Sunday, March 28, 2010

YC False Claims

The youtube YC is a hate group which continues to harass and threaten both children and adults, as well as anyone they can torment, insult, or ridicule for fun. They are a sick and sadistic group of social misfits who take pleasure in harassing people and making insulting sexual comments. Members of this group post articles to a website that makes fun of Jews, African-Americans, disabled people, children that are kidnapped and sexually abused, rape victims, and kids that have committed suicide. They (and the people who support them) seem to enjoy laughing at the suffering of others. ===================================== Some current Encyclopedia Dramatica (ediot) Yahweh Clan channels: ediothede Cuppeecakes Doja187ytv runnydiahrea FUBUXGEAR longdongil thedynaroo therjcarter subsevenrising thebeeobee jimjones2781 - (suspended as rapist187, knife4iogan & blackorifice2k) ======================================= Current Yahweh Clan Sympathizers and supporters: themaskedanalyst youdirtyfucker baldysperman2 whoistoddbryant kidtoucher282 ourtubessexoffenders deadpedosociety thorpedo468 ======================================= Inform the police of serious threats and stalking. If you are a minor, tell your parents. ===================================== Other Resources: Here is a direct link to a Wired Safety form for reporting cyberstalking and harassment. You will need a copy of a police report before they will help you. www.wiredsafety.org "You must contact law enforcement in your ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB0zsyA9JYM&hl=en

Friday, March 26, 2010

The Salon S3:16

Part 1 Kate hopes to receive a promotion to wardrobe buyer, but Mrs. Louder doesn't feel she has enough class for the job. Drew tries to help Kate come up with a plan to change Mrs. Louder's mind. They decide to organize a salon at Drew's house and discuss social and political issues. Drew suggests focusing on a few pre-selected topics so that Kate has time to study. Lewis also invites his boss from drugco to the event in the hopes of impressing him. Kate and Mrs. Louder get into a heated argument over the issue of Internet censorship. They begin insulting each other, and Mrs. Louder fires her. Kate takes a temporary job with Global Parcel, but Oswald has to fire her the first day after she endangers him and the cargo by getting into an altercation with other drivers. Drew meets Mrs. Louder's idol, Rush Limbaugh, and convinces him to come to the store. He tells Mrs. Louder that he agrees with Kate's opinion that the Internet should allow free speech. Mrs. Louder lets Kate come back to the store. Meanwhile, Mimi pushes Wick too far when she insults his mother over the phone. He decides to file a countersuit against her for defamation of character.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVhC0d0FJZM&hl=en

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Indiana Jones IV TV SPOT (Special Thanks to Associated Legal Investigations)

Associated Legal Investigations is a San Francisco, CA based legal and investigative organization specializing in internet DMCA issues and fraud, internet harassment and defamation and such. These guys are simply amazing. When lucasfilm and Paramount got on my case, they sorted it out with them. They also are kicking ass with internet harassment, they already won some victims of this in the millions and kick ass with internet-related things other lawyers won't touch. You guys rock! :) Indiana Jones IV TV SPOT #7 Exclusive Trailer IJ4 4 www.youtube.com Click above for more updates.... May 6, 2008! The NEWEST TV Spot/ Trailer! The Theatrical TV Trailer #7! Not sure how long this will be allowed up, so please subscribe for updates! New trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Sneak Preview All copyright and rights belong to Paramount Pictures.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blcvOtfu0Jg&hl=en

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Email Liability - Is Your Company Protected?

The dangers to companies posed by email content first got serious national attention in the Microsoft anti-trust trial. The legal implications of the Microsoft suit, and other trials where cases have hinged on e-mail evidence, make it clear that companies, as well as individuals, are liable for what happens on their email system.

For example, in April 2002, an internal e-mail was sent from a KPMG executive to 33 recipients stating that the firm had given a purposely incomplete list of tax shelter clients to the IRS, which prompted another KPMG executive to e-mail vice chairman Jeffrey Stein: "Given the sensitivity of this situation, should we be putting all this in print?" Plaintiff lawyers uncovered the damaging e-mails, which led KPMG to admit to criminal wrongdoing and agree to pay $456 million.

In another case, Wall Street investment bank J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. was ordered to pay $2.1 million in fines to settle accusations that it failed to retain e-mails sought in investigations of stock research analyst misconduct.

The most frequent cases, however, where e-mails are crucial exhibits are employee lawsuits against a company. These lawsuits include Sexual Harassment cases which often use as evidence e-mails by supervisors or other employees with lewd and sexually explicit content, discrimination cases which have used e-mails by employees containing racial or religious remarks or e-mails with comments on age, gender, or pregnancy of an employee, and in defamation cases which use e-mails by employees commenting on someone's conduct, character, or performance.

The use of emails in lawsuits has become such a serious issue that many companies in the insurance industry now offer policies for Internet and email liability. Coverage includes such items as damages associated with security breaches, as well as, libel, slander, and defamation of character. But, insurance aside, what can you do to protect you company?

Is it legal for a company to perform email auditing (sometimes called email monitoring), where email is checked after the actual transmission, and email interception (sometimes called email filtering), where email is intercepted and checked during transmission, on employee e-mail accounts? Well, yes and no. Cases in the United States have proven that both are permitted if (a) done in a reasonable manner, (b) backed up by an email policy, and (c) backed by employee training that has been documented.

The best protection is a clear e-mail security Policies and Procedures document that covers all the potential danger zones, then well-planned, regular training that includes all new employees and all new updates to policies. The Society for Human Resource Management urges their members to establish a clear training program to ensure proper and effective use of email. One survey claims that 73% of companies do not offer Web training and 70% do not have a written content security policy.

Another important protection companies can adopt is the addition of legal disclaimers in the footer of every e-mail. Since content sent via email carries the same weight, legally, as those sent on company letterhead, if the email address includes the name of a company, a disclaimer such as, "the views of this email and of Company X's employees do not necessarily reflect the views of Company X," should be built into the template of every company e-mail account.

Another good idea is to emphasize in training, and with intermittent e-mails/memos reminders, that employees must remember that the email system is for business use, not personal use, and that their emails to others should be treated with the same respect as a company letter or memo. Also, it is a good idea to remind employees in writing that company email accounts belong to the company and are, therefore, not confidential for the employee, only the company. Employees should also be instructed to review what they have written before they send their messages and not send messages without verifying the accuracy of the factual information to be conveyed and verifying that the information about to be sent is not confidential information.




Vickie Adair is the senior technical writer at Media A-Team http://www.mediaateam.com and also publishes as a freelance writer. She writes for several websites such as http://www.houstonmanufacturers.com, an online directory and news site for the Houston manufacturing community, http://www.booksisters.com

Dozier Internet Law: Internet Lawyer

Internet Lawyer firm Dozier Internet Law as Internet lawyer experts on online defamation. An Internet Lawyer and President of Dozier Internet Law, John W Dozier Jr is a top rated, preeminent internet lawyer.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9hIpaUpPV0&hl=en

Monday, March 22, 2010

Does the First Amendment Always Protect US Media

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, provides the strongest guarantee of free speech in the world. Unlike people in many other countries, Americans are free to criticize each other and government officials in language both fair and foul, to engage in racist or other hateful speech, and to use expletives and other bad language in public. In some states, like California, they may even exercise their right to free speech on other people's private property. Americans are very proud (some foreigners would say inordinately) of their right to free speech; most of them feel that it encourages a strong free press which regularly cleanses corruption out of American government (e.g., Watergate) and thus ensures its unique stability.

By the early years of the republic when the U.S. system of checks and balances was devised, a daring journalistic community had already become established. A bold and scrappy press was an influential force in denouncing the rule of an English King and leading Colonial America into its revolution against the British Empire. With journalistic freedom protected in the 1791 Bill of Rights, the press became an assertive force during the first decades of nationhood. The U.S. media today is frequently known as the Fourth Estate, an appellation that suggests the press shares equal stature with the three branches of government created by the Constitution. But although the press was not established as an institution by the U.S. constitution, today many citizens believe that it constitutes a branch of U.S. government. Numerous debates still rise regarding press's freedom to act as a watchdog of the American government. Is it protected by law?

Several critical court cases have been landmarks in establishing the rights of the press to pursue information and to publish government documents or derogatory information about public figures. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the media should have some First Amendment protection from the laws of libel for fear that lawsuits and possible monetary damages might disincline media owners from fully reporting on public matters. In order for a public figure to win a defamation case against a media defendant, the plaintiff must show "actual malice," which the courts have defined as knowledge that the published statement was false or as "reckless disregard of whether it was false or not".

In our time, American free speech law has become an issue of international appeal since the Internet rose as another main medium of communication. Probably, this is because many banned groups can take advantage of Internet service providers based in the United States to send their messages around the world, even where such speech is banned. U.S. courts will not enforce foreign judgments contrary to domestic public policy, including the liberal U.S. policy on free speech. As for the U.S. perspective, many Americans dislike attempts by common law jurisdictions to extend their personal jurisdiction to American defendants whose alleged defamatory speech acts occurred over the Internet and were not targeted towards those jurisdictions. If the First Amendment cannot protect them, what else can? Is diplomacy a solution? The fact remains that political and social scientists seem to have set off in unknown waters.




Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Science, Education, and Kids And Teens [http://4kidsandteens.com/]

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Employee Monitoring - Business Risks For Employers And How To Avoid Them

E-mail and Internet use are integral parts of the typical worker's daily routine. Because of its speed and overall convenience, e-mail has replaced the interoffice memorandum as the preferred method of communication. Employee access to the Internet also is important as a means of conducting job-related research and transactions.

For these reasons, employers often have little choice but to provide their employees with Internet access and e-mail accounts. At the same time, however, employees' use of these capabilities carries downside risks for the employer.

One issue posed by employee e-mail and Internet use is loss of efficiency. Recent studies show that businesses lost an estimated £5.3 billion to recreational workplace web surfing in 2003.

Another report indicated that employees are costing their companies nearly £1.5 million a year in lost productivity by spending an average of thirty minutes a day using e-mail for personal, non-work-related reasons.

Another challenge is the risk that employees' computer use will expose the company to legal liability.

For example, according to another survey, almost 72% of the pornographic sites on the Internet are visited during work hours. Openly viewing sexually explicit websites or sending offensive material obtained from the web may create a hostile work environment. Moreover, inappropriate messages sent over the company's e-mail system could expose the company to harassment, defamation, or other claims.

One study found that more than 50% of employees had received pornographic, sexist, or racist e-mails at work.

Still another challenge is the possibility that employees will use the Internet in a way that undermines or violates the employer's rights, interests, and practices. Some employees, for example, may use email to disclose the employer's trade secrets or proprietary information, or to engage in inappropriate contacts with competitors or customers.

So what's the solution for today's employers?

To reduce these risks, employers must monitor their employees' use of e-mail and Internet access in the workplace. Accordingly, employers should be familiar with the law in this area and should implement policies and practices that minimize the risk of lawsuits or enforcement actions.

With such policies in place employers may monitor their e-mail and Internet systems, and employees will conform their actions to the reality that their employer may view their messages.

Policies should be tailored to the workplace environment in which they will exist. For example, in many contexts such as telecommuting the line between business and personal use may be very grey while in other contexts e-mail or Internet access may be provided to an employee only for a clearly defined, limited purpose and thus the lines between acceptable and unacceptable use may be clear.

Employers need to take these various factors into consideration when drawing up their policies. Generally however, an effective policy should inform employees that the employer is the owner of the e-mail or Internet system and that this includes all communications and stored information. It should also include a statement of the purposes for which the system is to be used as well as the discipline that an employee can expect to face for abuse of the system.

There should be a statement advising employees that they should not expect privacy in communications made over the system and that those communications will be monitored to ensure that the employer's property is being used only for authorized purposes.

An employer may also want to include a non-exclusive list of examples of the kind of use that the employer considers unauthorized personal use, or inappropriate use.

Conclusion:

Electronic communication is becoming more and more vital to the modern workplace. The increase in the number of employees equipped with e-mail and/or Internet access raises risks for employers.

The most effective way to manage those risks is by monitoring the use employees make of the electronic communication tools provided to them, by using an Internet monitoring and surveillance software program. But also to deal with the inherent tension between monitoring and employee privacy is to put in place an explicit e-mail and Internet use policy, which informs employees that their communication will be monitored.




Profile: SavvyApps is a privately owned software company which specialises in leading PC/Internet Monitoring & Surveillance Software Solutions for businesses who want to monitor their employees Internet usage.

If you would like to learn more about how PC/Internet Monitoring Software can help your business or would like some more ideas please use the link below:

PC/Internet Monitoring & Surveillance Software

Saturday, March 20, 2010

troyriser and Yahweh Clan Harassing Kids

This is not only just one example of how screwed up these people think, but how they act out on their deluded way of thinking. And it continues.. Reminds ,e of the lady who just told mccain that she "heard" Obama was an "Arab".. which of course is completely untrue, and as if that in itself was something bad if he were.. The way some people think is plain scary. These people need to seek some sort of help, if one wants to be deluded and bigoted based on a warped way of thinking,(in this case, having a view that all adults of a certain gender, age, and marital status who watch kids videos or support them "are pedophiles"), its a free country, but once we see someone acting out on these things and harassing others, that's when we step in. You will not be harassing (or giving ultimatums to, making innuendo's about, slandering, defaming, lying about, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, or otherwise tormenting in any way) anyone, adult or child, in our presence. If you do so, there will action taken to stop such actions, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law will be sought. =====================================Some active Yahweh Clan members: subsevenrising thebeeobee rapist187 xnonameforthiskattx W347H3RM4N NOTLLMTE Idyllicsun metalflakes FUBUXGEAR longdongil therjcarter thelordjehovah FSHKT Current Yahweh Clan Sympathizers and supporters: themaskedanalyst kidtoucher282 bravelittlecockling lolwutdahell claudesbrownring lorduilesnor crueitube yahwehmossad binladenbunny ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZOjuPG4ec&hl=en

Friday, March 19, 2010

The Business Legal Checkup - Preventive Advice For the Legal Health of Your Business

More than 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin famously said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". He was advising Philadelphia homeowners to insure their homes against fire to avoid catastrophic losses. Franklin's advice is just as applicable today to the legal issues of your business.

In this article, we explain a new legal service, Canadian Business Legal Checkup, an audit of legal matters affecting your business. Business Legal Checkup is a diagnostic tool most small and medium size businesses could use to verify if legal aspects of their operation comply with the law and to minimize risk, litigation and expense. When the Business Legal Checkup is completed, the business owner receives a lawyer's report red-flagging matters which need correction, improvement or further legal advice.

A closer look at the Business Legal Checkup

Your business is built on a foundation of laws and legal procedures. As a prudent business owner, you have probably considered the following legal matters:

o You had to incorporate your business. The corporation has been properly set up. All shares are properly issued. Directors and officers have been appointed. The corporate minutes and register are up-to-date.
o You and other directors of the corporation know exactly what your duties and liabilities are. All directors are protected from liability by sufficient insurance coverage.
o You have a shareholders' agreement so that all shareholders know their roles. All partners are treated fairly. There is an orderly method for valuation and termination of the corporation. You understand the minority shareholders rights requirements of the Business Corporations Act.
o You filed a business registration and have a system to renew it before expiry and you have registered any business names that you are using.
o You filed trademark, patent and copyright applications to protect the intellectual property of your business.
o Your URL (web address) is trademarked. You have audited your website to check for breaches of privacy law, defamation and technology law issues. Your online sales portal is set up to avoid legal problems with privacy law, identity theft and contract issues.
o Your licencing and registrations are up-to-date. If your salespeople have to be registered or licenced, you have a system to ensure that their registrations are up-to-date and that their regulatory requirements are being monitored.
o You have a long term lease for your plant or office. You had your lease vetted by a lawyer. You know what it says, including the extra rent the landlord can demand. You know the deadline for your right to renew.
o You use several legal standard forms and contracts in your business. These have all been vetted by a lawyer to comply with applicable laws including the PPSA, the Interest Act, the Consumer Protection Act, the Sale of Goods Act, the Mercantile Law Amendment Act and the Bills of Exchange Act and contract law.
o If you extend credit, you know that your service charges don't exceed the "criminal rate of interest".
o You know prohibitions against misleading advertising and unfair competition in the Competition Act.
o You understand the privacy legislation and you have a system to ensure that you comply each time you collect, use, or disclose personal information.
o Your employees have signed agreements which spell out the length of notice they are entitled to receive if you terminate their employment. You know who is entitled to how much and what to do if you decide to terminate an employee, whatever the reason. You understand your obligations under the Employment Standards Act.
o Your employees have all signed non-competition covenants and non-solicitation agreements to prevent them from taking away your best clients, business procedures, best employees and trade secrets if they leave to set up shop on their own.
o You have a procedure to prevent violation of the Human Rights Code and you know the protected grounds of discrimination. You also understand all of the elements of sexual harassment and you know how to deal with it.
o You know your company's rights and obligations under the Workplace Safety Insurance Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
o You have liability and multi-peril insurance and you know what it covers.
o Your manufacturing and distribution processes are set up to avoid potentially devastating product liability and class action lawsuits. You have minimized risks.
o You keep up-to-date with changes in the law which affect the corporate, contractual, insurance and employment law issues in your industry.
o You have complied with the filing requirements for income taxes, sales taxes and GST. You have had your business and municipal tax assessment vetted.
o You know what precautions to take to help prevent litigation.
o If you are about to get involved in litigation, you have an action plan to maximize your chances of success and to keep the cost in check. When hiring a lawyer, you know what you need and what to expect.

Stop the presses - before we continue - do we hear you saying there are many items on this list that you haven't looked after, that you haven't thought of or which could be updated?

We're not surprised. In our experience, small and medium-sized business owners don't get around to dealing with many important legal issues involved in organizing their business relationships with partners, shareholders, customers, employees and government and in preventing or managing the risk of expensive litigation. Often, agreements are not fully thought through.

Small business owners tend to do only what they absolutely have to do to comply with the law and are reluctant to spend money for top drawer legal services when an inexpensive shortcut appears to do the trick. Your focus is getting your business up and running, getting your product to market, making sales and keeping costs down. You could be lucky and run your business for years without anything going wrong.

Fair enough, but if you disregard preventive legal measures like the ones mentioned, your business is like a driver without a seatbelt in a car that has never been serviced ---in other words, a catastrophic accident waiting to happen.

Here are two examples of business legal nightmares that could have been easily avoided with a program of preventive law such as the Business Legal Checkup. These are actual cases, decided in Ontario courts:

o A Toronto RV dealer sold a motor home to a customer. After using it for a couple of weeks, the customer complained that the salesperson had misled him about a "rental program" and brought the motor home back and refused to make any payments. The dealer sold the motor home as a used vehicle and suffered a $25,000 loss for which it sued the customer.

The Ontario Court of Appeal decided that customer was entitled to return the RV and cancel the contract because the salesman's Motor Vehicle Dealers Act registration expired and was not renewed. This made the contract illegal. The RV dealer didn't have a system to check if all their salespersons' registrations were current. The dealer not only lost $25,000 but also had to pay about $30,000 to their own lawyer and almost that much in legal costs to the customer's lawyer. A Business Legal Checkup could have saved this business most of the $100,000 and a lot of aggravation.

o A southwestern Ontario company was a wholesale distributor of car alarm systems, which started as a basement operation and developed into a successful business. The owner used contract forms he found on the internet. Why pay a lawyer when forms were right there for the taking? His standard form contracts had statements that he didn't fully understand but if they were on the internet, they must be OK. He didn't have a lawyer check them. The standard form agreements didn't create a problem for several years.

The distributor extended credit to CAG, a company owned by a Mr. Don for more than $90,000 worth of car alarms. He wasn't worried about payment because Mr. Don signed the standard form contract --- the one he found on the internet for free --- which stated that Mr. Don was personally liable for everything CAG ordered. When CAG went out of business, the distributor sued Mr. Don. The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the claim against Mr. Don because the personal liability clause in the standard form agreement was unclear and was capable of two meanings. The distributor didn't recover his $90,000 and had to pay legal fees to his own lawyer and costs to Mr. Don's lawyer. A Business Legal Checkup could have saved him almost $150,000 and possible financial ruin.

These examples are the tip of the iceberg. As you read this article, you can probably think of other examples that affected your business. In each case, it's more than the legal expenses that are at stake. The business owner has to devote time and sleepless nights to the legal dispute and loses time from running the business.

How does a Business Legal Checkup work?

o You will be asked to complete some forms to provide confidential information about your business.
o You will have a discussion with the lawyer to assess the scope of the Business Legal Checkup. For example, it doesn't cover tax law, environmental law or succession planning unless special arrangements are made.
o A basic Business Legal Checkup will provide a diagnostic review of the legal status of the following issues in your business: (1) Set up and governance of your corporation; (2) Relationships among the owners of the business; (3) Relationships with employees; (4) the contracts and forms used in the business; (5) Competition Law and Illegal Advertising; (6) Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets, Confidentiality and Privacy; (7) Safety and risk management; (8) Risk analysis and efficient management of existing litigation; (9) Internet Issues; (10) Regulatory licencing issues.
o A Business Legal Checkup can also be customized to meet the business owner's specific requirements. This may require consultation with outside legal experts.
o In preparation for the Business Legal Checkup, you will be asked to provide documents and information concerning each category of the analysis.
o After the documents have been reviewed by a lawyer, consultation may be required with other lawyers. Further clarifications may be required from you and other senior officers of your business.
o A report will be prepared explaining the status of each topic and red-flagging issues which require attention and indicating their level of urgency.
o When the Business Legal Checkup report is ready, the business owner may prefer to have the Business Legal Checkup lawyer or legal team present the findings orally. An oral presentation followed by a Q&A session can assist the business owner to plan the next steps efficiently.
o The Business Legal Checkup legal team will facilitate referrals to lawyers who are specialized in resolving the legal problems identified by the Business Legal Checkup.

How much will a Business Legal Checkup cost?

For a small startup business with less than five employees, operating out of a single location and having only one business entity, a Business Legal Checkup can usually be completed for about $5,000 to $7,500 if there are no unusual problems.

Who needs a Business Legal Checkup?

Every business needs to know whether its legal processes are efficiently compliant with the law. Public corporations are obliged to provide certain levels of legal compliance to government and regulatory bodies. A small private corporation does not have the same levels of mandatory compliance but failure to do so voluntarily is like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.

A Business Legal Checkup is also useful for a business owner who is considering the sale of his business or for a prospective purchaser of a business. Minority shareholders could insist on a Business Legal Checkup annually or bi-annually to ensure that management and the majority shareholders are meeting their obligations to the corporation.

A Business Legal Checkup may also be a credibility tool for a business seeking financing or government contracts. Unlike a financial audit, ISO9001 and ISO 14400 compliance standards, the Business Legal Checkup is a confidential report to management only and expressly excludes reliance by outside parties. If an outside party, such as a lender or investor, will receive a copy of the report, the Business Legal Checkup legal team must be informed in advance so that concerns relevant to these outside parties can be taken into account.

Where can my business get a Business Legal Checkup?

So far as we know, the Business Legal Checkup, as a fixed-price legal diagnostic tool for private small and medium-sized businesses is a new legal service in Canada. Interested business owners are invited to contact us for information.

Benjamin Franklin's famous advice has evolved. A Business Legal Checkup can be much weightier than an "ounce of prevention". It could provide "tons" of preventive advice to save your business from damaging or catastrophic expense. The Business Legal Checkup will also provide the business owner with peace of mind which, as another saying goes, is "worth its weight in gold".

October 2008. © Igor Ellyn and Orie Niedzviecki
This article is for information only and not legal advice.

Igor Ellyn, QC, CS and Orie Niedzviecki, Partners

Ellyn Law LLP, Business Litigation Lawyers, Toronto
http://www.ellynlaw.com




Igor Ellyn, QC, CS and Orie Niedzviecki are partners of ELLYN LAW LLP Business Litigation and Arbitration Lawyers, a Toronto law firm, established specializing in dispute resolution for small and medium businesses and their shareholders.

The firm is a member of INBLF (http://www.inblf.com) and its designated Toronto firm for shareholder disputes. Igor Ellyn is a Specialist in Civil Litigation and a past president of the Ontario Bar Association. He is a chartered arbitrator and mediator and the author of many legal articles, some of which may be downloaded from the firm's website.

Orie Niedzviecki is a business litigation lawyer, whose practice includes commercial disputes, employment law, libel and slander, construction litigation and estate litigation. He is also admitted in the District of Columbia, USA.

For more information about the authors and their litigation services, please visit http://www.ellynlaw.com

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Benefits and Cautions of Using YouTube

The company was founded by three guys that have previously been employed by PayPal. They developed the website to make it simple for users to upload, view and share video clips. The clips are displayed using Adobe Flash technology and any unregistered visitor can see user-generated video content of almost every genre of movie clips, TV clips and music videos.

Registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos containing potentially offensive content are prohibited from uploading. This includes any subject matter that includes pornography, nudity harassment and defamation. Commercial advertisements are not permitted, but the slick corporate marketing departments have been quick to make clips with subtle promotion of their products disguised as amateur videos.

You Tube Facts

o On November 13th, 2006 Google Inc. closed a deal that gave it ownership of the social media company for $1.65 billion in Google stock.
o In 2007 it was estimated that You Tube consumes as much bandwidth as the entire internet in the year 2000.
o Approximately 13 hours of video is uploaded with high speed internet every 60 seconds in 2007
o 79 million users made over 3 billion video views in the month of January, 2008.
o Its bandwidth costs were in the range of $1 million a day by March 2008.
o As of Q1 2008, Google reported that You Tube was not profitable but a Forbes magazine article in June projected 2008 revenue to be $200 million.
o Early summer 2008 the cost to advertise on You Tube was $175,000 per day and a branded channel cost advertisers $200,000.

One of the biggest issues faces by the video giant concerns copyright laws. Users are advised to only upload clips for which they are authorized, but since You Tube does not view the clips before they are posted it is up to the copyright holder to issue a takedown notice. Viacom went to the extent of issuing a lawsuit demanding $1 billion in damages, stating that 150,000 unauthorized clips of its material had been viewed 1.5 billion times. Since then You Tube has implemented a system that checks video content against a database of copyrighted material. Beware high speed internet video "uploaders", in July 2008 Viacom won a court ruling that forces the online company to hand over details on the viewing habits of every user who has watched videos on the site.




For more information on High Speed Internet visit http://www.satellitestore.com

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Outsourcing Trends - 5 Ways to Breakthrough the Latest Barriers

Companies have strategically implemented outsourcing into hiring plans to provide an expertise for a specific time period or project to augment or replace missing skill sets of full-time employees. Outsourcing has also proven to be a mechanism to cushion operations expenses during budget crunches. Both of these reasons have spawned revenue growth of 7.7% in 2007 and aggregate revenue of $65.7 billion for the 10 largest staffing companies(1).

The demand for quality consultants has increased while the supply has plummeted due to the latest surge of staffing companies pushing low-paying consultants with little to no experience onto assignments that require the savvy to understand business logic, comprehend requirements, and have a common sense approach to solving problems based on the standard ways of conducting business in America.

Companies and independent consultants must safeguard their executive decisions and professional reputations in the wake of the new outsourced community. Based on our research in the marketing, public relations, software, and professional services industries, the following identifies the five most glaring outsourcing trends that are affecting these professionals:

1) Just-In-Case Phishing

Most staffing companies do not have job requirements (aka reqs) for open positions. Instead, the recruiting managers post jobs and send emails to previous candidates to send updated resumes in Word format to increase the value of their candidate pool. This is a sales approach to convince potential or existing clients they have qualified candidates to meet all hiring needs but with one caveat - the qualified consultant does not know that his name is being considered for a contract. In addition, this does not help a consultant who is really in search of a valid contract, desires to review options in confidentiality, or has an offer that can be negotiated directly or through another staffing company for a better rate.

Companies: Be leery of the used-car salesman staffing person that always claims to have resources available to meet all needs. Chances are they have the job requirement posted on all the employment boards based on any prior conversation.

Consultants: Don't send resumes unless you know the name of the client, actual pay rate, project duration, and timeframe for interview. If it can not be provided, waste no more time.

2) When In Rome, Look Like the Romans

Even in 21st century America, the staffing manager usually presenting and negotiating the contract or staffing arrangement is normally of the same descent as the client's hiring manager. Approved vendor status usually means there are a certain set of qualifications a staffing company must meet. For example, financial statements, recommendations, proof of insurance, MBE Certifications, and proof of W-2 employment are some examples that are required to be an approved vendor for many Fortune 500 companies. However, unless the contract is with a well-known staffing company like KForce or Teksystems, chances are you need to do research from a network of colleagues or companies that have hired resources for similar job requirements.

Most MBEs still have the exact opposite demographic negotiate contracts, play golf with the decision makers and entertain clients. Once the negotiation is done, these "front men" are either barely accessible until there is another commissionable deal or if there is a problem. Keep in mind the loyalty is to the "front men", not the consultants performing services because the former keeps business engaged.

Companies: Call colleagues for a discovery of their best experiences and the names of specific recruiters at staffing companies. Request company financials and references from leadership at other equivalent sized companies.

Consultants: Email friends in the business to get a better perspective for each staffing company. Ask for documented payment procedures and company financials and references. After all, your services are not free.

3) The Weakest Link

Most quality staffing companies do not advertise they are additionally outsourcing when they are on an approved vendors' list. Instead they send job reqs to "fly-by-night" staffing companies to find resources in secret for them. This prevents a client from seeing the job requirement is posted and they do not readily have someone on staff to fulfill the need (as was most likely promised). It additionally allows another easy-out for payment obligation to the consultant providing the service because the contract is between the "indirect" vendor and the consultant. Financially, this also determines how many entities are taking a cut of the consultant's rate. In the long run, you may ask, "who is responsible for payment"? Not the client, not the direct vendor, but the "indirect vendor" that probably does not have money to sustain weeks of payroll. For example, many additional staffing companies and independent consultants were not paid for November and December of last year if they had any link to Chimes or Axium - the largest temporary staffing company - after they filed bankruptcy in January 2008 with no remedy to pay vendors. (2) This left the smaller insolvent outsourced staffing company with the financial burden to pay consultants that had already provided services to major corporations.

Companies/Consultants: Check several job boards for the same requirements that were provided to the direct outsourcing company. This will dictate the lack of quality consultants that will be presented to you.

Consultants: Compare the rates, payment procedures, and direct client longevity. Note: A direct client relationship is not staffing company to staffing company. A direct client is the company that will issue a badge, parking space, network id, computer, and daily office space.

4) Rename After Defame

Thorough research is mandatory to understand who is being trusted to locate resources. Oftentimes there are quite a few lawsuits or pending judgments for monies owed to other vendors or individuals that can be hidden when a company files bankruptcy and changes its name to both eliminate financial responsibility and avoid professional defamation. Additionally, some of these companies form corporations in the state of Delaware to avoid paying taxes and being researched in the state they are really doing business.

Companies/Consultants: Review D&B listings and ratings, Lexis-Nexis information that can be acquired through an attorney or general counsel or through colleges and universities, and public Supreme Court and Civil Court filings across both Delaware and the state in which the business is being conducted. Taking extra steps and extra hours for research upfront can save money and time in the future.

5) Float Until You Sink

Even in non-tumultuous economic times, payment has become a problem for consultants. While most Fortune 500 companies often pay within 30-45 days of being invoiced, the new staffing company floats until they eventually sink if they are not paid in a timely manner from their clients. Additonally, the more "front-men" these staffing companies use, the more commission they must pay from overhead they don't have or have not collected. For example, an insolvent one-consultant staffing company can not afford to add more consultants because if its client does not pay on time, there are no backup funds to pay the consultants. The underlying problem is two-fold: consultants are out-of-money and therefore forced to live off savings to maintain payment obligations like mortgage and car payments and companies needing the consultants' services may lose an expert at an inopportune time because consultants don't work for free.

Companies: Due diligence in research of financial statements is mandatory. If there is a warning sign (i.e. emails from consultants regarding late pay, NSF checks provided to consultants, untimely invoicing, etc.) of a staffing company not paying a resource on time, discuss with management to expedite payment and work to remove the staffing company from being a preferred vendor.

Consultants: Needless to say, be extremely careful if you are not dealing with the true direct staffing company. Review financial statements and have an attorney review any contracts and append payment clauses that include adding a late fee, paying legal fees, and decreasing the payment turnaround time from 30 days to a more manageable time frame. Another option is the removal of any exclusivity clause if payment arrangements are not satisfactorily met. This allows allow either a direct relationship with the client or another direct staffing company.

Indeed, the world of consulting has been compromised for both companies that want to outsource and consultants that really have the expertise to help create and develop powerful solutions to make a difference. Outsourcing can, however, prove to be a positive experience for both sides if thorough research and scrutiny is incorporated into decision-making. By understanding the most recent trends of the outsourcing community, the most qualified consultants can eventually be connected to great projects across small-to-medium-sized businesses - a cooperative trend for a win-win team.

(1) http://www.examiner.com/p-168029~Largest_Staffing_Companies_Grow_Revenue_an_Average_of_7_7__in_2007.html

(2) http://hotgigs.typepad.com/hiringexchange/2008/01/axium-chimes-fi.html




Temeko Richardson leads the strategy business intelligence team at EnsyncTrends, which has compiled national statistics and full analyses on the outsourcing phenomenon in America. You may email trend.consult@ensynctrends.com to subscribe to the findings.