texts:
if a privately held DE corporation operating & owned exclusively in & by Californians is sold for over Ten Million U.S. dollars, with some of that price millions to be exact, being paid a few months later, ie. millions "financed" up front at the point of sale by way of a contract, do any SEC Act 1933 or 1934 Reporting Requirements get triggered?i.e. the fact it was over ten million purchase price?

What if a Hedge fund is purchasing the company and pays the "financed" portion down the line also--does that, ie. hedge fund involvement, trigger reporting requirements?

Thanks!


texts: What are the differences between the terms "act", "law", and "regulation"?

texts:
Is there any difference between "act", "law", and "regulation"? Are they interchangeable?

Is "law draft" acceptable to use to refer to a "bill"? Is that legalese and common to use in legal documents?


texts: What entitlements do I have if someone uses my video on Facebook and gets millions of views?

texts: I posted a video on Facebook and a page asked if they could use the video. I said as long as I get credit. That video now has almost 10 million views on their page and countless other pages and sites have used my video. Am I entitled to any of the money they make off of advertisements? Are pages legally allowed to use that video if I did not give them license?


texts: How is a settlement agreement in a civil case approved?

texts:
While reading a very informative answer to a previous question:
Plaintiff didn't respond to discovery - and later settled - can I get any legal fees back?

I came across
"the court may need to approve the settlement."

I have several follow up questions

When does a court need to approve a settlement? (For example, a civil case in New Jersey.)
What is the process?  Who reads it and what do they look for?
If the settlement is approved by a court, how big is the discrepancy between a contract that is approved by the the court and one which can later be deemed non enforceable?  From what I read on the internet, a contract should not forbid someone from reporting a crime, but my contract explicitly forbids me from making any complaint with the Attorney General.
Is there a reason the process should take over a year?  We had both signed and dated a settlement agreement.  Over a year later I was applying for jobs, and was trying to explain to potential employers that "well, if you do look me up in the ACMS this case is active but we signed the contract over a year ago." Needless to say, I didn't get any offers.


texts: Quoting Wikipedia - "Additional terms may apply"

texts:
I'm working on a commercial book and would like to include a series of Wikipedia "talk" pages (example). This text appears at the bottom of the page:

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to
the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.

My use is essentially covered by the Creative Commons license, but what does "additional terms may apply" mean?
I'm aware that Wikipedia has far more "fair use" protection than I do. In that spirit, I might have to delete quoted material that is copied from other sources. But are there any other legal booby traps I should be aware of?
My book is titled Conspiracy Science, and I want to include talk pages relating to the topics "conspiracy" and "conspiracy theory" because 1) they're a gold mine of information, 2) they include fabulous examples of propaganda and manipulation, and 3) I want to preserve them in case Wikipedia later deletes them.
I contacted Wikipedia, but I got a boilerplate answer, something like "The pages are released under a Creative Commons license, but we can't give you specific legal advice."
My hunch is that I can legally reprint the series of pages in my book as long as I delete quotes extracted from other works.
My book will be published in the U.S., though it will be sold online and therefore available to people in other countries.


texts: Can an employee be sued for gross negligence by reusing personal passwords at work?

texts:
An employee is using some easy guessable reused passwords well known to Have I Been Pwned.

OUCH.

Something bad happens.

Can an employee be sued?

Option A: An organization does not have password policy.

Option B: An organization has a policy but does not enforce it


texts: Can I sue a company in US even if I'm in Brazil?

texts:
I currently live in Brazil and bought a Lifetime VPN service from a company called Spyproof VPN in 13 Oct 2015 which supposedly does not keep logs. After investigating some more, I found out that the Privacy Policy and Terms of Servicelinks had gone missing and before when they did exist, they didn't point anywhere, meaning that they never had them in the start.

Recently I de-compiled their VPN Client and saw that they retrieve the HWID which is the processor ID that is unique to every processor, thus allowing them to log all my actions, even though they already have a login + password combination.

The password is also sent in plain text with no encryption or whatsoever by the internet, not even https.

I then opened a support ticket asking them why were they retrieving that information and today 2 weeks after having opened the support ticket, I tried to log into their service and as it appears, my login doesn't exists.

My next step is to go after paypal to start a dispute and then attempt to sue them.

My question is: Can I sue them even though I'm in another country?

A possible second question would be: Can I sue them for the proof and reasons I have?

P.S.: If necessary I can post the pictures where they state that they do not hold logs and the picture of the code from the VPN client where they send the HWID in EVERY request together with the plain text password.


texts:
I'm considering creating a music transcription service as a side hobby project. With this service, clients could request that I transcribe a song (or parts of a song) for them in exchange for a fee. I would then send the client a PDF version of my transcription.

From my understanding, it is illegal when you sell or give away any derivative form of a copyrighted song (including sheet music). With this service, I do not intend to publish or sell sheet music. I would merely create the transcription, and give it to the client that requested it for a fee.

I understand it is perfectly legal to transcribe a song you purchased yourself, as long as it is for personal use. Does this become copyright infringement when someone else pays you to transcribe a song they've purchased, and this person is the only one who will get the transcription?


texts: My job seems to be ignoring a state executive order to suspend activity. How can I best protect myself but also report them to the authorities?

texts:
Michigan has issued an order titled "Temporary requirement to suspend activities that
are not necessary to sustain or protect life". In it they reference Homeland Security's own guidance about what constitutes essential critical infrastructure as the businesses to remain in operation.

While the Michigan order allows individuals to recreate outdoors. And that recreation may take the form of cycling while maintaining 6 feet of separation. However, it seems pretty clear to me that businesses supporting recreational activities are not essential critical infrastructure. This seems exactly the kind of word twisting Gamestop was using to remain open before being shut down.

How can I best bring this to the attention of authorities while balancing my own professional security?


texts: License of a code resulting from following a Youtube tutorial

texts:
I was following this tutorial on YouTube - https://youtu.be/V_lAhqLXT9A where you download some starter files and then edit them according to the tutorial to make a website.

I wonder what legal status the result has? I know that YT videos are not in the public domain, but I am not sure what about the information inside them e.g. snippets of some code.

Also, there was no license int the starter files.

Thanks


texts: If charged in two separate states, what determines which state has priority?

texts: If someone were to commit crimes such as murder in two different states and both states file charges against the person, which state processes the case? More specifically, can someone who is charged in a state without a death penalty be extradited to another state with the death penalty?


texts: How is discrimination by an employer litigated in the United Stats?

texts:
Assume that the complainant has sufficient proof of racial discrimination in their workplace, and wishes to have it investigated.

What is the regular course of action in such case in the United States?

From reading the Civil Rights Act of 1964, my understanding is that:

The complainant writes a claim to the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity (Title VII, Sec 706(a))
The commission mediates to resolve the matter informally, which may take up to 30 days (Titile VII, Sec 706(a)).

Let's say that the mediation doesn't succeed to achieve voluntary compliance satisfactory to both sides. What happens next? Under Sec 706(e) it appears that the complainant has to litigate himself in a civil court, and potentially be exempt from any fees and have an appointed attorney.

How often does it actually happen? Is there any relevant case law?

How will the civil court try the case? Will the judge reference the Civil Rights Directly? What is a likely punishment?

Why is the process convoluted by adding an extra step in form of the commission?
 Why isn't discrimination simply prosecuted by the state's attorney? After all racial discrimination very much fits the definition of a public wrong.

Is the enforcement any good?


texts: Is it legal to create an online video course based on a book?

texts:
I read a great book about programming and I want to create an online video course based on it. Essentially, "convert" it into a video format by explaining the things I understood in my own words, but still following the structure and order of the book. I'm not going to copy any text or images directly from the book.

There are several concerns I have:

This seems perfectly legal since I'm creating my own original content being impressed by the book. But I'm not sure. Are there any caveats maybe?
Is it legal to use the name of the book in the name of my course? For example, "Online course: Exploring the 'XXX' book by John Doe".
Is it legal to re-draw in my own style the illustrations and tables and use them in the videos?
Is there a way to to re-write the programming code from the book, modifying it somehow to make it legal?

Thank you.


texts: Is there a general duty to avoid creating unsafe situations when driving (Belgium)?

texts:
As I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong), in aviation and in maritime traffic, there is an overriding obligation to operate safely and avoid accidents/damage. E.g.:

Alice and Bob are both cargo ship captains. Alice is bringing her ship into port, in perfect accordance with all relevant laws and guidelines. Bob's ship, close by, starts behaving erratically (either due to technical problems or human error on Bob's part). There is a risk of collision. Alice's ship has ample opportunity to change course and eliminate the risk, but Alice refuses to do so because "Hey, I followed all the rules - this isn't my problem." A collision ends up occurring, resulting in material damage, huge delays & opportunity costs, and perhaps even loss of life.

My understanding (again, please correct me if I'm mistaken) is that in the above situation, Alice would have been expected to take action to avoid the collision, and bears some degree of (criminal or civil) liability for failing to do so, even though all she did was 'follow the rules'.
My question is whether any similar principle exists for road users. An example:

Carol and Dave are driving their cars across a level crossing, with Carol ahead and Dave following. Just after clearing the crossing, Carol's car halts (or slows down to a crawl), leaving Dave with insufficient space and trapping him on the tracks. The bells ring and the barriers begin to descend, indicating that a train is on the way.

Of course, Dave should have known better than to cross a level crossing when there isn't already sufficient space on the other side. But now that the situation has occurred, and Carol is able to easily resolve it, is she under any legal obligation to do so? If she does not, is she civilly liable to Dave (or possibly to the engineer & passengers on the train)? Has she committed a criminal offence?
Does it matter whether Carol has a generally valid reason for stopping (e.g. she's letting a passenger disembark onto the sidewalk, perhaps completely unaware of Dave's predicament) or not (e.g. she's a bully who spontaneously decides she'd find it hilarious to terrify the driver behind her, maybe kill him, and possibly derail a train - and is later caught admitting as much in a brag to friends)?
Say Dave, after a fruitless ten seconds of frantic klaxoning with the train barreling down, decides to floor it and physically push Carol's car with his own so that he can get off the tracks. Is Dave then liable for the damage he's caused to Carol's car? Has Dave committed a criminal offence by driving into her car? Is Carol possibly on the hook for the damage this maneuver caused to Dave's car?
I live in Belgium so that's the answer I'm most interested in, but I also welcome insights from other jurisdictions. I imagine this is an area of law that could easily vary quite a bit.


texts: Consider a book copyrighted by someone. Is it legal (in India? in USA?) to make an audio recording of the book and give copies privately to a handful interested people who ask for it?


texts: Should I blur personally identifiable information on Facebook screen recording for YouTube?

texts:
(Global question: EU, US, etc)
I'm recording a video for YouTube where I show how browser extension works while surfing through different Facebook Groups, Business Pages, Personal Profiles, etc.
Should I blur surnames and photos of people who meet on the screen?
According to this article: https://gdpr.eu/eu-gdpr-personal-data/ photos are also considered personally identifiable information:

Video, audio, numerical, graphical, and photographic data can all contain personal data.
...
Methods of identification that are not present today could be developed in the future, which means that data stored for long durations must be continuously reviewed to make sure it cannot be combined with new technology that would allow for indirect identification.

So it's possible to find people if I show their avatars (using Neural Networks, Google Images, or other services). So It seems that even avatars should be blurred.
But should I blur personally identifiable information? Especially considering that people on Facebook made it public and do not hide it.
Thanks!


texts: Would whether an item falls into a specific legal category be a question of law or a question of fact?

texts:
Sparked by this question: Can a judges decision to allow a matter to trial be appealed immediately, or only after the trial?

On appeal, the appellate court grants an over-comeable presumption correctness of judicial opinions on questions of fact, but not on questions of law. Would classification of an item in a specific legal category be a question of law, or a question of fact, e.g. would whether or not a specific item falls into a prohibited or restricted category be a question of law or a question of fact?

Some scenarios that I thought of that might affect the answer:

Without any guidance from law or regulation
With unclear definition in law or regulation
With a clear definition in law or regulation that supports the judicial decision
With a clear definition in law or regulation that supports the judicial decision
With multiple definitions in law or regulation, some of which support and some of which (i.e. a choice of definitions to apply)


texts: Do sushi restaurants, grocers in California violate Proposition 65?

texts:
I've lived in California for a couple of years a couple of years ago, and have certainly seen Proposition 65 warnings all over the place, from the common grounds of apartment complexes, to fast food chains and perhaps even Starbucks (roasted coffee beans have chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects!).

However, where I've never seen it are any of the sushi restaurants, or within the grocery section of any shops, big or small.

Soylent's California Proposition 65 article, however, is probably the first ever time I see a Proposition 65 warning applied to an actual food item "at a supermarket" (a small virtual one, but nonetheless), or any food item other than the fried/roasted products by the big fast food chains.

Is Rosa Labs / Soylent just making fun of Proposition 65 and their home State of California?  Or are they really legally required to produce such warning indeed?

As per their references of an FDA study, does it imply that all grocery stores and sushi places are in violation?  Not to mention basically every restaurant that sells coffee, fish, fried or grilled items?


texts: Do pedestrians have the right of way in parking lots?

texts:
Consider a parking lot, such as this one:

specifically, its one-way lanes. If a pedestrian is crossing them, does he have the right of way?
If a car hits a pedestrian there, is there a conceivable scenario where it might not be found to be at fault?
Asking about California, if this matters.


texts: Music on YouTube? Isn't it a copyright violation?

texts: How is it that people can post musical soundtracks and pop songs on YouTube? Doesn't that violate copyright laws?


texts: Two year home residency and citizenship under section 322

texts:
Background: I went to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in 2014 and am subject to the two year home residency requirement. My wife is a U.S. Citizen born abroad. Our child, also born outside of the U.S. (in 2013), is not eligible for citizenship by birth, but does satisfy the requirement for citizenship under section 322, i.e. by https://www.uscis.gov/n-600k. However, we did not know this before going to the U.S. in 2014, so our child went as a J-2 dependent and is also subject to the two year home residency requirement.

Question: Does the home residency requirement prevent one from filing N-600K? All information we find only talks about it preventing one from applying for permanent residence, certain visa types, etc.


texts: Do police have special protection in shootings, related to Breonna Taylor

texts:
I know this is a hot button issue. I was reading about self defense with a firearm and found the general rule that a person that instigates a fight cannot use a self defense argument when using deadly force. The castle doctrine includes the requirement for violent entry to allow the use of deadly force.
The police used a violent entry to enter the Taylor apartment. The DA said the officers were justified in shooting in self defense. The DA decided not to go to trial because the officers were defending themselves. But could officers really use a self defense argument at a trial? Would it be more nuanced that they were protecting the public?
I get the community concerns that police can break down a door and shoot when someone claims they are just defending themselves. Of course, if the police cannot shoot at a criminal shooting a gun then police are put in an untenable position. I’m pro-law enforcement. And I’ve learned how fast confrontations can go sour.
Do police have special permission to use deadly force? Is the violent entry that police may use when serving a warrant different than violent entry that a criminal uses when breaking in?
I understand the issue is sensitive.


texts: What if I use a false signature on a contract?

texts: Suppose I sign a contract with a company to buy some amount of good in bulk but while signing I faked it, they wouldn't have a way to know if it's my actual signature and if I breach my contract I could just say I never signed it, they won't have any proof as the signature is not mine. How can you protect yourself from this?


texts: Is there a law that says you have to care for a minor that isn’t your child?

texts: If a minor that isn’t your child would die if unhelped, and you were the only one that could help them, is there any law saying you have to?


texts: Can I make my own barcode pattern based on existing pattern?

texts:
There is a number of barcode patterns out there.

One of them is RSS-14 (aka GS1 DataBar). It's even been standartized in ISO/IEC 24724:2011.

Now, while I like the general format of the barcode, I want to make it shorter to use in software development / advertising. I'm not going to patent my new format or anything and I'm going to use an open source software library.

Am I violating some RSS-14 patent here by doing so?
Am I correct in assuming that if it was ISO standartized, it means I can build upon it?


texts: What happens if a "small estate" stops being small?

texts:
Let's say that a "small estate" (for example, in New York, under $50,000) is resolved through a Small Estate process. Letters of Administration are issued for a few small accounts. And then, months later, a new account is uncovered. Normally, the administrator would just file an Affidavit Amendment.
But what if the new accounts have a value which would take the overall estate OVER the $50,000 threshold?
Can the administrator still get access because he didn't know of those accounts? Does something retroactive happen to the estate?


texts: Do you need a driver's license to travel in the U.S.?

texts:
In the U.S., the law that governs motor vehicles is the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

But according to the Constitution;

  Freedom of movement under United States law is governed primarily by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution which states, "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

Case #1: "The use of the highway for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege, but a common fundamental right of which the public and individuals cannot rightfully be deprived." Chicago Motor Coach v. Chicago, 169 NE 221.

Case #2: "The right of the citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by carriage or by automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will, but a common law right which he has under the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thompson v. Smith, 154 SE 579.

Case #3: "The right to travel is a part of the liberty of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment." Kent v. Dulles, 357 US 116, 125.

Case #4: "The right to travel is a well-established common right that does not owe its existence to the federal government. It is recognized by the courts as a natural right." Schactman v. Dulles 96 App DC 287, 225 F2d 938, at 941.

So, are you allowed to travel in a motor vehicle in the U.S. without a driver's license?


texts: How could an "unknown easement" exist on a property?

texts:
I read in a list of potential property title defects that there could be an "unknown easement" (#7 in the list).

How could there be an unknown easement? I thought all easements must be recorded on the deed.


texts: How do I find the correct fine/fee/bail for a municipal code parking violation?

texts:
I received a citation for San Jose Municipal Code 11.36.290 which is for parking a commercial vehicle over 10,000 pounds in a residential area.

The fine was for $490, as well as the inclusion of a few equipment violations were were all over $100 each.

From looking through the vehicle code, it seems like this is grossly inflated (all of the citation was retaliatory by an angry officer, so this would not be surprising).

How can I figure out the correct fine amount as well as all the fees they are allowed to attach?

Looking at the Traffic Bail schedule for 2016 in that county:

http://www.scscourt.org/documents/traffic_bail.pdf

it states that the base bail should be $35, and furthermore:

  STATE, CITY, COUNTY MISDEMEANORS FILED IN THE TRAFFIC DIVISIONS SHALL
  MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:
    a) Bail not to exceed $250.00

Otherwise it should be filed in the criminal division (it was not, it was handled in traffic court).

I believe that I am being fleeced, to say the least - how can I prove it and find the correct maximum fine/bail amount?


texts:
I know it is legal to send mail without a return address, but is it legal to mail with someone else's address? When I went to the post office the label machine did not have an option for "No Return Address". The problem is that I don't have a legal address to put down (and no I don't have friends or family to ask to borrow their address).
So how can I send mail without a legal address?


texts: If collateral secured in a promissory note no longer belongs to the borrower, what happens on default?

texts:
I ask because a somewhat usurious former coworker (the lender) has a notarized agreement with a family member (the borrower) for a significant debt, where the house is used as collateral. The payment installations are exceedingly too much for the family member to afford while paying off mortgage and other debts.

If the house title is transferred to another family member, can it still be used as collateral if the borrower defaults on the promissory note loan?

Edit: The house is located in California, and the promissory note was also drafted in California, without a lawyer present, but signed by a notary.


texts: Oregon adoption consent and revocability - legal requirements are not required?

texts:
According to ORS 109.321 consent to adoption cannot be revoked once 6 conditions are met, one of those being a duly signed and attested Certificate of Irrevocability and Waiver.

I recently spoke with someone from the Child Welfare Program in my County, who told me the fact that I didn't sign a Certificate of Irrevocability and Waiver isn't relevant in my case, due to the fact that I signed a consent to entry of stipulated judgement terminating my parental rights.

Why does a stipulated judgement mean the requirements in ORS 109.321 do not need to be met, for any consent I signed to be irrevocable?


texts: Is employment discrimination crime, or tort, or what?

texts:
I just learned that, in the US, literally asking certain questions on a job interview (as opposed to making discriminatory decisions based on the answers to those questions) is illegal (as found here and here).

It turns out, however, that asking itself is not a punishable offense. Employer can get away with asking those questions until someone uses them as evidence of discrimination in a court case.

Such evidence, by its nature, is only circumstantial. That is, it does not directly show discrimination (after all, the interviewer could be simply doing small talk / assessing soft skills when asking "what is your gender identity?" — rather than having discriminatory intent in mind). But, in conjunction with other corroborating evidence (e.g. rejection despite apparent fitness to work, and acceptance of a less fit applicant who is of a different answer to those question) these questions could indeed prove discrimination.

Now, what standard of proof? "Balance of probabilities" (as for a tort), or "beyond reasonable doubt" (as for a crime)? Is such discrimination a crime in the US, or tort, or what?

Is it the case that those questions prove discrimination just because the statute says they do, despite that otherwise they would not (especially given that state of mind of the employer is not determinable)?


texts:
I was reading some mathematics books and I observed that most of them have either of these mentioned before preface.

Case I

  Copyright: All right reserved by XYZ

or

Case :II

  Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
  in any form without the written permission of the publishers.

I am actually travelling next week and I won't be able to carry the books physically. I was thinking of downloading the PDFs of the book from sites like Libgen.

I think it would be illegal and unethical to do that in case II because writer strictly prohibits that.

Am I free to download and read the PDF of the book in Case I.

P.S.: I live in India.


texts: Is it possible to divorce, with children (under 18), in TN without a lawyer or mediator?

texts:
Is it possible to divorce, with children (under 18) in Davison county TN without a lawyer or mediator if both parents have filled a parenting plan and in total agreement?

We've been researching but cannot find any forms that allow a married couple (4 years) with children (under 18) to fill out and bring to court where they can be signed off and our divorce made official. Everything I've read so far is about divorcing for those without children, and that it's suggested to go with a mediator or lawyer otherwise. But there must be a way to do this without hiring these $300/hr services, especially when the parents are not contesting anything.


texts: Legality of "tenant negligence" to make tenant pay for repairs

texts:
Background: I am a college student in South Carolina, USA.

I'm currently in a dispute with my landlord, over what I think is an unfair assumption of negligence about a plumbing leak. Our water bill last month was ~$400+ dollars due to a leaky toilet. The problem is that only 1 of my roommates was living in the apartment at the time, and did not equate the sound of a running toilet with wasting water.

I received a call from the city water department midway through the month claiming that our water meter was off the charts, and that we had a leak somewhere. We called maintenance, and they came to fix it, citing a broken water pump in the toilet. He also stated over the phone that we should not have to pay for it, and that either the town or the landlord should have to.

Now, both the city and the landlord is pointing at the other one claiming that the other side should have to pay.

Below are the relevant lease portions from the lease I signed with the landlord, which seem specific in what they cover, but are pretty vague in what "tenant negligence" is. They are claiming a running toilet is common knowledge of something broken, however I don't think that's the case. The toilet was not broken due to negligence and was broken due to reasonable wear and tear.

Furthermore, I think it's important to note the this landlord company is infamous for being absolute crooks. They control a construction company that owns ~50% of the housing in my college town, and have their tenants sign outrageous leases and charge absurd rent because they have a monopoly on the nicest locations in town. They are also currently in a legal battle because they were caught artificially inflating repair costs to make more money off of their tenants.

  f. Plumbing & Appliances

  TENANT is responsible for reporting leaks and stoppages immediately to
  LANDLORD. It is recommended that  TENANT have their own plunger.
  Misuse or carelessness of drains , toilets, dishwashers, or garbage
  disposals will not  be tolerated. Stoppages and repairs that result
  from TENANT negligence or placing items* not meant for garbage
  disposal, toilet, dishwasher, or drains will be charged at a minimum
  of sixty U.S. dollars ($60.00) to TENANT. *
  Do not pour grease down drain, flush paper towels or feminine products in toilet, or put foreign objects in disposal. Food  items
  not meant for disposals include without limitation banana  peels, corn
  shucks, egg shells, onion, and celery. Use  only detergent intended
  for dishwashers when operating dishwasher.

Also

  TWENTY‐FOUR: MAINTENANCE

  Malfunctions or repairs that occur to the PREMISES must be reported
  within twenty‐four (24) hours of the incident in writing  through the
  Tenant Portal or such maintenance will be considered to have been
  caused by the TENANT. TENANT agrees to  keep and maintain the PREMISES
  in a good, clean condition and to make no alterations or additions
  thereon without  prior written consent from LANDLORD. LANDLORD will
  do inspections as  needed. Repair costs necessitated because of the
  neglect  of TENANT or their guests are the responsibility of the
  TENANT.

What is my possible course of action here? Clearly the toilet had been broken for more than 24 hours, but I've read that normal wear and tear cannot be assigned to the tenant? Every other time I've complained about anything regarding the apartment they've been either dismissive or extremely rude, and I'm tired of being taken advantage of since I have already signed a lease here.


texts: What would happen if an attorney was incapacitated near the start of Supreme Court oral arguments?

texts:
Presenting oral arguments at the Supreme Court seems like a high-pressure situation that usually applies to older attorneys.

What would happen if, near the beginning of oral arguments, lead counsel for one side had a stroke or other incapacitating event?  What if there was a car crash on the way (such that they did not arrive)?

Has this happened before, and if so what happened next?


texts: Is it legal to require user to agree to something outside the scope of the service that terms and conditions are supposed to cover?

texts:
Context: I tried to set up auto payments for my first mortgage loan in the US and I was a bit puzzled with terms and conditions (TOS) that were offered to me.

If my interpretation is correct, TOS requires to hold loan provider harmless in the event of data breach that happened on their side and leakage of personal data of the users of the loan portal.
Another thing is mandatory binding arbitration and waiver of jury trial.
The corresponding clause seems to be worded in such a way that it seems to apply to any possible situation outside the use of loan portal that those terms and conditions are supposed to cover.

Last but not least TOS is asking me to silently accept all the further modifications of the original TOS.

What is the possible impact that this TOS might have on someone who accepts it in the worst case scenario outside the scope of use of service that TOS intends to cover?

In particular, is there any way (legal wording or regulation or the law) that can give me some peace of mind - so that if something about my loan is not right and I am not at fault, I still can legally defend myself without worrying that I am abandoning some legal option otherwise available to me (e.g. that mandatory binding arbitration or waiver of jury trial)?

I know that I can make payments in the old fashioned way, but I am still curious if my fear on giving up too much by accepting that TOS is groundless or not.


texts: Why receiving mail at address is important legal factor?

texts:
I've seen several times on this site and elsewhere (and on one of my own questions) that when it comes to housing questions/disputes often it's being asked "Have you received mail addressed to you at this address ?" Why is that a significant factor ? What does it legally prove or disprove ?

Context: US law


texts: Ingesting source files from other open source project into mine

texts:
I am publishing an open-source code project under the MIT-style license. I have the full notice in the LICENSE file of the source repository.

I want to take a whole file from another open-source project licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. The two licenses are commonly regarded as compatible. If that matters, the code of the file will be part of test harness, not distributed with the binary package compiled from my sources, but rather used at compile time only. But the code should still be published as part of the project, e. g. on GitHub.

How should I reflect the other project copyright? Is retaining a copyright notice at the beginning of the ingested file enough? Or should I also mention "Copyright (c) that_other_project" somewhere else, and where if so?


texts: Examples of Unethical Experimental Studies

texts:
I am teaching ethics in a statistics class. I am looking for examples when deceptive statistical evidence was caught or attempted to be used.
For example, is there an example of a party who had several surveys or studies performed and tried to only publicize the findings that was beneficial to them?
I am looking for court case examples. Thank you.

Edit
I am aware that using misleading statistics can be punished by being fired or publicly disgraced in the scientific community, which is not a legal matter. However, some statistics is actually used for important decisions or claims. I am looking for when bad statistics contributed to a decision that caused damages that led to a criminal or civil case.
I am not part of the law community, so I cannot say whether I am looking for fraud, bad faith, or incompetence in any technical sense. But here is an example.
Say a company pressured researchers to conclude a product was safe or exceeded its true capability. Then that product caused damage to some party who sued. If evidence came that a biased sample was purposefully used, I think that would show bad faith on that company and have bearing upon the court's decision. Or if a too small sample was taken and the data was presented without confidence intervals, that could show incompetence and the company failed to perform due diligence.
Outright falsification of evidence would clearly show unethical practices, but I am looking for more interesting examples in the "grey area."
I did not find any case examples, so I assume there are not many. That is why I asked it here.


texts:
I am a real estate agent based in Toronto and I was looking over a lease agreement that a friend of mine signed. I noticed that 5-7 out of the 25 clauses in the agreement were in direct contravention of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (the primary piece of legislation governing rules for tenants and landlords).

Now I was curious, as these clauses which are not legal aren't in relation to the core of the agreement (if there is such a thing), so would the fact that there are multiple clauses in contravention if the act, albeit minor, mean that he contract lacked lawful object?

I apologize in advance if I've muddled terminology here, as you can imagine, I'm not a lawyer.


texts: Are there any federal laws in the United States regulating non-digital billboards?

texts:
Billboards can be quite a distraction to drivers, and some cities have banned digital billboards. However, I haven't been able to find any information on non-digital billboards, which don't seem to be significantly less distracting in many cases.

Are there any federal laws regulating non-digital billboards to lessen distractions for drivers?

I ask for federal laws because of applications to interstate highways. I don't know if any regulations would be applied by states or by the federal government, since billboards by the boundary of a state can distract drivers on both sides of the state line.


texts: Assuming the U.S. President is convicted of a crime in their unofficial person, what happens next?

texts:
Assuming that, e.g., a sitting President went and shot somebody, and was duly convicted by a jury of his/her peers, etc., in...let's say Washington D.C....  What would happen to the sentence?  Would the President continue to be the President in jail?  (Admittedly, this leaves out the whole "wouldn't they have been impeached before this" question...but let's assume that Congress is doing something weird again.)

To reiterate: This question does not ask if a sitting President can be convicted of a crime.  This question asks what happens to the sentence if and when a sitting President is convicted of a crime, which appears to be possible according to Can the US president be charged of crime such as murder while in office?


texts: When does an offer become criminal blackmail?

texts:
Suppose Person A has a photograph of another Person B violating a law.

If A demands money from B in exchange for not revealing the photo, then A is guilty of blackmail.

But what if A offers to destroy the photo in exchange for B providing something of value to A?  Does a positive formulation like that still constitute blackmail?

Examples could be:

"The photograph is hidden in a public place. There's no telling how long it will be before someone stumbles upon it. If you do what I say, I'll go retrieve it and destroy it personally."
"I don't have to help you keep it a secret, but if you pay me, then I will."


texts: is the alphabetical word order subject to copyright?

texts: I want to prepare a dictionary(English to Turkish) consisting of example sentences And for a list of English words, I use "Oxford Dictionary of Current English". Is the alphabetical word order subject to copyright? ( ı will not use definitions of words)


texts:
In Kellogg v National Biscuit Co it was ruled that once a utility patent expires the patentee can never make a trademark-like claim to the exclusive use of the source-identifying function of the shape of products made using the patented machine.

What do they mean by the parts in bold?


texts: Two people having wronged one another in different occasions

texts:
Person A wrongs person B, the case ends up it courts and then, for a whole different reason and in a whole different scenario, B wrongs A in a way which is worthy to make the case end up in court as well.
Can it possibly be that another and indipendent case from the first one will be opened up in court or will it influence the reputation and the fate of B winning the first case in which he's a victim? I mean, can these scenarios merge in a single case?
Jurisdictions: U.S, Belgium and Italy.
Feel free not to answer for all the 3 jurisdictions, and it would be a pleasure if three different users answer for each jurisdiction.


texts: Is creating a informatical robot for poker or games illegal?

texts:
I am talking here about informatical robots that will make some operations without any human interaction.

You can find many stories about poker robots that play without anyone behind the computer on online cash poker site. Each time is explained that their account were closed because the site chart say it is forbidden, and that player who played against the robot got their money back. But I never heard about one of thoses robots creator being sued. Is this illegal to violate thoses charts? Or only the site's operator can close the account and it can't go to court?

(I took the example of poker but video games are facing similar problem : thousands of accounts level uped with bots and then sell on E-Bay or other websites.)

So is this illegal and one man can have to pay a bill, or is this forbidden only on the website? Is this the same reglementation for Europe and America?


texts: Given the US Constitution's 1st Amendment freedom of religion, how can current pandemic restrictions on worship be legal?

texts:
The 13th amendment ending slavery and involuntary servitude, which has a big "except" for allowing it as a punishment for crimes. The 1st amendment has no exceptions listed though. It also has several rights squeezed into it: speech, press, religion, protest. So any threat to 1 right within it should rightly be considered a threat to the others.
How can any restriction on worship gatherings be legally justified given the 1st amendment? Are there any legal precedents?
Full disclosure: I am an atheist. It absolutely makes sense, from a public health and safety perspective, to put restrictions on large gatherings of any sort, for worship or otherwise. However, given the language of the 1st amendment -- and it being the legal shrine of multiple freedoms -- it seems hard to justify and a dangerous precedent from a legal perspective to enact any laws or rules abridging worship of any kind.


texts: Does collaboration with branded products need permission?

texts:
my question is simple.
If I were to sell a food product at my takeaway shop for example our own chicken wings with Frank's redhot sauce which is a branded sauce, would we be able to advertise as Frank's red hot chicken wings or chicken wings with franks red hot sauce?
And if that is not an issue is it possible to advertise their logo next to the picture of our chicken wings on the menu/flyer?
I feel it would only benefit the brand in use as a means of advertising and collaboration with no harm to their brand since they are still separate products.
Thank you for reading.


texts: Can I take actions to mitigate an anticipated breach of contract and then sue to recover their costs

texts:
Disclaimer: I’m not looking for legal advice.

I’m in a month to month lease. I checked, and where I live the landlord cannot end a month to month lease without going through the full eviction process (which didn’t happen). The landlord wants the place back. I told him no, but he’s very adamant. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to come to a physical confrontation where he’s going to show up at the house with his boxes ready to move in.

Since I don’t want it to become physical I was thinking: can I move out and then after sue for damages? My concern is, if I move out before he physically shows up, then he may claim I moved out on my own accord. Maybe this could be fixed by serving him an intent to sue letter?

Does the question make sense? I’m just trying to mitigate conflict, instead of having to phone the cops when he shows up at the door.


texts: What laws govern the release of police reports in the U.S.?

texts:
I have read conflicting information regarding police reports being or not being public records. A lot of people talk about how they are available to anyone. Some other sources deny this. For example this is one of a page I found on Google of a police department in Campbell, CA. I am not sure it is the same in other counties/states.

Police Reports are not necessarily public records available to anyone. Victims of crimes or their designated representative (attorney) are entitled to a copy of their report so long as it's release would not jeopardize the investigation. Defendants/suspects must request copies through the District Attorney's Office. In Civil cases, someone wishing a copy of a police report must go through the subpoena process in order to obtain a copy of a report. (source)

According to this, it seems pretty darn difficult for people unrelated to the case to get a police report, and probably wouldn't be able to without a subpoena if in a civil case. Is this the same across the U.S.?
I am hoping to get an answer that addresses my general question about laws governing the release of police reports in the U.S. Also here is a real situation that I am trying to help with and is where my question stemmed from. You could use it as an example and explain why the police report was released to a third party, but you don't have to.
A black family lives in an upscale predominantly white neighborhood. White neighbors and white community manager called the police on the black family. Around 10 policemen converged on the black family, slammed down their door and bust in, dragged the husband and wife naked out of their bedroom where they were sleeping. After the black couple were cuffed on the ground naked, physically assaulted and verbally abused, the cops determined there was nothing illegal going on and quickly retreated. Now the black family is trying to go after the white neighbors and the community manager, claiming years of discrimination. The property managing company responded by sending the black family a letter from a lawyer, slapping them with fine for "disturbance", attaching a copy of the police report and citing it as supporting evidence. The police report of course spun the story in police's favor and pinned the whole incident on the black family. Turns out after the police left the traumatized black couple, they were swift to interview several neighbors and property managing company staff who have always had problems with that family. They claimed the family always fought, doing drugs, and whatnot. The report contained personal information including place of work, DoB, etc. And the black family is worried about their hateful neighbors or the property managing company staff intentionally leaking their personal info.
I simply don't understand how the property managing company or their lawyer could get their hands on the police report.