Posted by Aitana Robinson.

The battle between Spirit and Led Zeppelin continues in the copyright infringement case over “Stairway to Heaven.” This past July 8th the District Court of California- Western Division, found in favor of the defendants, Zeppelin.  On the 15th of March, Attorney Francis Malfoy filled in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals representing Michael Skidmore, the Spirit guitarist, in the hope that the appeals court will correct the mistakes of the trial court.

At the heart of the lawsuit is the accusation that Led Zeppelin copies a riff found on Spirit’s song “Taurus,” which proceeded “Stairway to Heaven.”  Skidmore’s appeal is based off the assumed error that “the trial court refused to let the jury hear the full and complete composition of ‘Taurus’ embodied in the sound recordings…”

Skidmore’s attorney complained about the court “making a series of erroneous instructions on the scope of copyright protection[,] . . . limiting plaintiff’s trial time to 10 hours violated due process and was not even close to an adequate about of time to try this case,” and finally, that “the court seriously erred when defining originality.”  Skidmore has asked the 9th Circuit court to reverse the verdict and call for a retrial.

Aitana is a communications major at the School of Communications and the Arts, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.

Posted by Dana Domenick.

A four year old boy was riding in his aunt’s 1999 Jeep Cherokee when it was rear-ended in 2012. He was killed when the SUV burst into flames. The gas tank on this Jeep Cherokee model is located behind the rear axle which means when the truck is hit from behind, it will likely trigger an explosion. The location of the gas tank is a major flaw in the truck and caused over 75 deaths. Fiat Chrysler took action on this issue in 2013, by recalling over 1.56 million Jeep Cherokees manufactured from 1993-1998 (Associated Press).

Judge J. Kevin Chason in Decatur County, Georgia ordered $40 million in damages to the child’s family. Three fourths of the damages were given to the family for his death while the other portion was given for pain and suffering. Fiat Chrysler requested a new trial, claiming that the jury acted irrationally and their prejudice tainted the verdict. Their motion was denied by the judge (Associated Press).

I agree with the court’s decision. The engineers who built these Jeeps should have had enough knowledge to place the car’s parts at locations in which they were protected. Extensive road testing should have been conducted on every vehicle to play out every possible collision scenario to ensure that the quality of the vehicle met the highest efficiency and safety standards. This death, as well as the many others caused by this issue, could have been prevented had Fiat Chrysler took their road testing more seriously and therefore, the verdict was correct.

Dana is a psychology major with a legal studies in business minor at Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business (minor), Class of 2017.

The rivalry between Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and Uber has intensified as Google’s parent sued Uber on grounds of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation in February. Anthony Levandowski, a former employee of Google, has allegedly stolen 14,000 files worth of trade secrets to create his own self-driving truck company, Otto, acquired by Uber last year. Bloomberg Technology claims that the design and construction of the laser-scanning system to guide the autonomous cars took Waymo about seven years to build, while Uber supposedly accomplished the task in a mere nine months.

According to the suit, Mr. Levandowski allegedly registered the company Otto mid-January of last year and left Alphabet twelve days later, but not before downloading 9.7 gigabytes worth of classified information from Waymo’s design server. The suit further claims that he took the time to meticulously conceal his activities by attaching “an external hard drive to his laptop for eight hours, before erasing the history of his computer,” and never using it again. A few months after Mr. Levandowski left Alphabet and received his last compensation check, Otto was bought for $680 million in stock by Uber.

The article reveals that Anthony Levandowski is not the only former employee accused of stealing confidential data from Waymo’s self-driving car project, which has led to approximately $500 million for Otto employees. Waymo explains that Uber unfairly used this stolen information as a shortcut to create a strikingly similar laser sensor system to their own. When confronted with this complaint, Uber spokeswoman Chelsea Kohler claimed, “We take the allegations made against Otto and Uber employees seriously and we will review this matter carefully.” Despite this statement, Mr. Levandowski has been unavailable to comment.

Danielle is a finance and ITM major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.

Sources:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alphabets-waymo-sues-uber-over-self-driving-car-secrets-1487894378

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-23/alphabet-s-waymo-sues-uber-for-stealing-self-driving-patents

Posted by Griffin Mehl.

Up until recently the idea of a self-driving car has simply been a dream. The whole concept surrounding the thought that a car could be capable of operating on its own was just too much for people to handle. However, over the past several years this notion has changed. People and companies have begun to invest a significant amount of time and money into the exploration and discovery of this technology. As can be imagined, this idea has become less futuristic and more realistic a rivalry has begun to develop between companies trying to create these cars. As can be inferred from the article, two of the big names that have made a statement in this field are both Alphabet (“an American multinational conglomerate founded on October 2, 2015 by the two founders of Google”-Wikipedia) and Uber (“ transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco” –Wikipedia). In fact these companies are currently involved in a lawsuit. A vital person involved in this whole ordeal is “Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who left Waymo and launched self-driving truck company Otto.” For those of you who don’t know Waymo is simply “Google’s self-driving car company.”

As can be gathered from the article, there is currently an issue that has risen between Uber and Alphabet. More specifically Waymo is the one who “brought a lawsuit against the embattled ride-hailing service, alleging that Uber stole the proprietary design of a system built in its vehicles.” This all stems back to Mr. Lavandowski the engineer who used to work at Waymo. While he was under employment there, he decided to download a trove of data and self-driving technology onto his personal computer. This was done that way he could work from anywhere and wouldn’t have to be in the office to access this vital information/technology/drawings/specs for self-driving cars. After working with Waymo for a stint of time Lavandowski decided to split and create his own company “Otto” as I mentioned before. After this divide “Waymo alleged that Levandowski used that information to build his company.” All this would have been missed had it not been for a simple erroneous email that a Waymo employee received. In that email a Vendor thought he was reaching out to Uber, but instead he was mistakenly reaching out to Waymo. The email contained “specs for Otto’s circuit board technology — a central system for the self-driving vehicles — that Waymo alleges looks very similar to the tech it’s developing”. Basically, what Waymo was able to realize was that “Otto” (and the man behind it) which is now under contract by Uber had been using information and technology that was initially created by Waymo.

So, what can be taken away from this? First, if you or even the company you are a part of is working with patented information and critical data (like Waymo was) it is important to make the procedures for sharing that information known. It is very hard to blame someone for violating a procedure if they are not well informed about the rules in the first place. Second, if you or the company you are a part of deal with sensitive materials there are many preventive steps that can be taken in order to avoid that information from getting into others hands. An example of this would be a nondisclosure agreement. By signing one of these, it makes it clear that people who are in contact with classified information know they cannot share that information with anyone else. Finally, the most basic point is to make sure you are sending your messages/emails to the right people. I can’t tell you how many times I have mistakenly sent an email to the wrong person. If there is some classified information in your email that you wouldn’t want anyone but your intended audience to see it wouldn’t hurt to check who it’s going to twice.

Sources:

“Alphabet Inc.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

“Uber (company).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290792

Griffin is a finance major with a minor in accounting and certificate in entrepreneurial studies at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.

Posted by Brendan Finnegan.

Research into driverless cars has boomed over the past few years, which has naturally brought about competition in the market. Two of the major players in this emerging market are Uber and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet that works on building technology that will enable cars to be self-driven in the not so distant future. Anthony Levandowski is a prominent engineer who left Waymo to start his own tech firm Otto. This move was not controversial until Uber bought Otto and Levandowski became one of the top engineers in the company.

While working for Waymo, Levandowski had the desire to work out of the office. In order to do this he downloaded blueprints for the systems being created by Waymo. While still at Waymo, no one knew that he did this but once he created Otto, Waymo claimed that he was using their designs to build his company. A Waymo employee recently received an email from a vendor that was meant for Levandowski. The contents of the email, in Waymo’s eyes, made it clear that Otto now owned by Uber was using data that was developed by Waymo.

If business law is followed properly, incidents like this can be easily avoided. Every company has a different protocol on file sharing. Complying with company policy will protect employees from being caught in scandal, especially once one leaves the company. This is especially important if one is going to work for a competitor. However, the burden is not just on the employee. Companies need to assess what information is of utmost importance to their company. Once they identify their most sensitive information the company should make all of their employees who deal with the sensitive information sign non-disclosure agreements, in case their employees part ways, go, and work for a competitor. This will protect the individuals in a company and the corporation itself. The issues between Alphabet and Uber illustrate the need for internal controls when dealing with sensitive material.

Brendan is a finance and management major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2020.

The teen clothing chain, Aeropostale, filed for Chapter 11 protection, claiming online and fast-fashion retailers are the cause. The company expects to emerge within six months as a leaner company. It will close 113 stores in the U.S. and all 41 stores located in Canada.

“Online retailers and fast-fashion retailers such as H&M, Forever 21 and Inditex’s Zara have posed a threat to traditional apparel retailers, but American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. have managed to turn around their businesses by controlling inventories and responding faster to changing fashion trends.”

The company may come out of this with restructured debt, but a long-term solution would require rethinking its brand.

Posted by Brendan Finnegan.

Research into driverless cars has boomed over the past few years, which has naturally brought about competition in the market. Two of the major players in this emerging market are Uber and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet that works on building technology that will enable cars to be self-driven in the not so distant future. Anthony Levandowski is a prominent engineer who left Waymo to start his own tech firm Otto. This move was not controversial until Uber bought Otto and Levandowski became one of the top engineers in the company.

While working for Waymo, Levandowski had the desire to work out of the office. In order to do this he downloaded blueprints for the systems being created by Waymo. While still at Waymo, no one knew that he did this but once he created Otto, Waymo claimed that he was using their designs to build his company. A Waymo employee recently received an email from a vendor that was meant for Levandowski. The contents of the email, in Waymo’s eyes, made it clear that Otto now owned by Uber was using data that was developed by Waymo.

If business law is followed properly, incidents like this can be easily avoided. Every company has a different protocol on file sharing. Complying with company policy will protect employees from being caught in scandal, especially once one leaves the company. This is especially important if one is going to work for a competitor. However, the burden is not just on the employee. Companies need to assess what information is of utmost importance to their company. Once they identify their most sensitive information the company should make all of their employees who deal with the sensitive information sign non-disclosure agreements, in case their employees part ways, go, and work for a competitor. This will protect the individuals in a company and the corporation itself. The issues between Alphabet and Uber illustrate the need for internal controls when dealing with sensitive material.

Brendan is a finance and management major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2020.

Posted by Matthew Cassidy.

In 1988 the Video Privacy Protection Act was passed by Congress to prevent private information about tape rentals or sales records from being released to the public. The case involves a man named Mark Ellis who downloaded the Cartoon Network Application on his Android smartphone in order to watch shows on that network.

The app is able to track viewer history and an Android phone I.D.; it then sends the information to an analytics company named Bango. Bango is a very advanced organization that can not only monitor customer behavior, but also link user’s information about the user through the Android I.D.

Cartoon Network’s third party partner, Bango, violated the Video Privacy Protection App by gathering personal identification from the Android user’s I.D.  The court weighed its opinions on another case called Re Hulu Privacy Legislation that involved the Privacy Protection Act. This case helped Cartoon Network by providing the true definition of a subscriber to just visiting a website. Therefore, Ellis was not “committed” to the application, so therefore the Privacy Protection Act did not apply to him.

Matthew is a finance major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.

The President signed into law a bill passed by Congress banning U.S. imports of “fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa, and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh.” The law closes a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law which allowed these products to be sold.

Due to high demand of certain products, the previous law allowed these goods to be sold in the U.S. regardless if they were produced by slave labor. Sen. Sherrod Brown has pressed U.S. Customs to make sure the law is enforced.  He said, “It’s embarrassing that for 85 years, the United States let products made with forced labor into this country, and closing this loophole gives the U.S. an important tool to fight global slavery.”

Posted by Michael Larkin.

When one checks into a hotel, one would expect to have their information stored in a company’s database, but one would not expect that database to get compromised. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation was using a property management system that stored customer’s names, addresses, and credit card number. On three separate occasions in 2008 and 2009, Wyndham was hacked and this information was pulled off of over 600,000 accounts. Damage was approximately $10.6 million and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) brought Wyndham to trial.

Even though Wyndham was the company that got hacked, it was the customers who got hurt and that is why the FTC filed against Wyndham. The FTC argued that the hacks were caused due the very limited security that the management system used. It was found that the credit card numbers could easily be read, passwords were easy to guess, and a firewall was not deployed along with various other issues. Wyndham argued that the FTC had no right to file a suit against them and that the unfairness and deception claims were not sufficiently validated. It was founded that Wyndham didn’t provide a fair system for its customers and the court required the company to change in order to protect its customers. Mainly, Wyndham needs a more comprehensive security program in order to protect account information and also conduct annual information security audits and maintain a safeguard for its servers.

This case was a matter of protection and privacy for the company’s customers. A customer is providing personal information in order to engage in business so Wyndham has a duty to protect that information. Having a higher security will ensure that hackers will not be able to breach the system and steal information. The FTC won the trial, and in doing so, made sure that a company had a high security to protect the customers.

Michael is a finance major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.

Sources:

FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp.

Verdict From: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2015/12/wyndham-settles-ftc-charges-it-unfairly-placed-consumers-payment

Posted by Dana Domenick.

A four year old boy was riding in his aunt’s 1999 Jeep Cherokee when it was rear-ended in 2012. He was killed when the SUV burst into flames. The gas tank on this Jeep Cherokee model is located behind the rear axle which means when the truck is hit from behind, it will likely trigger an explosion. The location of the gas tank is a major flaw in the truck and caused over 75 deaths. Fiat Chrysler took action on this issue in 2013, by recalling over 1.56 million Jeep Cherokees manufactured from 1993-1998 (Associated Press).

Judge J. Kevin Chason in Decatur County, Georgia ordered $40 million in damages to the child’s family. Three fourths of the damages were given to the family for his death while the other portion was given for pain and suffering. Fiat Chrysler requested a new trial, claiming that the jury acted irrationally and their prejudice tainted the verdict. Their motion was denied by the judge (Associated Press).

I agree with the court’s decision. The engineers who built these Jeeps should have had enough knowledge to place the car’s parts at locations in which they were protected. Extensive road testing should have been conducted on every vehicle to play out every possible collision scenario to ensure that the quality of the vehicle met the highest efficiency and safety standards. This death, as well as the many others caused by this issue, could have been prevented had Fiat Chrysler took their road testing more seriously and therefore, the verdict was correct.

Dana is a psychology major with a legal studies in business minor at Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business (minor), Class of 2017.

Posted by Connie Huang.

HSBC is a bank with locations in Europe. Two branches raided on or about February 18, 2015 by Swiss authorities are located in Geneva. They raided the banks, because the banks are accused of money laundering.

Money laundering is “a financial transaction scheme that aims to conceal the identity, source, and destination of illicitly-obtained money.” The bank’s Swiss arm was aiding their clients in hiding $100 billion in Swiss accounts, as reported by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). This allowed let them evade taxes.

According to the article, the bank told their clients that it would not divulge to national authorities details of accounts. HSBC talked about “moves that [would] ‘ultimately allow clients to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.’” As said by the ICIJ, HSBC has served clients like Hosni Mubarak, former Egyptian President, the current ruler of Syria Bashar al-Assad, and Ben Ali, the former Tunisian President.

“HSBC Switzerland Offices Raided over Money Laundering Allegations – Feb. 18, 2015.” CNNMoney. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Connie is an international business major at Montclair State University, Class of 2017.