| Volume 80 Number 10 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Why not give the gift of knowledge for the holidays. Pick up a copy of the new 8th edition of my book, "Know Your Rights!" It is available at most bookstores or from my website, Click here for more.
Copyright: Police Raid Home of 9 Year Old Girl, Seize Winnie the Pooh Laptop
Be careful when you download copyrighted media from the Internet. Content owners and the associations that represent them are becoming increasingly better at finding and punishing the people who steal their material. It has become a polarizing issue in the United States. While the Recording Industry Association of America battles individuals in the court system, congress has been asked to weigh in on the issues surrounding intellectual property and the Internet.
Overseas, the representative associations are arguably even more aggressive. Last year, a 9-year old girl in Finland attempted to download a Chisu album using popular BitTorrent site Pirate Bay. When her attempt was unsuccessful, she had her father take her to the store to buy the album the following day. Months later, the father received a letter in the mail from Finland's Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre informing him that his Internet account had been linked to copyright infringement. The letter asked for the father to pay a sizable fine and sign a non-disclosure agreement. He declined. Last week, a pair of Finnish police officers arrived at his house with a warrant. The object of the search? His daughter's Winnie the Pooh computer.
Could the same thing happen to you? Click here for more.
Health: Safely Eliminating Bed Bugs
Do you have bed bugs? If so, you probably already know how difficult it can be to get rid of them. In fact, it can be tempting to go to great lengths to get them out of your house. For some, the solution could be much worse than the potential bed bug bite. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some consumers are using powerful insecticides in their homes to rid their furniture of the vile creatures. Unfortunately, usage of certain pesticides can lead to significant and potentially deadly health problems. Find out why! Click here for more.
Your Money
Which credit card is the best credit card for you? Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Non-signatory cannot enforce arbitration agreement. The Fifth Circuit held that an accounting firm could not compel its clients to arbitrate their claims that the accountants had fraudulently convinced them to invest in particular securities. The accounting firm held up an arbitration agreement between its clients and a third party, a securities broker, which said any dispute between the clients and the broker were arbitrable, including those between the clients and the broker’s “officers, directors, employees or agents.” The accounting firm argued that although it was not a party to that agreement, it was an agent of the broker, and could therefore enforce the arbitration agreement. The court concluded that the accountants could not compel arbitration because the actions of which their clients complained were not performed as agents of the securities broker. The court also concluded that the accountants could not rely on equitable estoppel principles to compel arbitration, primarily because the clients’ claims did not rely on the agreement between the clients and the broker. Click here for more.