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Comment by giardia | Hacker News Reader

A slight tangent, but it's funny how everyday people are on the hook for legal consequences, even when legal professionals can't agree which laws apply, or even what they mean.

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That is why there is the old joke that in a town with only one lawyer the lawyer starves but business picks up when there are two.

Even more funny how you can't even ask the government in advance how a particular situation would be resolved, as courts don't rule on hypothetical situations. People on the cutting edge in a lot of spaces really just have to do it and find out the legality later.

Not quite true, you can request an administrative ruling in many circumstances.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-X/p...

How could it possible for a court to "pre settle" a dispute between 2 private parties , based on only one side presenting their case?

Eh, mock trials are very common. I had a family member that was paid to be a juror in an IP trial in East Texas that was testing the waters.

That's different. That's one side of a trial practicing - presenting a case to a mock jury to see what flies and what doesn't.

What GP is asking for is a way to get an actual decision from an actual court, before it's needed.

If it went to court then the legal professionals would agree?

They would agree on what the ruling was, and agree that it sets some kind of precedent on some level, but not necessarily that it was good.

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