This is the mail archive of the
gcc@gcc.gnu.org
mailing list for the GCC project.
Re: Commercial Development
- From: Daniel Berlin <dan at dberlin dot org>
- To: Richard Kenner <kenner at vlsi1 dot ultra dot nyu dot edu>
- Cc: aoliva at redhat dot com, <gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org>
- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 22:39:39 -0500 (EST)
- Subject: Re: Commercial Development
On Thu, 21 Feb 2002, Richard Kenner wrote:
> Except that Dan is taking law classes. Hmm... Does the law exempt
> lawyers-to-be from this restriction?
>
> No. Moreover, most law school advice students to be very careful to
> avoid doing things that could be construed as "giving legal advice".
Yup.
Which is why, in fact, I was very careful not to.
An important element of legal advice that changes it from simple speech to
the practice of law is when it is tailored to a specific person's facts
and situations to make a legal determination of some kind.
I have done so such thing, I have just explained the law as it currently
exists in general terms that do not apply to anyone in particular.
When it came to specific facts/situations (such as Nolo), I even deferred
to quoting the opinions of the court, rather than attempting to explain it
on my own.
It's fine to say what the law is.
It's not fine to say how it's going to apply to someone in some specific
situation.
It's fine to say how it *did* apply to someone in some specific situation
(IE quoting the opinion of some court).
It's also fine for me to make legal determinations of my own situations
(IE me saying whether i've given legal advice here is giving legal advice
to myself), as long as I know i'm not a lawyer, which i do.
--Dan