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I can see a similar question was asked 3 years ago and wondering if this topic should be revisited.

Does LEGAL related questions belong on Pro Webmasters, these would include:

  • Trademark Infringement
  • Copyright
  • State Laws
  • Country Laws
  • Region Laws (i.e Europe)

I personally strongly against anything legal on Pro Webmasters for several reasons:

  • I do not believe we have a community for these type of questions.
  • Questions regarding legal issues are often low quality, broad and promote extended discussion.
  • Answers are generally low quality, non-fact and often speculation.
  • Legal is an absolutely huge topic and it changes from country to country, one answer for one country may be true and then false for another.
  • We have a huge percentage of unanswered legal related questions.

What I recommend:

  • We have a closure reason for anything law, infringement or copyright.
  • Users can be refereed to https://law.stackexchange.com/ or seek appropriate legal advice from a face to face legal advisor.
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  • If there is a legal stack exchange it probably is the best place to for these questions to go. I support this.
    – John Conde Mod
    Jul 16, 2015 at 11:41
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    See also: Do we need a new close reason for legal questions? from July 2010
    – Stephen Ostermiller Mod
    Jul 16, 2015 at 12:32
  • I have asked a similar question a while ago. I am aware of the notion of being liable for misinformation and that not all answers will contain caveats such as consult a lawyer. Webmasters are not lawyers and really should not be answering these types of questions. However, as mentioned, some of us have some expertise that we can provide. Unfortunately, I have seen extremely dangerous answers too. From a legal perspective, we should not be answering legal questions. However, sometimes we can really help. I suggest an evaluation of good versus bad answers to help make a decision.
    – closetnoc
    Jul 17, 2015 at 0:49

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We should allow legal questions that relate to being a webmaster. I agree with Su' from the previous discussion:

Shutting down the questions summarily only has the effect of leaving the asker just as ignorant as before, and possibly wandering off to some other forum where maybe they will get a response.

To address some of your concerns directly:

I do not believe we have a community for these type of questions.

All webmasters need to know something about copyright and trademark laws. Its just part of being a webmaster.

We don't have a community of lawyers, but we do have a community of practicioners that have reviewed the relevant laws and in some cases recieved legal advice themselves.

Answers are generally low quality, non-fact and often speculation.

I've seen both high and low quality answers to questions about legal issues here. As usual, low quality answers should be down voted and high quality answers should be upvoted.

Legal is an absolutely huge topic and it changes from country to country, one answer for one country may be true and then false for another.

Because it is a huge topic, it is a great area for lots of good questions. Legal questions generally specify the country to which they apply (and if they don't we should request clarification.) We should close questions that are very obscure such copyright law for a website in Nepal, but questions regarding how legal systems in US and Europe affect webmasters are exactly the type of thing that this site is meant for.

We have a huge percentage of unanswered legal related questions.

Old legal questions that have not be answered could be closed on a case by case basis.

Users can be refereed to https://law.stackexchange.com/ or seek appropriate legal advice from a face to face legal advisor.

We should always advise seeking proper legal advice in addition to whatever answers are provided here.

We have a closure reason for anything law, infringement or copyright.

I cannot support that.

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  • I agree with some points, maybe we can adopt a few catch-types for some of the legal related questions that are asked several times over in various forms.
    – Simon Hayter
    Jul 16, 2015 at 14:35

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