People don't have to hire a lawyer, it just is generally a good idea the same way it's a good idea to hire a contractor rather than renovate your home yourself.
The state does already pay someone "to carry out a complete and thorough adjudication of the issues". She is called the judge.
Your rant about crimes and corporations is extremely ill-considered, but I shall leave that for someone else to discuss. I'll just point out that fraud already is illegal pretty much everywhere.
I'm sorry, you want what? A trial by jury before they can disconnect your internet? I don't agree with this proposed law, but you're still way off base. Since we're talking about the UK, I'm going to quote from the Magna Carta:
No freeman shall be taken captive or imprisoned, or deprived of his lands, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go with force against him nor send forces against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
You'll note that it doesn't say no punishment without a jury trial. Juries are important. But you don't get one anytime you feel that people are being mean to you.
Okay, I'll bite. Because you're too cheap. Seriously, biometrics that actually work (are hard to fool) are going to make your keyboard several hundred to several thousand dollars more expensive.
I hope you're running all of your open source linux apps on libre hardware. Not only do you have to pay for an x86 processor, you can't hack on it or distribute your modified hardware.
Remember, if you can't change the firmware of your mouse, it's not a true open-source system.
Apple keyboards are pretty standard. You just buy your own and install a keylogger at your leisure. Then you just have to swap your doctored keyboard for theirs. If you have any skill at slight of hand, you could probably do this while someone is watching you.
So you want your browser to send the site a key and value every time so the site can track your preferences. Congratulations, you just invented cookies.
So basically, you're blaming the web sites for the fact that the browsers do not implement the exact functionality you want. Did I get all that?
A clear example that you shouldn't take legal advice from random idiots on the internet.
The statute of frauds only applies to sales of land (and a few other non-relevant things). The $5000 amount you're thinking of come from the American UCC and applies to the sale of goods. And in most places in the US it's more likely to be $500 last I checked. Of course all of the above is not applicable to the alleged $1 million offer, as it doesn't involve the sale of goods. Sorry, you're wrong.
Crown Prosecution Service (American's can call this a district attorney, they're the prosecution) Feel free to mod me up.
Ironically, you can look this up at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/CPS. I also knew this before having to look it up, so I can say it's actually accurate.
I love slashdot. People moderate up wrong answers. I'm giving up my ability to moderate to set the record straight. The correct answer is:
All businesses have to charge you for GST (a federal tax), they only have to charge you for PST or QST (provincial taxes) if they have a presence in your province. However, if you live in Ontario (for example), most of the businesses you buy from will charge you PST because they have a presence of some sort in that province, blame geography.
From your website, it appears that you are in the Netherlands. This will completely change the answer to your question. And yet you don't even mention it. I'll echo the other posters and say "Ask a Dutch lawyer."
Why do all of the Ask Slashdot questions boil down to: "I want free legal advice. Give me an opinion on x."
My thought is that you should really ask a lawyer what to do. Sheesh, do you really want free legal advice from random people with lots of free time on their hands?
Another problem is, if the license is in several languages, and there is a discrepancy, one language must take primacy. See the case with the Irish constitution.
Which is of course wrong. Just because it's the way you do it doesn't mean it's the only way.
The constitution of Canada, and all Canadian federal laws, are equally authentic in either French or English. There are some really fun rules of statutory interpretation which end up meaning that you have to read both texts and figure out their common meaning.
Obviously, this isn't legal advice, for that you should hire a lawyer. I disclaim any liability.
The answer to your question is going to vary form jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I can say that in Alberta (Canada) you are very lucky if you can hold on to a default judgement. If the defendant can show that they didn't wait a really long period of time to respond to the case and they have a valid defence, then you have a decent chance to get a default judgement set aside. If the defendant is bedridden in hospital, it can only help their case.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, their minimum monthly fee appears to be $75 + $35 = $110. However good they may be, they're not really competing with Paypal.
They also don't provide merchant accounts to people outside the U.S. Which is the grandparents entire point. Your post isn't that relevant.
People don't have to hire a lawyer, it just is generally a good idea the same way it's a good idea to hire a contractor rather than renovate your home yourself.
The state does already pay someone "to carry out a complete and thorough adjudication of the issues". She is called the judge.
Your rant about crimes and corporations is extremely ill-considered, but I shall leave that for someone else to discuss. I'll just point out that fraud already is illegal pretty much everywhere.
1 US gallon = 3.78541178 litres
What do you mean arguably and probably. Saying that you never bought something when you did, in order to get money is fraud.
This is the case he cites:
York University v. Bell Canada Enterprises, 2009 CanLII 46447 (ON S.C.)
Of course it doesn't list examples. In Canada, you can be sued for republishing defamatory comments.
Are you familiar with tape recorders?
Your solution doesn't work.
It fails on new years eve if someone is in a different time zone or if their clock is slightly off.
I'd suggest that any message sent more than seven (pick your favorite number) days in the future is spam.
I'm sorry, you want what? A trial by jury before they can disconnect your internet? I don't agree with this proposed law, but you're still way off base. Since we're talking about the UK, I'm going to quote from the Magna Carta:
You'll note that it doesn't say no punishment without a jury trial. Juries are important. But you don't get one anytime you feel that people are being mean to you.
Okay, I'll bite. Because you're too cheap. Seriously, biometrics that actually work (are hard to fool) are going to make your keyboard several hundred to several thousand dollars more expensive.
Those fingerprint readers that come for "free" build into laptops are snake oil.
Some educational reading:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/16/gummi_bears_defeat_fingerprint_sensors/
http://mythbustersresults.com/episode59
I hope you're running all of your open source linux apps on libre hardware. Not only do you have to pay for an x86 processor, you can't hack on it or distribute your modified hardware.
Remember, if you can't change the firmware of your mouse, it's not a true open-source system.
If all you want is a signed SSL certificate, I suspect it would be easier to bribe an employee at a CA to skip a few steps when validating you.
Apple keyboards are pretty standard. You just buy your own and install a keylogger at your leisure. Then you just have to swap your doctored keyboard for theirs. If you have any skill at slight of hand, you could probably do this while someone is watching you.
So you want your browser to send the site a key and value every time so the site can track your preferences. Congratulations, you just invented cookies.
So basically, you're blaming the web sites for the fact that the browsers do not implement the exact functionality you want. Did I get all that?
A clear example that you shouldn't take legal advice from random idiots on the internet.
The statute of frauds only applies to sales of land (and a few other non-relevant things). The $5000 amount you're thinking of come from the American UCC and applies to the sale of goods. And in most places in the US it's more likely to be $500 last I checked. Of course all of the above is not applicable to the alleged $1 million offer, as it doesn't involve the sale of goods. Sorry, you're wrong.
Crown Prosecution Service (American's can call this a district attorney, they're the prosecution)
Feel free to mod me up.
Ironically, you can look this up at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/CPS. I also knew this before having to look it up, so I can say it's actually accurate.
I too strongly endorse Privoxy. You can use it with any browser you can imagine. It's pretty simple to set up too.
I'm not him, but in my city some of the buses have bike racks on the front. He probably took the bike on the bus.
I love slashdot. People moderate up wrong answers. I'm giving up my ability to moderate to set the record straight. The correct answer is:
All businesses have to charge you for GST (a federal tax), they only have to charge you for PST or QST (provincial taxes) if they have a presence in your province. However, if you live in Ontario (for example), most of the businesses you buy from will charge you PST because they have a presence of some sort in that province, blame geography.
You want a VPN.
From your website, it appears that you are in the Netherlands. This will completely change the answer to your question. And yet you don't even mention it. I'll echo the other posters and say "Ask a Dutch lawyer."
Why do all of the Ask Slashdot questions boil down to: "I want free legal advice. Give me an opinion on x."
My thought is that you should really ask a lawyer what to do. Sheesh, do you really want free legal advice from random people with lots of free time on their hands?
Just FYI, cost is one of those fun monosyllabic english words which is irregular. It should be "which cost me 1200 euros..."
Which is of course wrong. Just because it's the way you do it doesn't mean it's the only way.
The constitution of Canada, and all Canadian federal laws, are equally authentic in either French or English. There are some really fun rules of statutory interpretation which end up meaning that you have to read both texts and figure out their common meaning.
Obviously, this isn't legal advice, for that you should hire a lawyer. I disclaim any liability.
The answer to your question is going to vary form jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I can say that in Alberta (Canada) you are very lucky if you can hold on to a default judgement. If the defendant can show that they didn't wait a really long period of time to respond to the case and they have a valid defence, then you have a decent chance to get a default judgement set aside. If the defendant is bedridden in hospital, it can only help their case.