There's a way to pre-emptively ask a court whether it's legal to do something. A few years back, some researches did just that in the USA, asking whether they

There's a way to pre-emptively ask a court whether it's legal to do something. A few years back, some researches did just that in the USA, asking whether they could publish their research despite some deal with the funding corporation, which did not want it published. I'm afraid I don't remember the details. May be a state-specific thing.