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Geek Culture / My UK Convention talk

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Philip
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 00:52
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Ok, as many of you know, at this year's UK Convention I'm giving another of my occasionally surreal but mostly useful legal talks.

Last year I covered copyright law. This year, I intend to present a general overview of English contract law. I'm going to keep it general because a working knowledge of how our contract law works is useful to every aspect of one's life - from buying stuff in Tescos all the way through to trying to flog your software. I'll end the talk with an open forum Q&A session as per last year.

The object of this thread is to invite CONSTRUCTIVE comments on the likely topic. Also, to get people thinking about good questions that they can bring along and raise.

I'm going to rely on the moderators to intervene if this thread is hijacked by excessive amounts of farce.

Philip

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
P3.2ghz / 1 gig / GeForce FX 5900 128meg / WinXP home
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Mnemonix
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 02:41
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Quote: "
I'm going to rely on the moderators to intervene if this thread is hijacked by excessive amounts of farce.
"


You had better not post again then


When is this talk going to be. Presumably on the Saturday morning. Should be quite interesting to hear

WE SHALL BECOME ALL POWERFUL! CRUSH THE LESSER RACES! CONQUER THE GALAXY! UNIMAGINABLE POWER! UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING ! ! ! ETC. ! ! ! ETC.! ! !
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Jimmy
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 03:37
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*farce*


Bloggy hoggy doggy
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Hawkeye
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 04:26
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excessive amounts of farce? Ur no comediean.


Arrr! Blog spotted off ter starboard!
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 11:08 Edited at: 13th Oct 2005 11:10
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This is particular to me, but may be of general use to other people as well : How many days notice must be given for around 6 years employment. And is there any special consideration when this person is the only one who could actually generate money.

(Yes, I am sorely tempted at times to quit and go to work for Staples - the only problem being that I the only programmer here, and thus the new project I'm doing - which I may add has being going on for only 2 years and only now is anyone starting to even think about debugging it - would be stopped).

Come to the third DarkBasic Pro Sci Fi Con - Be there and be square
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BatVink
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 11:50
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Good Topic in my opinion.

I asked in the last IRC session if Rick would consider doing a newsletter article on how to go about publishing a game. Unfortunately he missed my point, concentrating solely on the fact that I said the word "game". What I actually meant was "What do you need to do to publish a piece of software?". So your talk should go part-way to answering my questions, particularly on the side of protecting yourself.

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IanM
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 15:09
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Could you cover:
- Our obligations as providers of software, both in compiled and source form
- Protecting ourselves via software licenses, and the limitations of those licenses (ie, how can we protect ourselves, and are there things we cannot protect ourselves from?)

I'm sure I'll come up with a few more things later ...

For free Plug-ins and source code http://www.matrix1.demon.co.uk
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Raven
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 16:48
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I've always been interested in what happens with laws and such that can be enforced in one countery but can't in another.

More to the point, if a particular law covers your rights on a subject; but if your dealing with another company in say the US and that law is void because there is no presidence for it.

Who's coverage of the law would be considered and enforced. The Contractor or the Contractee?

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BatVink
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Posted: 13th Oct 2005 16:53 Edited at: 13th Oct 2005 16:56
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There's usually a caveat stating that the contract is covered by the laws in the originating country.

But that's not an expert opinion, just what I read in dozens of EULAs The prospect of being shiiped to foreign territory and being tried in a Banana Republic never stopped me clicking the "I agree" button.

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Philip
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Posted: 16th Oct 2005 17:27
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I'm glad I asked the question above as it gives me an opportunity to clarify exactly what I'm talking about.

Ok, just so that everyone is on the same page as me, I'm going to be covering the basic principles of English contract law (with maybe a bit of tort law thrown in). What I'm not proposing to do in my talk is to look at anything specific or unusual to a particular type of contract. For example, I'm not going to talk about the duty of utmost good faith that is inherent in all contracts of insurance anymore than I propose to talk about the specific statutory regime which governs employment contracts.

What I'll do instead is include an open forum / Q&A on the end of the talk, and then you can throw at me all the weird and wonderful and very specific questions that people might have.

Cheers

Philip

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
P3.2ghz / 1 gig / GeForce FX 5900 128meg / WinXP home
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David T
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Posted: 16th Oct 2005 17:56
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How much are you charging Nick per hour for this, Philip?

"A book. If u know something why cant u make a kool game or prog.
come on now. A book. I hate books. book is stupid. I know that I need codes but I dont know the codes"
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 16th Oct 2005 21:32
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£0.00 - I hope...

Come to the third DarkBasic Pro Sci Fi Con - Be there and be square
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Philip
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Posted: 18th Oct 2005 00:23
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It'll be exactly the same price as last year, i.e. nothing. The cost is that everyone has to listen to me speak. For a hour. Muhahaha.

Philip

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
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Raven
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Posted: 18th Oct 2005 00:27
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wait will that be each, or a special group rate?

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Philip
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Posted: 18th Oct 2005 02:11
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Don't tempt me.

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adr
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Posted: 19th Oct 2005 14:44 Edited at: 19th Oct 2005 14:46
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Speaking from personal experience, I'd find this talk quite useful too. I was recently made redundant by a company because they went into administration. I immediately found alternative employment but the company in liquidation decided not to pay me for my last month's work.

The most frustrating element of this is that the whole liquidating process was just a cost cutting exercise - default on £800,000 worth of bills (including the staffs' PAYE contributions, evident from the fact that Inland Revenue have assigned me a week1/month1 tax code), make everyone redundant and the same bastard is back in control of the company.

(As I'm sure Philip will point out, he shouldn't be able to be back in control of the company, but trust me, via a third party, he is).

New 'n' Improved sig details how little I accomplish
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BatVink
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Posted: 19th Oct 2005 14:50
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adr, I'm forbidden from looking at your site. Is it victimisation, or the same for everyone?

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 19th Oct 2005 15:09
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Same here too - we dont have permission to view it

Come to the third DarkBasic Pro Sci Fi Con - Be there and be square
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Philip
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Posted: 19th Oct 2005 15:37
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ADR, if the company is in administration then the company should be controlled by administrators who SHOULD be accountants appointed either by the Court, by the creditors or by the Insolvency Service.

How come you weren't paid? Since the most recent Insolvency Act, employees are one of the few preferential creditors left - even the Government is no longer one.

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
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adr
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Posted: 19th Oct 2005 18:50 Edited at: 19th Oct 2005 18:57
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BatVink/SSS > I accidentally dropped the table on my DB which pretty much controlled the entire functionality of my site. Since then, I haven't bothered to rebuild it. Rather than have a broken, half working site I deleted index.php and because I've got directory listing turned off, you get a forbidden sign

BUT, given that two people have actually clicked on my sig, I may well rebuild the site!

Philip > Other employees, who stuck around longer than me (with the promise of being paid), have gotten something in return for their work, but because I was out of there faster than you can say "pic-a-nic" I think they kinda brushed me off (and my 2 weeks unpaid work). My employment was terminated on the 7th September but I stuck around until the 16th. By the 19th I was sat at my new job, so I guess technically I didn't give them the statutory week's notice. The technical amount owed was for between the 1st and the 7th - if I didn't give my notice then they will probably drag their feet.

I posted my RP1 today so I should be getting some money in a couple of months for untaken holiday etc

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