john.errico@gmail.com @john_errico
The issue with law is that laws are dissimilar from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, in meaningful enough ways that giving advice based on the laws for one jurisdiction might be entirely useless in another. Moreover, even…
I am a lawyer, and I have, in my own startup, contended with a company attempting to sue me/my startup for allegedly infringing on their trademark. I'm sympathetic to your cause, but playing with intellectual property…
That sounds like a good idea, although it looks like Joel has representation from a professor at Harvard law (Charles Nesson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Nesson) who, I would guess, is representing him for…
Not to burst anyone's bubbles, but just because the DoJ has issued a letter stating that they believe this is constitutional does not make it so. There are opinions, I believe, from the First and Seventh Circuits that…
This is a fine goal, however, beyond what other have said here, it's important to realize that a lot of "laws" or "rules" that impact individuals on a day to day basis are not created by Congress at all--in fact,…
This article seems to imply that you can never change people's behavior by law (i.e. like posting a sign on a door saying not to throw towels on the floor) because people will always do whatever they want. I don't think…
I understand that this case was decided on grounds consistent with Fricosu, and that the court held that the testimony was not a foregone conclusion and therefore the court could not compel decryption. I am not…
My reading is that the court implied, and what likely could be argued/people would like to argue, is that, even if police were aware of the existence of specific documents, you might still be able to use the Fifth…
Realize that this is a fairly narrow opinion, and, in my opinion, not a particularly well-reasoned one. The issue here is child pornography: the would-be defendant was suspected of having child pornography on various…
It's important to remember that the federal Constitution and rulings by the Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution represent the floor of permissible action, not the ceiling. So, although there exists a somewhat…
I agree. I'm sure there was a time not too long ago when merchants at local shops would know customers by name and learn their habits, and, possibly, be able to learn intimate details about customers by looking at what…
I worked with/at TakeNote, which is Cornell's commercial note taking service and dealt with this often. Notwithstanding "ethical" reasons, this is very odd to me. I think the California law cited that seems to ban the…
This is an interesting point. Like tokenadult, my last graduate education was in law, which I currently practice, although I also know how to code, but don't have a particularly "formal" education in it. Law school…
I couldn't agree more. Having worked at a large law firm, and with an offer to work for one in the near future, I am amazed at the amount of "cut and paste" resources these law firms have available at their disposal…
If anyone would like a more detailed investigation of this topic, there's a good article on SSRN by another tax professor (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1734601), or Miller's own more expansive…
It looks like Creative Commons tries to protect themselves with their disclaimer, which says that their deed has no legal value. I suppose a summary which similarly had no legal value would at least inform users about…
Coming from a law background this makes me, and I imagine many lawyers, nervous. Terms of Service agreements may be wordy and hard to understand, but they're also substantive--everything in them has meaning. Good…
Well, there are lots of reasons as to why capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. I'm not advocating that any of them are correct (and, obviously, many countries tax capital gains and ordinary…
Haha, yes, I absolutely agree.
I really want this to work, but I'm skeptical. I've lived in India, and I know that corruption is rampant. These "middle men" will try hard to figure out another way to game this system. Hopefully it's the start of…
I, at least, enjoyed reading it. I'm in a comparable situation, although I haven't left my job at this point. Good luck!
Yes, but this has been happening for years, and in many other countries. There are instances from 10+ years ago of places like Germany and France trying to and ultimately succeeding in banning the auction of Nazi…
The so-called "silent majority" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_majority) is certainly real. There have always been loud groups that constitute the minority: if Ohanian is suggesting that reddit and etc. will…
That's not quite true. From personal experience at two different Ivy Leagues schools, I can say that these schools and probably top schools in general are completely obsessive about fulfilling certain stated or unstated…
Sure--I don't disagree with you. I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't engage in civil disobedience, in fact, I personally think that people should engage in civil disobedience as often as they feel morally compelled…
The issue with law is that laws are dissimilar from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, in meaningful enough ways that giving advice based on the laws for one jurisdiction might be entirely useless in another. Moreover, even…
I am a lawyer, and I have, in my own startup, contended with a company attempting to sue me/my startup for allegedly infringing on their trademark. I'm sympathetic to your cause, but playing with intellectual property…
That sounds like a good idea, although it looks like Joel has representation from a professor at Harvard law (Charles Nesson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Nesson) who, I would guess, is representing him for…
Not to burst anyone's bubbles, but just because the DoJ has issued a letter stating that they believe this is constitutional does not make it so. There are opinions, I believe, from the First and Seventh Circuits that…
This is a fine goal, however, beyond what other have said here, it's important to realize that a lot of "laws" or "rules" that impact individuals on a day to day basis are not created by Congress at all--in fact,…
This article seems to imply that you can never change people's behavior by law (i.e. like posting a sign on a door saying not to throw towels on the floor) because people will always do whatever they want. I don't think…
I understand that this case was decided on grounds consistent with Fricosu, and that the court held that the testimony was not a foregone conclusion and therefore the court could not compel decryption. I am not…
My reading is that the court implied, and what likely could be argued/people would like to argue, is that, even if police were aware of the existence of specific documents, you might still be able to use the Fifth…
Realize that this is a fairly narrow opinion, and, in my opinion, not a particularly well-reasoned one. The issue here is child pornography: the would-be defendant was suspected of having child pornography on various…
It's important to remember that the federal Constitution and rulings by the Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution represent the floor of permissible action, not the ceiling. So, although there exists a somewhat…
I agree. I'm sure there was a time not too long ago when merchants at local shops would know customers by name and learn their habits, and, possibly, be able to learn intimate details about customers by looking at what…
I worked with/at TakeNote, which is Cornell's commercial note taking service and dealt with this often. Notwithstanding "ethical" reasons, this is very odd to me. I think the California law cited that seems to ban the…
This is an interesting point. Like tokenadult, my last graduate education was in law, which I currently practice, although I also know how to code, but don't have a particularly "formal" education in it. Law school…
I couldn't agree more. Having worked at a large law firm, and with an offer to work for one in the near future, I am amazed at the amount of "cut and paste" resources these law firms have available at their disposal…
If anyone would like a more detailed investigation of this topic, there's a good article on SSRN by another tax professor (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1734601), or Miller's own more expansive…
It looks like Creative Commons tries to protect themselves with their disclaimer, which says that their deed has no legal value. I suppose a summary which similarly had no legal value would at least inform users about…
Coming from a law background this makes me, and I imagine many lawyers, nervous. Terms of Service agreements may be wordy and hard to understand, but they're also substantive--everything in them has meaning. Good…
Well, there are lots of reasons as to why capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. I'm not advocating that any of them are correct (and, obviously, many countries tax capital gains and ordinary…
Haha, yes, I absolutely agree.
I really want this to work, but I'm skeptical. I've lived in India, and I know that corruption is rampant. These "middle men" will try hard to figure out another way to game this system. Hopefully it's the start of…
I, at least, enjoyed reading it. I'm in a comparable situation, although I haven't left my job at this point. Good luck!
Yes, but this has been happening for years, and in many other countries. There are instances from 10+ years ago of places like Germany and France trying to and ultimately succeeding in banning the auction of Nazi…
The so-called "silent majority" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_majority) is certainly real. There have always been loud groups that constitute the minority: if Ohanian is suggesting that reddit and etc. will…
That's not quite true. From personal experience at two different Ivy Leagues schools, I can say that these schools and probably top schools in general are completely obsessive about fulfilling certain stated or unstated…
Sure--I don't disagree with you. I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't engage in civil disobedience, in fact, I personally think that people should engage in civil disobedience as often as they feel morally compelled…