Business Legal Liabilities

  This week, I have identified three podcasts online that deal with liabilities pertaining to my Tomeworks business plan. The first podcast comes from Chicago based law firm, Davis McGrath and covers copyright infringement. There are six rights that belong to a copyright owner: the rights to reproduce work, to prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform the work publicly, display the work publicly and perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission. Copyright infringement occurs when someone usurps or interferes with one or more of these exclusive rights. The remedies for copyright infringement include, but are not limited to, injunction, the impoundment or destruction of the goods in question, compensatory damages and/or profits, attorney fees and statutory damages. This is an excruciatingly crucial facet of running an independent record label because not only am I charged with making sure our works get registered to protect my artists, I am also ultimately responsible for getting sample clearances and making sure I remain inside the framework of a copyright agreement because it can cost me a lot of money or my business altogether if I fail to do so.

  The second podcast pertinent to my business plan comes from Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society and is directed at fair use. While copyright is considered to be a series of restrictions, fair use is considered to be a set of exceptions. Copyright owners are not granted unlimited control over the works that they own. Fair use gives individuals certain freedoms to expand upon copyrighted works as long as the improved work falls within the fair use guidelines. The fair use doctrine was originally put in place to encourage improvements in technology and intellectual property so a new work derived from an old work must be transformative in nature. The thing that makes this podcast so great is that there are legal experts that answer some frequently asked questions about fair use and they debunk some of the myths and preconceived notions that people may have about fair use. Tomeworks will create music, videos, pictures, stories, etc. so knowing what constitutes fair use and what constitutes copyright infringement will be the difference between life and death for my record label.

  Lastly, the London School of Business and Finance discusses the tort of negligence. They explain that, “in order to succeed in the tort of negligence the claimant must prove that the defendant owes him a duty of care, that the defendant breached his duty of care and as a result, the claimant suffered injury, loss or damage.” Negligence is something that can affect any business and an aspect of business that business owners should be fully aware of. Negligence can happen if an employee is hurt on the job and that person is being kept from getting the proper care and treatment for whatever reason. Negligence can also occur if the employer knew full well about certain conditions that had the potential to inflict harm, injury, or death on the employee but subjected them to those conditions anyway. In my opinion, there is no asset more valuable to a company than an employee so it is vital to a business to protect them at all costs or face dire consequences.