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{{trope}}
[[File:find_x_300_2285find x 300 2285.jpg|frame|You never said ''which'' x...]]
 
{{quote|'''Q:''' ''Explain Newton's First Law of Motion in [[Tempting Fate|your own words]].''<br />
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'''Calvin''': I love loopholes.|''[[Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)|Calvin and Hobbes]]''}}
 
Someone does something outrageous by finding a loophole in the rules, which were too narrowly written to consider such impossibilities. Loophole Abuse is a form of [[Refuge in Audacity]] -- which—which still allows the agent to claim they were [[Just Following Orders|following the rules]].
 
Sometimes the loophole doesn't even really exist, but the competitor makes everyone ''think'' it does. Occasionally the loopholes were planted to enable Loophole Abuse.
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Of course, this rarely happens in fictional instances, because of the [[Rule of Drama]].
 
See also [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught]]. Related to the [[Lord British Postulate]], which may require some [['''Loophole Abuse]]''' to actually pull off the kill.
 
{{examples}}
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* Pretty much the whole point of ninja training in ''[[Naruto]]''; one is supposed to barrel on through the rules.
** The written part of the Chuunin Exam is one example. The test consists of ten incredibly difficult questions and cheaters are disqualified after being caught cheating a few times. Similarly to the real life Spartan example below, the true purpose of the test is not to determine the candidate's knowledge, but to test their ability to gather the required information without being caught cheating. Naruto accidentally discovers a real loophole in the written test: you only fail if you're caught trying to cheat, but the test is played up in a way that there is no penalty for not trying at all.
** Naruto also does this with training ''which does not involve rules''-- any—any time he can't get past a certain stage of a training he always finds some clever way to bypass it. For instance, Jiraiya figured he couldn't get past a point in the [[Everything's Better With Spinning|Rasengan]] training because he couldn't randomize the rotation of chakra with one hand--sohand—so Naruto just used ''his other hand'' to make the rotation random himself.
*** His shadow clones are Loophole Abuse incarnate. Any time he needs to do something that can't be done (either at all or in X amount of time), shadow clones help circumvent the rules. It's how he managed to master the Rasengan (use a clone to focus the chakra) and then later evolve it into the Rasenshuriken (a second clone injects Wind-elemental chakra).
* ''[[Liar Game]]''. The day Akiyama actually plays a game without looking for loopholes will be the day of the apocalypse.
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** Yugi exploits an infinite loop combo that Marik/Strings used to fill his hand... [[Instant Win Condition|to mill his own deck]]. Mind you, this stunt is ''not'' indicative of how Revival Jam and Brain Control [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot|actually work in the real card game]], to say nothing of the fact that God Cards don't have real effects for a ''reason''.
** Similarly, the Legendary Dragons in the Doma Arc can do freaky infinite-loop tricks because they're already logistical nightmares when it comes to explaining how they work. Apparently, the way the Japanese "Dragon" Cards work is that any character who picks them up immediately gains a fusion deck about two feet deep to represent every possible fusion combo that the Dragon in question may form.
* The rules of the [[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]] say that you can't use it to cause murders;<ref>Specifically, you can't mention any other people in the Cause of Death or the victim will default to having a heart attack.</ref>; in the [[Live Action Adaptation]], Light gets around this by setting up two deaths so that the only possible way they could occur is if Person A kills Person B. Ryuk is so impressed, he tells Light that he'd make a better Shinigami than any of the ones he knows.
** If you want to know the specifics, he wrote {{spoiler|"Naomi Misora will take her gun and go to an abandoned part of the museum at 5:00 PM, then shoot herself six minutes later"}} and {{spoiler|"Shiori will go to an abandoned part of the museum and get shot dead at 5:05 PM"}}. He also points out that Japanese gun control laws (that is, civilians are not allowed to own them) make it extremely unlikely that any other guns would be around to mess this up.
* Both Leonard Apollo and Himura Youichi in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' used loopholes to get out of their obligations and back into their respective countries. Apollo stated that if they failed to beat the Devilbats by at least 10 points, the NASA Aliens would never return to America. When they failed to meet that goal, Apollo revealed that he was just going to change the team's name to the NASA Shuttles; That way, it technically wouldn't be the NASA Aliens going back. Likewise Hiruma said that if the Devil Bats didn't beat the Aliens by at least 10 points the entire team would leave Japan. However he never said they would leave Japan forever...
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'''Spider-Man:''' Huh. It is. Who knew? }}
* A ''Desperate Dan'' comic in ''The Dandy'' has him deliver a grand piano to a friend, so he oils the castors, gives it a push and "drives" it down a motorway. On passing a police car, one of the policemen comments that there is nothing in the rulebook about a piano needing an M.O.T.
* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', the most popular Mayor of Mega City One was Dave the Orangutan -- putOrangutan—put forward by the Judges in an apparent attempt to discredit democracy since there was no specific rule against it. He was so popular that after he was assassinated the post was abolished for ten years due to the public feeling that no one could replace him.
* Invoked by [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]] in [[Don Rosa]]'s story "The Guardians Of The Lost Library". Unfortunately for him, it doesn't work.
{{quote| '''Referee:''' Are you ''nuts?'' You can't conduct an archeological excavation in the middle of a soccer championship!<br />
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'''Assistant:''' Gosh, he's right! It ''is'' allowed by the "King Tut" rule of 1922!<br />
'''Referee:''' No, the rule was ''voided'' after it resulted in a ''curse'' on whosoever dared enter the locker room! }}
* In [[Green Lantern]], this is used by the rulemakers themselves. The Guardians sent a Green Lantern to a particularly nasty planet and he is almost immediately killed, so the Green Lantern sends his ring out to find a worthy successor. Enter [[Badass Longcoat|Jack T. Chance]]. After "taking care" of a prominent threat on the planet, he is called back to Oa by the Guardians for discipline, but Jack says that he did what he had to do and would rather quit than be bound by the rules of the Guardians. The Guardians, lacking a suitable replacement for Jack, stated that a Green Lantern was not required to be a "[[Good Is Not Nice|nice sentient]]" and gave him back the ring with provisions that it could not be used outside of the planet Jack was stationed. The reason the Guardians were so annoyed with Chance was because of his own [[Loophole Abuse]]. Green Lantern Rings couldn't be used to make [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|lethal attacks]], so once Jack discovered this, he would use his ring to battle foes to the point of exhaustion - and then shoot them.
* As pictured above, various forms of [[Loophole Abuse]] crop up in ''[[FoxTrot]]''. More examples can be found at that work's page.
* Used for laughs in the ''[[Young Justice (Comic Book)|Young Justice]]'' ''[[No Mans Land]]'' special. Robin is depressed about being banned from helping Batman. Superboy points out that Bats never said anything about YJ steering clear of Gotham. So he and Impulse go on a ROAD TRIP!
* In ''[[Mega Man (Comic Book)|Mega Man]]'', the original six Robot Masters want to help Mega Man after his [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]], but they are programmed to destroy Mega Man. So they do...by destroying [[Evil Twin|the Copy Robot]].
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* ''[[Flubber]]'' where the professor put flubber on the shoes of his school's basketball team when they are losing an important game. As a result, the team suddenly find themselves able to easily make impossibly high jumps to win the game. Although the coach of the opposing team protests this development, the stunned referee refuses to stop play because there is no rule that establishes a height limit of players' jumps, even though it is obvious this sudden advantage for the team appearing mid-game must be be the result of some kind of external aid that is likely against the rules.
* ''Semi-Pro'': Ain't no rule says you can't play drunk. Well, there is a rule, but they can't enforce it. ("Remember those 30 free throws I did in Minnesota last year?" "Yeah?" "I don't.")
* In the movie ''[[Blades of Glory]]'' there ain't no rule saying two guys can't skate as a pairs team. <ref>In [[Real Life]], there is for Pairs Skating in the Winter Olympics (spoil-sports), but the competition in the movie is the fictional "World Winter Sports Game".</ref>
* In ''Zoom'', in the final scenes of the movie as we see the 'Happy-Ever-After' scenes for each of the super-powered kids, we watch the expanding boy playing soccer as the goalie and being the team hero, as there Ain't No Rule against being able to expand your body parts to block the entire goal so no shots can go in.
* Shows up in the ending to ''Juwanna Mann'', where a male basketball player is forced to play for a WNBA team, crossdressed, and wins the final game for them. He wins by making a slam dunk, which IS forbidden in WNBA rules. In fact, it was brought up earlier in the movie that he could NOT score using slam dunks. Which is a [[Gretzky Has the Ball|departure from real WNBA rules]], which do ''not'' prohibit dunks. It's just that very few women can dunk on a 10-foot rim.
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* In the 1986 film ''Lucas'', scrawny 14-year old Lucas Bly takes advantage of a school district rule that says that school sports teams must allow any child with an interest to play in order to join the school football team in a misguided effort to impress the girl he is crushing on. The coach is reluctant, as Lucas can best be described as "scrawny", but it forced by the school district to let Lucas onto the team. The first time he actually plays, though, Lucas is injured so badly he requires hospitalization. There might not be a rule against scrawny runts joining a football team, but maybe there should be.
* Jason constantly does this to Kelly in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.
* In ''[[Captain America the First Avenger]]'' during basic training a drill sargeant offer the recruits a challenge: if one of the recruits is able to get the flag from the top of a tall metal pole, he will be allowed to skip the rest of a training run. The pole is slippery and the recruits exhausted so the task seems impossible. Steve Rogers realizes that the instructor never mentioned {{spoiler|actually climbing the pole}} so he simply waits for everyone else to give up, walks up to the pole and {{spoiler|calmly removes the pin securing it to its base and lets the pole fall to the ground where he easily detaches the flag}}. It's one of the many [[Establishing Character Moment|Establishing Character Moments]]s for the future Captain America.
* Several times in ''[[Fright Night 2011 (Film)|Fright Night 2011]]''. Vampires can't enter residences without an invitation, but there's nothing against {{spoiler|pretending to be delivery boys, attacking victims in abandoned houses or '''blowing their homes up'''.}}
* Done by Griphook in ''[[Harry Potter (Film)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2]]'' {{spoiler|after he double crosses the trio during the raid on Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts.}}
{{quote| '''Griphook:''' {{spoiler|I said I'd get you in. I never said anything about letting you out!}}}}
* In ''[[Lord of War]]'', the Interpol Agent pursuing Yuri accuses him of exploiting a loophole in international arms trading laws by shipping military vehicles and their armament seperately so they don't count as prohibited/embargoed heavy weapons.
* ''[[Bad Word (Film)| Bad Words]]'' focuses on a high school dropout named Guy Trilby entering a spelling bee to get his revenge after suffering an embarrassing lost as a child. What loophole did the 40 year old found… there isn’t a rule against adults from being a participant in said contest.
 
== Literature ==
* [[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]: In “The Short Victorious War ” Harrington learns the reason Young was not [[Off On a Technicality|removed from command]] after the events in “On Basilisk Station”. He used a [[Loophole Abuse|loophole]] to give his return to the shipyard for repairs a legal basis. [http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/17-StormfromtheShadowsCD/StormfromtheShadowsCD/The%20Short%20Victorious%20War/0743435737___7.htm\], [http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/17-StormfromtheShadowsCD/StormfromtheShadowsCD/The%20Short%20Victorious%20War/The_Short_Victorious_War.htm\], [http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/17-StormfromtheShadowsCD/StormfromtheShadowsCD/On%20Basilisk%20Station/On_Basilisk_Station.htm\]
* Dune: can be applied to using outlawed weapons, but is a legal gray/grey area.
* In [[Discworld]], [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|the Auditors]], being the very [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Anthropomorphic Personifications]]s of The Rules, are typically unable to break said Rules. As their goal is to exterminate all life, they usually have to find ways around them.
** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', one Auditor who's assumed a human body finds she can overcome the compulsion to obey rules by declaring that certain things are "bloody stupid"; "bloody stupid" things can be safely ignored. This was written into the rules because regular auditors were paralyzed with indecision if confronted with a paradoxical statement, like a sign saying "Ignore this sign", or a sign next to an empty cage that says "do not feed the elephant".
** At the climax of the book, the horsemen of the Apocalypse must ride out at the end of the world. No-one ever said ''against whom''.
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** In ''Dead Beat'', he gets away with {{spoiler|necromancy}} because ''technically'' {{spoiler|the Fifth Law of Magic only applies to human dead, not [[Crazy Awesome|Tyrannosaurs]]}}. It probably helped that it was both necessary to saving the world and [[The Dresden Files (Literature)/Awesome|downright awe-inspiring]].
** On the subject of Mab, fairies are ''all about'' loophole abuse. For fairies, there is no such thing as the spirit of the agreement; if it's not explicitly outlined in the letter of the agreement, it's fair game. For this reason bargains with fairies must be considered very carefully. On the plus side, since the Unseelie Accords were written by fairies, many of whom had conflicting interests, they're pretty much airtight.
** Harry loves [[Loophole Abuse]]. He can't use magic to kill, so instead he uses magic to ''annoy'', making the less even-tempered spellslinger he's facing burn down his own house while still inside. When being chased by increasingly powerful assassins sent by Summer, which owes him a boon, he discovers that they can only hunt him until the dawn, and so requests {{spoiler|a donut. And not a magicked donut, but a fresh donut. With sprinkles.}} Naturally, it takes a while to find, at least until morning {{spoiler|since there are no donut stores open at night.}} In the most recent novel, he's told {{spoiler|only crazy ghosts can become corporeal and interact with the real world, and quickly realizes that the actions he takes, the things he does, marks him as more than slightly unhinged. Welcome to the real world, ghost Harry!}}
* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Flight of the Old Dog'', the Soviets refuse to shut down their Kavaznya [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser]] [[Wave Motion Gun|Cannon]], claiming that the previous strategic arms treaties said nothing about ground-based laser systems. In ''Shadows of Steel'' it is said that while the USSR and China signed arms control treaties against selling to Iran, none of the other post-Soviet states did.
* In ''[[The Guardians]]'', there ain't no rule that a Guardian can't become human, exercise human rights, and become a Guardian again. {{spoiler|And they gain a second Gift upon their second self-sacrifice, which is why Michael has so many Gifts.}}
* The land of ''[[Xanth (Literature)|Xanth]]'' has a law stating that the king must be an adult Magician and forbidding ruling queens. However, in one book an enemy is incapacitating kings one after another and they're running out of Magicians... until one of the heroes decides that if a Sorceress is really just a female Magician, there's no rule that they can't have a [[She Is the King|female king]].
* This is how the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Obstructive Bureaucrats]]s of the Solarian League in ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' gained power: Their constitution gave every member nation of the League veto power over statutes... but not over regulations, which is what the bureaucrats used.
* Count Olaf of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' plans to marry his ward Violet to get at her inheritance. ([[Getting Crap Past the Radar|And, it is strongly implied, some other things.]]) She's underage, so the marriage has to be approved by her parent or guardian. In this case, that would be Count Olaf. He stages the marriage in the guise of a play about a wedding, even tricking a judge into performing the ceremony, with the audience as witnesses. {{spoiler|Violet takes advantage of a loophole herself; the law states she has to sign the marriage license in "her own hand". She's right-handed, so she simply uses her left hand, making the marriage null and void.}}
** The film version plays out slightly differently. {{spoiler|Olaf caught the kids reading law books earlier in the film, and thus catches Violet's trick. After the contract is signed, he gloats about it. When Poe demands Olaf be arrested, the Baliff says, awkwardly, that the wedding was perfectly legal. Then Klaus uses the same device Olaf used to kill the Baudelaire parents to set the contract on fire. The audience then arrests Olaf.}}
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** The [[Black Knight]]'s swordplay is so practiced that he can perform even his most advanced techniques instinctually, represented by the "Eternal Arms Mastership" ability. This allows him to ignore the mental restrictions of his [[The Berserker|Berserker]] class completely, while keeping the improved stats.
* [[Isaac Asimov]]: The Robot stories are basically a study in Loophole Abuse. Robots ''must'' obey the Three Laws, but many of the stories place a Robot in a situation where strict adherence to the Three Laws is impossible, and so the Robot must engage in some judicious moral wrangling to reach a resolution. Sometimes it boils down to a "spirit of the law" versus "letter of the law" situation. Other times it involves situational interpretation of the Laws (ie, a Robot cannot harm a human, but what constitutes "harm?" Does social embarassment count as "harm?" etc.) Chronologically later stories involve the creation of a "Zeroth Law," and introduces the concept of the "Greater Good" into the Robots' morality.
* In [[John C Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium (Literature)|Count to a Trillion]]'', Menelaus tries a [[Mad Scientist|nutty]], very hypothetical, and dangerous experiment as soon as the shuttle leaves Earth -- meaningEarth—meaning he's no longer covered by Earth law, and not yet under the captain's authority on the ship. Reaction to this reasoning: they knew they shouldn't have brought along a lawyer.
 
 
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** A few seasons of Survivor have started off with a "Grab supplies as fast as you can"-portion. There [[Aint No Rule]] stating you can't steal the other tribe's stuff when they're not looking.
** [[Aint No Rule]] stating you can't offer up items as a trade for fire with the other tribe.
* ''[[Myth Busters|Mythbusters]]'' competitions sometimes feature [[Loophole Abuse]].
** Jamie's egg drop from the roof of M5 is a classic. He converted his materials to a line to lower the egg with.
** Adam justifying going over-budget on his hovercraft was also good (his finished product was within budget, but his total spending wasn't).
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{{quote| '''Ivanova''': You're saying just because I'm holding this right now, I'm Green leader? But I'm human!<br />
'''Green Drazi''': Rules of combat older than contact with other races. Did not mention aliens. ''(looks embarrassed)'' Rules change... caught up in committee. Not come through yet. }}
** Also, Sinclair's abuse of the Rush Act, which authorizes him to use any and all military assets to end a strike by the station's dockworkers. He uses those "assets" -- namely—namely, funds earmarked for the military budget -- tobudget—to pay for the safety upgrades which the workers demanded.
* On ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'', Marcia joins Greg's Boy Scout troop because there Ain't No Rule that says a girl can't be a Boy Scout. Greg tries to retaliate by joining Marcia's Sunflower Girls Group, but he is prevented because in his case, there ''is'' a rule -- notrule—not against boys joining the group, but because there is an age limit which he is too old for. Instead, he gets younger brother Peter to join.
** At the time, there most definitely ''was'' a rule that said a girl can't be a Boy Scout. They were allowed to be Explorers starting in the early 1970s, so it's possible that Marcia joined Greg's Explorer post, but technically she couldn't have joined his Boy Scout Troop.
* Similarly, on ''[[My Three Sons]]'', Chip once joined the girls' field hockey team (in retaliation for a girl attempting to join the track team.) There Wasn't No Rule preventing this, but there was a rule about uniforms, which forced Chip to play wearing a skirt, at which point [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity Ensued]]. The conflict was ultimately resolved by Chip unexpectedly turning out to be a lousy field hockey player compared to the more experienced girls, and [[Broken Aesop|Learning a Valuable Lesson]].
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* In ''The Great Food Truck Race 2'', the teams were told to take some meat from a certain storage and make an original sausage to be judged. Whoever won would be given something to help out in their actual challenge. Korilla BBQ figured they had no chance against the other teams and considering they only had a hundred dollars to start their challenge, they opted to simply take ingredients from the storage to be used in the actual challenge and didn't bother making a sausage. The judge admitted that this was smart.
** Korilla BBQ seems to be fond of this. When the contestants were given 5 dollars each and told that they could spend no more to make a single dish to be judged, Korilla BBQ raided the condiment stand.
* This appears to be Kirk's policy with the Prime Directive in [[Star Trek the Original Series]]: the Prime Directive mentions healthy and/or natural development, depending on the quote in question... which of course means a captain is free to argue about what constitutes natural and healthy development for a culture.<ref>In his defence, this seems to be an extension of that era's Starfleet policy, given The Paradise Syndrome, and so may not be quite so much blatant cheating as it'd seem in light of the policies of [[Star Trek the Next Generation|later]] eras</ref>.
* On ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Cory and Shawn [[Riddle for The Ages|somehow]] move Rachel's car into her dorm room as part of an [[Escalating War]] and Rachel tries to get them in trouble with Mr. Feeny but he refuses to punish them because there aren't any rules against parking a car in a dorm room.
* Used by Klinger in Series/Mash when Col. Potter took command. The Colonel ordered Klinger to wear nothing but U.S. military uniforms. After enduring some issues with his regular issue uniform, he wears a female sailor's uniform from his Shirley Temple Collection.
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== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* In order for the championship to be exchange, the match must in won in a “clean finish” meaning a disqualification won’t count. This mean if a wrestler who the champion can keep the title if DQ, even if in a lost in that way. However, this rule is discarded if the match on only be won by pin-fall or submission, such as an extreme rules match.
** This is how Dean Ambrose was able keep his United States Championship from giving it to [[Mark Henry (Wrestling)| Mark Henry]] since other Shield members intervene, resulted in Ambrose losing via DQ.
*** {{spoiler| [[Cameron (Wrestling)|Cameron]]}} was also screwed by this clause during her match [[AJ Lee (Wrestling)| AJ]] at the 2014 '''Elimination Chamber''', thanks to {{spoiler| Tamina Snuka interfering}}. Considering, {{spoiler| Tamina}} is the daughter of {{spoiler| Jimmy Snuka}}, so she know about this rule to ensure AJ keeps her title.
** This also applies for a count out rule. {{spoiler| Naomi}} got screwed out of this one on the March 24, 2014 episode of RAW when {{spoiler| AJ}} got herself a loss in this way but kept her title… on purpose. Of course, {{spoiler| Vickie}} had enough and ordered a match at Wrestle Mania for the Divas Championship... [[Who's Laughing Now?]]
* When comes to the '''''[[Royal Rumble]]''''', the only way for an elimination to count is for a wrestler to be thrown over the top rope and both feet must hit the floor.
** However, there are no rules about [[Kofi Kingston (Wresting)|hand-walking, landing on chairs, landing of the barricades]], and [[Rey Mysterio Jr (Wrestling)| landing on other fallen wrestlers]].
** Top Rope Only, through the ropes... you're safe.
** The DQ is going before your number, but how you enter isn't stated.
** When it comes to weapons, chairs and trash cans... no rule against them, but chainsaw... [[Obvious Rule Patch| there is a rule about that]].
** Though it’s advertised to have Superstars, i.e. male wrestlers, but there are no rules that it has to be men, hence why three WWE Divas entered the matches.
** Midget wrestlers are also allowed, which it’s how [[Hornswoggle (Wrestling)| Hornswoggle]] joined in 2011 and El Tortio in 2014.
** While dressing up as an animal is allowed, there were once [[Animal Athlete Loophole| no rules on having a real animal in the match]]. [[Jake Roberts (Wrestling)| Jake "The Snake" Roberts]] took advantage of this in 1989 and 1996 by bring a real snake.
* For the [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin| Ring of Fire]], the fire is suppose to keep for outside interference though the match is to be won by pin-fall and/or submission. However, Harper and Rowan were able to find a loophole… just put a fire-resistant blanket since there wasn't a rule against it.
* While the "rule once unmask must stay like that", there isn't a rule against for [[Masked Luchador]] to have a back-up mask, which [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tFjdA9pd2c Sin Cara] happen to have.
** However, the rule about the removal of mask has to be in official match known as Luchas de Apuestas, or wager match. If removed by an opposite in other circumstances, it counts as disqualification in Lucha libre.
* While outside interference will result in a DQ if the rules applies and seen by a referee, but there seems no rules about any distraction. Many wrestlers, mostly [[Heel]]s, have used this method.
* Speaking of outside interference, apparently there wasn't a rule against that at an '''Elimination Chamber''' since one can only win by pinfall or submission, how else did {{spoiler| Bray Wyatt}} helped out {{spoiler|[[Randy Orton (Wrestling)| Randy Orton]]}} keep his titles, much to the dismay of {{spoiler| [[John Cena (Wrestling)| John Cena]]}}.
* Foreign objects are usually illegal unless they’re part of the outfit or in certain matches, which is how El Tortio gets away with this... since he’s dressed as a bull with includes the horns. This was even pointed out an episode of RAW that was on Veteran’s Day 2013, though the event was held in England. Naturally, let it to the announcers to go for animal jokes.
{{Quote| '''Jerry Lawler''': Can’t believe the referee doesn’t consider those horns foreign objects.
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== Tabletop Games and Board Games ==
* Old time wargamers of the Avalon Hill type may remember the nightmarish nonsense--likenonsense—like losing all of the British Empire to an attack carried out on London by a single airborne unit--thatunit—that followed trying to play ''Rise and Decline of the Third Reich'' in its first edition in the mid 1970s. (The game's designer, John Prados, is brilliant at concept but, even in the seventh edition published in 2000, proved that he STILL can't write rules for doodly.....)
* Apparently, the official rules of [[Chess (Tabletop Game)|Chess]] once had a loophole that rendered the game 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qxf7 mate a victory for White. Although the White Queen cannot move this way legally, checkmate ended the game. The other side could only claim an illegal move while the game was in play. After a checkmate, legal move or not, it was too late. This is just the most famous example of how this major flaw in the rules could be exploited.
** The current FIDE Laws now state that checkmate ends the game, provided the move that brought it about was legal. Which ends that one.
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** Then of course there was the infamous pre-alpha version of Time Walk, with the text, "Opponent loses next turn". When it was realised that anyone playing it would cause his opponent to lose the game at the start of his next turn, it was changed to "Take an extra turn after this one".
** An urban legend claims that in one tournament, a player cast a spell with the effect "Target players loses the game," then pointed at a completely different table and said "That guy.". Of course, you can't do that, even if nothing in the rules state the target must be in the game you're playing. That's not something necessary to state explicitly. You can't cast a Lightning Bolt at a player in another game either, or cast Control Magic on one of his creatures, or Counterspell one of his spells.
* [[Munchkin|Munchkins]]s in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' are worse than [[Rules Lawyer|Rules Lawyers]]s: some players go for full-blown [[Loophole Abuse]].
** Players can turn ''Locate City'' into a nuclear bomb.
** Others recovered from infinite damage by drowning themselves. Taken literally, the drowning rules set your hit points to zero, even if they're negative.
*** And then ''[[Fan Nickname|It's Wet Outside]]'' lets someone make a heal check to stop drowning.
** Passing an item hand to hand is a free action (doesn't take up time), so if you line up a few thousand people you can get an object to travel miles in six seconds. Then the last person throws it. <ref> The end result is a regular thrown object, since Dungeons and Dragons only bases thrown-object damage on the strength of the thrower and size of the object.</ref>
*** You can also have one player stand on another player's shoulders and pick him up as a free action. Then the other player picks him up. Since this is all a free action, there is no time for them to fall, and thus they can fly by repeatedly picking eachother up in midair.
** Dropping an item is a free action, as well. And if you happen to be fireproof and are standing next to an enemy while carrying, say, 500 Alchemist's Fires... Though the logistics of actually carrying 500 Alchemist's Fires is a bit screwy in and of itself (seriously, you normally only have two hands to drop them from).
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** Perhaps the most true-to-form example of this trope (at least by the alternate name, Ain't No Rule) is that while the state of Dying is explicitly defined in the rules as far as what actions are acceptable, the state of Dead has no restrictions. There literally Ain't No Rule preventing a freshly-killed player from standing up and continuing the fight.
** There's no official restriction preventing you from using the spell ''True Creation'' to make planet-destroying quantities of antimatter.
*** Besides the obvious (just saying "No,"), a GM could ask "So how many ranks do you have in 'Knowledge: Advanced Physics Not Known In This Universe' and 'Craft: Materials I've Never Heard Of?' anyway? Oh, that's right, zero. The spell fails as your caster can't decide to create something he doesn't know exists. Since the XP cost is paid even if the spell fails, I now need to establish a GP value for priceless antimatter. Huh, seems you didn't have enough XP to cast the spell anyway, so it would fail on that grounds too. You're lucky I'm a stickler for the rules, as they state you can't lose a level for this." [[Loophole Abuse]] is equally funny when pushed back in the face of a smarmy [[Rules Lawyer]].
** The various settings tend to have in-universe cases ''somewhere'' in all the history and organizations. For instance, [[Eberron|House Jorasco]] healers are not supposed to treat without payment in money... but there is nothing hindering them from ''lending'' the necessary money and then setting a task as repayment in kind for the loan.
** In universe, the infamous ''Wish'' spell. This spell can be cast by high level wizards, or can be granted by a few select creatures (like Djinns), but they should always be met with caution. Too careless wishing can result in getting the exact opposite of what was intended, depending on the maliciousness of the creature and / or the DM. For example, when wishing for a mighty artifact, the caster might grant you the artifact... by teleporting you into the tomb where the artifact is located, in the middle of it's undead guardians.
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** Before it was banned, the card Last Turn was the subject of quite a few loopholes, mainly due to the fact that it didn't negate monster effects while it was in use. To wit, when it's activated, both players choose a monster to be on the field (the activator from their field, the opponent from their deck) and battle; whoever has a monster remaining on the field after the battle wins, otherwise it's a tie. Thing is, the monster left on the field doesn't have to be the one the player chose for the battle, and the card doesn't negate monster effects, so if you have a monster on the field that can prevent Special Summons (thus, preventing the opponent from getting out their chosen monster), or one that can summon out a monster when destroyed (thus leaving you with a monster after the battle), you can easily screw over the opponent with it.
* in the Axis & Allies miniatures game, air units were a late addition, meaning a lot of previous cards weren't prepared for their entry. Thus, units that should not be able to attack planes, like mortars and certain assault guns, can. Worst of all, [[Land Mine Goes Click|land mines]] can affect planes. Those are some ''epically'' [[wikipedia:Bouncing Betty|bouncing betties]].
** Errata dictates that units with the "bombardment" ability can no longer attack planes, eliminating most ground artillery from the equation-- butequation—but mines and mortars are still okay.
* In [[Mutant UA]] a robot-class player or NPC could have drones as an "option". Maximum would be 4 without any penalties for too many options, but drones could have their own options, deliberately so for the sake of being useful, but nothing states they couldn't have drones as well. Cue infinite horde of massively powerful drones! (although rule 0 almost always stops this as it's crazy-powerful.
* In the CCG "EVE: The Second Genesis" one of the main ways to gain money (used to play further cards) are location cards. One such location has the effect "When this card comes into play, sacrifice a location". The officially sanctioned loophole around this is to play the card into an uncontrolled region. Because the region is uncontrolled, the location is uncontrolled too and the effect does not activate...
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== Theatre ==
* ''Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark'': is currently exploiting a longstanding critic tradition of not releasing a review until after opening night by labeling all of their productions as "dress rehearsals" - at full price. In fact, rumor has it that the producers intend to keep it in dress rehearsals it's entire run and never formally open it.
** Then again, there's no rule that says critics ''have'' to wait for opening night to review a show either--aeither—a fact many reviewers took advantage of when the official opening had been delayed one too many times. To say they were unkind would be a massive understatement.
 
 
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* Sissel turns this in ''[[Ghost Trick]]''. {{spoiler|He can only go back to four minutes before someone dies. But Yomiel's body technically died ten years ago and stayed suspended at the moment of death until the meteorite was removed to make him truly dead. Sissel uses Yomiel's body to go back ten years into the past and avert the events that made Yomiel into a ghost in the first place, thus changing the entire timeline to save everyone.}}
* Given that it was a widely-played MMORPG, ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has had a few instances, some controversial, some not:
** Given that [http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=5447 this] achievement is typically extremely difficult (or, depending on your class, nearly impossible), it's generally considered that the ''intended'' way of achieving it is through abusing the rather literal wording of the achievement<ref> All that's required is turning in the quest within 90 seconds of striking the crystal, namely the first objective that triggers the upcoming battle. You can turn in the quest to the NPC that spawns very closely. ''There is nothing actually stopping you striking the crystal a second time before turning in the quest.''</ref>
** Another [[Loophole Abuse]] in the game was involving Warlocks. Demonology warlocks used to have a talent point where their active pet would give them a buff, and if they sacrificed it, they would be given a different buff to replace the one granted by the pet. However, one curious player who had invested in engineering attempted to use the goblin jumper cables on his pet, and to his surprise, the pet then came back to life and granted them the buff...while they still had the buff from sacrificing the demon on top of it. Other warlocks begun to try this too, although it was still a pretty low chance of success, it worked. It wasn't even removed in an [[Obvious Rule Patch]], believe it or not - Blizzard even ''encouraged'' people to try it. It was removed before expansions, though.
** Before it was removed, someone described a pretty creative use of [[Hello, Insert Name Here]] as a hunter. [[Aint No Rule]] saying you can't give your pet the same name as you to screw up targeting macros.
*** [[Aint No Rule]] against making a couple toons for [[PvP]] and then giving them really long names that're hard to type (and start with the same letter) or really similar names for the same purpose.
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* The ''[[Professor Layton]]'' series absolutely ''adores'' this trope. With each game's puzzle collection, you can expect at least 20% of it to be comprised of puzzles that can only be solved by exploiting loopholes in the rules.
* Many WWE Games in recent years don't permit Divas VS Superstar matches, but there's isn't a rule about replacing the character with a "vacant" or invisible character and implied the specific sex, especially in Create-A-Story mode. This means all a gamer has to do is place a vacant character in the place of a Diva <ref>female</ref> or Superstar <ref>male</ref> and have they go after either gender. For example, a vacant character would be implied to be a Diva and can attack a Superstar.
** There also no rules against creating transgender characters either and have them fight against their "birth" sex. For example, someone can create a drag king <ref> female drag performer</ref> and fight follow Divas though dressed as a guy.
 
== Web Comics ==
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* In the webcomic ''[[Brat Halla]]'', there ain't no rule saying that a god dueling another as a tie-breaker in the [[Tournament Arc|Pantheon Games]] can't call in his independently sentient, disembodied eyeball in a [[Humongous Mecha]] to help him. For extra amusement, after t'other god tries to cite its absence in the rules, that there ain't no rule saying you ''can'', the eyeball in its mech comes in and cites the rule in question. [http://brat-halla.com/comic/233-pantheon-games-an-eye-for-the-rules/ Linksky].
* According to ''[[The Whiteboard (Webcomic)|The Whiteboard]]'', there is no rule forbidding the use of cross-country skis in paintball games. Doc checked ''very'' carefully.
* Emily wins her first race in ''[[Misfile]]''. Ain't no rule against driving 25 &nbsp;mph once you're ahead of your opponent!
* ''[http://www.ryanestrada.com/2006/01/31/comics/aki-alliance/aki-alliance-chapter-2-kendra-woodward-page-15/ Aki Alliance]'': There's a rule against wearing a headset to receive outside help during a Scrabble competition. Oddly enough, there's no rule against wearing a headset to give outside help to someone else during a Scrabble competition.
* Subverted in [http://www.fantasycomic.com/index.php?p=c553 this strip] of ''[[Chasing the Sunset]]'' where there ''is'' a specific rule about knocking out a minotaur and stealing its keys to defeat a magic trial. Because it has already been abused.
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** In a flashback episode showing Marge pregnant with Maggie, Marge was afraid of Homer's reaction to the pregnancy so she asked her sisters to promise not to tell him about it and they agreed. Since they promised not to tell ''Homer'' about the pregnancy, they told other people so THEY would tell him.
** That's how Cletus Spuckler could get so many pretzels (for everyone of his many children) from Marge, who was giving coupons valid for a free sample. She forgot to state that she would accept only '''one coupon per customer'''. At least this helped her to know the name of every Cletus' child...
** “Lisa's Date with Density”: Lisa complains about her [[Writing Lines| punishment]] for being amused by Nelson’s antics against Willie. When Nelson sees this, he tells her to use the multiple chalk holder that’s she’ll be done faster. Lisa tells him off, but she does take his advice since there wasn’t rule against using such device.
* ''[[South Park]]'': There also ain't no rule that a peewee hockey team can't stand in for the Colorado Avalanche against the Detroit Red Wings.
** You can't get away with saying "shit" on television once according to standards and practices. Use it [[Cluster F-Bomb|162 times]] and you can quite literally [[Get Shit Past The Radar]] via [[Refuge in Vulgarity]].
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* ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'': Ain't no rule that a chicken can't have whatever job he wants. Of course, no matter how well Chicken Boo does, he'll still get run out of town once he's found out.
* In an episode of ''Noddy In Toytown'', Noddy is attempting to tow a giant jelly with his car, only for it to become unhitched as he is going up a hill, so it rolls back down it. The jelly rolls into Toytown where Noddy is finally able to stop it. An amused Mr. Plod (the policeman) sees the jelly and consults his rule book, and while there is a section on jelly there is nothing against the law over speeding jellies.
* ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'': Puck in his opening episode manages off [[Loophole Abuse]] multiple times. Demona just didn't learn. Puck: "Did you say, ''that'' human, or that ''human''? Ah, I'll figure it out myself." And then he {{spoiler|turns said human into a gargoyle, thus ridding Demona of that ''human''. Later, he twisted another wish and turned all humans in Manhattan into Gargoyles. When Demona wished them to be turned humans, he took advantage of the fact she didn't specify which gargoyles she wanted to be turned into humans and turned Goliath's group into humans, which made Demona angrier until Puck pointed out that, as humans, Goliath's group would be easier to defeat. However, Gargoyle Eliza helped them to defeat Demona. After the Gargoyles released Puck from her grasp, he granted Demona a final wish: no longer turning stone at sunlight. He twisted the wish by turning her human instead of stone, much to her horror.}}
* In Disney's ''[[The Sword in The Stone (Disney)|The Sword in The Stone]]'', Madam Mim immediately sets ground rules for her [[Shapeshifter Showdown]] with Merlin, among which is this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lzf1XroT6w "No make-believe things," specifically, "Pink dragons and stuff."] Of course being a foul cheat, she never had any intention of following them including at the climax when she becomes a purple dragon. When Merlin tries to call her out on this, she simply responds with, "Did I say 'No ''purple'' dragons?' ''Did I!?''" Of course, the "and stuff..." part of her "rules" clearly implies she did, but she's beyond caring at this point.
** She has no loophole to excuse her turning invisible, though.
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* One episode of ''[[The Secret Show]]'' featured a clown who ran for the title of "World Leader". His strategy consisted of renaming himself after the ballot's instruction of where to insert the X and count on confused voters. Not only the strategy was declared legal, but it [[Refuge in Audacity|WORKED!]]
* In one episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'', Angelica's mother told her not to be mean to the other kids or she wouldn't get the new doll accessory she wanted. When she heard about people hiring assistants to do for people things they can't do themselves, she decided to pick a kid to be her assistant and be mean to the others on her behalf because she couldn't be mean herself. {{spoiler|Her mother caught her showing her "assistant" how to be mean, the plan backfired.}}
** In “Beauty Contest”, Lou convinces Stu to put Tommy in a [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin| beauty contest]], by having him dress like a girl since it was girls only. However, Tommy’s uncle, Drew, entered his daughter, Angelica, in the same contest, which Didi exposes the problem. Despite this, Lou {{spoiler| still get to keep the prize, which it's a boat}} because both Stu and Drew are “his sons” and Angelica is his granddaughter.
* [[Phineas and Ferb]] are kids, and thus don't have driver's licenses and aren't allowed to drive. Thus, they simply drive vehicles via remote controls.
* ''[[Ed Edd and Eddy]]'' had an example similair to the ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'' example above, Rolf held a no rules race to see who would get a jawbreaker to solve an arguement while carrying an egg. Eddy cheated, as per usual, Double D [[Gadgeteer Genius|made a 2X4 gocart]], Ed just hobbled (Eddy had tied his shoe at the start) to the finish, which was right by the start, and won (Ed's egg broke, but Rolf never said the egg had to make it).
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** Before 1976, no rules said that a [[Formula One]] could not have [http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrrell_P34 six wheels].
** At a [[Formula One]] race in Long Beach in 1982, Ferrari used a super-wide rear wing on their cars because the rules explicitly stated that all teams could have rear wings made of two aerodynamic elements, so instead of putting them one atop the other, they put the individual flaps of the wing side-by-side to create a wing twice as wide as regulations allowed. The Ferraris didn't place well and were even disqualified afterwards, but Ferrari didn't introduce that wing to win: all the other teams were cheating the regulations in various creative ways and [[Take That|Ferrari, who has a history for being under fire by rulesmakers over the decades]], [[Taking You With Me|wasn't about to let them get away with it either]].
** Played straight, then brutally averted for Tyrrell in 1984. Formula One rules dictate a minimum weight all cars must meet, but at the time it was common to find ways to reduce the weight of the car while on the track (and unable to be weighed,) such as water cooled brakes that were fed by a reservoir, which would gradually empty throughout the race, shedding weight, and topped up to pass inspection. Tyrrell was the only team with a normally aspirated engine that year, every other team having the dominant turbocharged monsters, and were only earning points due to luck and the skill of their drivers (Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof.) However, this gave them some leverage against the turbo-running teams, as fuel tank sizes were to be cut to 195 liters (from 220L) in 1985 to curtail the power of the turbo cars. Every turbo team would vote against it (as the turbo engines guzzled fuel,) but to scrap it, they needed a unanimous decision, leaving Tyrrell (with the vastly more efficient n/a engines) in the way, leverage they were more than willing to use. Tyrrell used a water injection system for their engines, clawing back a little of the power deficit, that would be topped up before the race ended with two gallons of water, and 140 &nbsp;lbs of lead shot. The FIA, after inspecting the system, eventually ruled that the water in the tank consisted of 27.5% aromatics, constituted to be an (illegal) addition fuel source, as well as illegally taking on addition fuel during the race, illegal fuel (the water/lead mix,) illegal fuel lines (the lines to the engine,) and improperly secured ballast (the lead shot.) As a result, the FIA excluded Tyrrell from the championship that year, and retroactively disqualified them from all races that year. However, additional testing showed the water carried well below 1% aromatics, and thus well within the rules. Tyrrell also argued that the rules required that ballast be fixed as to require tools to remove, which they felt was the case for the lead shot trapped in the tank. As such, they went to appeal. In an unbelievably [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|draconian move]], the FIA ignored the test results, changed the charges to fuel in the water and illegal ballast, and ''then'' added an entirely new charge of illegal vents in the undertray, claiming they violated rules preventing the use of ground effect, but where eventually found to be of no aerodynamic purpose. Oh, and the exclusion was upheld, and a further ban from the final three race was instituted, incurring an additional fine for missing those races. This ended up being a double-whammy for Tyrrell, as the turbo teams were now free to amend the rules as they wished, while Tyrrell scrambled to secure a deal for turbo engines for 1985, and also lost all their points for the championship, losing the subsidized travel costs their points haul would have earned them, an addition cost.
** Another classic rule bend came from F1's near cousin Indycar (back before the 'Split' and today's spec series, when teams often built their own cars). 1994 Indy 500 rules allowed pushrod engines higher turbo boost levels, ostensibly to encourage engines based on road car engines. Except nothing in the rule book actually specified the need for a stock block, so Penske Racing commissioned a custom Ilmor-Mercedes pushod engine that pumped out 200hp200&nbsp;hp more than rivals and walked the race.
* Texas [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|oilman, race car driver and engineer]] Jim Hall was the creator of Chapparal Cars and created the legendary Can-Am monster, the 2J. At the time there were no rules that prohibited a Can-Am racing car from having more than one engine, so he took a Chevy V-8 and powered the boxy 2J's rear wheels with it and took a snowmobile engine to power a set of rear-mounted fans to suck the car to the ground with. [[Awesome but Impractical|When it wasn't broken down]] it was an amazing car, and when it wasn't broken down or winning, it was being banned.
* The ''IOCCC'' (International Obfuscated C Code Contest) has a separate yearly award for "worst abuse of the rules", which is awarded precisely for invoking this trope. Obviously, this means the rules will be amended for the next year. For instance, one year's winner is the world's shortest self-reproducing program, which turned out to be a zero-length program which indeed generates a zero-length output. Therefore, contest entries must now be a minimum of one byte in length.<ref>The entries must build without manual assistance. And they may not bypass the code size limit with makefile define flags. But they can take advantage of the fact that several types of characters like empty space does not count for the main size limit.</ref>
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** And then there's the smartass 20-year-old who, hearing that a district judge had ruled that life begins at conception, dropped by every liquor store in town to argue that, technically, the judge's ruling meant he was now over the legal drinking age....
* Finland pulled this on Germany late in [[World War II]]. The Northern country was on the Axis side without a formal alliance, saw the writing on the wall, but needed aid from Germany to get out of the war without being steamrolled. The Soviets had launched a huge offensive and the Finns did not have enough weapons and ammo to fight. Germany was distrustful to give Finns their weapons, for obvious reasons. So President Ryti said "As long as I am in charge, Finland won't make peace with the Soviets". The Finns stopped the Soviet advance; then Ryti resigned, Mannerheim was elected and commented "Personal vows of my predecessor do not bind me". Technically, this is true, as long as it was simply a personal vow. Generally on the international system, nations don't act on personal vows.
* It's actually fairly common to declare "no-loopholes" for events that involve a small number of people and simply disallow any attempt to get around the rules on a technicality. Some legal systems allow judges to make effectively the same declaration, generally by noting the difference between the letter and the intention or spirit of the law. However, Louisiana Law is based on the Napoleonic Code meaning that, unlike in other states, letter of the law trumps precedent. Meaning that [[Loophole Abuse]] is often played straight. So to speak.
* In an effort to speed up the games, the NCAA changed the clock rule on kickoffs, causing it to begin running when kicked instead of when it was touched. [http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2008/06/19/weird-moments-in-big-ten-football-history-1-bret-bielema-blows/ The University of Wisconsin] scored a TD with 23 seconds left in the first half, and deliberately went offsides on the subsequent kickoff. Each time the play was run, they would be penalized and have to do it again, but it would take 5 seconds off the clock that were not replaced.
* Seen frequently in fiction, but it does happen in real life: police using various means to get information or confessions without ''quite'' violating the accused's rights. The most common one (in jurisdictions where appropriate) is making it clear they are not taking someone into custody or arresting them, therefore not being required to inform them of their rights, specifically the right to have an attorney present. While common in fiction, courts generally take a dim view of this sort of thing if the police are acting like the suspect is in custody, just not doing it officially.
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* At the time of the infamous "Snowplow Game" in 1982 between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, there really ''wasn't'' a rule you couldn't plow a section of the field in football before a field goal. Needless to say, after the game there was one. This game, by the way, is the '''''real''''' reason why Dolphins fans gloat so much over New England's failure to complete a perfect season.
** It didn't hurt that Don Shula was a member of the NFL's rules committee. This probably produced his familiarity with the rules that allowed him to see that there ain't no rule that says you can't fool the defense into thinking the play's over by pretending to spike the ball to stop the clock, and then pass the ball to an eligible receiver. And, it's still a legal play.
** Football ''loves'' [[Loophole Abuse]], and several plays ''depend'' on it. There's no rule that the quarterback has to be the player to receive the snap, giving rise to "Direct Snap" plays that give the ball from the center to the running back with no hand-off. There are rules that state that only certain positions are eligible receivers, but there's no rule that says they can't then pass the ball to someone behind them. There's a rule that says that the kickoff must be kicked at least ten yards or touch a member of the receiving team in order for the kicking team to take possession without ending the play, but there's no rule that says you can't kick the ball ''directly'' at one of the close members of the receiving team and get the ball when it inevitably bounces off him.
** Back when Carlisle Indian Industrial School had a football team in the early 20th century, they were notorious for exploiting the holes in the rulebook. One tactic was to have leather football patches sewn onto every uniform so that every player appeared to be carrying the ball, since there wasn't a rule prohibiting it. They were stopped by Harvard, who when they played Carlisle presented game balls that had been dyed a deep crimson color (since there wasn't a rule against ''that'' either) to neutralize the trick.
** Football has several rules to cover "Palpably Unfair Acts," which serves as a [[Rule Zero]] when something blatantly unfair happens that isn't covered by the rules. It isn't applied often, though. Amusingly, the first time someone ran off the sidelines to tackle a runner, everyone agreed that the referee could award a touchdown even though the rule patch didn't exist yet.
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** French comedian Coluche also ran for President in the 1981 election - he originally announced it for the lulz and ran a mock campaign but dropped out of the race shortly before the election. Partly because it was starting to look like he had a real shot at the win (which he never really wanted, he was just taking the piss all along), and partly due to pressure from more serious parties or rather, as he later recounted, due to [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]] of any pressure whatsoever: representatives from both major parties informed him he had absolutely nothing to worry about from ''their'' party; but that he should be wary of the other because ''those guys'' weren't above dirty tricks and it would be a right shame if something bad happened to him.
** The Rhinoceros Party of Canada was a similar group, which just participated in the elections as a joke, proposing things like moving the Rocky Mountains one foot to the east (by hand) as a labor project. In 1993, the Canadian government got fed up with this and required that all political parties pay a certain fee in order to participate... which the Rhinoceros Party couldn't pay. So they declared that everyone should just vote for themselves and then disbanded... then reappeared in 2007 and remain active.
** Similarly, this kind of thing is fairly common in Brazil. In the past, a donkey and a rhino were massively voted for congress, in their respective states and times. This specific practice of writing a joke vote in your bill died when electronic voting machines came around, but it doesn't stop ludicrously [[Camp|campycamp]]y or just downright hilarious candidates ([[Poe's Law|who may or may not do that for the joke]]) from appearing in political campaigns. Of course, they rarely succeed, but when they do (like with the recently elected clown "Tiririca"), the supposed "protest-voting" behind it backfires when splash-votes help other, serious, not as well-intentioned politicians get in charge.
* While in Britain the law is adamant that a motor-bicycle and side-car set is still a motor-bicycle, not a motor-tricycle or a motor-car, they're not too picky as to what defines a motor-car, which leads on to: There ain't no rule saying you can't take your 'B' Licence ''practical test with a motor-bicycle.'' The four criteria for allowing a vehicle to be a test candidate's choice for a 'B' licence test (the one a car driver has to pass):
** A: Vehicle must be capable of at least 100km100&nbsp;km/h.
** B: The seat the examiner is to sit in must have an adjustable headrest.
** C: The seat the examiner is to sit in must have a working safety-belt.
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* Vancouver 2010 Olympics: [http://www.examiner.com/x-24799-Dallas-Dance-Examiner~y2010m2d24-Olympics-ice-dancing-controversial-despite-well-deserved-gold-for-the-Canadians-slideshow Ain't no rule in ice dancing that you can't put belts into your costumes to help with lifts] (this is the same Russian pair with the [[Unfortunate Implications|"Aboriginal"]] costumes). As commentator Scott Hamilton noted, there undoubtedly ''will be'' in the future.
** Likewise, in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, ain't no rule you can't prolong your dance by not touching the ice with your skates for the first eighteen seconds. Said loophole abuse resulted in the ''only'' perfect-scoring ice dance in the history of the Olympics: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98 Torvill and Dean's "Boléro"].
*** To clarify, "Boléro" itself is [[Epic Rocking|17 minutes long]]. They managed to cut the song down to 4:28, 18 seconds longer than the Olympic rules. Since actual timing starts when the skates touch the ice, they went with [[Loophole Abuse]].
*** Needless to say, this is now against the rules. Though ice dance in general is prone to teams creating unusual moves, where there ain't no rule, leading to next season there being a rule.
* Another Olympics one: Canadian Ross Rebagliati was stripped of his gold medal when traces of marijuana were found in his system. However, marijuana wasn't actually on the banned substances list, so they gave it back to him. Then again, marijuana isn't exactly a performance ''enhancing'' drug.
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* The Japanese Pancrase Society, a forerunner to modern day MMA like the UFC, had a dress code that allowed for trunks and boots with no other objects or weapons. One of its champions, Masakatsu Funaki took advantage of the lack of rules on personal hygiene and would often keep his long hair in a perm '''''loaded''''' with hair grease making it pretty much impossible to beat him using a chokehold.
* The [[wikipedia:Washington Naval Treaty|Washington Naval Treaty]] of 1922, was negotiated in the wake of [[World War One]] by the remaining major naval powers (Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy) to prevent another naval [[Arms Race]] like the one preceding the war (and believed by many to have contributed to it). It was extended with few changes by the London Naval Treaty of 1930. With few exceptions it entirely prohibited battleship and battlecruiser construction for 10 years, and carefully prevented aircraft carriers (which had yet to be developed into truly viable combatants) from being constructed as battleships in all but name. As a result, cruisers became the primary focus of the world's major navies. Much effort was put into avoiding loopholes, but a significant one was overlooked by the negotiators (but ''not'' by the naval designers): while both heavy cruisers (defined as being armed with 8-inch guns or smaller) and light cruisers (armed with 6.1-inch or smaller guns) were limited in size, only heavy cruisers were limited in number, and the size limit was the same for both types. As a result, the three largest navies (US, British and Japanese) all decided that, once they reached their limits on heavy cruisers, they would built very large "light" cruisers, using essentially (or in Japan's case, entirely) identical hulls to the heavy cruisers, that would make up for their smaller guns by carrying [[More Dakka|a lot more of them]]. While heavy cruisers were armed with an average of 9 8-inch guns, the US and Japanese "light" cruisers were armed with ''15'' 6-inch or 6.1-inch guns. The British "light" cruisers were originally going to as well, but were cut to 12 6-inch guns late in the design process to save money.
** The Treaty also encouraged loophole abuse of a different sort, with the US at least. The US had few aircraft carriers at the time of the treaty, and the limit on them was rather high. The limit was unofficially increased, since the US could pass off at least a few of these carriers as "experimental" vessels, on which there was no limit. As a result, the US began spamming carriers--acarriers—a development only encouraged when (after the end of the treaty) many of the Navy's Pacific Fleet battleships were destroyed at [[World War II|Pearl Harbor]]. And that, indirectly, is why the United States has as many aircraft carriers as the rest of the world ''combined''.
* The American Music Awards abused a loophole of their own in 2009 -- the2009—the nominations are based on radio airplay and album sales, and the winners by an online fan vote. Thus, [[Michael Jackson]] and his album ''Number Ones'' got five nominations and ultimately four wins. The abuse? ''Number Ones'' was a [[Greatest Hits Album]] released in '''2003''', and the '''only''' reason Jackson got all that airplay and sales was because he had just died, but there's apparently no rule preventing old material from getting nominations. [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/michael-jacksons-american-music-awards-nominations-unfair.html Complaints] that nominating Jackson wasn't fair to artists who had brought out successful new material in the eligibility period and that the AMA's were piggybacking on his death for press and ratings were shouted down by fans saying that the AMA rules were rules and this just proved Jackson's superiority.
* [[Humans Versus Zombies]] manages to avert this entirely by having the "Douchebag Clause" which states "Don't be a douchebag." Simply put, if it's unfair and not covered in the rules, then the mods can invoke the douchebag clause and punish accordingly.
* [http://www.cracked.com/article_18753_the-6-most-creative-abuses-loopholes.html Cracked] has some examples.
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* [[Useful Notes/National Hockey League|National Hockey League]] coach Roger Neilson was infamous for his knowledge of league rules and loopholes, to the point that he became known as "Rule Book Roger." He once put a defenseman in goal for a penalty shot (goalies can't leave the net to bodycheck a shooter off the puck, but defensemen can), forced nearly continuous penalties to relieve pressure on his team (no matter how many penalties a team has, only two players of five can be in the penalty box), and had his goalies leave their sticks in the goalmouth when pulled for an extra attacker, to block attempted empty-net goals. There are rules against all of these now.
** To elaborate: The current rule is that taking a Too Many Men On The Ice penalty, or other penalties intended to disrupt the flow of play, in the last two minutes of regulation or at any point in overtime while two men down results in a penalty shot instead of a minor penalty.
* Timothy Ferriss, in his book ''The Four Hour Work Week'', tells a story about how he won a kickboxing championship using a method that he described as [[Loophole Abuse]]. The rules said that [[Ring Out|a player who leaves the ring automatically loses]], and the competitors weigh in one day before they actually have to fight. So he dehydrated himself ([[Don't Try This At Home|with the help of a doctor]]) to temporarily "lose" a significant amount of weight during the day before the weigh-in and regain it, and then proceeded to shove all of his less massive opponents out of the ring.
* All who auditioned for [[Mila Kunis]]' role in ''~That '70s Show~'' were required to be [[Dawson Casting|at least 18 years old]]; she was 14 at the time, so she told the casting directors she’d be 18 on her birthday, but didn't say which one. Though they eventually figured it out, the producers still thought she was the best fit for the role.
* There ain't no rule against [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UIdI8khMkw some kinds of faking] in football.
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* One exercise used in the Canadian Forces Officer Training Course from time to time setting up a rope bridge across a river consisting of a single rope to walk on and another to hold on to. As can be imagined, getting across such a structure is difficult. In one case, the officer in charge of evaluating the officer-cadets was a [[The Neidermeyer|jerk]] who insisted the entire group get across even thought the ropes were stretching to the point it was nearly impossible, and if someone slipped (but was held up by their safety carabiner), they were to be hauled back by their safety line and forced to try again. One cadet who slipped halfway across, before he could be hauled back, pulled his legs up over the top rope and pulled himself across the rest of the way. Realizing they were only told to get across the rope bridge, not that they had to ''walk'' across it, the remaining cadets were very quickly dragged across as they hung from the upper rope.
* US federal tax law requires that whenever a gambler wins $1,200 or more on a single bet on any casino gambling machine, the win must be paid by hand and both the casino and the winner must fill out tax forms regarding the money won. Slot machines are often designed to make things easier by modifying the pay tables to replace all instances of $1,200 with $1,199. (For example, if a certain combination pays $400 for a $1 bet, the same combination on a $3 bet would pay $1,199 instead of $1,200.)
* The ATF used to define a machine gun as a gun that fires more than one bullet per pull of the '''trigger'''. The [[wikipedia:Sputter Gun|Sputter Gun]] has no trigger. The ATF caught on and changed the wording. Also, they sometimes tried to "catch" what obviously is a faulty semi-auto (some mechanisms can shoot twice when worn -- notworn—not that they're safe enough to be useful at this stage) under this.
** Every now and again some [[Sarcasm Mode|bright]] [[Too Dumb to Live|spark]] tries to exploit the current law concerning machine guns. Under U.S. law, it is illegal for a civillian to transfer a machine gun not registered at teh time that the registry closed permanently in 1986. However, there is no rule against building such a gun for yourself, so long as you do not transfer it to anyone else. However, the ATF has [[No Sense of Humor]] and loves to over step the [[Aint No Rule]] loopholes and just prosecute you anyway.
*** That's still an [http://jpfo.org/common-sense/cs55.htm understatement].
* The Filipino programmers charged with the creation of the highly-destructive ILOVEYOU virus were not charged with anything by Philippine state prosecutors because there were no laws in the Philippines regarding malware at the time. So, yes, they got away with crippling ''millions'' of computers and caused '''billions''' of dollars in damages worldwide because the Philippine justice system was behind the times -- somethingtimes—something Filipinos old enough to remember the hubbub view with a peculiar mix of misplaced pride and sheepish embarrassment.
* Broadcaster [[Keith Olbermann]] "barely graduated" from Cornell after realising that he needed to take 28 credits in his last semester. The university authorities assumed there was a rule against this - there wasn't, but he was the first person mad enough to try it.
{{quote| ''(waiting to hear if he graduated)'' Did you know you can sweat from your eyelids?}}
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* The hypothetical faster-than-light particles known as tachyons operate like this: the laws of relativity state that it is impossible for something to accelerate past the speed of light. They say nothing about objects that have always been at a faster-than-light speed.
** More accurately, if you solve the equations for total energy of a normal particle moving faster than light, you will get an imaginary number, but the total energy is proportional to the rest mass, and nothing says the rest mass has to be real.
* A joke involving a particularly unpopular village head goes thus: One day, while he was walking around the village at night, a young man bumped into him, and claimed that he couldn't see him because it was too dark. The next day the head passed a rule saying, everyone walking on the streets at night must carry a lantern. That night, the same man bumped into him again, and showed the lantern to the annoyed village head and pointed out that there is no rule that the lantern should have a candle. The village head made an [[Obvious Rule Patch]] the next day, saying that the lantern must also have a candle. That night, the man bumped into him again, and this time the [[Loophole Abuse]] was that the rule doesn't say the candle has to be lit. The embarrassed head cancelled the rule on the following day.
* [[wikipedia:Filibuster|The filibuster]], in which a politician prevents a bill from being voted on by extending debate indefinitely. It's actually [[Older Than They Think|as old as the Roman Republic]].
* In the United Kingdom, there used to be [[wikipedia:Rotten borough|rotten boroughs]] that had representatives in Parliament even though they had a very small population - the district lines hadn't been been changed in centuries, and what were once large population centers were now tiny villages. It was very difficult to get rid of them because it required an act of Parliament to redraw the district lines. This is why the U.S. constitution requires that [[Obvious Rule Patch|a census be taken every ten years]].
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** And for the people ''making'' the textbooks, there isn't any rule stating how long the edition has to be relevant ''or'' a minimum of how much stuff should be changed for each edition. Thus it's common for a new edition of a textbook to change ''one diagram'' or ''one source'', while they pocket all the money from students who can't resell the books to the university. (This is why in every college town you see third party stores.)
* [[Jeff Dunham]] has mentioned using a method to get free professional photos taken - he used his ''school pictures''. Unfortunately, these wound up in the yearbook.
* In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission implemented the National Do-Not-Call Registry, which allows Americans to limit the number of telemarketing calls made to them. However, phone surveyors are one group exempt from this rule, allowing groups like the Christian non-profit organization [http://dove.org/default1.asp The Dove Foundation] -- known—known for the "family-approved" seal it puts on movies appropriate for family audiences (and not to be confused with the brand of soap made by Unilever) -- to do phone surveys and ask for a follow-up call afterwards from their for-profit partner Feature Films for Families, where they try to sell movies to them. That way, they are able to skirt the Do-Not-Call rule. The State of Missouri sued Dove for US$70,000 in 2006 for violating their laws.
** Likewise, the "Do Not Call" list also doesn't apply to political campaigns, so every two years people complain about getting robocallers late at night or very early morning. This is especially bad every presidential campaign, peaking in 2008 where people reported having getting so many calls at the worst times (Especially around when they're eating dinner) that people reportedly unplugged all the phones in their house so they could get a good night's sleep for once.
* In streaming sites such as ustream and livestream, ads interrupt it. However, get adblocker and they don't play the ads at all.
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* [[Acceptable Targets]] can be this way for sexism, racism, and discrimination, but [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|that's really all that needs to be said.]]
* In politics, those who hold an executive office are often given the power to selectively veto only parts of a bill without vetoing the whole thing. This has been often used to veto individual words or sentences to [[Quote Mine]] a bill and create an entirely different bill, for example by deleting the word "not" to completely reverse the meaning.
** Wisconsin governors are particularly infamous for doing this - former governor Tommy Thompson was known for deleting ''individual letters and digits'', which came to be known as the "[[Wheel of Fortune|Vanna White]] veto". The Wisconsin legislature has since managed to create two [[Obvious Rule Patch|Obvious Rule Patches]]es which disallow the governor from using the veto to delete letters within a word or splice together multiple sentences, but to this day, the governor of Wisconsin can still delete individual words in a sentence.
** The United States Congress once tried to give the President this power, but the power, known as the line-item veto, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
** Regardless, recent Presidents have made frequent use of "signing statements" which effectively indicate their interpretation of or credulity for a new law, and the extent to and/or manner in which they intend to enforce it. Such statements, however, are not binding, and have no impact on subsequent Presidents.
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** Likewise, icons often aren't handled by the mature filter. Some trolls on those sites regularly put pictures of asses or stuff that normally would be placed under "mature" to shock people with the mature filter on. It was less common in ''deviantART'' where the icon size was limited to only 50x50 pixels, but on other art sites with bigger avatars....
** For that matter, "Photo-dumping" is not allowed on some art sites...but people love to take these and then place them under a "Photograph" categorization so they get away with it.
* Related to the above, there were people who had done the [[Loophole Abuse]] on ''[[Fur Affinity]]'' before an update to the terms of service said that x-rated avatars would be banned, too. When it comes to depicting content banned from the site, though, [[Aint No Rule]] saying you can't tell people to go check out your gallery on another site that ''does'' allow it.
* An old Irish joke takes advantage of this:
{{quote| Murphy and Flannery hated each other with a burning passion. To help end the fighting, God sent an angel down to Murphy to help nudge him to repentance and reconciliation. The Angel said to Murphy: "Murphy, m'boy, God has told me that you may pray for any one thing you wish, and you will receive it. However, whatever you get, Flannery will get twice as much." "So, angel, lemme get this straight," Murphy replied. "Does this mean that if I ask to be the head of one dockside union, Flannery will be the head of two?" "Yes." "And if I win the Irish Sweepstakes once, Flannery will win it twice?" "Yes." And if I get a brass band following me, he'll..." "Have one in front of him AND behind him," said the angel.<br />
Murphy thought for a moment. "All right, angel, I've made my decision. '''I'd like a glass eye!'''" }}
** Of course, there's further [[Loophole Abuse]] to be had when you realize that Murphy [[Exact Words|never specified]] that the glass eyes had to ''replace'' the real eyes. The angel could just as easily make glass eyes appear and hand them over.
*** A variant has the wisher ask to be blind in one eye, which is also open to [[Loophole Abuse]] by the angel/genie due to his lack of specification as to how long the blindness should ''last''.
** Other variations of the joke (usually with the person getting double being a Lawyer) have Murphy asking for a ton of money, a ton of success, and then to be scared ''half'' to death.
*** Or to be shown something so funny he'd laugh himself half to death.
*** Or to donate a kidney.
* More legal [[Loophole Abuse]], Wal-Mart. While this practice is ''hardly'' unique to Wal-Mart, they just happen to be the most well-known example of it. The practice in question are to skirting around labour laws.
** "Wal-Mart full time":
*** In North America, 40 hours is considered full-time legally. They claim to be hiring you for a "full-time" position, and then make you work 36-3936–39 hours a week. Enough to feel like a full time (which actually ''is'' full-time in parts of the world, see below) but legally, you are still considered part-time and therefore you are not entitled to any benefits. A lot of Wal-Mart employees are actually eligible for food-stamps and other such public services because they don't hire anyone full-time unless they're a manager or higher-up.
*** They can't do this as much, since 35-3835–38 hours actually would be full-time in much of Europe: in Britain 37.5 hours a week is generally seen as the default, and 35 hours in France. However the main distinction on this side of the channel in terms of rights is between permanent and temporary workers - [[Aint No Rule]] against relieving temps for no reason (especially just before three months are up and EU law specifies they get the same rights as permanent workers), or making as many jobs as possible temporary, to skirt around workers rights.
** [[Aint No Rule]] against bumping people who worked legal-full time down to "Wal-Mart full time" after they worked at the store long enough to qualify for more benefits.
** This has happened to other firms and not just Wal-Mart mind you. Depending on where in North America you live, if you work for four hours, you are required to be given a 15 minute break. Many businesses also use a computer system that keeps track of this. However, there [[Aint No Rule]] against the manager telling you to clock out and then clock back in so the computer doesn't record them of being on the clock more than four hours at a tie and saying they need to take a break. There also [[Aint No Rule]] against giving you split shifts; but to be fair, many businesses do split shifts so that the "Break" is actually an hour or more and you aren't paid.
*** Or a shift 6 hours and 45 minutes long to avoid union rules that a 7-hour shift gets a half-hour break.
** There's all sorts of [[Loophole Abuse]] surrounding overtime...
* Another common Loophole Abuse that is pretty widespread, but Wal-Mart is notorious for, a practice called "constructive discharge." Most companies would rather have inexperienced and cheaper workers instead of skilled, and more expensive ones. Basically, if an employee is fired, they're entitled to unemployment benefits. However, if the company wants to avoid paying you, they decide to make your life miserable through manipulation of the rules that you will be forced to quit.
* If you are hired as a Waiter or Waitress in America, legally you're allowed to have a paycheck below minimum wage. However, the loophole is that you ''must'' be able to make up the difference in tips. This hasn't stopped some places from hiring everyone as a waiter simply so they could get away with paying them $2.50 an hour...and subsequently getting blacklisted by the working force when word gets out.
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* When the Federal Communications Commission begun to require broadcast television like NBC and ABC to aired “educational and informative” between the hours of seven in the morning until ten in evening, for three hours a week in order to keep their license back in 1996, this created three major loopholes.
** One: Most of the airings were done between seven in the morning until three in the afternoon during the weekdays, which most of the targeted children audience were at school. Commercial stations had their “malicious” product advertisements aired with the impression children wouldn’t see them… those who are healthy that is.
** Two: On way days of the week wasn’t mention either. Many broadcast television stations soon learned of this and aired the “E/I” on weekends, usually Saturdays. [[My Rule Fu Is Stronger Than Yours| Since Saturday is part of the week]], airing “E/I" programming on weekends since the target audience would most likely be at home to watch and in compliance with the FFC rules.
** Three: If a program contains some "educational and informative" information, they can legally count as an "E/I". Many talk shows got away with this because some provide information to the viewers.
* While profanity is strictly monitored on cable and broadcast television, it has to count if heard but [[Getting Crap Past the Radar| not mouthed off]]. This means, if a character lip sync the swear word without having it heard or replace it with an animal sound like a dolphin chirp or the classic bleep, a TV Network can get away with it.
* Many teenagers at a school in Mustang, OK got around the drug policy by using [http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-06-30/health/sfl-digital-drugs-063010_1_drug-abuse-miami-dade-county-public-schools-sounds digital version] since it can't be found on a drug test. Officials [[Obvious Rule Patch| control the usage of MP3 players]] and blocked YouTube in attempted to regain control.
* While is banned alcohol in prisons, the materials to make a kind of alcohol known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruno Pruno] are still legal because prisons are required to make sure national needs are meet. Some wardens have tried to [[Obvious Rule Patch| banned fresh fruits from leaving]] the cafeterias but that isn’t stopped inmates from getting alternatives.
* '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution The First Amendment of the United States Constitution]''': ''Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there of; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.''
** Noticed a major loophole… it states congress, which consist of United States House of Representatives and United States Senate. However, it doesn’t mention school officials, state governors, city mayors, local officials, and even the President.
* If you’re a high school student and want to run school newspapers, you should [http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/faq.aspx?id=12818 anticipate censorship by the schools] unless you don’t have them sponsor it. Make it an [http://www.splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?id=1230&edition=37 independently run] and offer it off-campus either having it available a news stand on public grounds or publish it online. There’s nothing the schools can do if the work is off-campus thanks to the Fourth Amendment since it would be considered private property.
** Better yet, if you happen to have a business license ,<ref> this varies by state</ref>, it’s seen as a form of insurance since city officials would likely allow “clean” businesses to continue just as long the license is valid.
* When the Birther Movement demanded evidence that Barack Obama is a natural born of the United States, they failed to realize there are three loopholes in the law on meets the definition of "'''''natural born'''''". While the movement was correct on the rule about being born in United States, which Hawaii became in 1959… two years before Obama was born, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthright_citizenship_in_the_United_States here are the rules they missed]:
** '''One''': If Hawaii was still a US territory by the time Obama was born, they still would be declared natural born US citizen even if the area eventually become enters statehood. This happened to Bette Midler because she was born in 1950 while Hawaii was still a territory of the United States.
** '''Two''': If both parents are U.S. citizens, the child is a "natural-born citizen", which is how Milder got around this since her parents are New Jersey along with the rule mentioned above.
** '''Three''': If a child is born outside the United States and one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year, the child would still be declared a natural-born. Even if he was born in his father's native of Kenya, [http://ivn.us/2013/08/13/defining-natural-born-citizen/ Obama] was still been allowed to become US President because his mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas.
* In 2010, [http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/us/massachusetts-upskirt-photography/ Michael Robertson] was arrested in Boston for voyeurism after he was caught taking pictures of women with his cell-hone camera. Robertson uses his camera photograph up the women’s skirts, and he exposed a serious loophole. Because the photographs didn’t contain nudity, the "Peeping Tom" laws against voyeurism didn’t applied. After Michael Robertson was let go, lawmakers in Massachusetts [[Obvious Rule Patch| immediately passed reforms to the laws]] to include "upskirting".
* The phase “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” is an open door invitation for a loophole since other body parts aren’t mention.
 
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[[Category:Dirty Social Tricks]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Screw This Index, I Have Tropes]]
[[Category:Loophole Abuse]]
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