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Monthly Archives: January 2012
Internet users throughout America (and in much of the world too) are by now familiar with two infamous pieces of legislation that are working their way through our Congress – the Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (“PIPA”). The issues surrounding the laws caused multiple leading internet sites to close down on Wednesday of last week. Taking part in the protest were popular sites like Reddit, BoingBoing and the English-language version of Wikipedia. There is no doubt that SOPA and PIPA deal with an important issue – copyright infringement – but many technology companies and internet users feel that they go too far. SOPA and PIPA did come from the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, two organizations that often made negative headlines for their aggressive pursuit of alleged file sharers of copyrighted music and movies. With SOPA and…
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Every couple of years from the 1990s to today, the debate on the link between video game violence and real world violence makes headlines when a violent act occurs allegedly as a result of the perpetrator’s play of a particular video game. The accusations are similar, though the games being blamed have changed over the years – Mortal Kombat, Doom, Final Fantasy VIII, EverQuest and the Grand Theft Auto series are a handful of the video games blamed for an act of violence. Lawsuits involving these games have ended up with the same result – dismissal – as courts have not been willing to overlook the strong protections offered by the First Amendment of our country’s constitution. We often think of the right to say what we want when the First Amendment comes up, and this protection also extends to creative works, a group that includes video games and other…
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The main benefit of a partnership – its flexibility – can also become a liability when a major change occurs like deciding to bring someone new on board as a partner. The partnership agreement may not have been worded well enough to handle the change, and it could lead to conflict. In a state like California, which like most has passed the Uniform Partnership Act, if a partnership agreement is silent on a matter, state law – often contract law – fills in the holes, which may not lead to a welcome result. To avoid problems when bringing a new partner on board, partnerships and similar business entities should have clear provisions in their operating agreements. To bring someone new into a partnership, it is common for the partnership’s partners to have to vote the new person in and for the new person to contribute to the partnership at least…
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