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Legal advice is an exception. In many jurisdictions, it's a regulated field (like health) and providing legal advice without holding the requisite license is il

Legal advice is an exception. In many jurisdictions, it's a regulated field (like health) and providing legal advice without holding the requisite license is illegal. Offering your own opinion on the law is fine, but IMHO answering someone else's question with opinion on the law is probably the wrong side of the line. Disclaimers don't help, either, the regulation exists whether you acknowledge being outwith the licensing or not.

jkaplowitz 3y ago
Legal advice is usually more narrowly defined than just "what is the license of these files", which would usually count as legal information rather than legal advice. Discussing legal information isn't usually covered in the unauthorized practice of law rules. So the beginning of OP's question wouldn't pose a problem. The second part (asking about the translation etc) could pose a problem, but it's phrased generally so it may or may not. Legal advice would be applying the legal information to a very precise and specific scenario. For example, translation and republication permission is not always dependent on permission from the copyright holder if a fair use exception applies in the relevant jurisdiction, and even with permission there could be other obstacles to various forms of copyright reuse like a relevant patent from a different rights holder or a previously signed contract promising not to do this. And these details, as well as the risks of various different legal and illegal choices, may depend on the jurisdiction. We don't really have enough information to know if exactly what OP wants to do is legal, beyond an imprecise answer of "not generally" which as mere legal information is typically fine for non-lawyers to say even where legal practice is restricted. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice - not because I am including this disclaimer but because it doesn't fit the definition of legal advice.
creatonez 3y ago
"Not a lawyer btw" disclaimers generally do help, if they include the necessary wording to change your advice to "seek professional advice" and make it clear that it is general information not applicable to the audience's specific situation. Some discussion here - https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/683/usa-is-i-am-not-a-lawyer-disclaimer-generally-necessary https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/683/usa-is-i-am-not-... There has been a history of "legal advice" being applied too broadly in practice, so a great deal of caution should still be exercised - https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-overreach-of-limits-on-legal-advice https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-overreach-of-limits...

jkaplowitz 3y ago

Legal advice is usually more narrowly defined than just "what is the license of these files", which would usually count as legal information rather than legal advice. Discussing legal information isn't usually covered in the unauthorized practice of law rules. So the beginning of OP's question wouldn't pose a problem. The second part (asking about the translation etc) could pose a problem, but it's phrased generally so it may or may not. Legal advice would be applying the legal information to a very precise and specific scenario. For example, translation and republication permission is not always dependent on permission from the copyright holder if a fair use exception applies in the relevant jurisdiction, and even with permission there could be other obstacles to various forms of copyright reuse like a relevant patent from a different rights holder or a previously signed contract promising not to do this. And these details, as well as the risks of various different legal and illegal choices, may depend on the jurisdiction. We don't really have enough information to know if exactly what OP wants to do is legal, beyond an imprecise answer of "not generally" which as mere legal information is typically fine for non-lawyers to say even where legal practice is restricted. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice - not because I am including this disclaimer but because it doesn't fit the definition of legal advice.

creatonez 3y ago

"Not a lawyer btw" disclaimers generally do help, if they include the necessary wording to change your advice to "seek professional advice" and make it clear that it is general information not applicable to the audience's specific situation. Some discussion here - https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/683/usa-is-i-am-not-a-lawyer-disclaimer-generally-necessary https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/683/usa-is-i-am-not-... There has been a history of "legal advice" being applied too broadly in practice, so a great deal of caution should still be exercised - https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-overreach-of-limits-on-legal-advice https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-overreach-of-limits...