Google wins battle in France

TF1 the number 1 television channel in Europe has declared war against Google.

The French broadcast group went to court against the popular search engine, and more precisely against YouTube , the video streaming website owned by Google since 2006.

TF1 was outraged to see copyrighted movies and tv shows being posted without approval on YouTube and sought damages up to 141 milion euros ( 175$ milion)

The whole business backfired when the court found Google not to be liable for pirated content on YouTube and TF1 was ordered to pay 80,000 euros as legal fees.

Although the rules are pretty strict regarding copyright infringement with videos uploaded to YouTube, Google can not act as a police force with users content. In fact the only ones that can be held liable for video-sharing of pirated content are the users alone. 

YouTube can only be held accountable if it refuses to take down the ilegal material after the rightful owner reports it, which sometimes may seem easier said than done. 

Just imagine that in order to be sure his content is not being pirated, the owner of the material should be constantly checking uploaded videos on YouTube. YouTube had his share of problems back home as well, since from 2007 the internet company has been fighting with Viacom.

Could this slowly lead to the fall of YouTube. All we know is that "youtubers" are a fast growing comunity and filtrating their content becomes harder and harder to conceive with each new member.

It may seem like scourge mainly for artists who find it very hard to sell their work when everybody can just get it free on youtube, but when we look at the past years we'll see that a lot of fresh singers and performers gained their fame and fortune by first singing in front of their webcam.

FELA - protecting railroad workers since 1908

        In the late 19 century and the beginning of 20th century the U.S. railroad companies thrived and expanded but the working conditions for the average Joe in this area were a bet with death. The number of deaths and injuries were of the order of thousands, and the victims may have been in the situation of waiting years for verdict in court if the railroad companies fought the decisions.
       Many of them wouldn't even go to court seeking their legal compensation fearing disciplinary action and retaliation.
     
       President Benjamin Harrison once compared the struggle and toil of a railroad worker to that of a soldier on the battlefield.
     "It is a reproach to our civilization that any class of American workmen, should in the pursuit of a necessary and useful vocation, be subjected to a peril of life and limb as great as that of a soldier in time of war".

      Something had to be changed. The gloomy statistics had to draw the attention of the legislation.

     The Federal Employers Liability Act was passed by Congress in 1908 and it meant that railroad workers had the right to sue their employers for  damages if they were injured while doing their job since they were not covered by  regular workers’ compensation laws.
       
       Ever since, FELA was a guardian for a safe working environment, even if conditions have surely changed since the late 1800. FELA also has been protecting workers from the pressure exercised by companies against those who want to seek legal consultation when they feel their rights are violated. 

      As an  example , it's a little known fact that sometimes workers who have sustained injuries are entitled to more than just compensation since their employers will always seek to minimize their costs on the legal battlefield.

     The best advice for a victim of a work accident in the railroad bussiness is to contact an experienced  FELA attorney

   

Unpaied internship - modern slavery

It's almost June and graduation day is close if not already here for students throughout the world. But what has the future in store for them now that school is over. Most students accumulated not only knowledge during college but also a pretty large debt so they might be thinking to end the after grad party a little earlier and start scouting for jobs.
We've all been probably told by our parents and family " finish a college and you'll get a good job" but it seems time has changed and a college degree doesn't really makes so much a difference anymore on the market now. So what does?

Applying for an internship has been popular for some time now among students , and while unpaid internship were mostly for non-profit organizations nowadays, they expanded to almost all domains of activity from fashion houses and film to law firms.

An internship system means that the intern is offering his services to his employer in exchange for experience in that particular field of work. This might help the intern get a clear grasp of the career he wants to follow, receive some school credits, and do a better job in his future workplace as he will not require a long training if even one at all when he starts as a regular employee.  The internship period can be paid, unpaid or partially paid , but what is particular for this system is the fact that the interns job does not benefit the employer so much, thus differentiating from real paid work. In US, nearly all internships must be paid, at least minimum wage according to FLSA( Fair Labor Standard Act) unless it qualifies with the following:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operations of the facilities of the employers, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school 
2. The training is for the benefit of the student.
3. The student does not displace a regular employee, but works under the close observation of a regular employee or supervisor.
4. The employer provides the training and derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the student; and on occasion, the operations may actually be impeded by the training.
5. The student is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period.
6. The employer and the student understand that the student is not entitled to wages for the time spent training.

A few weeks of working on your daddy' s store no longer adds weight to an average post-grad since most students now already have several months of experience with one or more companies even before graduation.
With today's economy and the battle for those few good jobs out there getting tougher than the Hunger games,  many young adults will agree to take unpaid internships just to get a foot ahead.

But what might have started as an opportunity to gain experience and enhance your education turned out to be more similar to slavery as many interns report working even more than a regular employee, for no payment what so ever.

Melissa Reyes from Melissa Reyes declared for New York Times how she often worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. five days a week.  After graduating from Marist College with a degree in fashion merchandising like many other she applied for an internship and got admitted at  Diane von Furstenberg Fashion House. She found the educational value of her activity there not as she expected. “They had me running out to buy them lunch, they had me cleaning out the closets, emptying out the past season's items.”

 Dan O’Connell wasn't even that lucky, as he reported for MainStreet.com. Close to graduation he sought an internship with an ad agency to realize the "agency" a woman working part -time from home. Among his duties were "to write school assignments for her daughter " and "wash her car".

In 2009 The Huffington Post , a renowned website, and a great opportunity for young  journalists to get noticed, auctioned a internship post . The bid was as high as 13 000$.

Why do students put up with this one might ask? Unfortunately , most of them don't have a choice as job market is going down and more and more requirements are expected from candidates.  Furthermore,  in a bitter irony, the work that could have been done by fresh graduates is now entrusted to unpaid interns.
But not everybody can afford the luxury of working for free, so as to be expected, poor students won't be able to get the needed experience and therefore will be denied the same opportunities and have to deal with less wanted and less paid jobs, despite their potential.

It surely looks like a profitable deal for employers but is this just white-collar slavery in disguise for students and what are the effects on the long terms when companies choose unpaid unskilled work over regular paid employees?

Cinderella law - no gaming after 12

With the release of Blizzard's new title, the long anticipated Diablo III, our attention goes to one of the largest gaming community.

South Korea can boast itself with one of the richest and most prolific online gaming culture in the world. A study conducted in 2010 by the National Information Society Agency revealed that 8% of South Koreans between the age of 9 and 39 suffer from Internet addiction ,the addiction rate being higher for those between 9 and 12.

This phenomenon reminding of the famous Hikikomori generation of Japan , has come into the attention of the Korean government who last year in November came with a law forbidding children under the age of 16 to play video games after midnight. This is to be carried out by restricting their access to certain gaming servers.

The restriction however is not in effect for mobile games or games that can be found on certain social websites like facebook.

The law went into effect since 20 November and now, in South Korea console services like PlayStation Network and Xbox Live are not allowing kids under 16 to register for game accounts or to login between the hours 12 and 6 am.

Apart from that , the Korean government has been found to be very active in the struggle to prevent internet and gaming addiction for youngsters by holding numerous workshops and offering counseling for students with such problems.


As expected, the Internet community didn't greet this law very well. Blogs and forums have attacked the initiative calling it "idiotic","waste of time and money" and identifying it as discriminating.

Same should have been expected by the Korea Association of Game Industry which has stated that this law enforces " excessive prohibition" and prepared a legal retaliation.


Cultural solidarity organization MoonHwaYunDae also appealed to the Constitutional Court trying , without success to stop this law .

Parents stood pretty much on the same side arguing that they should have the right to educate their children as they see fit and have the last word about what time they want to allow their kid to play.


Lawyer Lee Byung-chan representing the parents in this matter stated that the "cinderella law " violates the right to happiness and discriminates gaming as a leisure activity against other such as television.

In my opinion this law is indeed a peculiar case, the one you might be expecting to see in North Korea than in South Korea, but let us analyze the situation a little. The law blocks the access of children under the age of 16 on online gaming servers after midnight. It is not prohibitive as it is mostly restrictive but why is such a restriction needed?
I'm 26 and I used to play video games myself,( even though online games weren't as much as a thing when I was a kid as they are now)  and I still play them know, as an young adult. I had my share of "gaming nights" with my buddies, but that happened mostly when I was in high school and the rebellious part kicked in. What I don't remember is my parents coming to my room at 3 in the morning and finding me glued to the screen while playing Nintendo. If I did that , not only I would have got into serious problems , but I'd also be way to tired to wake up at 7 AM and go to school.

As a grown man, fully independent and supporting myself I still won't pull an gaming all-niter when I have to be at work in the morning because I learned to be responsible at home.  I do agree, it's the parent's own business at what time he decides it's ok for his kid to be playing, but I hardly imagine a parent having absolutely no problem with his under 16 offspring being online , playing until morning especially if he has to be up for school in a few hours.

Internet addiction is a real thing. Gaming addiction is a real thing and I could make a whole blogs about cases all over the world where gaming addiction lead to seclusion , unsocial behavior, and in some extreme cases real violence and murder. I'm not saying games are bad but when a kid gets so involved in an virtual environment so much that it has negative effects on his real life, maybe his parents should be there to teach him about being responsible in managing his time. Maybe that is why such a law is needed , because the  ones that should prevent this problem from happening are not doing their job.

Lawyer of the day

    My last article was about a car accident and today I just stumbled across an interesting article from earlier this year, the kind of article you could say restores faith to humanity.
   On February 07 this year, personal injury lawyer Melinda Helbock, also   founding partner of The Law Offices of Melinda J. Helbock, a well known law firm in San Diego , California, announced that she will be offering free legal advice for people affected by car accidents occurred in San Diego. This can only be seen as a good news for all drivers in San Diego who know have someone to turn to when found in unfortunate events.

    Melinda Helbock has proven herself as an excellent attorney in her over 17 years of trial experience. Member of  he San Diego Bar Association and the American Association of Justice, she received her law degree at the  California Western School of Law, and quickly became known through the community for her dedication and kindness in helping people who have entered her office.
   
      Indeed, the warm, family atmosphere at   Melinda J. Helbock, A.P.C  is not what you would usually see in a law firm and the trained staff as well as the collaboration with a whole network of law specialists  throughout the country has helped it provide high quality legal service for nearly 20 years.
       Melinda J. Helbock, A.P.C covers areas of practice such as:       

          

• -Civil Litigation
• -Business Litigation
• -Corporate Law
• -Personal Injury
• -Asbestos Litigation
• -Pharmaceutical Litigation
• -Real Estate Law
• -Worker's Compensation
• -Entertainment Law
• -Pro-Bono Representation
• -Employment Law
• -Intellectual Property Law
• -Bankruptcy Law
• -Family Law
• -Probate Law
• -Wills & Estates

     But Melinda is not only a great lawyer. Loving wife and mother of two boys, she is also a very active member of community. You might wonder how does she manages to get all these things done ? Yet she is constantly volunteering for organizations like :

• Encinitas County Day, volunteer
• Alzheimer's patient, volunteer caregiver
• ELL Minor B's Nationals 2010, team mom
• ELL Rookies Grasshoppers 2010, co-team mom
• Encinitas Little League Rookies Sidewinders 2009, team mom

It seems californians can only be proud with such a true pillar of comunity. All I say is that if I ever have a car accident in San Diego , I sure know who to call.

 

Paper cup stops truck

     A community was appalled last week in Texas, after truck driver  Richard Bolduc was involved in a very unlikely truck accident. 
    Richard was driving  at approximately at 62 mph on U.S. 271 near Bogota, TX, hauling shingles from Shreveport   when an object shattered his windshield rendering him practically blind from the explosion. As Richard declared his first thought was that his phone exploded but luckily, he managed to stop the truck in time, avoiding a potential collision in traffic. 

    It seems that the mysterious object was nothing more than a plain paper medium sized soda cup from Burger King, thrown out the window by of an oncoming car. 
    State trooper Ryan Case who responded to the scene said that he found the paper cup , but threw it in the ditch as he did not believe it could have any correlation with accident. He then found pieces from it scattered around the impact area. 
       It does seem unlikely that such a harmless object as a paper cup could provoke that amount of damage to a truck. We are not talking about cracking a windshield , we are talking about going through it with such a force it made shattered it. Can a paper cup do that?

      I did some research on the internet and discovered how this question was already given an answer by the Myth Busters two years ago in one of their episodes. If you want to see for yourself here is the link :
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-soda-cup-killer-angle-2.html


       Driver Richard Bolduc is currently recovering after sustaining serious injuries to his face, eyes and back. Fortunately, even though a specialist had to recover paper fragments from his eyes he is not in danger of blinding. Bolduc live as far as 600 miles from where the accident happened, however, the community was more than helpful. Bolduc is currently staying with pastor Donnie Childer, former truck driver himself and his wife Dana. They took care of Bolduc and his truck and also drove him to hospital after they were called in by driver  Mitch Cannon who was behind Richard when the accident happened.
     
     The Childers also made sure to call Richard's wife and let her about her husbands situation and that he is OK. Jennifer Balduc, mother of two girls with special needs declared that it would have been extremely hard without the help of the friendly people in Bogota. Even though doctors can say at the moment if Richard is going to be able to drive again, Jennifer is just happy that her husband is alive. 


     Now that is a heart warming story about kindness and how there are still people out there ready to jump and give a helping hand to their fellows in need, but it could also be looked as an alarm call for drivers everywhere to be more responsible on the road. It this case a simple gesture as throwing a paper cup out the window could have cost a man's life and maybe even lead to a traffic collision increasing the number of victims. Each year truck accidents alone clai 5000 lives in US. Maybe is time to raise awareness,because everyone knows accidents are best to be avoided than dealt with.
      In the unfortunate case of a truck accident or any type of car accident whatsoever it's best to remember that you can seek compensation. A consultation with a truck accident lawyer may help you.

Dumbest lawsuits ever

     We all heard of frivolous lawsuits, lawsuits that from the start have little to no chance of winning mostly due to their lack of legal merit and their absurdity, but things go way beyond with some cases that simply redefine the word ridiculous. Here are some of this cases:

Man vs Jackass 

      Former Bob Craft from Montana , changed his name to Jack Ass in 1997 to raise awareness, he says about the dangers of drunk driving.  He most probably had a shock when a TV show with the same name was aired in 2000 on MTV featuring a group of young men doing some dangerous stunts , so he did what any reasonable man would do - sued the heck out of them for 10 million dollars. He motivated his actions by saying that they stoled his name and defamed his good character.
     Now let's digest that for a moment. There's this guy changing his name to Jack Ass and then claiming somebody defamed his good character. I guess he was really making the term "jackass" a respectable name before MTV came along.

Christopher Roller vs Magicians

     We all love magic tricks and magicians. They challenge our imagination with their fantastic numbers but in the end we all know it's all just an illusion. Or is it?  Christopher Roller from  Minnesota claims otherwise as he believes the old "hand is quicker than the eye" does not apply to famous performers David Blaine and David Copperfield who may in fact , as he claims , use godly powers. He demands that they reveal their secrets or pay him 10% of their income for life. Why? Because, as he states he is actually God and those pesky magicians are using his power. And I thought it was all just smoke and mirrors.

Women vs Police...dog?

Police brutality is a serious matter and people are entitled to defend themselves and bring those responsible in court unless those responsible require a leash. This is a case of a woman in  Detroit who was bitten by a police dog . Most probably she could have had a strong case here unless she decided to file her suit against poor agent K9 Scruffy himself. The judge dismissed the lawsuit as being frivolous and also fined the plaintiff .
Talking about things that turn around and bite you in the...

Man Vs Anheuser-Busch

This one is a classic. We all find ourselves being influenced by ads on TV into buying some products promising to make our life better, but a man in Michigan really got a rough deal. In 1990, a Budweiser ad showed two beautiful women appearing from thin air in front of two truck drivers after they consumed the mentioned beer. Our guy went ahead and bought a case of beer, drank it, but surprise, no woman materialized in front of him. He sued the company for false advertising, but the court dismissed the suit. Weird enough last time I drank a full case of beer I saw two women in front of me. Unfortunately they were my girlfriend and they weren't very happy.

Man vs Himself

You know those moments when you do something really stupid and just want to punch yourself in the the face? Well Robert Lee Brock imprisoned for grand larceny and breaking-and-entering went a step ahead and tried to sue himself . Robert claimed that he was drunk at the time he committed those crimes which he states , was against his religious beliefs.He claimed he had violated his civil liberties and sued himself for 5 million bucks. Unfortunately as he was imprisoned at the time and unable to produce an income he demanded that the state should pay him the sum.
Still a better  use of tax -payers money than what we see today.


There you have it , some of the most ridiculous lawsuits of all time. Let me know if you liked this article in the comment section bellow and if you want me to continue the list.

Pradaxa Injury - Boehringer Ingelheim plays dumb

     This month it seems I've written a lot about medical problems and medical lawsuits. And now I find myself writing about another miracle drug that has been proved to do more harm than good in a lot of cases. Before that though , I must clarify that I am not under no circumstance advertising these pharmaceutical products ,nor am I trying to give them a bad name. A lot of people have been taking them and it improved their condition, but however there is still a great number of patients who have been complaining of some serious side-effects. Side-effects that in some cases put their life in danger.

     Pradaxa is an anticoagulant mainly used for treating pacients with  atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that leads to abnormal heart beats. Without treating, atrial fibrillation could lead to blood clots and strokes so an anticoagulant drug could mean the difference between life and death for those unfortunate to have this condition. 



     Pradaxa was released in 2010 , brought on the market by   Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and it quickly gain popularity over its predecesor and competitior, Warfarin, mainly for being more user-friendly as the patient does not need to do regular blood test or have any food restrictions. 
     
     However, the magic did not last long after it have been reported that Pradaxa may have some fatal side-effects as severe bleeding injuries were in patients who were taking Pradaxa, injuries that sometime lead to death. FDA was flooded with reports of victims suffering from internal bleedings after using the anticoagulant drug and by the second  quarter of 2011, the number of deaths sky-rocketed to 117.
     Symptomes included: 

            • Severe headaches
            • Repeated nosebleeds
            • Constant fatigue
            • Weakening or swelling in the body’s joints, arms, hands, legs, ankles or feet
            • Feeling dizzy
            • Unusual bruises or bleeding, particularly in the gums
            • Vomiting blood
            • Coughing up blood
            • Menstrual or vaginal bleeding that is heavier than normal

      Keep in mind that the FDA approved Pradaxa in October 2010 and here we are, less than a year later , 117 people died.  
     Despite this,  Boehringer Ingelheim, the pharmaceutical company responsible for Pradaxa ,  dabigatran by its chemical name, indirectly dismissed any accusation, by saying that Pradaxa is as safe as any anticoagulant drug on the market and the risk it's similar for any other blood thinner. I must admit, I'm not a doctor,or a pharmacist, but seeing as Pradaxa's popularity was mainly based on the "user-friendly" part I'm a little confused of how this drug has the same potential risk of its competitors that require some serious medical tests before administering. But like I said, I'm not an expert.

      To make things worse, while other blood thinners drugs had an antidote, Pradaxa had no such thing even though this thing was actually marketed as a good thing. The logic? Pradaxa is better , more efficient and also easier to use. 

       And things go further . This year, in January, a study conducted by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and involving 30514 patients proved that the use of Pradaxa lead to a 33 percent higher risk of heart attack. 

       Wasn't Pradaxa supposed to do just the opposite? 
        So, where's   Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals reaction? I guess as a cynical guy that I am the only thing I could do is point out the fact that maybe, striking deals with the victims cost a lot less than retreating the product of the market. 

         If what lead you to this article was the fact that you  or someone you know dealt with some serious problem because of Pradaxa the only thing I could recommend you is to seek the advice of a Pradaxa injury lawyer