| Volume 99 Number 8 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
In Texas, a tenant who moves into an apartment is entitled to a working smoke detector, a peephole in the front door, and proper security on all doors and windows, including a dead bolt on the front door.
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Keep An Eye On Aereo
What if you could get rid of satellite, cable, or antenna television, but still get crystal clear reception? Aereo is making it a possibility by offering live streaming network television over the Internet. For $8 a month, consumers can get as many as 28 channels (New York) and cloud-based DVR service. If you're on-the-go, Aereo allows you to watch on your mobile device for no additional cost.
Needless-to-say, the networks aren't happy about Aereo broadcasting their content. In fact, they've taken the company to court, claiming Aereo should have to pay a fee to rebroadcast signals. In January, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Aereo case.
Aereo insists it doesn't infringe on network copyrights because it rents antennas in each city it services. Industry analysts and court experts are divided on how the court might see the case.
What could this case mean for the future of television?
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Starbucks to Increase Coffee Prices
Starting July 21 in stores and July 24 in cafés, the price for Starbucks coffee will be going up. The price of Starbucks ground or whole bean coffee sold in stores will go up by 8%. Cafe prices will increase by less than 1%.
After a drought devastated coffee production in Brazil, sellers have started seeing higher costs. As a result, sellers must increase consumer prices or take a hit in profits.
How much more will your coffee cost?
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YouTube to Launch Subscription Music
In the coming months, YouTube plans to join the likes of Spotify and Beats by Dre with its own subscription-based streaming music service. Google, the parent company for YouTube, already has royalty deals in place with record labels representing 95% of signed musicians. A small number of independent artists are holding out. The royalty fees paid out on subscription music services are far less than the royalties paid for actual purchases through companies like iTunes.
Could YouTube become a player in the subscription-based music market?
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Your Money
Will you be able to pay back your student loans?
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For the Lawyers
No federal presumption of arbitrability until court finds valid arbitration agreement.
A recent Eleventh Circuit case discusses when the federal presumption of arbitrability applies. The court found that the presumption only applies to whether the scope of an arbitration agreement is broad enough to encompass the parties' dispute, not whether a valid arbitration agreement exists between the parties.
The court noted that in Granite Rock, SCOTUS said courts may apply "the presumption of arbitrability only where a validly formed and enforceable arbitration agreement is ambiguous about whether it covers the dispute at hand." It also cited the Second Circuit which has explicitly recognized that "the presumption does not apply to disputes concerning whether an agreement to arbitrate has been made."
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