1. No employers shouldn't have to provide interns with the same legal protection as for their employees. Todd feels that if employers had to protect interns then they may not want to offer any internships anymore, due to having to pay for extra costs. He thinks that the state should have a pool of money that will go to the protection for interns.
2. No designer inspired goods are not the same as counterfeit items, because counterfeit is an exact copy with the logo, where as inspired goods are of a similar design but doesn't look the same as the original. "Because intellectual property is nonexclusive, many people see no problem in using it for free. But when consumers take intellectual property—movies, songs, and books—without paying for it, they ensure that fewer of these items will be produced." He also states that companies that design inspired items aren't at fault because we can grab inspiration from anything. "The holder of a copyright owns the particular expression of an idea, but not the underlying idea or method of operation."
3. Gwyneth Paltrow has gotten criticism about her bikini targeted towards girls from ages 4-8. There were organizations that were saying that she was sexually exploiting young girls in her campaign for the kid bikini. Todd searched it up during the interview as he was not familiar with situation, and when he saw it his thoughts were "You can go to the beach and see this, there is nothing exploiting about it." People have all different kinds of opinions and views on what is exploiting to young children and this isn't one of them.
4. This question was one that I have always wondered about, during this class, Contacts, Negotiations, and Copyrights, I have learned that even if a teacher confiscates a students phone with a nude picture on it then, that teacher will get in trouble for it. It seems that this issue is that sensitive and serious. I've wondered that since it seems very serious then why is the fashion industry able to advertise images of nude underage models? Todd says that yes in some cases the modeling industry is violating child protection laws, because the models would be under-aged, and that the blame and consequences should be put on the modeling agency that represents the model.
5. Recently one of the representatives from the Humane Society of the United States came to talk at my school to inform us about what was going on in the fur trade industry. We were told that there is a problem that is becoming more popular within the fur and retail industries which dues with falsely claiming fur as "faux" fur. Todd said that yes this is considered false advertising and that it is in violation of the FTC (Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) prohibits “unfair and deceptive acts or practices.”) because it is unfair trade practice. I also asked him how does he think these industries have been able to get away with this. He said he thinks that the problem lies within Customs. In Customs they deal with a lot of imports so they are not always sufficient when they do checks and searches.
6. No companies are not allowed to pay under the state minimum wage because it would be in violation of unfair wages.
7. Recently an Outsourcing company called Infosys was caught bringing in immigrant workers under a B-1 visa which is meant for short stays such as business meeting and they cost $160 instead of a H-1B visa that is used for long term stays which is around three years and can cost up to $5,000 per individual. So I was wondering if there was any type of record or limit that was kept for how many of each type of visa a company applies for, and Todd said that all visa requests must be approved, and the company must keep renewing the visas if they still are in need of them. So now I'm wondering why the company approving these visas didn't find it weird that Infosys was requesting so many B-1 visas, no one can have that many meetings, that should have been a red flag.
8. I have always been curious as to if a company that is based in the United States but does its business overseas would face legal consequences from the US or from the country of which they are conducting it business in, if they are caught using sweatshops. Todd says that the company would face legal consequences in the country they are doing their business in and the only negative consequences that they would receive in the States would be bad publicity.
9. Lawyer Uglow says that in some cases a muse could be considered as an endorsement, it just depends. So then the celebrity would have a contract with the designer and would be paid. But a designer can also say that they were inspired by the celebrity and that would be protected under the First Amendment.
10. Todd says that the only way you will be able to tell if a company is paying its employees well based on the companies income tax, will be if the company is publicly owned, if it is privately owned the company's files will not be able be viewed to the public.
Citations:
Beatty, J. F., & Samuelson, S. S. (2012). Introduction to Business Law, 4th Ed. South-Western College Pub. Pages 450, 502, 506
No comments:
Post a Comment