I just have a question to ask.

Just ask you question, there are many experienced people here to advise you if it is hosting related. If you really need to seek an attorney someone will say so.

Yes more than enough people are here who can advise with problems related to hosting.

There probably are lawyers here, they just don't want to admit it... :)

I would tell you but then I'd have to charge you for it :D

Just ask your question somebody will answer - maybe some lawyer or skilled person...

Barbara

Go on..don't be shy now...I am a fully qualified *******

Simon

"TILT"

To ask my question I would have to post the details of a new concept for a site I have. I really hesitate to post it for everyone to view. I think its a really unique idea and would perfer few people hear about it before the site goes live. Its nothing related to webhosting though. I only posted here because its such a large forum.

what you're looking for.

I went to law school and passed the CA bar but am not practicing right now (and am not offering legal advice at any price, free or expensive).

If you want a real legal analysis from someone who's prepared to back it up by working with you, great, but you need to say what state you're in, and you need to be ready to pay some money. Maybe you'll find someone here who can answer your question, or maybe someone here will recommend their lawyer to you so you can talk to the lawyer privately.

If you just want to talk stuff over in a general and informal way, then stop being coy and ask your question.

In general, once an attorney gives you the impression that they're giving you and your problem personal attention and advice, they've formed an attorney-client relationship with you, and they have certain obligations to you, and they have potential malpractice risk related to how well they fulfill those obligations - whether or not you've paid them anything, or ever do. It's stupid business for someone to expose themselves to risk and responsibility without getting paid something in return. So it's not realistic to expect to get much in the way of qualified expert advice for free, at least not from someone who otherwise gets paid for doing that sort of thing ... especially if you're hoping to use that expert advice to go make some money for yourself.

To elaborate/spin off of what gbroiles said, an actual practicing attorney is bound by rules and attorney-client relationship as soon as they begin giving you advice for free or for payment and unless a contract exists explaining this relationship it doesn’t end just because you stopped asking them questions.

This leads into the more important issue -- time and money. When people post questions on a forum like this there is a good chance someone with knowledge, maybe even someone with law school and a expired or even active bar license will post, you may even end up chatting via private messages and share a few more detailed. Still, the fact remains that almost every major question is made to a group and people volunteer to give a few minutes of thought. Industry "experts", industry business owners and people who are just in the industry input their thoughts and some sort of idea can be reached by whoever made the post.

When it comes to something like legal advice, unless you were talking to a forum full of lawyers, expecting actual, complete and ready for business advice on a forum isn't going to happen. Even if a lawyer felt like giving you some extra help, they would have a very limited understanding of you and your issue and really most likely only be talking about theory and perhaps a few cases/experiences they have had.... not exactly what's needed to form a solid business idea.

Back to the issue at hand... as a few others said, you may find some good advice from people who are very knowledgeable in the law on this forum... you may even be able to get information you can use in moving forward with your business. However, if you are looking for actual legal advice for your business, your business's legality, copyright issues or anything else that is a true issue in which you will be depending on our advice, HIRE A LAWYER. For the same reason you don't expect a dedicated server to be given to you because you're a nice guy and you don't expect a yahoo.com search engine and user script to be made by a programmer you should not expect actual legal advice from a certified lawyer beyond general theory on a forum.

So please, if you have something you care to share with us... post it and people will try to help. If it's too secret, too bind, etc.., get a lawyer.

Originally posted by lotsofissues
To ask my question I would have to post the details of a new concept for a site I have. I really hesitate to post it for everyone to view. I think its a really unique idea and would perfer few people hear about it before the site goes live. Its nothing related to webhosting though. I only posted here because its such a large forum.

Eh!!

If you didn't want to post your question then why bring it up? This is a 'public' forum

Or are you just looking for some free advice?

http://www.GTlaw.com <<== They're good with Internet law and have many locations.... Pop open the pocket book and best of luck to you!

This is a public forum so I don't want to post it. I only wanted to find someone to email.

Well,

If it is something of a private nature, or an idea you do not want known to the public do not post it.

If you need to speak to an attorney my advise would be to look in the yellow pages.

Regards,
Michael

Originally posted by lotsofissues
This is a public forum so I don't want to post it. I only wanted to find someone to email.

Kinda OT... but, considering the general insecurity of email, would a public (non PGP'd) email be consider a possible breach in AT-Client privledege b/c of the possiblity of it being exposed to a third party. One might have to prove it actually was read by a third party but, that by be a fun trick to use one day....

Originally posted by Studio64

One might have to prove it actually was read by a third party but, that by be a fun trick to use one day....

No wonder why you wear a gray hat :D