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[ { "answer_id": 2156, "body": "<p>You say the permission was \"public\", therefore I am going to assume that it cannot be argued that there was no agreement.</p>\n\n<p>There are two possibilities:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>If Company B has given consideration for the promise then there is a binding contract and Company A <em>may</em> be able to end it but could not seek redress for when it was in place.</li>\n<li>If there is no contract then the principle of <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel#Promissory_estoppel\" rel=\"nofollow\">promissory estoppel</a> should have essentially the same effect.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>An agreement, including an IP licence, does not have to be in writing nor does it have to have any particular form.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "licensing", "patents" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2145, "body": "<p>After one takes a Driving Safety Course in Texas, a record of such is placed on the driver licence.</p>\n<p>However, the course is required not only for dismissing the tickets, but is also available for some sort of extra insurance discounts, too.</p>\n<p>As such, it would indeed appear that one could still claim to have a clean record, even with the presence of the course on the record.</p>\n<p>(As per the notion of not creating prejudice, <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/2146/could-a-prosecutor-hint-the-jury-about-past-dismissed-cases\">I would think that the prosecutor would not be allowed to dispute such statement in front of a jury</a>, nor to explain the exhaustive list of reasons that the record might originate from. <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/2147/how-to-do-voir-dire-if-you-had-taken-a-driving-safety-course\">Voir dire would likewise be a separate question</a> in such circumstance.)</p>\n<p>P. S. Additionally, it's explicitly not allowed to be used for adverse actions, as per <a href=\"http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.45.htm#45.0511\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.45.htm#45.0511</a></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Art. 45.0511. DRIVING SAFETY COURSE OR MOTORCYCLE OPERATOR COURSE DISMISSAL PROCEDURES. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (a-1), this article applies only to an alleged offense that:</p>\n<p>...</p>\n<p>(n) A charge that is dismissed under this article may not be part of a person's driving record or used for any purpose.</p>\n<p>(o) An insurer delivering or issuing for delivery a motor vehicle insurance policy in this state may not cancel or increase the premium charged an insured under the policy because the insured completed a driving safety course or a motorcycle operator training course, or had a charge dismissed under this article.</p>\n</blockquote>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "texas", "speeding" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1528, "body": "<p>A Google search for <code>foreign company fulfilled by amazon</code> returned these pages:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200240360\" rel=\"nofollow\">Amazon.com Help: FBA International</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://services.amazon.com/global-selling/taxes-regulations-us.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">Taxes and regulations: U.S. | Amazon Global Selling</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&amp;nodeId=200280570\" rel=\"nofollow\">Amazon.com Help: Delivering Imports to Amazon</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The gist is that non-resident sellers have to do at least the following to sell to U.S. customers on FBA:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Not be located in a country subject to a comprehensive embargo.</li>\n<li>Have staff with enough English proficiency to understand contracts.</li>\n<li>Identify itself to the Internal Revenue Service, an agency of the U.S. Treasury, by providing Form W-8BEN to Amazon during seller account registration.</li>\n<li>Research which goods are subject to import duties, using information provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on its website.</li>\n<li>Hire a customs broker in the port city and grant it power of attorney to handle certain documents. These are listed on CBP's website. Amazon's designated customs broker is Samuel Shapiro and Company, and major international express couriers (DHL, FedEx, and UPS) may also provide this service.</li>\n<li>Have your customs broker obtain an import entry bond.</li>\n<li>Obtain an importer number from the port where your goods enter the U.S. using CBP Form 5106. Your customs broker may help you with this.</li>\n<li>Ensure that you have the rights under copyright, patent, and trademark law to sell this product in the U.S. Do not attempt to import counterfeit products. Several things may make a product illegal to sell in the U.S., despite it being legal in your own country. Examples include a copyright or trademark license that is territorially limited, a copyright on an underlying work that has expired in your country but not under the U.S.'s 95 year rule for pre-1978 or corporate authored works, or a U.S. patent that has no counterpart in your country, especially a software patent.</li>\n<li>Ensure that the product is not otherwise a prohibited import, such as a dangerous food or toy or a controlled drug. Again, CBP's website is authoritative.</li>\n<li>Pay all applicable duties in advance of shipment.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There is nothing about having to start a U.S.-resident subsidiary, though a business may choose to do so for other reasons related to anticipated growth of the company's U.S. operations.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "corporate-law", "international", "business", "commerce" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2133, "body": "<p>At least in the United States (and I'm pretty sure this is true around the world), facts and information cannot be copyrighted. Just because a work is copyrighted, doesn't mean every part of that work is copyrighted, and factual information conveyed by the work is a part which is not subject to copyright.</p>\n\n<p>Copyright on a collection of facts is limited to the selection and arrangement of those facts, and only if that selection and arrangement has some bare minimum amount of originality. See <em>Feist v. Rural</em>, 499 U.S. 340. In this case, it looks at first glance like the person who made that site made their own selection of which materials and which sources would be included; the one place where they really seem to have copied their selection is from glass catalogs with datasheets from specific manufacturers, who would have a hard time arguing that \"everything we manufacture in this widely-recognized class of substances\" is an original selection. What the author of the website has done is relinquish <em>his</em> rights in <em>his</em> selection and arrangement of the data.</p>\n\n<p>In some places, there are other rights besides copyright that do apply to databases; for instance, the EU recognizes database rights to protect significant investment in compiling a database of stuff. But the US does not have that concept.</p>\n\n<p>For citing stuff, that's not really a legal question, and has more to do with academic standards. Ask your adviser or teacher if you have one.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 2137, "body": "<p>Although a paper containing experimental data can be copyrighted, the data itself can not.</p>\n\n<p>As for citing the original publication, it is completely up to you. It is not uncommon to cite a handbook or database containing a compilation of data from hundreds of sources rather than the original works.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "copyright", "public-domain" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2117, "body": "<h2>Answer</h2>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>If you agreed to keep it private, you are bound to do so.</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<hr>\n\n<h3>Sources</h3>\n\n<p>This answer pulls information from the following sources regarding the enforceability of non-disclosure agreements.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.infolawgroup.com/2009/11/articles/information-security/ndas-worth-the-effort/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Info Law Group</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.quora.com/How-enforceable-are-NDAs\" rel=\"nofollow\">Quora</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://earlygrowthfinancialservices.com/ndas-worth-much/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Early Growth Financial Services</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.ipnexus.com/protecting-information-making-nda-enforceable/\" rel=\"nofollow\">IP Nexus</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.brightjourney.com/q/ndas-even-worth-signing-employees-even-enforceable\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bright Journey</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=2394\" rel=\"nofollow\">iBiblio</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<h3>NDAs are enforceable</h3>\n\n<p>Non-Disclosure Agreements and Confidentiality Agreements are common elements of the hiring process. It would not be unusual if they required you to sign one in consideration for an interview.</p>\n\n<p>If you signed one, you should consider it a binding contract and absolutely enforceable.</p>\n\n<h3>Project Ownership</h3>\n\n<p>Regarding project ownership. If the employer had an existing codebase and asked you to contribute to it in exchange for being considered for a job opening, they would own the project, the code and the work product you contributed.</p>\n\n<h3>Caveat for Fraud</h3>\n\n<p>All this assumes an actual job exists and they are not tricking you just to get free labor. If they are, then that would be fraud and contracts are not enforceable if their is \"fraud in the inducement.\"</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Disclaimer</strong>: I am not an attorney. I am not your attorney. Do not follow my advice. Hire a real attorney. Never take legal advice from strangers on the internet. Treat my answer and every answer on this site just like you would advice from a bunch of drunks at a bar — all of whom received their \"legal educations\" from watching episodes of The Practice, Boston Legal and Ally McBeal.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 1918, "body": "<p>It depends on what the explicit agreement was but generally speaking based on the facts you've given yes they can ask for it to remain private. In consideration for being a job candidate you agreed to do work and keep the work private. Their half of the contract was to evaluate you as a job candidate and your half was to do the work and keep it private.</p>\n\n<p>Did the other party fulfill their part?</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "intellectual-property", "employment" ]

[ { "answer_id": 325, "body": "<p>In the UK, s28(4) Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 states that</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Where a person is convicted (whether on the same occasion or not) of two or more offences committed on the same occasion and involving obligatory endorsement, the total number of penalty points to be attributed to them is the number or highest number that would be attributed on a conviction of one of them (so that if the convictions are on different occasions the number of penalty points to be attributed to the offences on the later occasion or occasions shall be restricted accordingly).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In other words, if you commit two or more offences 'on the same occasion', a court will only award penalty points attributable to the offence attracting the most points. 'On the same occasion' is interpreted by the court. I'm not aware of any case law on this point, so a court will be able to apply its discretion. </p>\n\n<p>Note that this only applies to the penalty point aspect of the <em>sentence</em>: the convictions will all stand, and any fines awarded as a result are not subject to the same rule. </p>\n\n<p>Of course the police may use their own discretion and charge a subset of the offences actually detected. </p>\n\n<p><strong>A short glossary</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>endorsement</strong> means that the offender's licence will be 'endorsed' with a number of penalty points. </li>\n<li><strong>penalty points</strong> are recorded on the driver's record at DVSA and expire after a number of years, depending on why they were awarded. A minor speeding offence will normally attract three points which last four years. Receiving twelve points within three years normally results in an automatic twelve-month ban; newly licensed drivers can have their licence revoked on reaching six points. </li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "speeding" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2066, "body": "<p>Here is a link to the relevant Texas Statute: <a href=\"http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TN/htm/TN.545.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">Title 7, Subtitle C, Chapter 545, Subchapter A</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Sec. 545.351. MAXIMUM SPEED REQUIREMENT. (a) An operator may not drive at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Combine that with:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Sec. 545.352. PRIMA FACIE SPEED LIMITS. (a) A speed in excess of the limits established by Subsection (b) or under another provision of this subchapter is prima facie evidence that the speed is not reasonable and prudent and that the speed is unlawful.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This section mentions, as an example, among other points:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>(2) except as provided by Subdivision (4), 70 miles per hour on a highway numbered by this state or the United States outside an urban district, including a farm-to-market or ranch-to-market road;</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>What this means is that if you are driving over 70 miles per hour on a type of highway mentioned in (2) above then you are, by legal definition, driving at a speed that is greater than is reasonable and prudent.</p>\n\n<p>When you are cited for speeding you are not charged for driving at a specific speed in an area posted at another speed. You are cited for violating a broader law, such as in Texas, driving in an unreasonable or imprudent manner. The mention of the speed is merely a recordation of the facts that support the state's case against you.</p>\n\n<p>Let's take the proposal to demonstrate the speed is too low to its logical conclusion. You plead not guilty and it comes out during testimony that you weren't driving 80 but really 85. The judge will still find you guilty of the underlying charge as the facts in the case still support that finding.</p>\n\n<p>I have personally witnessed mistakes in tickets result in dismissal. Those mistakes have, however, been related to other facts about the case though: time of day, date of offense, etc.</p>\n\n<p>I've also witnessed people attempt to claim a lower but still illegal speed. For example, \"I wasn't going 85 I was only going 80.\" These resulted in findings of guilt.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 2062, "body": "<p>I've never heard of reducing the speed making the ticket invalid. In fact, many jurisdictions will amend the ticket to the actual speed that was taken on the radar if someone attempts to go and fight a ticket in court after an officer cut them some slack by lowering the speed, likely to eliminate that line of argument before the hearing begins. You have to remember that a traffic citation can be amended at any point before the judge starts hearing arguments, and I've seen an officer amend a ticket right there in the court room before arguments began (which is why people shouldn't depend solely on a mistake to get them out of a ticket when heading to court).</p>\n\n<p>But to put this in perspective, prosecutors over the span of law have frequently used the tactic of lowering the offense in a wide variety of different circumstances because it makes it easier to get a conviction, gives them a break, etc. Whatever the reason, lowering the offense does not inherently make the offense invalid. Imagine a judge dismissing a murder charge because the prosecutor made a deal and only charged them with manslaughter, even though they clearly had the evidence to get a conviction for second degree murder.</p>\n\n<p>Since speeding is only a traffic violation and not that \"serious\" it is much more likely that it is just a judge using their discretionary power and thinking, \"well if you're willing to cut them a break and lower the speed, why not just let them off completely with a warning?\" Going back to my first paragraph with this, chances are if you actually go to court your ticket will either a) get completely dismissed by the judge and you just get a warning or b) amended to the actual speed you were going. Likely it will depend on your previous traffic citation history.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "texas", "evidence", "speeding" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2067, "body": "<p>You seem to misunderstand what <em>prima facie</em> means: accepted as correct until proved otherwise.</p>\n\n<p>The facts are that you exceeded the posted speed limit; therefore it is legally accepted that you were driving at a speed \"greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing\". </p>\n\n<p>To overturn the prima facie assumption you must prove <em>beyond reasonable doubt</em> (for a criminal matter) or <em>on the balance of probabilities</em> (for a civil matter) that the speed at which <em>you</em> were travelling was \"reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing\". Demonstrating that other people were also driving at this speed does not show that <em>you</em> were \"reasonable and prudent\" because <em>prima facie</em> they were themselves not \"reasonable and prudent\".</p>\n\n<p>A possible (if unlikely to succeed) defence would be to demonstrate that the combination of your driving skill, your vehicle's performance and the road conditions were such that <em>you</em> were as or more capable of avoiding a collision at 80mph as the general population is at 70mph. A professional race car driver in a high performance vehicle on a perfect driving day <em>might</em> have a chance with this.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "texas", "traffic", "evidence", "speeding", "prima-facie-speed-limits" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2114, "body": "<p>First, you will need to look at your existing lease. Most leases automatically transfer to month-to-month after the initial term ends. It is quite probable that your landlord said \"fine\" to the month-to-month extension because it was already part of your existing lease.</p>\n\n<p>Second, you will need to look at your existing lease and see what notification was required for you to move out. Typically, a lease transitions to month-to-month and in your lease it probably already said that you needed to provide 30 days notice even if you were leaving at the end of the lease's original term.</p>\n\n<p>Third, yes, you are on the hook for rent until you give 30 days notice. Your \"verbal agreement\" is a contract and your landlord agreed to allow you to stay in the apartment as long as you gave him 30 days notice before moving out and paid your rent every month.</p>\n\n<p>Most of this is probably already spelled out in your current lease. Even if it isn't, you have indicated that you have a verbal contract with your landlord.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 2115, "body": "<p>Also to note is that \"30 days\" is a bit of misnomer because if you give notice on the 15th you don't get to stop paying rent on the following 15th. 30 days notice is basically 30 days plus how ever many days until the end of the month. This is obvious to some but not always apparent.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "residential-lease", "rent" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2106, "body": "<p><strong>If all the notes and code are your original expression of ideas, that would not be copyright infringement.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>You should consider writing your own book on machine learning, and selling that. Copyright protects the particular expression of concepts, but not the concepts themselves. If you have a better way of expressing the challenging concepts of machine learning, that is clearer than the prior text, and your own expression rather than the author's, that's a separate work. </p>\n\n<p>If the original text says something in English like \"you randomly determine clustering start points, then assign data points to the closest cluster, then re-estimate cluster centers by the average of the data points assigned to the cluster, and repeat those last two steps until the cluster centers don't change by more than a small epsilon between iterations, and repeat this process several times with different random starting points, using xyz measure to assess the quality of the finished clustering and take the best,\" that describes an algorithm but not as clearly as you might do it. If you have source code which implements this, which you completely wrote yourself, that's a different expression of the concept, and you would have choice about how to license it (so long as you're not infringing on somebody's utility patent). In addition to a clearer explanation, your added notes about how to choose the number of clusters, how small epsilon should be, how many random restarts to do, how to watch out for nonconvergence due to periodic oscillation of a cluster center by more than epsilon, etc. might also provide more value beyond the prior text. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, you should credit the original author in your text, and I am not a lawyer.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 2110, "body": "<p>It sounds like you are likely protected by the \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use\" rel=\"nofollow\">fair use</a>\" doctrine against claims of infringing the original book's copyright.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, it sounds like your notes would qualify for copyright protection of their own as a \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work\" rel=\"nofollow\">derivative work</a>.\"</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "fair-use" ]

[ { "answer_id": 636, "body": "<p>Copyright law is a country-by-country matter. Most countries are signatories to the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention\">Berne Convention</a>, which provides a common framework, but there are still variations, generally in the duration of copyright or the definition of copyrightable material.</p>\n\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm\">Hirtle chart</a>, a <em>video game</em> that was first published <em>in Europe</em> in the year <em>2000</em> and subsequently published in the United States is still copyrighted in both the United States and whichever European countries it was published in. It is likely to be a work of corporate authorship, so the US copyright will expire on January 1, 2096 (unless a law extending the duration is passed).</p>\n\n<p>In the United States, the requirement to register a copyright was eliminated in 1989 as part of the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_Implementation_Act_of_1988\">Berne Convention Implementation Act</a>; registration still provides benefits when filing a copyright-infringement lawsuit. Most European countries eliminated their registration requirements much earlier, if they had them at all: the Berne Convention dates from 1887.</p>\n\n<p>Copyright does not simply cease to exist when the owner does, or if the owner cannot be determined. The difficulty of tracking down copyright holders for old or little-known works is the driving force behind <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_works\">orphaned works legislation</a>. There are no orphaned works laws in the United States, and since copyright is country-by-country, European laws won't help you if you're interested in publishing in the US.</p>\n\n<p>In order to track down the copyright holder, you'll need to figure out who originally held the copyright (probably the publisher, but it could be either development company, or both, or the game might be a collective work of the individuals who worked on it). If it was a work of corporate authorship, and none of the game-copyright sales mention it, copyright will have been transfered when the company owning the copyright was sold (as part of a general \"and all intellectual property\" clause).</p>\n", "score": 8 }, { "answer_id": 2107, "body": "<p>One can observe who sends a cease-and-desist letter (or files a lawsuit) for copyright infringement, and if they're successful in showing the letter recipient (or court or defendant) they have a copyright. That's the most reliable way to find out. Unfortunately, there is no central registry of copyright transfers. </p>\n\n<p>In such a case, the defendant has a better chance (esp. against willful infringement claims) if they made a reasonable effort to determine who the copyright holder most likely is, and licensed/bought rights from that party for at least some fee. If people are being reasonable (<em>not a safe assumption</em>) and a mistake was made in choosing who to license from, it can often be worked out in settlement as the claimant presents their basis and the retrievable history becomes clearer.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 686, "body": "<p>In general, no, there is no foolproof way to determine who has copyright. There is no central registry that is sure to have that information.</p>\n\n<p>For video games specifically, this is often a problem. For some old games made by bankrupt studios that were acquired by others, sometimes even the acquiring company may not know if it has all the copyright it needs or if it owns some parts of a franchise only, especially if multiple companies were involved. </p>\n\n<p>The best way to determine who holds the copyright is probably to contact all of the original companies, ask them who they gave the copyright to and follow the chain. Be prepared, though, that they may give you inconsistent and incorrect answers.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 621, "body": "<p>This sounds like it's more a matter of determining the original name / wording used to file the copyright. </p>\n\n<p>Without knowing more of that language, you're left to the typical sleuthing options:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>names of the company owners / major shareholders as of 15-18 years ago. </li>\n<li>other DBAs and holding companies of the company originally presumed to hold the copyright. </li>\n<li>brute force search of all categorically-related copyrights in the time range. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The advice I would really like to give you is knowledge of how IP attorneys filed video game copyrights in the time span of 1985-2000. This could reveal any unexpected filing categories that could have been used as part of niche or experimental copyright strategy (at that time) for this kind of IP. </p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1501, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>However, this uses the text \"rights in an invention\"; does that cover copyright?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>(Is this the correct law?)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It certainly seems to be.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Does \"Relate … to the employer's business\" cover the entirety of software engineering, or just the particular software engineering my employer does?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Imagine that you work for a company that writes trading software. In your spare time, you develop a photo editing tool. Do you think a court would find that your project \"related to the employer's business\"? I do not.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Or does my employer own copyright on everything down to the love letters I write?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Google does not own everything their employees create; they only claim to. If someone challenged them on it, a court would decide, and probably not in their favor. </p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 2105, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>Does \"Relate … to the employer's business\" cover the entirety of\n software engineering, or just the particular software engineering my\n employer does?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Entirety? That's a very loaded word. Elements of software engineering go beyond the type of engineering. For example if you spent all your time at work developing an innovative workflow which allowed coding faster and more accurately, the employer owns the workflow. If you then utilized this workflow to support your off-the-clock software creation efforts (of a software product different from your employer's) you will find yourself in a gray area. (Of course that assumes that the workflow is protectable.)</p>\n\n<p>It's not just time and equipment that create software. </p>\n\n<p>As was stated, this sort of thing comes down to what your employer tries to assert and how hard they push, and then how hard you push back. This pushing is often motivated by the financial value of the work and you might be able to resolve the problem through licensing agreements.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "california", "intellectual-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2083, "body": "<p>Yes, they still have to go through the normal eviction process and must still provide the minimum number of days required by their local jurisdiction in order to vacate the property. By moving in and establishing residency, the tenant and landlord form an implied lease - the tenant does not need anything in writing in order to establish their legal rights to tenancy.</p>\n\n<p>More information: <a href=\"http://ontariolandlordandtenantlaw.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-written-lease-am-i-in-trouble.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">No written lease--Am I in trouble?</a></p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "canada", "rental-property", "british-columbia" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2094, "body": "<p>Unfortunately the answer is a vague \"it depends.\" Commercial versus non-commercial is not clearly defined in actual law, and is usually up to the specific license to define what it considers to be commercial use.</p>\n\n<p>If you were putting them on <em>your</em> business cards, then it's just being used for advertising and whether it's commercial use is a bit controversial. If the license explicitly prohibits the use of the work in advertising, then the license should explicitly mention that and should not rely on the term \"commercial use\" to cover or protect it. Creative Commons ran an excellent study on commercial versus noncommercial use back in 2009: <a href=\"http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/defining-noncommercial/Defining_Noncommercial_fullreport.pdf\">Defining “Noncommercial” - A Study of How the Online Population Understands “Noncommercial Use”</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In the United States, for example, the Copyright Act does not define a copyright owner’s rights in terms of commercial or noncommercial use. Instead, copyright law sometimes attaches legal significance to whether a use is “commercial” or “noncommercial” or whether a user is deemed to be a commercial or noncommercial entity, However, rarely are the terms defined, and the law offers no specific guidance on how to differentiate between commercial and\n noncommercial uses or users of copyrighted works. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you were putting them on a business card you were making for the client, then that would be more clearly identified as commercial use because you're using it in something you are selling for a profit. What your client will be using them for is not relevant, because you're the one selling them to the client and you need to have the right to be able to do that.</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "intellectual-property", "business", "fair-use" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2092, "body": "<p>Reviewing <a href=\"https://stackexchange.com/legal/trademark-guidance\">https://stackexchange.com/legal/trademark-guidance</a> shows the following:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The logos associated with Stack Exchange Inc. and any Stack Exchange site are a trademark. The purpose of trademark law is to prevent consumers from being misled as to the origin of a product. So if you were making a product, and you used a Stack Exchange name or logo in your product (or in its advertising) in such a way that would mislead someone into thinking that your product was owned by, operated by, endorsed by, or in any way part of Stack Exchange Inc., you would be violating the trademark and this would not be legal.</p>\n<p>Our logo images and site names are copyrighted. Any content on the Stack Exchange Network not contributed by users is copyrighted. Copyright is different than trademark. Ordinarily you couldn't copy it. But if you were writing a news story or blog post about a Stack Exchange site, reproducing the logo image would almost certainly be considered &quot;fair use&quot; and allowed under trademark law because you were not using it &quot;in trade.&quot;</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>So the answer to your question is yes, you would need to seek the permission of the trademark holder.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "intellectual-property", "trademark" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2077, "body": "<p>Can't park within 30 ft of a stop sign. Tex Tn Code 545.302 b4. If this is the law they don't need to post a sign. <a href=\"http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/txstatutes/TN/7/C/545/G/545.302\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/txstatutes/TN/7/C/545/G/545.302</a></p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 2078, "body": "<p>The citation may have been completely correct, but you can use the absence of markings to contest it. And since adjudication of these matters is entirely at the discretion of an administrative judge you could have good odds of the citation being dismissed.</p>\n\n<p><em>Illustrative anecdote</em>: I once was in NYC and parked overnight on the street at a T intersection with other parked cars. Because my car was registered in another state it was towed instead of just ticketed. In the morning I took pictures of the curb, which on close inspection <em>had</em> been painted, but where most of the paint had worn off. I mailed that photo along with the citation to the administrative court and received a full refund a few weeks later. (I also noticed at a later date that the curb had been repainted.)</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "traffic", "texas" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2074, "body": "<p>According to <a href=\"http://dejure.org/gesetze/BGB/447.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">BGB §447</a>, by default the <em>purchaser</em> is liable if a purchased good is damaged/lost in transit:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>§ 447 Gefahrübergang beim Versendungskauf</p>\n \n <p>(1) Versendet der Verkäufer auf Verlangen des Käufers die verkaufte\n Sache nach einem anderen Ort als dem Erfüllungsort, so geht die Gefahr\n auf den Käufer über, sobald der Verkäufer die Sache dem Spediteur, dem\n Frachtführer oder der sonst zur Ausführung der Versendung bestimmten\n Person oder Anstalt ausgeliefert hat.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>\"Erfüllungsort\" is a synonym for \"Leistungsort\", and according to BGB §269:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>§ 269 Leistungsort</p>\n \n <p>(1) Ist ein Ort für die Leistung weder bestimmt\n noch aus den Umständen, insbesondere aus der Natur des\n Schuldverhältnisses, zu entnehmen, so hat die Leistung an dem Ort zu\n erfolgen, an welchem der Schuldner zur Zeit der Entstehung des\n Schuldverhältnisses seinen Wohnsitz hatte.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>So, if I am reading the BGB correctly, then it's you, the purchaser, who bears the risk of the goods getting lost during transport.</strong></p>\n\n<p>The seller probably has the obligation of <em>helping you</em> to make a claim against DHL. But the loss of the package is between you and DHL, I'm afraid.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><em>Notes:</em> </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>This only applies to purchase from a private individual. If you, as a consumer, purchase from a business (\"Verbrauchsgüterkauf\"), the business bears the risk of shipping (BGB §474).</li>\n<li>There is an article on eBay's help pages which also explains this:\n<a href=\"http://www.ebay.de/gds/Versandrisiko-fuer-Kaeufer-und-Verkaeufer-/10000000005717031/g.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">eBay: Versandrisiko für Käufer und Verkäufer</a></li>\n<li>All this probably only applies if both seller and purchaser live in Germany. For international deals, the rules are (even) more complicated...</li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 1807, "body": "<p>Not specific to Germany but see here regarding privity of contract. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/q/1037/166\">Is there a recourse against UPS for not delivering packages on time?</a></p>\n\n<p>Generally speaking, unless Germany has different laws or different default contractual arrangements, DHL owes you nothing. Your agreement is with the owner who is the person that owes you either your goods or your payment.</p>\n\n<p>Unless you took ownership before the DHL picked it up. In the US we call this <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOB_%28shipping%29\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">FOB</a> in which case the buyer is responsible for damage or loss during transport but I highly doubt that is your arrangement.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "contract-law", "germany", "shipping" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2049, "body": "<p>No, it is no use complaining to the policeman that everyone else was speeding too when he pulled <em>you</em> over.</p>\n\n<p>You have made a complaint to the authorities; prosecution is at their discretion.</p>\n\n<p><em>If</em> you have solid <em>evidence</em> that your competitor is non-compliant then you can safely use that in your marketing. You could also use the media against your competitor or the regulator. Competition is about more than price.</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 2053, "body": "<p>The only time you can force a competitor to do <em>anything</em> is if they are interfering with an existing contractual relationship that you already possess. In your scenario, this is not the case. The real question this scenario seems to be asking is \"how can the government be required to enforce its own regulations\" or more likely, \"it's own RFP\". You posit that the widget materials requirement appears to be statutory or regulatory under your scenario... At least as I read it. </p>\n\n<p>This would more likely be spelled out in the RFP. A request for proposal (RFP) is a solicitation, through a bidding process, by a government agency, municipal, state, or federal, interested in procurement of a commodity, service or valuable asset, to potential suppliers to submit business proposal. This is typically where you find any materials requirements.</p>\n\n<p>Government procurement law sets forth several requirements to combat against bid rigging with specific oversight mechanisms depending on whether we are discussing local, state or federal contracts. Generally, government agencies do not ignore the requirements that they themselves set forth. These are usually in their bidding procedures and guidelines, such that when they put a job or a contract out for bid ( the RFP), guidelines exist to ensure that the contract award goes to the most qualified, lowest bidder who can meet all requirements of the procurement request. There is oversight built into these strict public procurement laws.</p>\n\n<p>However you seem to suggest, in your hypo, that the government agency is ignoring their own proposal for material requisites, or the regulation that informs those requirements. If this ever occurred, the best you could do is complain first to the head of the agency who put the contract out for bid. If they ignored you and you had legitimate proof their widgets were substandard, you would complain to your government representative for your district, to seek enforcement under whatever statutory or regulatory framework those material requirements would fall under, if not the RFP itself.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-states", "business" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2052, "body": "<p>This will depend on the state. However, most states have age requirements similar to that found below:</p>\n\n<p>California's <a href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=prob&amp;group=06001-07000&amp;file=6100-6105\" rel=\"nofollow\">Probate Code Section 6100</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"6100\">\n <li>(a) An individual 18 or more years of age who is of sound\n mind may make a will.</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>One alternative to a will would be a revocable trust with named beneficiaries. There would be adult trustees who would have specified responsibilities for the trust and the trust could specify that its assets are distributed to the minor when he or she reaches the age of majority. Some financial institutions will also act as trustee for a fee.</p>\n\n<p>One can also set multiple conditions on when and how the assets are distributed upon reaching the age of majority. For example, after the subject reaches the age of 18 and creates a last will and testament.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "wills" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2047, "body": "<p>The purpose of the inheritance tax is to raise revenue for governmental activities, just like like income taxes, sales taxes, value-added taxes, excise taxes, property taxes, and other taxes.</p>\n", "score": 6 }, { "answer_id": 2051, "body": "<p>Consider a scenario: You make investments(perhaps in the stock market or real estate, but any investment will serve for the example). When you sell those investments, you realize (hopefully) a capital gain. In the US, the two principal forms of taxation on individuals is on income and capital gains.</p>\n\n<p>Let's say you bought stock 10 years ago, and it's doubled in value to date, and you're still holding it. You don't pay the capital gains tax on that increased value until you actually sell it. As long as you're holding on to it, you havent \"realized\" your capital gains. Same with real estate...no capital gains until you sell.</p>\n\n<p>In effect, the estate tax (inheritance tax) is a form of capital gains recapture tax, that \"recognizes\" the capital gains as you \"sell\" your final assets to your estate and subsequently your heirs through the probate process.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-states", "tax-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 779, "body": "<p>Yes, there are cases where refusing to respond to the question would be legal. The juror could plead the fifth – so long as he hasn't spilled the beans about what he is trying to protect – which provides for the protection from compelled self-incrimination (any incriminating statement that could be used against you in a <strong>criminal</strong> charge – civil liability doesn't count here). Anything that is said in voir dire is on the record and under oath. You are effectively witnessing against yourself.\nAs stated on <a href=\"http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/your-fifth-amendment-right-against-self-incrimination.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">NOLO</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Witnesses can assert the privilege against self-incrimination in civil proceedings as well as criminal ones, despite the seemingly limiting language of the Fifth Amendment. They can assert it in state or federal court, in a wide variety of proceedings (including trials, depositions, administrative law proceedings, and investigatory proceedings like grand jury hearings).</p>\n<p>. . .</p>\n<p>If, by answering, the witness could provide evidence that might aid the government in prosecuting him, then he has the right to refuse.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>There has to be evidence, though, that testimony would subject you to criminal charges. &quot;What is your hair color?&quot; obviously cannot subject you to criminal charges. &quot;Have you ever driven while intoxicated?&quot; Would only be incriminating while the Statute of Limitations has not passed. After that point, you have not 5th amendment protections for having driven under the influence because it will no longer subject you to criminal charges.</p>\n<p>Additionally, there are cases in which you could refuse to answer but the court could still compel you to answer. For instance, sometimes questions in voir dire get very personal. If jurors believe a question is too personal, they can try to refuse to answer on those grounds, let the judge know, and the judge would make the decision. If the judge decides they must answer, and they continued to refuse, the judge could hold them in contempt.</p>\n<p>On a slightly more practical note, if you are objecting to questions, it will impact whether the attorneys on either side will allow you to stay on as a juror. After an objection to a specific question, the attorney may just decide to nix you.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "jury", "human-rights", "fifth-amendment", "voir-dire" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2023, "body": "<p>The LLC is a registered organization with the Commonwealth of Virginia. There is nothing you would do with a federal agency regarding transferring ownership of the LLC.</p>\n\n<p>You will probably need to see an attorney or use a legal service in order to affect a transfer. The reason for this is that the specific articles of organization of your LLC will determine if and how you would transfer ownership. If you don't have buy-sell provisions in your articles of organization then Virginia law would dictate how the transfer would proceed.</p>\n\n<p>Some sites, such as <a href=\"https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/how-to-transfer-ownership-of-an-llc\" rel=\"nofollow\">LegalZoom</a>, talk about how to transfer ownership of an LLC. It may be as simple as creating a bill of sale transferring ownership of the LLC from you to your wife. It may be more complicated based on your operating agreement, if it includes buy-sell provisions, and or Virginia law.</p>\n\n<p>Other <a href=\"http://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/sell-llc-membership-bill-of-sale.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">web sites</a> talk about how easy it is to transfer ownership. However, they also recommend the use of an attorney.</p>\n\n<p>If you read <a href=\"http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/virginia-limited-liability-company-act/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Virginia law</a> and the <a href=\"https://www.scc.virginia.gov/clk/dom_llc.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">Secretary of State's</a> website you will find forms such as the <a href=\"https://www.scc.virginia.gov/publicforms/329/llc1014.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Articles of Amendment</a> for an LLC. An attorney can tell you if all you need to do is amend your operating agreement and then do a bill-of-sale transfer.</p>\n\n<p>Because the transfer is dependent on so many things that are not obvious, e.g. articles of organization, Virginia law, etc., it would be best to seek the advice of an attorney or some other legal service that specializes in LLCs for your locale.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "contract-law", "corporate-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2039, "body": "<p>You can be charged for a crime until the statute of limitations has expired. If it was not a federal crime then your concern would be <a href=\"http://www.shestokas.com/general-law/interstate-extradition-in-the-united-states/\" rel=\"nofollow\">interstate extradition</a> (a.k.a. <em>rendition</em>). If the crime was committed in another state then if you are charged and a warrant is issued for your arrest it depends on how serious the crime was. Even if local police find that you are a fugitive, it is up to the state in which you were charged to decide whether they will pay the costs to retrieve you. If they won't, then the state in which you are found will not detain you further on that warrant.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 2041, "body": "<p>Tangential to your question but the statute of limitations limits the time within which legal proceedings may be initiated. </p>\n\n<p>If an arrest warrant were issued within time then the person could be prosecuted at any time before they died.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2035, "body": "<p>Every website needs a terms of service and a privacy policy. A simple Google search will find you plenty of TOS/PP generators. Then, you just a need to place an easy-to-find link to your TOS/PP on all the pages of your website.</p>\n\n<p>No matter what kind of site you run, it is also a very good idea to register as an official <a href=\"http://copyright.gov/onlinesp/agent.pdf\">copyright infringement agent</a>. It costs about $140, but it could save you a LOT of hassle in the future.</p>\n\n<p>Other than that, it's hard to say much more since you haven't revealed much about your website. You should be more specific if you want more information.</p>\n", "score": 6 } ]

[ "internet" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2019, "body": "<p>I doubt it's legal, and it's definitely unethical. \nThat said, I don't think you have any special responsibility to police Google's intellectual property rights, unless you work for them or something.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "copyright", "internet", "licensing" ]

[ { "answer_id": 312, "body": "<p>In regards to U.S. Law to be employed by the government. You would need to be certified to DoDD8570 specs. Here is a <a href=\"https://www.sans.org/media/dod8570/dod8570.pdf\">baseline</a> to understand what certifications are required depending on the role you are looking to be gainfully employed. These mostly require being <a href=\"http://www.giac.org\">GIAC</a> certified among some of the other certifications. </p>\n\n<p>In regards to becoming a \"Certified Ethical Hacker\", you would need to pass the CEH test by the <a href=\"http://www.eccouncil.org/Certification/certified-ethical-hacker\">ECCouncil</a>. </p>\n\n<p>As for laws protecting \"Ethical Hackers\", there really isn't any. The law which applies is mostly for prosecuting criminal acts. Not really for the protection of the security consultant. This law is called <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act\">Computer Fraud and Abuse Act</a> in the U.S. and in the U.K. the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Misuse_Act_1990\">Computer Misuse Act 1990</a>.</p>\n", "score": 6 } ]

[ "united-states", "hacking", "digital-forensics" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2027, "body": "<p>The legal system is set up to alleviate the problem or conundrum of intimidation by perpetrators. In the US criminal system, the State is the plaintiff, not the individual.</p>\n\n<p>In the extant described situation, very likely all you would have to do is sign an affidavit that the recovered phone is your phone, and that it was removed from your possession by unknown means on or about a certain date. From your description given here you don't know if it was stolen...you appear to have perhaps dropped it or left it somewhere, and someone picked it up/found it. Clearly it didn't belong to them, but this is more like \"recovered lost property\" rather than \"received stolen property.\"</p>\n\n<p>The craigslist poster might be entirely un-chargeable with a crime, though they might have to give up the phone to you.</p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 2026, "body": "<p>It is a standard part of common law justice systems that the accused has the right to know the basis of the accusation.</p>\n\n<p>In the circumstances you describe you would be required to make a statement and if charges were brought that statement would be given to the alleged thief.</p>\n\n<p>If you want them caught and your phone returned you have to be willing to look them in the eye and accuse them.</p>\n\n<p>For the U.S. specifically see <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notice\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notice</a></p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "privacy", "police", "theft" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1989, "body": "<p>Copyright infringement requires that you actually <strong>copy</strong> elements from an earlier work produced by a different author. If you created a similar, or even identical, work independently, it is not copyright infringement. </p>\n\n<p>When considering whether or not infringement has occurred, the court is likely to consider whether the defendant could reasonably have had access to the plaintiff's work. If the court finds that they could have, then the defendant would be required to produce evidence of original authorship. </p>\n\n<p>Consider the <em>My Sweet Lord/He So Fine</em> case, where the court found the defendant had subconsciously copied the plaintiff's song. Had Harrison been able to produce evidence of original authorship, the judgment could have been different. </p>\n\n<p>In your example, it is unlikely that an suit in copyright infringement could be decided against you, as you've stated the text is generated randomly. However, more evidence of this randomness might be required to support your case.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, whether a computer or automated process can produce works independently is still questionable; I'm not aware of cases that have tried this. The US Copyright Office has said that <em>Works produced by mechanical processes or random selection without any contribution by a human author are not registrable.</em> Of course, whether this has a bearing on your particular scenario is undecided, and I'm not sure how it would be decided.</p>\n\n<p>It is almost certain that the worst case outcome would be an injunction requiring you to cease publicising the product, or perform reasonable checks prior to publication to ensure that the product of your program infringes on works; it would be unlikely that you would have costs ordered against you, especially if the program is truly random, and the random text was given as much, or more, publicity than the coherent text.</p>\n", "score": 10 }, { "answer_id": 2013, "body": "<p>You can introduce it, but they would introduce experts who would say the odds are billions-to-one of generating an identical work is possible. In that case, the jury would probably find that it was more likely copied, than independently, yet identically, created. This would be on the magnitude of a matching but unrelated DNA....wth a 99.95% probability of this being impossible. There are no absolutes in a trial, so <em>could</em> you prevail....sure. But my money would be on the plaintiff!</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 1999, "body": "<p>you would most certainly be in complete violation of the previous book copyright. The owner of that copyright would have no problem winning a judgement. </p>\n\n<p>However, if you were able to prove that the random text generator had produced the book, you'd likely avoid damages, and merely have to remove your infringing \"book\" from circulation.</p>\n\n<p>Your example is of course a \"silly\" one, but it could apply also to the far-less-silly situation where a substantial excerpt...a paragraph or so...matches up.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2021, "body": "<p>I would probably have a legal disclaimer out of an abundance of caution. That being said, you have a right to free speech via First Amendment guarantees. While that right is not absolute and some words “by their very utterance” cause injury or incite an immediate breach of peace, and do not receive constitutional protection, (there is the old adage you do not have the right to shout fire in a crowded movie theater). This (your blog) is not that. To take it to its logical (or illogical) extreme, there are many things on the internet, in magazines, scholarly articles, etc. that <em>could</em> injure someone or cause damage in the event that one who was not qualified or competent to perform the action described undertook to do so.</p>\n\n<p>A child could burn themselves following the directions on a mac and cheese box but they shouldn't be cooking in the first place. The same rings true for high voltage electricity - a non-licensed electrician should probably not create a high voltage power supply. But, will some? Yes. But you are not liable for printing a blog about the practice. </p>\n\n<p>On another but related note, if you are a licensed electrician your licensing authority may require that you take precautions to ensure you do not inadvertantly direct others to engage in practices of licensed professionals that could cause harm by giving them information. I doubt this but I don't know because I am not an electrician.</p>\n\n<p>As far as could you be liable for writing it....under our legal system you can be sued under a theory of negligence for just about any action someone thinks was unsafe or causes injury. And you never know what a jury will do. But I think that to sue someone for simply writing something would be fairly easily dismissed through a motion for summary judgment by a competent attorney in the event you got sued. If everything a person wrote, that if followed by an unqualified person resulted in injury, resulted in liability for damages than it would have a chilling effect on their First Amendment right to free speech. </p>\n\n<p>That said, I go back to my original statement that it couldn't hurt to have a simple liability waiver for extra protection. It could be something as simple as: </p>\n\n<p>\"The information contained herein is not mean to be comprehensive and is for informational purposes only. You should not undertake to perform anything described herein without adequate training and/or supervision. The Author disclaims any responsibility for any injury, damage, or loss as a result of reliance upon the information found on this site/blog.\"</p>\n\n<p>If you do use a liability waiver, make sure it is bold and obvious. Otherwise, it can backfire!</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "liability" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2016, "body": "<p>In RI it appears that two days notice and a reasonable purpose is enough. There are states that list the <em>reasons</em> a landlord can access a unit; RI is not one of those states. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/title34/34-18/34-18-26.HTM\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/title34/34-18/34-18-26.HTM</a></p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 1984, "body": "<p>You do not give a jurisdiction; as tenancy law is one of the most regulated areas of law this is <em>highly</em> jurisdiction dependent and may vary depending on if it is a residential or commercial tenancy.</p>\n\n<p>For example, in New South Wales, Australia, a landlord may enter a residential premises (<a href=\"http://www.tenants.org.au/factsheet-08-access-and-privacy\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.tenants.org.au/factsheet-08-access-and-privacy</a>):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>With consent of the tenant</li>\n<li>Without consent or notice:\n\n<ul>\n<li>in an emergency, or</li>\n<li>to do urgent repairs, or</li>\n<li>if the landlord thinks that the premises have been abandoned, or</li>\n<li>in accordance with an order of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), or</li>\n<li>if they have serious concern about the health/safety of a person on the premises (after they have first tried to get consent).</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Without consent but with notice (periods vary) and within limitations:\n\n<ul>\n<li>To inspect the premises</li>\n<li>To carry out or assess the need for:\n\n<ul>\n<li>necessary repairs/maintenance (non-urgent)</li>\n<li>work to meet legal health/safety obligations</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>To value the premises</li>\n<li>To show the premises to prospective tenants</li>\n<li>To show the premises to prospective buyers</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "rental-property", "landlord", "rhode-island" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2014, "body": "<p>For a large organization, software licensing compliance is a very broad and intractable problem. The licensing environment is very different for the big company than it is for little tiny you. Many large companies are subject to audits by software vendors (i.e. Adobe, Oracle, etc.) in which they have to show licenses purchased for each active seat. There's a whole new INDUSTRY around maintaining license compliance. An employee bringing in their own software and installing it on a company computer complicates this vastly.</p>\n\n<p>That is the environment that the question should be considered within. The large company makes the decision somewhere along the way that your individual efficiency in performing your individual tasks is less important than maintaining auditable software licensing compliance. Since they own the computer/laptop/server, it's their decision.</p>\n\n<p>Many times it seems that corporate policies as they apply to the individual worker are obstructive and limiting, but there's a bigger picture to the situation.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 2012, "body": "<p>Essentially, if you are licensed to use the software in a certain manner, then you are entitled to do so. However, the company that employs you may have employment policies that prevent you from doing so.</p>\n\n<p>In this case, you may be bound by the employment policies and/or contract, which you should probably comply with, in order to avoid breaching that contract.</p>\n\n<p>There may be other reasons why the company forbids you from using a single-user license - if there's any kind of desktop virtualisation, for example. However, you'd need to be a lot more specific about your environment.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "licensing", "software", "privacy" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2009, "body": "<p>The FTC has myriad regulations (depending on site/content/ etc.) that must be complied with - this is especially true if children will be interacting with others. Ideally, you should have the assistance of an intellectual property attorney or a regulatory specialist if this is something you expect to be wide reaching and/or geared toward children. </p>\n\n<p>All of that being said, the following link offers much information regarding compliance with COPPA for small entities. If you plan on doing the compliance work yourself, there is also a liaison, or virtual \"help desk\" run by the FTC. Depending on what you're doing and your ability to interpret complex regulatory frameworks, you could accomplish this yourself. </p>\n\n<p>I'd recommend that you start here, where you'll find links to other regulations that may be applicable and easily found, and then decide if you need a specialist based on the breadth of your work product and what you find that may apply. Or, at a minimum, you may be able to narrow the scope of your question after reviewing this help section, if you find you need help analyzing a certain section.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions</a></p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "internet" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1991, "body": "<p>If the application end-user licence agreement prohibits reverse engineering, then reverse engineering <strong>is</strong> prohibited, no matter if there is some security measures or not and no matter your purposes.</p>\n\n<p>When you walk on the street, the fact that you pass near an open door or window doesn't make this home a public place, and does not make you free to enter in the house to ensure that there is nothing to steal \"in order to inform the house holder about the threat\". The same logic apply for this API.</p>\n\n<p>If you have any concern, you may get in touch with the software editor. If they are willing to do so, you may have a contractual written agreement from them allowing you some otherwise forbidden actions and clearly stating the limits you should not cross. Actually, some large editors even organize security bounty programs allowing anyone to proceed with security analysis of their products up to a certain defined limit.</p>\n\n<p>But, without such written agreement, the answer seems quite clear to me.</p>\n\n<p>As an addendum, local laws may have some subtleties like what is covered exactly by the notion of \"<em>fair use</em>\", is it legal to reverse engineer a software one did not install and therefore never agreed to the agreement, etc. You can find some relevant information <a href=\"https://www.chillingeffects.org/topics/15\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a> and <a href=\"http://blog.erratasec.com/2007/05/liability-of-reverse-engineering.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">there</a>.</p>\n\n<p>However I would personally not rely on such excuses to be \"out-of-jail\" guaranties. In France, we had <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Humpich\" rel=\"nofollow\">Serge Humpich</a> who, while taking all the precautions to stay within the boundary of the law (all discussions went through a lawyer, <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Humpich\" rel=\"nofollow\">longer story here</a>), was condemned when he proved to the GIE (organism in charge of French credit cards) that our payment system was not secured enough. I can also mention the case of <a href=\"http://www.zdnet.com/article/security-researcher-to-be-jailed-for-finding-bugs-in-software/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Guillaume Tena</a> who was condemned for having proved that the assertion of an anti-virus editor that their product was able to stop 100% of viruses was false.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "privacy", "hacking" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2002, "body": "<p>From the sound of it, you have stated that you gained access to school data, possibly including private information about other students, professors, schedules, grades, disciplinary information, financial tuition or salary info, etc., that you were not authorized to have. The question of whether it was properly secured is rather beside the point.</p>\n\n<p>The school will now need to know the precise scope of your snooping: whether you were able to modify any information (i.e. change grades), what purpose to your snooping, etc.</p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 2008, "body": "<p>Almost certainly.</p>\n\n<p>The relationship of a student to a school is governed by specific laws and, in the case of a private school, a contract. These will impose obligations on the student to comply with whatever rules are applicable and, in general, to not take actions that are not in the school's interest. </p>\n\n<p>If a school has become aware of activities by a student that breach the \"rules\"; then they can most certainly take disciplinary action. This would be applicable even if the activities were directed towards a third-party and had the effect of \"bringing the school into disrepute\".</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "internet", "privacy", "human-rights" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2004, "body": "<p>In the U.S. severance payments are not provided for statutorily, and are rarely made when an employee quits or is fired <em>for cause</em>. However, even when not provided for within contracts it is common to see voluntary severances paid during lay-offs.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, in the U.S. it is more likely that they would be \"laid off\" in order to qualify for unemployment insurance. In Pennsylvania one can make claims on the state-run unemployment insurance system <em>only if one is able to work <strong>and</strong> does not refuse suitable work when offered</em>. If one quits one is not eligible for these payments.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately unemployment claims are born by the employer (since their legally-mandated unemployment insurance premiums are adjusted based on realized claims).</p>\n\n<p>So managers with the authority to layoff employees can impose real costs on their companies, both in terms of direct severance payments (which may be optional), and in terms of the inflated unemployment premiums that will hit the company down the road. However, I have never heard of a company attempting to recoup such costs from managers, since such decisions are specifically delegated to managers with hiring/firing authority. It seems much more likely that a manager deemed to have abused the company's purse would be demoted or fired rather than being sued, unless there were some gross fraud involved (e.g., kickbacks).</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "united-states", "employment", "pennsylvania" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1311, "body": "<p>One principle of copyright law is that if you can prove independent authorship, there cannot be liability no matter how similar your work is to the prior work. \"If by some magic a man who had never known it were to compose anew Keats's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn,' he would be an 'author,' and if he copyrighted it, others might not copy that poem, though they might of course copy Keats's.\" (Sheldon v. MGM Pictures Corp., 81 F.2d 49, 54 (2d Cir. 1936)).</p>\n\n<p>Now, of course, the challenge is proving that you've never heard a given piece of music, or never read a particular work of fiction. If you have, even unconscious copying exposes to liability. And if the plaintiff can prove that you had access (such as the scriptwriter who sent a copy to a movie studio), they will have an even easier time proving the copying.</p>\n\n<p>If there is no proof of copying or not-copying, the copying can be proved circumstantially either through expert testimony or the jury's evaluation. The expert might testify something like \"There is an identical tonal progression in these two songs, even though they were written in different keys. There were a million different ways the songs could have been written, but they are identical in this respect.\" The jury can consider that information and find the defendant liable. Or, the judge may simply tell the jury, \"You may listen to these two songs, and find the defendant liable if you find them to be substantially similar to the extent that it is more likely than not that the defendant copied the plaintiff.\"</p>\n\n<p>TL;DR: The process can be conclusive, but if it isn't, then the output will be the evidence that the jury will consider.</p>\n", "score": 6 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1995, "body": "<p>Being as general as possible - refund policies are governed by bank and scheme policies, and so aren't necessarily the domain of law. There may be jurisdiction-specific regulations that limit your liability as a consumer, but there's not usually a legal requirement.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>This is almost certainly wholly governed by your credit card terms of use.¹</li>\n<li>You can report this to your local authorities, but without proof of a crime, it's unlikely to be actionable.<br>\nThe website isn't necessarily to blame, either - if your computer or your connection to the website was somehow compromised, then your details may have been obtained in that way, and the website could have had nothing to do with it.</li>\n<li>Again, this is almost certainly wholly governed by their scheme agreement.¹</li>\n</ol>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>_{1. Some off-topic information here, which may or may not be accurate, and which you should not seek clarification for here (check Money SE instead, and first check whether it is on-topic there) - generally, bank policies will refund you for fraudulent transactions below a certain quantity or value. In this case, the bank tends to take a loss and chargeback rights are not exercised.<br>\nIn other cases, the bank will require the merchant to prove that the authorised cardholder did in fact authorise the transaction. The level of proof is governed by the way in which the transaction was conducted and verified at the time of purchase - whether the CVV2 code was verified, whether address verification was completed, whether 3D verification was completed. If the merchant is unable to prove, according to the scheme guidelines, the transaction will be charged back to their account.}</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 2001, "body": "<p>There are two fundamental forms of credit card transactions: card-present, and card-not-present.</p>\n\n<p>Every transaction where the card's mag strip is swiped or embedded chip physically read, is a card-present transaction. Every internet transaction or over-the-phone transaction is a card-not-present transaction.</p>\n\n<p>Not by law, but by contractual agreement, the fraudulent card-present transaction is absorbed by the card issuing bank (the card-holder's bank), and the fraudulent card-not-present transaction is charged back to the merchant account.</p>\n\n<p>In both cases there is a review/dispute process wherein the charged entity can attempt to recover funds.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "theft", "finance", "fraud" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1983, "body": "<p>There is a common law doctrine that litigation should be final. A plaintiff is obliged to state their best case and all of their case for the defendant to defend and it will be decided <em>once and for all.</em></p>\n\n<p>If a petition to a court is made and dismissed then unless it is specifically dismissed \"without prejudice\" then that is the end of the matter; the same facts cannot serve as the basis for another claim - even if the basis is changed. For example, a claim made for breech of contract cannot be reintroduced as a tort; the plaintiff has had their day in court, they lost, move along. If there was a basis in both contract and tort the plaintiff should have introduced these both at the same time.</p>\n\n<p>Now, either or both parties can appeal to a higher court that the decision in the lower court was wrong, however, that is an argument primarily about the law used; not about the facts. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "common-law", "rules-of-court", "process" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1292, "body": "<p>In the absence of a jurisdiction I will deal with mine, Australia.</p>\n\n<h2>Complain to the financial services provider</h2>\n\n<p>Explain:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>What has happened</li>\n<li>How it happened</li>\n<li>What effect this has had</li>\n<li>What you want them to do to make it right</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2>Complain to the <a href=\"http://www.fos.org.au/resolving-disputes/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Financial Services Ombudsman</a></h2>\n\n<p>If you have not had the complaint resolved to your satisfaction within 45 days then you may escalate the complaint to the ombudsman.</p>\n\n<h2>Privacy</h2>\n\n<p>If the information contains \"personal information\" that can be linked to you then there has been a breach of your privacy. Your account balance is personal information; the way it was disclosed must allow a third-party to link it to you.</p>\n\n<p>The Privacy Act 1988 applies to \"Australian and Norfolk Island government agencies and private sector organisations covered by the Privacy Act\"; one category of private sector organisations that are covered are corporations with annual revenue of more than $3 million - any bank would meet this criteria.</p>\n\n<p>Under the Act you may lodge a <a href=\"http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints\" rel=\"nofollow\">complaint</a>; the OAIC is not required to investigate but if they do then some of the remedies are detailed <a href=\"http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/what-happens-to-your-privacy-complaint\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>.</p>\n\n<h2>Compensation</h2>\n\n<p>If you have suffered a loss as a result of the disclosure you are entitled to be compensated. This may be part of a settlement under any of the complaint described above or if the bank is found guilty by the Federal court of breaching the Privacy Act then it can order compensation be paid.</p>\n\n<h2>Private Legal Action</h2>\n\n<p>This may be possible against both the employee and the bank (an employer is jointly and severally liable for the actions of an employee). However, you would have to prove a breach of contract or the tort of breach of confidence; \"breach of privacy\" is <em>not</em> a cause of action in common law in Australia.</p>\n\n<p>In the case of the contract, the remedy for the breach may already be in the terms. Otherwise, you would have to prove the value of the damage.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "privacy" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1975, "body": "<p>Any amount that exceeds fair use/dealing in the relevant jurisdiction. This is a combination of quantity and intent.</p>\n\n<p>For the examples you give they are all probably <strong>not</strong> fair use. As an added complication, the USS Enterprise is almost certainly trade mark which is a different type of IP with different rules.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1973, "body": "<p>There is no required form for a copyright license (unless it is a requirement of a sup-ordinate license). Go for your life. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1972, "body": "<p>Under common law, a gratuitous license grant is revocable, one that forms part of a contract is not.</p>\n\n<p>Whether the license is a contract or not turns on a number of things; the most relevant being if there was an intention on both parties to create a contract (which would be demonstrated by their actions) and if consideration passed from the receiver to the giver of the license.</p>\n\n<p>The GPL probably <strong>is</strong> a contract because by giving it and the receiver acting on it they have both demonstrated intention and the receiver has given consideration: a promise to redistribute on the same terms. As such it would be irrevocable.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1971, "body": "<p>What a country <em>claims</em> to be the case certainly doesn't guarantee what <em>is</em> the case. The <a href=\"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Democratic_People&#39;s_Republic_of_Korea_%282012%29#Chapter_V._Fundamental_Rights_and_Duties_of_Citizens\" rel=\"noreferrer\">constitution</a> (at least as of 2012) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Article 67. Citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, the press, assembly, demonstration and association. The State shall guarantee the conditions for the free activities of democratic political parties and social organizations.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Needless to say, North Korea is not generally considered a bastion of free speech. The People's Republic of China has a similar provision in its constitution.</p>\n\n<p>When we get to countries where those <em>outside</em> the country consider there to be some level of freedom of speech, there are still restrictions. In the UK, the Official Secrets Act makes it a crime for any person to republish leaked classified information. Germany makes it illegal to deny that the Holocaust happened. Until 2013, Canada made it illegal for a person to use telecommunications to say something that would expose people to hatred for some reason covered by antidiscrimination law. Many, many countries criminalize child pornography. Many, many countries have copyright laws.</p>\n\n<p>\"Free speech\" does not mean \"you can say whatever you want and the government can't stop you.\" It means \"as a <em>general rule</em>, the government can't restrict what you're saying because they don't like it.\" I am unaware of any country with a functional government with unfettered freedom of speech.</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "freedom-of-speech" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1964, "body": "<p>Tell the employee they must come to work? Or else... what? If they don't show up they get a demerit and after 1,000,000 demerits they get a verbal warning? What are the consequences in this hypothetical?</p>\n\n<p>Of course a contract may dictate a different rule but in an at-will-employment state a manager can certainly tell an employee that they must come to work and can fire or discipline them if they don't come to work. </p>\n\n<p>Exceptions that might apply are instances where the employee is physically disabled or otherwise covered by the ADA and also situations where FMLA in implicated.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding ADA the rule is reasonable accommodation including modifying work schedules which may give the employer room to dictate timing of appointments. For example if the employee works 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM but continuously takes off work to go to doctors appointments.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "canada", "corporate-law", "medical" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1948, "body": "<h2>Joint and Several liability</h2>\n\n<p>Joint and several liability means that the landlord can sue the tenants one-by-one until the liability is satisfied. It has <strong>nothing</strong> to do with how the tenants distribute the costs among themselves.</p>\n\n<p>In practice, the landlord will sue the people they a) can find and b) believe have money. No landlord in their right mind will give this up.</p>\n\n<h2>Intra-tenant agreement</h2>\n\n<p>If this met the requirements of a contract then it could be enforced and would allow the tenants to agree on the proportion of rent (and other outgoings) that would be paid by each. It is a really good idea, however, it has no impact on the agreement between the tenant(s) and the landlord.</p>\n\n<p>However, if one of the tenants does not comply then the others are legally obliged to make up the shortfall. They could go to court to enforce the contract (or equitable rights in the absence of a contract).</p>\n\n<h2>TL;DR</h2>\n\n<p>Don't share a house with people you don't trust to pay the rent.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "canada", "rental-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1935, "body": "<p>Works created by the U.S. federal government, such as the passport cover design, <a href=\"https://www.usa.gov/government-works\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">are ineligible for copyright within the United States</a>. If the passport design was created by the U.S. federal government (and not a third party who later transferred ownership to the government), then the passport design is in the U.S. public domain and may be photographed, copied, and modified freely. (Obviously, using the design to create a forged passport is illegal, but would not be a <em>copyright</em> offense.)</p>\n<p>However, the U.S. federal government can assert copyright on their works in nations <em>other than</em> the United States:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Copyright laws differ internationally. While a U.S. government work is not protectable under U.S. copyright laws, the work may be protected under the copyright laws of other jurisdictions when used in these jurisdictions. The U.S. government may assert copyright outside of the United States for U.S. government works.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Strictly speaking, outside of the U.S., your use would need to satisfy your nation's fair use laws (if any exist) or you would need to seek permission from the U.S. government. In practice, I am not sure how litigious the U.S. federal government is about pursuing derivative works of the passport design outside the United States, and I couldn't find any policy documents about it.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>In contrast, the U.K. government has issued a <a href=\"http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/reproduction-british-passport.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">document detailing the Crown copyright on their passport design</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The UK Passport (the Passport) is subject to Crown copyright protection under section 163 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This means that it may not lawfully be reproduced without the prior permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office...</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>In particular, the documents says about the cover:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The image of the cover of the Passport including the Royal Arms, or the details pages of the Passport may not be used:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>as the main focus of the cover of a work, for example, the dust jacket or cover of a\npublication</li>\n<li>in advertising</li>\n<li>in facsimile form for use as a passport holder or cover</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ukpassport-cover.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Wikipedia's image of the U.K. passport cover</a> is labeled as a non-free image that is under Crown copyright. It is reproduced only under the belief that their encyclopedic use of the image satisfies U.S. fair use criteria.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright", "united-kingdom", "passport" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1958, "body": "<p>After some further browsing I managed to <a href=\"https://www.rocketlawyer.com/document/lease-amendment.rl\" rel=\"nofollow\">find a form for contract amendments</a>, so such practice does exist.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8011495_can-landlord-amend-lease-agreement.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Found following here</a></p>\n\n<p>Amending a Contract</p>\n\n<p>The amendment of a contract must be an agreement between the landlord and the tenant. A contract cannot simply be changed or altered by the landlord alone once both parties have signed and agreed to the existing terms. If the landlord wants to change rules and regulations regarding the space in question, he/she must create a lease amendment and present it to the tenant. The tenant can then choose to sign it and agree to the changes or choose to neglect the changes and remain in the existing contract. If this happens, the landlord must wait until the contract is up to change the terms.</p>\n\n<p>Governing Law or Jurisdiction</p>\n\n<p>The amending of a lease contract must be done so according to the laws and regulations in place in the jurisdiction in which the property is located. The original lease agreement should mention the name of the governing jurisdiction, so the tenant knows what laws and regulations the landlord follows. The tenant can contact the local district office for more information about the legal requirements needed for the landlord to amend the agreement.</p>\n\n<p>Read small print</p>\n\n<p>If the landlord states he/she is allowed to amend the leasing contract, he/she may have added a clause in the lease agreement that allows him/her to amend the agreement without your consent. Read the small print of the contract to see if this is so. If the agreement states the landlord is allowed to amend the contract without your approval, and you have signed the contract, the landlord can amend it as desired since you have given your consent by signing.</p>\n\n<p>Amendment Agreement</p>\n\n<p>If the landlord wants to amend the existing agreement, but has not included a clause or small print about amending the contract, he/she needs to write an amendment agreement as part of the existing contract. The amendment agreement outlines the changes that need to be made to the original contract. It should state that the landlord and tenant agree to the amendment. Both parties need to sign the amendment and date it accordingly. The amended terms should be added to the existing contract.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "contract-law", "residential-lease", "real-estate", "landlord" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1940, "body": "<p>You are allowed to sublet the <em>whole</em> of the premises but not part of it (VIII a); if you do you must create the agreement mentioned, pay to have it stamped by the government and pay £10 + VAT to the landlord. </p>\n\n<p>You must only use the premises as a domicile for <em>one</em> family; better make sure you rent those rooms to your cousins.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "contract-law", "residential-lease", "real-estate", "sublease" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1947, "body": "<p>It won't be the prosecutor that makes the decision.</p>\n\n<p>When someone is charged with domestic violence a judge, during arraignment, will make a determination if the defendant will be released or not. If the defendant is released the judge will set the conditions of that release. As part of those release conditions, the judge, generally, will enter a no-contact order preventing the defendant from having any contact with the victim.</p>\n\n<p>If the defendant and the victim wish to have contact then a Motion to Modify the Conditions of Release will need to be submitted to the court. I believe the victim has to initiate such a motion.</p>\n\n<p>Here is a link for how the <a href=\"https://www.tucsonaz.gov/prosecutor/victims-domestic-violence\" rel=\"nofollow\">City of Tucson describes the process</a>.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "criminal-law", "assault" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1929, "body": "<p>If you are an independent professional providing a professional service then, <em>prima facie</em>, you are entitled to negotiate a fee for that service, including choosing to provide it <em>pro bono</em>.</p>\n\n<p>There may be limits to this due to the interaction of other contracts that you may have, for example, with insurance companies. It is also possible that there are statutory limits or restrictions. In both cases, I would ask the person who claimed that they existed to show them to you.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "us-constitution" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1928, "body": "<h2>Copyright</h2>\n\n<p>Prominent at the bottom of the page is:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>© RealClearPolitics 2015</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is nice because it tells you who you have to approach for a licence. If it wasn't there the <strong>material would still be copyright</strong> you just wouldn't know who owned the copyright.</p>\n\n<h2>Questions</h2>\n\n<p>So:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I'm looking to build an app or write a book and I wish to use statistics, am I allowed to basically use their numbers as long as I cite where it is coming from?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>No</strong>, unless what you do constitutes <a href=\"http://www15.uta.fi/FAST/PK6/REF/fairuse.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">fair use</a> and I don't think it does.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I do make a profit from it, do I owe any royalties to the original scientists/surveyers?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>No</strong>, but you would owe whatever licence fee you negotiated with the copyright holder, ostensibly RealClearPolitics. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Must I ask them for permission?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>Yes</strong>, unless you are OK with running the risk of being sued.</p>\n\n<h2>Commentary</h2>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I see books reference hundreds of studies all the time </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is because they are generally protected by <a href=\"http://www15.uta.fi/FAST/PK6/REF/fairuse.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Academic Fair Use</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>public polls should be open information to everyone</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The only public poll that I know of is an election and that information is available. What you are looking at is a private poll commissioned by and paid for by RealClearPolitics and it is their intellectual property; why should that \"be open information to everyone\"?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>commercial interests may be legally entangling</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Always</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1926, "body": "<p>It depends on the state. In some states the Secretary of State holds the records for business entities and in others, such as Arizona, it's an organization known as the Arizona Corporation Commission.</p>\n\n<p>Regardless of the state's organization that keeps the information, one of the pieces of information you will find when you look at a company's records is the \"registered agent\", \"resident agent\" or \"statutory agent.\"</p>\n\n<p>The agent, whether a person or a representative corporation, must be located within the state where business is conducted. That agent is who or what gets served with papers for a lawsuit.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a good explanation at <a href=\"https://www.legalzoom.com/knowledge/corporation/faq/corporation-registered-agent-requirement\" rel=\"nofollow\">legalzoom</a>.</p>\n\n<p>A personal example that may help: I am an owner in a business that does business in Louisiana and Arizona. Our LLC is registered in Louisiana and is registered as a \"foreign corporation\" in Arizona. However, we are required to have a registered agent in each state. We pay a company to act as our registered agent in each state and the registered agent has a physical address in each state in which we are registered.</p>\n\n<p>If someone wants to sue my company then they can look up the name of my company in either state and will find my registered agent along with the registered agent's physical address. Service to the registered agent counts as service to my company. The agent will forward to me any service which is made to them.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: if you don't known the name of the entity, i.e., the name on the door of the business does not represent the name of the company, then you need to find the \"doing business as,\" or DBA record of the company.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know what state you're in but all the states in which I've done business maintain a \"Doing Business As\" system that can be searched. I guess it's possible that you're in a state that doesn't maintain DBA filings or require them.</p>\n\n<p>Typically, you can search either way - search by owner or search by the DBA name. Some states, such as Arizona, record DBA names at the county level. I've seen some states allow searching by address also.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "juridical-person" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1912, "body": "<p>In the United States, when you distribute a recording of a nondramatic musical work, the law grants a compulsory mechanical license allowing anyone to cover the song provided certain formalities are observed, and royalties are paid to the original artist. See 17 U.S.C. sec. 115.</p>\n\n<p>If your song falls under this section, then all that is required for your friend to cover it is to give you notice and to pay royalties as provided by the applicable statutes and regulations.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, you are free to negotiate other terms if you want to. But your song can be covered even if you don't.</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "copyright", "internet", "licensing", "music" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1910, "body": "<p>Pardon the pun, but you must be joking.</p>\n\n<p>There is no possibility that a lawsuit based on someone following obviously self-destructive advice on an obviously humorous website would succeed. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "negligence", "damages", "administrative-law", "civil-legal-system" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1909, "body": "<p><strong>No</strong>, if, as you say we put aside the human rights questions surrounding the death penalty itself and assuming that the prisoners had been legitimately charged, convicted and had exhausted their appeals process.</p>\n\n<p>Once a person has been convicted, sentenced to death and has exhausted their appeals then the timing of the execution passes from the judicial branch to the executive branch of government. This is why governments can implement and remove moratoriums on executions at their discretion.</p>\n\n<p>Doubtless there are administrative rules and logistical issues involved in the actual timing of the execution but if these have all been correctly dealt with then they are essentially held at the pleasure of the person in the government charged with the decision.</p>\n\n<p>Was it legal? Probably. Was it ethical? ...</p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 1905, "body": "<p>This example dates back to the 16th century, but is quite famous historically. </p>\n\n<p>Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner for nearly 20 years (after fleeing from Scotland to England), on suspicion of plotting to take the English throne from Queen Elizabeth I. But things \"came to a head\" in 1588, when a \"third party,\" a young English Catholic, made a written proposal to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and enthrone Mary. When this proposal was shown to Mary, and she gave her assent (both were intercepted by Elizabeth's spies), it caused the execution not only of the young man, but of Mary herself.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "punishment" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1907, "body": "<p>When you refer to customs, that necessarily denotes travel to a foreign county, such that each county will have their own laws, rules, and regulations that govern these issues. It is more than likely that if you refuse to answer the questions of customs officials in ANY country, you will be denied admittance. The same is true if you refuse or balk at being searched (personally or your possessions), and keep in mind that this is without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. The best thing to do is to answer the questions honestly and accurately, but also as narrowly as possible to completely answer. Trying to argue with them will only send up red flags and you will be there longer. Remember it is a privilege, not a right, to enter a sovereign nation of which you are not a citizen.</p>\n\n<p>For example, in the U.S., customs reserves the right to detain for questioning, search you, your car, your children, your bags, packages, purse/wallet, or any other travel item with full legal authority to do sol they can even examine your electronics (content and hardware). You place your stuff on the exam station and open it. (After the exam is completed, you will be asked to repack and close the baggage.) If you are unhappy with the way you are being treated, you do have the right to ask to speak to a CBP supervisor, but I cannot see anything good coming of it, unless they were super rude without provocation or broke something of value.</p>\n\n<p>The authority to delay and speak with travelers derives from the United States Code (section citations below) enables CBP to prevent the entry of persons who are inadmissible under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and to prevent the smuggling of merchandise, including narcotics and other contraband items, into the United States.</p>\n\n<p>Speaking with travelers and examining merchandise coming into or leaving the United States is just one of the mechanisms used to identify illegal or prohibited items, and to determine whether or not someone is trying to enter the U.S. for unlawful or fraudulent purposes. Unless exempt by diplomatic status, all travelers entering the United States, including U.S. citizens, are subjected to routine Customs examinations. At times, people make the mistake of thinking their civil rights are being violated by being asked questions about their trip, personal background and history, etc. That is not the case. Supreme Court decisions have upheld the doctrine that CBP's search authority is unique and does not violate the fourth amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.</p>\n\n<p>U.S. Customs website has a detailed Q&amp;A section. Most modern countries do as well.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "united-states", "canada", "england-and-wales" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1904, "body": "<p>I have the same line in a contract that was just sent to me. So I did some quick research into this. However, <strong>I AM NEW TO THE SYSTEM AND DO NOT KNOW IT WELL!!</strong>, so please do not act on this information without seeking further advice from the relevant professionals. </p>\n\n<p>From what I can gather, the \"Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG)\" is the law that governs working hours in Germany. Here is a link: <a href=\"http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/arbzg/gesamt.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/arbzg/gesamt.pdf</a> </p>\n\n<p>I used Google Translate to translate this information and found that in §3 it states that \"The default daily working time must not exceed eight hours. It can only be extended up to ten hours if within six calendar months or 24 weeks an average of eight hours working day is not exceeded.\"</p>\n\n<p>This would lead me to believe that even if overtime is not paid as extra on top of your salary, they must give you the time off at another time to keep the average working day to 8 hours. **However, as the working week is Monday - Sat, the average working hours per week may be calculated as 48 hours per week, and not 40!</p>\n\n<p>Once again, I am not fully sure of my information, so use at your own risk!!</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 1887, "body": "<p>It means that your salary includes any overtime I.e. You do not get paid extra. Whether this is legal in Germany, I don't know.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "labor-law", "germany" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1900, "body": "<h2>Contracts</h2>\n\n<p><strong>A contract is not a piece of paper</strong>; it is an agreement intended to be legally binding between 2 or more people and it may be verbal or written or a combination of both.</p>\n\n<p>That said, where a person has signed a document knowing that it contains contractual terms, in the absence of fraud that person is bound by the terms: it is immaterial whether the person signing reads the document or not.</p>\n\n<p>So there are two reasons why a signed contract would not be binding:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>the person did not know it contained contractual terms</li>\n<li>fraud.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>It is in the second case that the validity of the signature would matter. Fraud would have to be proved: it would not be sufficient to say \"I did not sign that\"; the person would need to demonstrate that a fraud has been perpetrated.</p>\n\n<h2>Signatures</h2>\n\n<p>Particularly today, with the ability to scan a signature it is trivially easy to affix anyone's signature to anything. </p>\n\n<p>However, a party to a contract is entitled to rely <em>prima facie</em> on the validity of the signature. A person would have to provide evidence that it was not their signature or had been affixed without their knowledge or consent. </p>\n\n<p>A court would look at the entire circumstances surrounding such a claim; if a person had, up until the dispute, acted as though they had signed the document then a court would probably not countenance an argument that they hadn't.</p>\n\n<p>It is always possible to construct contrived circumstances where this or that could happen but, in reality, they are extremely rare. Unless you are dealing with a con-artist, you can trust the signature; if you are dealing with a con-artist, you have bigger problems.</p>\n\n<p>See, the President has endorsed this answer:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/DQbL3.png\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/DQbL3.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n", "score": 8 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1897, "body": "<p>The answer is <code>yes</code> : any dmv must provide a translator, or at least let a person bring a translator . Here is a reference to a legal source </p>\n\n<pre><code> Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires agencies \n receiving federal funding to provide individuals with\n limited English proficiency meaningful access to \n agency programs and services. \n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Official link is <a href=\"http://www.justice.gov/crt/title-vi-civil-rights-act-1964-42-usc-i-2000d-et-seq\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a> </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "driving" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1895, "body": "<p>This may or may not help you, I am aware that common law and Germanic law have very different origins, history and consequence; but, since I know nothing about German law I will give you the common law answer.</p>\n\n<p>An essential part of a common law contract is the offer and acceptance. One party makes an offer and the other party accepts it. Acceptance can be done by word (verbal or in writing) or action - if the parties act as though there was a contract then there is a contract.</p>\n\n<p>Example 1:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>I walk into a shop and say \"May I have a Mars bar please?\"</li>\n<li>The shopkeeper hands me the Mars bar and <em>makes the offer</em> \"$2.50, please.\"</li>\n<li>I hand over $2.50 <em>accepting the offer</em>.</li>\n<li>The contract is now binding and barring some fault with the Mars bar, complete.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Example 2:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>I walk into a shop and pick up a Mars bar from a bin labelled $2.50 (technically this is an <em>offer to treat</em> by the shop - they are indicating that they will consider offers of around $2.50)</li>\n<li>I take it to the counter and had over $2.50, making the <em>offer</em></li>\n<li>They <em>accept</em> the offer by taking my money</li>\n<li>No words were spoken but we end up at the same point as Example 1.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>By sending you their terms they have made an offer to you; by signing and returning it you have accepted their offer: <strong>you are now parties to a binding contract</strong>. There is no requirement for them to sign it or send it back.</p>\n\n<p>However, if you amended their terms then you have not accepted them , you have made a counter-offer. They can accept them by word (sending you a signed contract back) or deed (doing what the contract says they should).</p>\n\n<p>Offers can be withdrawn <strong>until</strong> they are accepted; after that there is a legally binding contract.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "contract-law", "germany" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1885, "body": "<p>This really depends on <em>what you're looking for</em>. For example, if you want the details of a specific regulation or the statutory definition of some term, the internet is pretty good! If you can't follow legal language, or if you want to know whether something is <em>legal</em>, you probably have to hire a lawyer.</p>\n\n<p>In general you can't effectively determine the legality or legal consequences of an action: As noted in <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/a/1196/10\">this answer</a>, even the <em>enumeration</em> of laws is an unsolved problem. But you can look for \"safe harbors\" ... if you know in which statutes or case law you are likely to find them.</p>\n\n<p>This is one reason we can't just <a href=\"http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/lets-kill-all-lawyers\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">kill all the lawyers</a> ;)</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "international", "legal-education" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1877, "body": "<p>That looks like a report summary (addendum to a police report) or a corrections intake sheet; mistakes are common. I would be more shocked, but not completely surprised, it it were part of a published opinion. Clearly, they meant to say 31...you did not misinterpret it.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "criminal-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1862, "body": "<p>From <a href=\"http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Roberts' dissenting opinion</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Although the policy arguments for extending marriage to same-sex\n couples may be compelling, the legal arguments for requiring such an\n extension are not. The fundamental right to marry does not include a\n right to make a State change its definition of marriage. And a State’s\n decision to maintain the meaning of marriage that has persisted in\n every culture throughout human history can hardly be called\n irrational. In short, our Constitution does not enact any one theory\n of marriage. The people of a State are free to expand marriage to\n include same-sex couples, or to retain the historic definition.</p>\n \n <p>(The Due Process Clause is not a guarantee of every right that should\n inhere in an ideal system.)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my opinion, this quote speaks as much to the second question as the first. Assume (hypothetically) for a moment that question one was not at issue. If a state defined marriage as only between opposite sexes, and <em>the right to make a state change its definition of marriage</em> is not in the Supreme Court's purview (in our hypo), then the state is as free to reject the validity of marriages abhorrent to its laws, performed elsewhere, as it is to deny the right to marry under its theory of marriage.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "us-supreme-court" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1726, "body": "<p>On the face of the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act\" rel=\"nofollow\">CFAA</a>:</p>\n\n<p><strong>How does Aaron Swartz's mass download from JSTOR constitute hacking?</strong></p>\n\n<p>He exceeded his authorised access on a protected computer.</p>\n\n<p><strong>If this is hacking (the masking of one's IP address) then doesn't that make using VPN hacking?</strong></p>\n\n<p>Hacking is not a term used in CFAA.</p>\n\n<p>In Aaron's case changing the IP address was a necessity for him to exceed his authorised access; if he stopped when blocked then the unauthorised access would have stopped.</p>\n\n<p>If you are authorised to use a VPN for access then you have not exceeded your authorisation, have you?</p>\n", "score": 6 } ]

[ "hacking", "cfaa" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1873, "body": "<p>Probably, yes.</p>\n\n<p>By violating your T&amp;C you have \"exceeded your authorised access on a protected computer\" which is a crime under the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act\" rel=\"nofollow\">CFAA</a>.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "cfaa" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1869, "body": "<h2>Answer</h2>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Additional (extra-constitutional) powers of the Vice President (V-POTUS) are whatever the President (POTUS) says they are — subject to the limitations of the authority of POTUS.</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>You are correct in that the constitution enumerates specific powers and authority to V-POTUS. As you have outlined.</p>\n\n<p>However, the additional powers you ask about are at the discretion of POTUS. As Chief Executive, POTUS can delegate powers and authority (within the executive branch) according to his sole discretion — except for where the constitution requires senate approval. As in the case of cabinet appointees.</p>\n\n<p>Each president has a unique management style and the variable nature of the skill sets of the executives around him require Presidents to have some flexibility in the extra-constitutional duties they delegate to V-POTUS.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 1871, "body": "<p>The VP rarely exercises his powers as President of the Senate, because a President <em>pro tempore</em> who is the constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate presides over the chamber and is elected by the Senate (and who is customarily the senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service).</p>\n\n<p>In recent history a shift has occurred whereby presidents have relied heavily on their VP as their chief advisor (Cheaney/Bush and Gore/Clinton) with great powers flowing to them as a result. This trend began with Truman but culminated in recent history. Modern examples being Gore, as major proponent of IT leading to economic growth: as VP he oversaw the creation of a new tax on telecommunications companies that funded a federal program to install Internet connections in public classrooms, and the passage of v-chip technology that allows parents to block programming on their televisions. He is probably best known for spearheading the environmental revolution with his efforts for major environmental reforms including extending the ban on off-shore drilling.</p>\n\n<p>Cheney is most certainly known as the most powerful VP in history, who under George W. Bush from 2000 to 2008, expanded the office's power even further. In some cases, he actually directed the president -- or at least led him in a favored direction. In 2001, Cheney presented a draft of an executive order that denied a trial or court martial to terror suspects, which the president signed within an hour [source: Telegraph].</p>\n\n<p>While in office, Vice President Cheney created a special top secret classification for his files, Top Secret/SCI (sensitive compartmentalized information), now the highest classification of sensitive material [source: Washington Post via link below]. Cheney also argued vehemently for an expanded restoration of presidential powers, reasoning that they'd been limited by Congress in response to abuses by the Nixon administration (in which Cheney began his political career as an aide) and should be expanded in the face of the war on terror. </p>\n\n<p>Tons of great information on the expanded powers of VPs are detailed in this article: <a href=\"http://www.anamericanvision.com/info/office_of_the_u_s_vice_president.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.anamericanvision.com/info/office_of_the_u_s_vice_president.php</a></p>\n\n<p>And <strong><a href=\"http://listverse.com/2009/12/08/10-most-important-vice-presidents-of-the-us/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The 10 Most Important Vice Presidents of the US</a></strong> is interesting as it focuses exclusively on which vice-presidents were most influential in regards to the evolution of the office and not best/worst type analysis.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "constitutional-law", "vice-president" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1870, "body": "<p>Disclaimer: there are whole sections of criminal law courses that deal with this issue and the various laws and precedents that have shaped american jurisprudence relating to right of privacy, expectation of privacy, and search and seizure. So, this is more of a primer than a comprehensive answer. </p>\n\n<p>That being said, the Fourth Amendment, which protects the people from unreasonable search and seizure by the government, dictates that there must be probable cause for a search warrant to issue. However, in addition to the restrictions that are imposed by the Fourth Amendment, several states’ constitutions, as well as a variety of state and federal statutes, rules of procedure, and law court rulings interpret these edicts further, limiting the process for obtaining a search warrant (a state can add additional safeguards, or impose more stringent requirements, but not less than the 4th amendment demands). On the federal level alone, the laws on search and seizure are also limited in scope by sections appearing in Title 18, Part II, Chapter 205 – Searches and Seizures. 18 U.S.C. § 3101-18. Federal warrants are further governed by Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.</p>\n\n<p>Only Judges and magistrates may issue search warrants. To obtain a warrant, law enforcement officers must show that there is probable cause (i.e. grounds) that search is legally justified. Officers must support this showing with sworn statements (affidavits) under oath, and must describe in particularity the place they will search and the items they will seize. Judges must consider the totality of the circumstances when deciding whether or not to issue the warrant. When issuing a search warrant, the judge may restrict how and when the police conduct the search.</p>\n\n<p>Police officers (a broad term I'm using for ease of discussion to include all manner of state and federal investigators operating under color of law) seeking a warrant do not need to show that the people being searched (or those whose property is being searched) actually, or even probably, committed the crime(s) in question. Rather, officers merely need to show probable cause exists to show that the evidence sought-after is likely there and upon discovery may implicate some person or persons in criminal activity (that has been committed).</p>\n\n<p>A landmark case that resulted in some reforms is <em>Zurcher v. Stanford Daily</em>, 436 U.S. 547 (1978), in which the Supreme Court opined that a search conducted by the police at a student newspaper, where the newspaper was not implicated or connected to any criminal activity, was a legal search under the Fourth Amendment, because the police <em>suspected</em> it had photographic evidence of the identities of demonstrators who assaulted police officers. Afterward, however, some jurisdictions responded by passing laws restricting or forbidding these kinds of searches - so again, what stands as acceptable procedure is not static.</p>\n\n<p>While you may not often hear of requests for warrants being denied, it does happen if there is insufficient PC pled in the affidavit; General unawareness is not surprising as it is not something often made public, although there are instances. Most officers know when they have enough for a warrant and know how to adequately swear out an affidavit so that PC is present enough for the judge to sign the warrant in good faith. However, some Judges are more stringent and demanding than others with regard to how the PC was obtained,the scope of the warrant under those facts, etc. Certainly, not every application is granted.</p>\n\n<p>Cornell has a great primer of this issue and you can find article when application for a warrant was denied...especially in higher profile investigations.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/search_warrant\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/search_warrant</a> </p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "united-states", "search-and-seizure" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1868, "body": "<h2>Background</h2>\n\n<p>A painting is either protected by copyright or it isn't; if it isn't it is in the public domain and anyone can do anything they want with it. If they make sufficient changes, the derivative work will have copyright on its own account.</p>\n\n<p>Leonardo da Vinci's paintings are in the public domain. This is not because of the time since his death in 1519; it is because they were created before there was any copyright law. </p>\n\n<p>Bob Ross' paintings are probably <em>not</em> in the public domain, however, this would need to be determined on a case by case basis using the applicable law at the time and in the place where each was published. Copyright laws change and the changes may or may not affect pre-existing works.</p>\n\n<p>However, in both cases, photographs of the paintings will have their own copyright. These may or may not be in the public domain on a case by case basis.</p>\n\n<p><strong>I am explicitly not considering a \"fair use\" defence because based on your description you probably can't use one</strong></p>\n\n<h2>Questions</h2>\n\n<p><strong>I will be editing the works a bit as a core part of the application (minor stuff like adding a mustache on the Mona Lisa or a door in the middle of a Mondrian). Would editing the works like this be illegal?</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you are planning an adding a moustache to the <em>actual</em> Mona Lisa that hangs in the Louvre; that would be illegal on so many levels! Expect to die inside a French prison if the gendarmes don't \"accidently\" shoot you during the arrest. </p>\n\n<p>If you are editing a photograph then providing you either have a) a photograph that is in the public domain or b) a photograph that you own or are licenced to use in that way; go for your life.</p>\n\n<p>I will also be clear because \"illegal\" is an ambiguous word: copyright violation is not a crime that would be prosecuted by the state; it is a civil infraction of the copyright owner's property rights that <em>they</em> can take action on.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Would this be necessary or even make a difference?</strong></p>\n\n<p>If it is in the public domain then its not necessary and would not make a difference.</p>\n\n<p>If it is subject to a licence then its necessary if the licence says it is. Leaving it out if it is required would breach the licence; putting it in if it wasn't would not make a difference.</p>\n\n<p><strong>If this is in fact true ...?</strong></p>\n\n<p>It isn't or isn't precisely. The expiration of copyright on a given work depends on where it was published and the laws of that country at the time it was published. Changes to the law can do strange things to the life of copyright. For example, see <a href=\"http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a> for US origin works.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, some works are in the public domain from the instant of their creation; in the US works created by US government employees are public domain as a matter of law, however, in Australia by contrast, government produced works have copyright owned by the Australian Government and follow the same rules as for privately produced works.</p>\n\n<p><strong>... would I be able to use the paintings for my purposes?</strong></p>\n\n<p>See above.</p>\n\n<p><strong>I will make it clear that I am not the artist and that I take no credit for the painting.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Good idea, irrespective of copyright status claiming works are yours when they are not is the tort of \"passing off\" - a common law doctrine with a much longer history than copyright.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright", "intellectual-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1866, "body": "<p>Yes. There's no requirement that the consideration be objectively valuable, as there's no real standard for value; as long as there is some consideration, it can be offered for a contract.</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercorn_(legal)\" rel=\"noreferrer\">peppercorn rule</a> states that nominal consideration is sufficient to constitute consideration for the purposes of establishing a contract. Even if later, we decide that the comments or posts are no longer desired, it does not cease to be good consideration.</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1860, "body": "<p>So, likely descriptive but may be either depending on how the deed is drafted, and depending on whether it's in an exhibit that is incorporated by reference into the deed or not. However, what likely governs is not the description/prescription in any event; it is whether your deed allows for an easement and the board has approved it. </p>\n\n<p>Most master deeds for condominiums have what is called an \"Easement of Encroachment\" in the body of deed (usually shortly after the name, description of land, description of building, description of unit(s)), so that each unit has the benefit of an easement of encroachment in the event that said unit (meaning <em>any</em> unit) encroaches upon any portion of the common elements of the structure or another unit (encroachment on another unit is only for things like building settling that causes the building lines to move or change slightly &ndash; you can't bump out your closet a foot into your neighbor's room). This easement goes both ways, or vice versa, such that common elements may encroach upon the unit for a variety of different reasons like building maintenance and building settling; i.e., the whole has the same rights.</p>\n\n<p>The part that is really relevant in your case, however, and is very typical language, is the part that typically states something like: <em>each unit has and is subject to an easement for the benefit of any other unit, to use and access such elements to encompass wires, ducts, pipes, conduits, cables or any other common elements located in, on, or within the right of any unit such that if improvements to a unit that are within your right under the restrictive covenants (the vote would decide that in your case) then those common elements may be changed to the extent that they do not materially and adversely affect another unit</em>. This does not mean that another unit does not like it. It means that it would materially change their unit in some way, like the shape of it, the water available to them, etc. You should check the master deed for this. Otherwise, the covenants control and you still should have the right to do this. You may potentially just need to amend the description of your unit. Even if an amendment needs to get filed with the registry of deeds, that is not a big deal. I hope this helps.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "real-estate", "massachusetts" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1845, "body": "<p>I don't speak Japanese, but using Japan's <a href=\"http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/hourei/data/PC.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">\"unofficially\" translated Penal Code</a> document, they do not specifically define Pachinko as being allowed or disallowed.</p>\n\n<p>And as you noted with Pachinko, as long as cash is not <a href=\"http://pachinkoplanet.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=page&amp;id=1\" rel=\"nofollow\">exchanged directly</a>, that is \"enough to circumvent the gambling laws\", a practice that \"is both understood and fully ignored by all authories everywhere.\"</p>\n\n<p>But, as in many places around the world, Government Profiteering and Criminal Corruption play into the \"historical, monetary, and cultural reasons\" you mentioned. So unless <em>you</em> have those ties, and I think you would know, I don't think you will be opening your own Mahjong parlour any time soon.</p>\n\n<p>As <a href=\"http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/12/us-japan-casino-pachinko-idUSBREA4B0V320140512\" rel=\"nofollow\">this Reuters article</a> mentions, Pachinko's status as an amusement activity and \"past links to organized crime\" and a \"web of special interests involved, not least the national police agency which oversees it\" have allowed these private companies to remain cemented into the culture because it is too profitable for those in power to allow it to be removed. But that may change as Las Vegas-style casinos are looking to expand gaming regulations.</p>\n\n<p>The answer ultimately breaks down to the same reasons lotteries are allowed in most states in the United States. As long as the government is profiting, it is going to be ignored.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.japansociety.org/pachinko_nation\" rel=\"nofollow\">This article</a> is slightly dated, but is extremely comprehensive in it's examination of gambling in Japan and breaks down the staggering figures as of 2002, and you can imagine they haven't gone down:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Pachinko, as you mentioned, is exempt from Japanese gambling laws and is bigger than the Japanese auto industry. Each year, 30 million Japanese spend $200 billion, and lose around $40 billion of it.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And though, as the article states, \"Japanese criminal law declares unambiguously that gambling is illegal\", when you dig deeper:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Japan’s government-run horseracing industry is three times bigger than any other horseracing business in the world, with nearly $30 billion wagered every year.</li>\n<li>Japan has more professional cyclists than any country in the world. Why? Because Japan runs the world’s largest bicycle-racing betting operation.</li>\n<li>Government-sponsored motorboat races and motorcycle races attract billions in wagers every year.</li>\n<li>The government operates a soccer lottery.</li>\n<li>The government also operates a national numbers lottery.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>...and on, and on, with total wagers reaching \"on the order of $300 billion/year for legal gambling alone\", making Japan the biggest gambling market in the world. Pretty unambiguous.</p>\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ "gambling", "japan" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1849, "body": "<p>In the first instance, breach of copyright is not a crime; therefore the \"state\" (any \"state\") cannot take action against the site.</p>\n\n<p>It falls to each copyright holder to protect their copyright. So, the question is: why would they bother?</p>\n\n<p>The copyright holder makes money from the <em>song</em>, not the <em>poem</em> that the lyrics comprise. Having the lyrics publicly available probably increases sales of the song. Arguably this breach of copyright is to the copyright holders benefit.</p>\n\n<p>What could they do anyway?</p>\n\n<p>They could raise a cease and desist letter followed by an injunction; as stated this is probably not in their own interests. They could sue for the profits attributable to each of their songs, but it is quite likely that these would be less than the cost of the lawsuit.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "copyright", "fair-use" ]

[ { "answer_id": 725, "body": "<p>Let's put to bed the myth of privacy that is at the heart of your question: in <a href=\"http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/supreme_ct/2001/204.html\">R v Sotheren (2001) NSWSC 204</a> Justice Dowd said <strong>“A person, in our society, does not have a right not to be photographed.”</strong></p>\n\n<p>In general, you <strong>can</strong> take photos of people; statues have even <em>less</em> privacy rights.</p>\n\n<p>There are limitations mainly related to voyeurism and commercial use, which are discussed at <a href=\"http://www.4020.net\">http://www.4020.net</a>.</p>\n", "score": 11 } ]

[ "australia", "privacy", "right-of-publicity", "photography" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1760, "body": "<p>Well, yes. It's called a fine and it will be written on the ticket; that is the penalty for the offence.</p>\n\n<p>Right now you are presumed innocent; you can refute that presumption by paying the fine or you can maintain it and have your day in court. If you defend it and fail then you are guilty <strong>and always were!</strong></p>\n\n<p>There will be no additional penalties but there may be additional costs. Interest if you pay late, court fees and fees to a lawyer if you hire one.</p>\n\n<p>Just beware that you do not commit the crime of perjury in your defence; you are allowed to be wrong about your innocence, you are not allowed to attempt to pervert the course of justice. <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Einfeld\" rel=\"nofollow\">Marcus Einfeld</a> serves as a salutary lesson.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "traffic", "new-york-state", "new-york-city" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1818, "body": "<p>To be done correctly, this is actually a much more complex undertaking than your question implies. That being said, what you are suggesting is a fee for services contract. If the scope of services are limited you <em>could</em> create it yourself, although there are many issues that must be taken into consideration. </p>\n\n<p>Just off of the top of my head, to name a few issues that must be considered, are: Scope of services; Definitions (important in that ambiguity is typically construed against the drafter); terms and conditions; indemnification; severability (savings clause); specific performance and penalties for failure; whether or not time is of the essence; payment methods, and ceilings that trigger another explicit affirmation in writing.</p>\n\n<p>I know you'd like to avoid earning/payment caps, but contracts of this type are typically negotiated and there is usually some limit that, when reached, a change order or addendum must be added. This could include reasonable and necessary expenses on your end (again: how these are defined will be important). Very few business will enter into a contract for services with no ceiling to what they could end up owing. Contracts, in general, should not typically be one-sided agreements that benefit only the drafter as you want to ensure general enforceability. </p>\n\n<p>There are, in just a very general sense, many provisions that may be necessary to create an enforceable contract depending on exactly what type of work you will be doing, whether or not you will sub any of the work out, whether your work (if inadequate or negligent in some way) can materially adversely impact the business and if so, a clear limitation of damages (if any) you could be exposed to. Also it can really matter what jurisdiction you are in.</p>\n\n<p>If it is something very simple, like \"John Doe will sort Jane Doe's email folder remotely once per week,\" you could probably get away with doing it yourself with online templates. Not something I would suggest if your are doing any type of meaningful service(s) and entering into any lucrative/long-term contract. There are all sorts of simple contract principals a layperson just does not have an understanding of, that may and often do, end up being essential. If it is something relatively simple, a lawyer could draft such an instrument for you without you needing to spend much money on the front end, and you may save yourself a lot of headaches and money at the backend.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 1817, "body": "<p>To answer your questions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>One that is legally enforceable and does not breach the law where you and your customers are located. </p></li>\n<li><p>A basic contract should cover:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Who does what and when (generally what you do and what and when they pay)</li>\n<li>Considers reasonable contingencies and their consequences (e.g. failure of a party to perform, extraneous events like insolvency etc.)</li>\n<li>Has a way of resolving disputes</li>\n<li>a severance provision </li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>There are bound to be online templates that you can use. Whether or not they meet 1 and 2 above is another thing ...</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>A local lawyer should be able to produce a standard form contract that specifically meets <em>your</em> needs for a relatively modest fee - if these contracts are of significant value (to you) then this is probably money well spent.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1829, "body": "<p>To begin, it is always legal to request the signing of a contractual arrangement in this type of circumstance; however, it is not your duty to assent to this so long as the original tenant had the right to sublet or take on roommates. Without having signed the new lease, you (all the new tenants not on the lease) would just be tenants-at-will. This occurs when an occupant has rented a premises without a lease but pays rent at a set interval (typically monthly). The agreement for a Tenancy-at-Will may be either written or verbal. Just because a rental agreement is in writing does not make it a lease. </p>\n\n<p>Either the landlord or tenant may terminate this arrangement by giving written notice 30 days or one full rental period in advance, whichever is longer. In a situation where you rented from a renter, I would want to have the assent of the landlord, as no reason is required to terminate by either party. This should be done in writing either by certified mail or have the landlord sign it, if you are presenting it in person. If rent is paid the first of each month, notice should be given prior to the first day of the month. </p>\n\n<p>Many landlords are fond of tenancies-at-will because they maintain the ability to terminate a rental at any time with only a month's notice, without needing a reason. This is their prerogative for even petty reasons (e.g., they don't like your friends, or the hours you keep). This is especially true with a roommate situation, where the original lessee has a lease and is subletting rooms, because the lessor has someone on the hook for a time certain (the original lessee), but if the roommates get annoying for whatever reason to either the landlord or the lessee, you can be given a 30 day notice for a great many reasons that a lease cannot control and are not viable reasons to evict. A lease is for a duration certain, after which, the renter would either move, sign another lease, or in the case where they stayed on past the end date and continued to pay (and landlord continued to accept) rent, it would just become a tenancy-at-will. </p>\n\n<p>In many ways a lease protects the renter just as much as it does the landlord, because moving is expensive and (except in very limited circumstances) the renter is guaranteed being able to keep the rental until the lease ends, so long as they pay rent and do not violate the lease or local statute(s), which would subject them to eviction. This would be beneficial in a roommate situation as it takes the power to give notice or evict away from the original lessee who sublet the rooms. </p>\n\n<p>It is important to understand that just because there is a writing does not necessarily mean it is a lease. Many landlords who don't want the time constraint of a lease still like to affirm in writing basic issues like date of rent due, pets, etc. It is just cleaner than a verbal agreement. </p>\n\n<p>So, in your hypothetical, the landlord could ask the new renters to (co)sign a new lease, join the existing lease, or just sign a rental agreement as a Tenant-at-Will, even though the tenancy has already begun. The renter is not obligated to sign any writing at this point. However, if the renter refuses and if the landlord insists, the landlord would likely exercise their right to terminate by serving a 30 day notice to quit. Having already taken possession, you would also be in a good position to negotiate the terms, which could be to your benefit, so it is not necessarily a bad thing.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding eviction, that would only be an option to the landlord if you failed to vacate <em>if</em> a 30 day notice to quit was issued and you didn't move (or of course, as with any renter, if actions that would always allow the landlord the right to seek eviction occur, like failure to pay rent). I would not be concerned about showing you have a right to be there as you likely had to pay rent to move in and your check is proof that the tenancy began, and other things like having a key, etc., support your position if it ever came to that and you had paid cash. If you do ever pay cash, get a receipt.</p>\n\n<p>If, hypothetically, the new renters sign a lease, I would want to make sure it is for the room and not the whole so that liability (at least for rent) is limited if others default.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 1824, "body": "<p>Think about this from the other direction. If the landlord evicts anyone or everyone, what proof will you show a judge that you have a right to stay?</p>\n\n<p>I'm guessing from the story you tell that the non-signers have no proof. The signer has the proof of her signature on a lease but that only protects her to the extent that she abides by the terms of the lease. If the lease prohibits long term guests then the signer is breaking the lease and opens herself up to whatever remedies are available to the landlord including eviction. </p>\n\n<p>That's a general statement. All localities have landlord/tenant law which will cover a lot of default terms which provide the rules for any aspects of the relationship which are not covered by the lease.</p>\n\n<p>For example if the lease does not specify the length of the lease a local rule should specify (monthly, yearly, etc).</p>\n\n<p>The starting point here is the lease that your so-called acting landlord signed. Read it in the light of trying to defend everyone against eviction. </p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "real-estate", "rental-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1836, "body": "<p>If you introduced the bedbugs, liability could flow to you by way of the landlord keeping your security deposit (if there is one) and explaining when sending you notice that a portion/all of your deposit was withheld due to you causing the infestation for the purposes of remediation. The inverse is also true, in that if you do not have a deposit, you could be sued in housing/small claims court for the infestation if you were negligent in some way (grabbed the mattress curbside and didn't put a bedbug proof sealed cover on the mattress. Since you said you rent a room, my curiosity is piqued as to whether it came with the bed (mattress). If the bed came with the room, it is almost certainly not your fault. Even when there are statutes/codes/regs delineating a lessor's/lessee's obligations and rights re pest control (from jurisdiction to jurisdiction) they rarely exclude the right to general civil remedies.</p>\n\n<p>I used to represent my municipality and remember reading that bed bugs are difficult to treat unless the bed is disposed of and all bedding is washed in hot water with a disinfectant and even that can not ensure their removal because if you brought them in because of access to them on a regular basis (e.g., if you are a maid at a motel), then you may continue to introduce them. </p>\n\n<p>If the room had no bedbugs and you brought the bed in and now it does, it may be easier to prove who created the unsafe/unsettling condition, as opposed to ants, roaches, spiders, which can be introduced in myriad ways.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 1833, "body": "<p>You didn't list a jurisdiction, and these things vary a good deal from locale to locale. For example, in the U.S., here's a <a href=\"http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/state-bedbug-laws.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">state-by-state</a> reference.</p>\n<p>Note, in some states (like Florida), the answer depends on who introduced the pests. A landlord would be responsible unless the tenant brought the bugs in (say, in a mattress).</p>\n<p>Edit:</p>\n<p><strong>Texas</strong></p>\n<p>The TAA's <a href=\"http://www.taa.org/taa-news/2459-taa-board-approves-new-bed-bug-addendum\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">addendum</a> would provides structure for people on TAA leases. However, that doesn't apply to everyone (and doesn't sound like your situation). That said, Texas Property Code <a href=\"http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/txstatutes/PR/8/92/B/92.052\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">§92.052</a> discusses like conditions:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>(a) A landlord shall make a diligent effort to repair or remedy a condition if:</p>\n<p>(1) the tenant specifies the condition in a notice to the person to whom or to the place where rent is normally paid;</p>\n<p>(2) the tenant is not delinquent in the payment of rent at the time notice is given; and</p>\n<p>(3) the condition:</p>\n<p>(A) materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant; or</p>\n<p>(B) arises from the landlord's failure to provide and maintain in good operating condition a device to supply hot water of a minimum temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.</p>\n<p>(b) Unless the condition was caused by normal wear and tear, the landlord does not have a duty during the lease term or a renewal or extension to repair or remedy a condition caused by:</p>\n<p>(1) the tenant;</p>\n<p>(2) a lawful occupant in the tenant's dwelling;</p>\n<p>(3) a member of the tenant's family; or</p>\n<p>(4) a guest or invitee of the tenant.</p>\n<p>(c) This subchapter does not require the landlord:</p>\n<p>(1) to furnish utilities from a utility company if as a practical matter the utility lines of the company are not reasonably available; or</p>\n<p>(2) to furnish security guards.</p>\n<p>(d) The tenant's notice under Subsection (a) must be in writing only if the tenant's lease is in writing and requires written notice.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>See also TX Property Code §92.056.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "rental-property", "landlord", "health", "rent" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1804, "body": "<p>Joint tenancy (as opposed to tenancy in common) would accomplish all of these goals. Joint tenancy gives each individual the absolute right to occupy the property (each person owns the whole property). If one dies the property automatically passes to the other joint tenant(s), which is known legally as the right of survivorship. The child(ren) could never force the parent(s) (other joint tenants) to vacate the property; on the inverse, however, the parent(s) could not deny the child(ren) the ability to also possess the property during their lives, if they so chose to do this. I am assuming if the children ran into hard times and needed to live there, it wouldn't be a problem, but this should be specifically addressed with the client.</p>\n\n<p>For a valid joint tenancy to be created, you would simply need to have:</p>\n\n<p>a. Unity of title: whereby the joint tenants must hold title to the property under one document (i.e., the title deeds);</p>\n\n<p>b. Unity of time: the joint tenancy must start and end on the same date for all the joint tenants (end date being the death of the final joint tenant, who will/should have passed through will/trust to an heir the title interest; </p>\n\n<p>c. Unity of possession: all joint tenants have equal rights to possess the whole property (as mentioned above, the children could occupy); </p>\n\n<p>d. and finally, Unity of interest: joint tenants must have equal interests in the whole of the property.</p>\n\n<p>This is the simplest way to do this while meeting all objectives.</p>\n", "score": 5 }, { "answer_id": 1816, "body": "<p>As an alternative to joint tenancy, the property could be owned by the children with the parent having a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_estate\" rel=\"nofollow\">Life Estate</a>.</p>\n\n<p>This would need to be set up by a lawyer and properly registered - there will be additional cost but it means that the children cannot move into the property without the parent's permission if this is a thing that matters to you.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "real-estate", "estate-planning" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1226, "body": "<p>The specific elements of the crime in question are going to be defined by Maltese law, which appears to be a blend of a European-style civil code with English-style common law.</p>\n\n<p>However, under ordinary Anglo-American standards, the alleged acts do seem to meet the legal definitions of these terms.</p>\n\n<p>At common law, an \"assault\" consists of placing someone in fear of an unwanted touching, and a \"battery\" is a completed assault; that is, an actual unwanted touching. If Mr. Suda, as alleged, took the victim's hand and touched it to his own genitals, without her consent, he committed an assault and battery. Any touching can constitute a battery, from a tap on the shoulder to a bullet in the head.</p>\n\n<p>Likewise, at common law, \"violence\" is any degree of physical force. If he tricked her into touching his genitals, that would not be a crime of violence; if he physically moved her hand to his genitals with his own hand, then he used physical force, or violence, to commit the crime.</p>\n\n<p>Again, what actually needs to be proven will depend on specifics you would need a Maltese lawyer to go into--but under general common law principles, neither \"assault\" not \"violence\" are particularly surprising.</p>\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ "criminal-law", "legal-terms", "assault" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1783, "body": "<p>The only expression I'm aware of is: <strong><em>possession is nine-tenths of the law</em></strong>.</p>\n\n<p>This expression does not hold up literally; <em>title</em> is much stronger evidence than possession.</p>\n\n<p><em>Uti possidetis, ita possideatis</em> is a principle of <strong>international law</strong>. This applies to relations between sovereign states, rather than private individuals. It relates to the acquisition of territory following conflict.</p>\n\n<p><em>Qui tenet teneat, qui dolet doleat</em> is a different matter - although it's a reasonably well-known Latin expression, it's not been used in law <a href=\"http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/lawyearbooks/display.php?id=327\" rel=\"nofollow\">since 1286</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Although these Latin expressions exist, they don't really hold any legal force, and I wouldn't try to use them in a court. They're good for impressing friends at a party, though.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "from-the-latin" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1792, "body": "<p>This is not unusual its a technical abuse of process but the CPS get away with it all the time and get away with breaching HHJ orders. Lots of case law on free sites like Bailii outline CPIA rules of gathering evidence such as CCTV and potential consequences of not doing so. How important to the defence case was the CCTV etc ? If your going to trial on 21st at Crown Court your in trouble if your a LIP, start researching ECHR and fair trials and get all your concerns on the record etc.. too much to note on here, put some more detail up if you want more detailed comments. </p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "criminal-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1776, "body": "<p>Consider that stuff \"court costs\" or \"court fees.\" They are actually often things not related to the court, like environmental fee, or emergency medical something or other, or park poop bag fee. Pretty much whatever either the legislature or administrative decision makers what to put on there.</p>\n\n<p>And FWIW, if you were not texting get your phone records and bring them to court to prove that you did not send any texts in or around that time.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-states", "traffic", "michigan" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1772, "body": "<p>You are asking if can sue for your damages which in this case are limited to the time that you spent refuting their accusation? No. What can you do to inconvenience them? Start with yelp and go from there. </p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "liability" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1766, "body": "<p>Clean your tub. Scratch that off the list.</p>\n\n<p>Typo - forget about it, there is nothing here, clerical errors are curable if not outright reasonable.</p>\n\n<p>In CA your landlord can enter under certain circumstances. All but emergency require notice, agreement, or your presence. But what is your remedy? A civil suit for damages or call the cops and try to get the landlord charged with criminal trespass under CAL. PEN. CODE § 602.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 1769, "body": "<p>If anyone runs to a similar issue, here is the relevant law: </p>\n\n<p><code>Some landlords seek to perform periodic inspections (usually once a year) to look for any needed repairs or unsafe conditions, such as inoperable smoke detectors, water leaks, mold, termite damage, tripping hazards, etc. While periodic maintenance inspections can be beneficial to tenants and landlords, California law does not give a private landlord the right to enter for that purpose unless the tenant consents. Any rental agreement provision that allows a landlord to enter for such inspections without the tenant’s consent is unenforceable. Evicting a tenant who refused to allow such an inspection would constitute an illegal retaliatory eviction.</code></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://housing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Landlord-entry-annual-inspections.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://housing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Landlord-entry-annual-inspections.pdf</a></p>\n\n<p>So their initial inspection was illegal, and the inspection they will do in a few days will be illegal. I will never consent to them entering my apartment. If they start legal proceedings against me, I will be vindicated in the end. </p>\n\n<p>I will not clean my bathtub if don't want to, gosh darn it! This is America!</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 1765, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it standard operating procedure to threaten tenants over such a small infractions? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Maybe, we don't have enough information; all we know is that they have done it at least once, to you. Wrong question anyway; it doesn't matter if it is standard practice; it matters if it is legal. I don't know enough about California tenancy law or your lease to say.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I take this to court, is a judge going to issue an eviction order over a bathtub whose cleanliness is debatable? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Maybe , depends on the judge, depends on the law, depends on the facts. By the way, when you say \"cleanliness is debatable\" and \"not that dirty\", I hear \"not clean\"; maybe a judge will hear the same thing?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How can I take advantage of the typographical error?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can't; an error that insignificant will not invalidate the notice.</p>\n\n<p>You need to ask <em>yourself</em> some simple questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>do you want to keep living here? If so, don't piss off the landlord and clean the bath!</p></li>\n<li><p>if you don't want to keep living here; do you want to spend a lot of time and money fighting for the right to live somewhere you don't want to?</p></li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "california", "real-estate", "rental-property" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1761, "body": "<blockquote>\n <p>You can't use a third party’s IP in your Project if doing so would violate their rights.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If the third-party's licence to you did not allow you to give permission for redistribution that matchs the second-party's requirement then you have violated the third-party's rights and the second-party could rely on the indemnity you have given.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "intellectual-property", "software", "germany" ]

[ { "answer_id": 700, "body": "<p>Wikipedia has two kinds of pictures:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Reusable pictures, most of them stored at <a href=\"http://commons.wikimedia.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://commons.wikimedia.org</a></li>\n<li>Copyrighted pictures under fair-use, stored on the local Wikipedia (in your case, the Russian Wikipedia) but not on Commons.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>To know what case it is, just click on the Wikipedia picture, click on the blue \"Description\" button, and see whether it redirects you to Commons or not.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Pictures on Commons are reusable if you include the author and license (<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia\" rel=\"nofollow\">see the full requirements</a>). Commercial use is OK.</li>\n<li>Fair-use pictures can not be reused.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, <a href=\"https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Tschedrovitsky.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Файл:Tschedrovitsky.jpg</a> is in the second case, so you can not reuse it, even in a non-commercial setting, unless you can justify that your usage qualifies as fair-use in your country. Hopefully one day someone will find a legally reusable picture of Shchedrovitski and upload it to Commons.</p>\n", "score": 6 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright", "fair-use" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1747, "body": "<p>If you sign over the copyright of a piece of code, then under US copyright law you have essentially lost any authority over the code and any inherent right to use it. It is exactly as if a company employee had written it; for at least 35 years, you lose any and all rights of authorship. You may <em>not</em> use the code except under license from the assignee; in particular, you may <em>not</em> modify it and use it in your own proprietary program, unless you have permission from the company.</p>\n\n<p>The default for a simple copyright assignment is that the assignee gains the right to do whatever they want with the code. If they own the copyright, nothing they do could conceivably be copyright infringement. Likewise, the original author often loses any right to do anything whatsoever with their code without explicitly gaining permission. Note, though, that the GPL is not revocable except under certain conditions; the company could at most make <em>future</em> versions proprietary. </p>\n\n<p>That said, these agreements can be more complicated. The FSF copyright assignment licenses the code back to the author for use as the author sees fit; it also imposes conditions on how the FSF may use the code. Copyright assignments are generally standard contracts, and can have all sorts of terms. I'm not sure what the effect is if the FSF violates its transfer, but the specific legal document you have been asked to sign is very important. The details of understanding it are a matter for a licensed lawyer, not a Stack Exchange site. </p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "gpl" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1736, "body": "<p>It depends on where you live and also the details of your lease agreement. But in most cases, it is the landlord's responsibility to make sure the home you're living in is safe for you to live in (even conditions that existed before he owned the building). So in most cases yes, he would be responsible for replacing them (but again, this depends on where you live and the terms of your lease)</p>\n", "score": 1 }, { "answer_id": 1745, "body": "<p>You do not give the jurisdiction, however, just looking at common law.</p>\n\n<p>What warranties did the landlord give in the lease about the condition of the property? Additionally, what warranties are read into the lease under local real estate or consumer protection laws? A general \"fitness for purpose\" warranty is virtually a given.</p>\n\n<p>If there are warranties and the property did not meet those then you have a cause of action for breach of contract.</p>\n\n<p>Notwithstanding your contractual position, you likely have a claim under the tort of negligence.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "landlord" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1740, "body": "<p>There are two types of awards one can receive when a copyright is violated: actual or statutory damages. One also has the ability to recover attorney's fees.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">From the U.S. Copyright Office:</a></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The copyright owner is entitled to recover the actual damages suffered\nby him or her as a result of the infringement, and any profits of the\ninfringer that are attributable to the infringement and are not taken\ninto account in computing the actual damages.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>A copyright holder may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action.</p>\n<p>Statutory damages may be higher than actual damages so there may be a good reason to seek statutory damages instead of actual damages.</p>\n<p>The court may also award reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party as part of the costs.</p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"http://copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">17 U.S. Code section 412 states</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In any action under this title, other than an action brought for a violation of the rights of the author under section 106A(a), an action for infringement of the copyright of a work that has been preregistered under section 408(f) before the commencement of the infringement and that has an effective date of registration not later than the earlier of 3 months after the first publication of the work or 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement, or an action instituted under section 411(c), no award of statutory damages or of attorney’s fees, as provided by sections 504 and 505, shall be made for —</p>\n<p>(1) any infringement of copyright in an unpublished work commenced before the effective date of its registration; or</p>\n<p>(2) any infringement of copyright commenced after first publication of the work and before the effective date of its registration, unless such registration is made within three months after the first publication of the work.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>So, you can only recover actual damages and neither statutory damages nor attorney's fees if the copyright is not registered.</p>\n<p>Statutory damages can only be collected for copyright violations that occurred after the effective date of the registration or within three months of first publication if registration is made within those three months.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "copyright" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1721, "body": "<p>First of all, unless the doctor is providing the procedure as a gift then the transaction <strong>is</strong> a contract. Every transaction where valuable consideration is provided by 2 or more parties is a contract: buying chewing gum from the supermarket, lessons from a tennis coach or advice from a lawyer - all of these are contracts as is every medical procedure a doctor performs for which they get paid.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience GPs do not generally use written contracts; surgeons almost always do.</p>\n\n<p>The general common law position is that the parties to a contract can agree to anything they want <strong>provided it is not illegal</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>Signing the contract will almost certainly reduce the doctor's liability but only down to what the law in your jurisdiction permits.</p>\n\n<p>It is a fair bet that there is a whole body of law in whatever jurisdiction you are in that limits the amount of liability that a service provider like a doctor can avoid under a contract - if those limits are respected in a contract then they will be binding on the parties; if they are not then the entire contract may be invalid, or, if it is a well drafted contract, the invalidity will be limited to the unlawful terms.</p>\n\n<p>You basically have 3 choices:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Sign the contract and accept the doctor's terms</li>\n<li>Negotiate different terms acceptable to both of you</li>\n<li>Find another doctor</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Starting from a common law basis, a doctor is under no legal obligation to perform a procedure. That said, there are many jurisdictions that do impose such an obligation to render <em>emergency</em> aid, however, most of these are drafted such that the person compelled to perform the service is indemnified except in cases of gross or criminal negligence. Such laws are referred to as \"Good Samaritan\" acts.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "united-states", "medical" ]

[ { "answer_id": 418, "body": "<p>The answer is: it depends. Sorry, but that's just the way it is.</p>\n\n<p>First of all, it depends on whether there actually was a contract. Under the law, a contract does not need to be something written down and signed. If you have this conversation with someone:</p>\n\n<p>\"Hey, can you do [this job] for me?\"</p>\n\n<p>\"Sure, it'll run you about [cost].\"</p>\n\n<p>\"Great.\"</p>\n\n<p>You have a contract, which may well be legally binding and enforceable in court.</p>\n\n<p>Even if, for whatever reason, there was no contract--for instance, the person you talked to didn't actually work for the company s/he said s/he did--there are legal doctrines that could give you some rights. They have names, depending on the jurisdiction and the facts, like \"quantum meruit,\" \"unjust enrichment,\" and \"implied contract.\"</p>\n\n<p>These doctrines all say, basically, the same thing: if you didn't have a contract for some reason, but you still gave someone something of value, reasonably expecting to be paid, then they have to pay you.</p>\n\n<p>Whether these doctrines apply is going to depend on the facts of the specific case. For example, you can't paint someone's house secretly in the middle of the night without being asked, then demand payment. But if you're a painting contractor, he asks you to paint it, and he sees you painting it every day for a week, at the end of the week he can't say, \"I never signed anything, so I don't have to pay you anything.\"</p>\n\n<p>If this situation applies to you, your best bet is to discuss it with a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.</p>\n", "score": 2 }, { "answer_id": 1722, "body": "<p><strong>Most</strong> contracts do not have to be in writing. A verbal contract is just as enforceable as a written one. Of course, when a dispute arises it becomes a little bit harder to determine the terms of the contract or even if there is a contract; which of course leads to the saying that \"A verbal contract is worth the paper its written on\".</p>\n\n<p>That said, in some jurisdictions there are some contracts that are <em>required</em> to be in writing. What happens if they are not depends on the law that makes that requirement.</p>\n\n<p>I have no knowledge of examples from Florida but from New South Wales:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A contract for the sale of land must be in writing; if it isn't then there is no contract</li>\n<li>A contract for residential building works worth over $12,000 must be in writing; if it isn't the contract is not binding on the owner (i.e. they do not have to pay), however, it is binding on the builder (i.e. they have to perform the work).</li>\n</ul>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "business", "claims", "florida" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1720, "body": "<p><strong>Probably</strong></p>\n<p>Terms and Conditions extract:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>7.2 Limitations on Closing Your Account.</strong> You may not close your Account to evade an investigation. If you attempt to close your Account while we are conducting an investigation, <strong>we may hold your funds for up to 180 Days</strong> to protect PayPal or a third party against the risk of Reversals, Chargebacks, Claims, fees, fines, penalties and other liabilities of whatever nature. You will remain liable for all obligations related to your Account even after the Account is closed.</p>\n<p><strong>10.6 Information about you</strong></p>\n<p>a. PayPal reserves the right to request additional information from you, other than what is referred to in this Agreement, to allow it to comply with its anti-money laundering obligations. <strong>You agree to comply</strong> with any request for further information as we reasonably require to enable us to comply with our anti-money laundering obligations. <strong>This may include</strong>, without limitation, <strong>requiring you to</strong> fax, email or otherwise <strong>provide to us certain identification documents</strong>. You also agree to provide us, upon our reasonable request and at your own expense, information about your finance and operations, including, without limitation, your most recent financial statements (certified or otherwise) and merchant processing statements (if applicable).</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This is the contract that you agreed to be bound by.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "united-kingdom" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1716, "body": "<p>The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_and_Accountability_Act\" rel=\"nofollow\">HIPAA</a>) may apply to you and provide certain rights. HIPAA does seem to cover part of this, though if it covers you particularly and the lab that performed the test is a separate question.</p>\n\n<p>On the Department of Health and Human Services <a href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/faq/public_health_uses_and_disclosures/301.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">website discussing HIPAA</a>, they outline requirements discussing pre-employment drug tests. Basically, your authorization is required in order to release the results of the drug test to your employer and there is nothing prohibiting the employer from conditioning employment on your provision of that authorization.</p>\n\n<p>This seems to indicate that the drug test is a medical record.</p>\n\n<p>In another section on the <a href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/medicalrecords.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">same web site</a> concerning your medical records, it outlines that the Privacy Rule gives you the general right to inspect, review and receive a copy of your medical records if the health care provider is covered by the Privacy Rule.</p>\n\n<p>You can read about the privacy rule on yet another section of that <a href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">web site</a>. Generally speaking, the privacy rule applies to any health care provider that transmits health records electronically. Certain exceptions to the rule apply, however determining what those exceptions happen to be is a more difficult task.</p>\n\n<p>You will notice from the hhs.gov web site that any entity that is covered by the privacy act is required to give you a privacy practices notice (with certain exceptions).</p>\n\n<p>If you didn't receive a privacy practices notice then the entity conducting the drug test is probably not covered by HIPAA. If you did receive a privacy practices notice then the entity conducting the test is covered by HIPAA and you have a right to review your records.</p>\n", "score": 4 }, { "answer_id": 1713, "body": "<p>I am not aware of specific laws anywhere that automatically require such tests to be provided to the employee. This doesn't mean there aren't any; just that I don't know about them.</p>\n\n<p>From a common law perspective, there are two contracts operating: the employee consents to the test as a prerequisite to the employment contract, and the contract between the <em>employer</em> and the testing organisation. Unless the former has something to say about the latter the employee has no rights under the latter contract.</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-states", "employment", "health" ]

[ { "answer_id": 291, "body": "<p>I found a mention of this issue <a href=\"http://www.bna.com/outofstate-telecommuting-employee-n17179892409/\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>, where the case <em><a href=\"http://law.justia.com/cases/west-virginia/supreme-court/2014/13-0888.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Rhonda Eddy v. Ingenesis</a></em> was cited. Eddy worked from home in West Virginia, but had signed her contract with a company headquartered in Texas.</p>\n\n<p>The link is the decision of The State of West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, which upheld the decision of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, namely, that the Circuit Court did not have the authority to hear Eddy's petition against her employer because she was out of the Circuit Court's jurisdiction.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The circuit court found that it did not have personal jurisdiction over respondent under West Virginia’s personal jurisdiction statutes, and that respondent did not have sufficient minimum contacts with West Virginia to satisfy federal due process considerations. The circuit court also found that it did not have subject matter jurisdiction over petitioner’s WPCA claim <strong>because petitioner’s employment contract contained a valid choice of law clause that mandated Texas law would govern any dispute between the parties.</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>^{Emphasis mine.}</p>\n\n<p>It all depends on stipulations made in the employment contract.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/employment-contracts.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">This</a> (in the United Kingdom) states</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>4. Place of Work</strong><br>\n Allows the employer to specify the location where the employee will work. However, it also allows for the employer to specify any other location in the future. This gives the employer much greater flexibility.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That would seem to indicate that (at least in the U.K.) the place is specified in the contract.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 296, "body": "<p>Most often with these arrangements, even with the more permanent ones, you're not actually an employee, but rather still a contractor / vendor, thus the employment laws would not apply at all.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, the same jurisdictional rules apply as in any other case -- if the defendant does not have sufficient ties with the community where you physically are located, then no court in such community will have any jurisdiction over the matter.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 303, "body": "<p>(Standard disclaimer: <a href=\"https://law.stackexchange.com/users/176/christian-conkle\"><em>I am not your lawyer. I am not here to help you.</em></a>)</p>\n\n<p>You've tagged this \"labor law,\" but as I understand it a big part of this question is about international <em>contract</em> disputes rather than employment law. I'm not a labor law expert by any means; if there's some special laws governing international employment agreements, I don't know about them.</p>\n\n<p>Let's hypothesize that A, a United States citizen, seeks out, makes an agreement with, and pays B, a national of some foreign country, to do some task. B, sitting at home, tries to do it, but A is dissatisfied and wants her money back. B refuses and issues that famous ultimatum: \"So sue me.\" What can A do?</p>\n\n<p>(It doesn't necessarily matter who's the \"employee\" and who's the \"employer\" for the jurisdictional issue I'm talking about; it would work the same if B, a foreign resident, hired A, a U.S. resident, to do something but didn't pay. The important part is that A is the injured party.)</p>\n\n<p>There are at least two fundamental issues here: (1) what court(s) will have authority to impose a judgment binding a breaching party; and (2) what law will apply to the relationship. The first issue is, in Anglo-American jurisprudence, generally called \"personal jurisdiction\"; the second is called \"choice of law.\" (There's a separate issue, called \"subject matter jurisdiction,\" that would probably arise in real life but that's beyond the scope of this question.)</p>\n\n<p>A would prefer to sue B in her local United States court; let's say in California. Under U.S. law, a court must have personal jurisdiction over the defendant--B--in order to hear the suit. The outer bounds of that jurisdiction are spelled out in a series of famous Supreme Court cases, which held that a defendant must have done something in, or done something aimed at, the forum state. (Maybe in the future we'll have a standard introduction to minimum contacts jurisdiction on Law.SE; for now, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_jurisdiction#Modern_Constitutional_doctrine:_International_Shoe_doctrine\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Wikipedia's article</a> isn't terrible.)</p>\n\n<p>In my hypo, B didn't do anything at all regarding California: he was sitting in his home country until A sought him out. In that case, a California court could not exercise jurisdiction, and A would be out of luck.</p>\n\n<p>In real life, the services you're talking about probably do seek out California and other U.S. clients. They run advertisements aimed at California residents, they build relationships with California residents. That may or may not be enough to open them up to suit in the U.S. (With a \"marketplace\" site like Elance, this is a bit more complicated because there are three people involved: A, B, and Elance.) This isn't a very clear area of U.S. law; different courts have approached online transactions in different ways. I'd have to do some research to see what the relevant decisions are.</p>\n\n<p>Even if A got a judgment in a U.S. court, she may not be able to enforce it in B's home country. This would depend entirely on the laws of that country, and on treaty relationships between the countries.</p>\n\n<p>A's other option, of course, is to sue B in B's home country. The procedural laws of that country would apply. If things work there like they do in the United States, you can basically always sue somebody in the court where they live, are headquartered, or are incorporated. That court would apply its own choice-of-laws rules in determining whether to apply U.S. or local law to the contract.</p>\n\n<p>Now in reality, there's a good chance much of this problem, as well as the choice-of-laws question I haven't talked about, will be resolved by agreement between the parties. If I were A's lawyer, I'd make sure that the contract included a \"forum selection clause\" specifying that any lawsuit would be tried in a California court, and that B agreed to the jurisdiction of that court. While that may not totally resolve the problem, it'd go a long way. This isn't exactly the answer to your second question. I'm talking about B's agreeing to be sued in A's jurisdiction. B may or may not still be able to sue A in B's home jurisdiction; that's a different question.</p>\n\n<p>You mentioned elance.com; their <a href=\"https://www.elance.com/q/legal\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Terms of Service page</a> includes the \"Independent Contractor Services Agreement\" that they provide as a default agreement between their clients and freelancers, as well as the \"User Agreement\" that applies to everyone using their site. The user agreement has a section entitled \"Law and Forum for Disputes,\" which sounds like a forum selection clause, but it's not; it just says that the agreement will be governed by Delaware law, but <em>doesn't</em> require consent to be sued there. The mandatory arbitration clause explicitly doesn't apply to foreign freelancers. I don't know why they chose not to require consent to be sued in Delaware; there may be a good reason. But on brief review, this particular contract doesn't necessarily help a United States plaintiff as much as it could.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "labor-law", "conflict-of-laws" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1699, "body": "<p>See <a href=\"https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory\" rel=\"nofollow\">World Copyright Terms</a>.</p>\n\n<p><em>If</em> this is an accurate reflection of current laws and <em>if</em> those laws have not changed, then the country with the longest terms is Mexico at Life + 100 years; it's a reasonable assumption that most authors don't live more than 80 years after first publication so anything before 1835 is probably fine.</p>\n\n<p><em>But</em>, the laws in Mexico <em>have</em> changed and works whose authors died in or before 1952 are in the public domain.</p>\n\n<p>This demonstrates why it is impossible to give a general answer applicable to all works. A definitive answer can only be determined by:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Identifying the work</li>\n<li>Determining the originating country or countries; online publication in particular will create more than one.</li>\n<li>For each of those, determine the law in force at the time of publication and the copyright duration that results</li>\n<li>For each of those, determine if changes to the law have affected the copyright duration</li>\n<li>Find out when the author died</li>\n<li>Determine copyright status</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>This is a non-trivial endeavour.</p>\n", "score": 1 } ]

[ "copyright", "international" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1708, "body": "<p>Yes. Most states have a reinstatement period of up to five years during which you can reinstate your corporation by filing the appropriate paperwork and paying the required fees and any penalties (extra fees) due.</p>\n\n<p>Check the website of your state's corporation authority for the exact procedure.</p>\n\n<p>In Nevada, it looks like the Secretary of State is the right place to go. <a href=\"http://nvsos.gov/index.aspx?page=420\" rel=\"nofollow\">There website link is here</a>.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "corporate-law", "nevada" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1687, "body": "<p>I will not speak to your specific situation. I am unfamiliar with the jurisdiction and real estate contracts are one of the most highly regulated contracts so local statutes may override common law.</p>\n\n<p>In general, the terms of a contract are what the parties agree; the <em>written</em> document is not <em>the</em> contract - it is evidence of the contract.</p>\n\n<p>In a case where the parties <em>agree</em> that the written version is wrong then the written version is wrong. Where the parties <em>disagree</em> that the written version is wrong (or agree that it is wrong but disagree as to how) then each will need to provide evidence to support their position. A signed written contract that supports one parties position is <strong>extremely strong</strong> evidence! The other party would need to provide some <strong>overwhelming</strong> evidence to trump this.</p>\n\n<p>The general position that the courts take is that the written contract accurately documents the agreement unless someone can prove that it doesn't.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "residential-lease", "contract-law" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1685, "body": "<p>This happened to me many years ago in New South Wales; I wrote a letter (see how long ago it was!) to the sheriff explaining the circumstances and they waived the fine; if this had not worked I would have had the option of paying the fine or going before a magistrate to contest it. New South Wales is not Canada; your results may differ.</p>\n\n<p>No matter what the jurisdiction it is difficult to see the justice in fining someone for failing to attend a summons of which they genuinely had no knowledge.</p>\n", "score": 2 } ]

[ "canada", "jury" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1679, "body": "<p>Take a look at <a href=\"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design</a></p>\n\n<p>From that it appears that you are just following the specifications of the algorithm made by a third party. You're not copying the algorithm, you are re-implementing it based on certain specifications you saw online. </p>\n\n<p>I would say unless you agree to some contract like you will not implement this, it should be legal. </p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, there is distinction between legality and breaching contracts.</p>\n\n<p>It is not illegal to breach a contract. You could just be sued for damages and injunctive relief. Failure to abide by a judicial order, such as an injunction is illegal.</p>\n\n<p>DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER. THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE.</p>\n", "score": 3 }, { "answer_id": 1681, "body": "<p>Algorithms are not subject to copyright like the original computer code is; they may be patentable but you have specifically said that they aren't. So you are not breaching any IP of the original owner.</p>\n\n<p>Your friend in Somalia is breaching his contract with the original owner but that is not your issue. The IP he extracts (the algorithm) is not owned by anyone so you are free to use it.</p>\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ "software", "eula" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1660, "body": "<p>Quoting from <a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-crime-and-infringement\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-crime-and-infringement</a></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>If you use an identical or similar trade mark for identical or similar goods and services to a registered trade mark - you may be infringing the registered mark if your use creates a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public. This includes the case where because of the similarities between the marks the public are led to the mistaken belief that the trade marks, although different, identify the goods or services of one and the same trader.</p>\n<p>Where the registered mark has a significant reputation, infringement may also arise from the use of the same or a similar mark which, although not causing confusion, damages or takes unfair advantage of the reputation of the registered mark. This can occasionally arise from the use of the same or similar mark for goods or services which are dissimilar to those covered by the registration of the registered mark.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>If FormatA Diagnostic's products are <strong>not</strong> &quot;identical or similar goods and services to a registered trade mark&quot; then at first blush there is no infringement. Even if they are &quot;identical or similar goods&quot; then there must be &quot;a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public&quot;; for example, if FormatA Diagnostics does not use its name to market the goods and services then there is probably not &quot;a likelihood of confusion&quot;.</p>\n<p>In addition, if FormatA has &quot;has a significant reputation&quot; (and we are talking Coca-Cola, Pepsi type levels of reputation) then if FormatA Diagnostics taks advantage of this they are breaching the Trade Mark.</p>\n<p><strong>TL;DR</strong></p>\n<p>No</p>\n", "score": 0 } ]

[ "united-kingdom", "trademark", "name" ]