With all the brouhaha going on in Canberra recently, the draft of a piece of very important legislation was introduced along with an explanatory note. The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018 might sound all soft and fluffy but it's anything but that. This is a piece of legislation that will compel IT companies that create encrypted systems to "assist" the government with access to encrypted communications.

“Free speech” is often raised as a defence in the court of public opinion, particularly when people are called out by their ideological opponents. “You’re attacking my right to free speech!” However, either through forgetfulness or ignorance, many Australians don’t appear to realise free speech is not a legal right they hold.

Consider the following scenarios: A police officer stops you on the street and asks you to empty your pockets. A police officer stops you in your car and asks to search you and the vehicle. Regardless of nearly all factors, one of the items recovered will inevitably be a mobile phone. But in what circumstances can police search your phone? Must they obtain a search warrant? And what will happen if you refuse to provide your passcode or fingerprint required to access your phone? Let's find out.

Heather Dietrick used to run this place. Dietrick was the beloved president of Lifehacker US' parent company, Gizmodo Media Group, before leaving in 2017 to join The Daily Beast as CEO. In How I Work's tradition of interviewing our past and present colleagues, we talked to her about building a career in law and business defined by the US First Amendment.

Late in the night, you wake up and have an insatiable urge for water. You gingerly slip out of bed so to not wake your partner and make your way to the kitchen. As you enter, you see a masked figure who has just made his way into the house through the unlocked window above the sink. The first thing you think about is the safety of your family. The second thought you have is reaching for the kitchen knife right next to you. So is it legal to kill an intruder in your own home?

Does anyone read the Terms of Service for anything they buy or sign up for? And I don't mean "glance at it to acknowledge its existence;" I mean sit down with a cup of coffee (maybe a carafe, depending on how long the document is) and go over everything the manufacturer or company wants you to know about. We don't blame you if you don't, but you should.

Like medical advice or the answers to HQ trivia questions, you need to be careful where you get your legal advice. Twenty-odd years into the internet, people still make terrible decisions based on a faulty understanding of the law. We asked several lawyers to share the one thing they wish everyone knew about the legal profession, or how to get a lawyer. Here are their answers.

If you've ever played amateur sports, you know how frustrating it can be to lose a big game due to the bumbling ineptitude of an umpire or referee. Most people understand that bad calls are part of the game and manage to keep their temper under control. But some players morph into Hulked-out John McEnroes, complete with swearing, yelling, name calling and shoving. Is this legal?

New legislation has been introduced to the parliament that will make it easier for state, territory and federal departments to share facial recognition data in near real-time. Five separate facial recognition services will work together so that processes that used to take days can be completed in a time that allows law enforcement and other agencies to identify people more readily.

President Trump's campaign chairmen, Paul Manafort, was indicted yesterday and ordered to surrender to authorities. According to the New York Times, he is charged with funelling "millions of dollars through overseas shell companies and the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, antiques and expensive suits." His associate Rick Gates was also charged. The Times notes that this represents "a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over Mr. Trump's first year in office."

You have problems, I have advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated -- in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.

Dear Lifehacker, I work for a company that will be shutting down between December 20 and January 12. We have been instructed to take annual leave - 13 days total - during this break. That's more than the half of my allotted leave. Is it legal for a company to dictate when you can take the majority of your holidays?

A lot of people have strong feelings about flag burning. It's often considered to be the ultimate unpatriotic act or even a precursor to violence. If you really want people to think you hate your country -- burning the flag will usually do it. But regardless of the social and political implications of the act, is flag burning actually illegal?

Now that Game of Thrones is back, we're getting exposed to a whole new season where certain characters enjoy keeping it in the family. Incest may be low-key tolerated in Westeros, but what about here in Australia? Is the whole notion of "kissing cousins" (and a whole lot more), illegal?

Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court ruled that parts of Donald Trump's travel ban were acceptable, leading the State Department to create a set of new guidelines on the ban, which applies to nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, with a few exceptions. To travel to the US from those six Muslim-majority countries, travellers must prove they have a "bona fide relationship" with "a person or entity in the United States" that was "formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the purpose of evading" the ban. The guidelines are now being enforced as of this morning.

BDSM stands for Bondage & Discipline (BD), Domination & Submission (DS) and Sadism & Masochism (SM). The layers of coercion, consent, pleasure and pain are as complex as the acronym itself and defined by the participants themselves.

What goes on in private between consenting adults is typically no one else's business - but it can present problematic demarcations in the law of assault. So what does our legal system have to say about so-called "hard" sadomasochistic acts? Let's find out.

Copyright holders certainly have legitimate grievances when it comes to piracy. People who turn to the BitTorrent channel to watch the latest blockbuster movies are stealing and it's delusional to tell yourself otherwise, no matter how justified you feel in your actions.

That said, it's hard to feel sorry for Australia's copyright police when they're so determined to shoot themselves in the foot at every opportunity.

It may be that, on the basis of a reference, you do not get the job or the scholarship or the finance for which you were applying. Given the wide application of defamation law in Australia, you'd expect to have some legal recourse in the event of an unfairly harsh reference. The reality is a bit different, however. We take a look at your options.

This is what male staff at an Apple store in Queensland have allegedly been caught doing red-handed. If the reports are true, they also stole explicit selfie photos from customers' phones and rated those too. Needless to say, the culprits have been promptly fired by Apple. Good. Riddance.