Free Essay: the Legal Issues and Claims

Episode 1

Brie is a low-level manager in a company called Secureus Corporation. For a long while, her boss has been discriminating her and repeatedly asking her for dates. However, because of fear, Brie has never stopped the boss from his behavior since she clearly understands that given promotion and more pay in addition to more stocks than what the boss has been giving to other employees would not be of importance to her. Shockingly, Brie has some information about Secureus Corporation going bankrupt, which will make the company lose a lot of owned stock and money. With the information in her mind, Brie spreads the news to a haircut stylist who exaggerates the information to people who own the shares in the company. This information is given to a second party, Charity. Charity feels sorry for Brie and tells the same information to the gym worker called Rayyan about the situation of the company. This forces Rayyan to sell all the stocks he has in the company, thus making a lot of money. During the same, Brie's boss informs the front desk people in Secureus Corporation to sign financial statements that will blindfold the shareholders of knowing the disaster that is cooking in Secureus Corporation. After some time, the shareholders become outraged after they learned of what has been happening in Secureus Corporation. This paper will analyze and discuss all the legal issues and claims that have occurred in between the Secureus Corporation, Brie, her boss, and the shareholders.

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From the laws, employers rather than individuals are liable for sexual harassment in the workplace. If the employer is found guilty or neglecting to stop sexual harassment, the employer may face court order penalties. In most cases, the employees are not legally liable; hence, the employer may face penalties. From the local act, sexual harassment is prohibited and taken as illegal sex discrimination. (Thomas 320) An employer found guilty of failing to stop sexual harassment will be faced with the following charges;

1. Compensatory damages
2. Attorney costs
3. Court fee.
4. Lost wages
5. Reinstatement and promotion for victims
6. Transfer or demotion

In our case, Brie is sexually harassed by her boss. This means that the boss has to face some charges if Brie files a lawsuit against him, for the boss has failed to stop sexual harassment and more so to act against the code of conduct of the civil rights acts.

The shareholders (plaintiffs) may also file a lawsuit charge against the company for not being open to them about the financial situation. The boss and the Secureus front desk would be guilty of blindfolding and falsely signing financial statements that covered the worse economic situation of the company. From the law, in case of bankruptcy, the official receiver has to investigate the financial position of the company both before the company order was made and was on the force. Whenever a bankruptcy offense has been committed, one may be fined or sent to jail. In our scenario, Secureus has been rendered bankrupt; therefore, for lying and failing to mention its financial situation may lead to the responsible parties face convictions. On the other hand, the boss would be charged for hiding the details of the commercial company situation from the shareholders that would make them lose their shares. This being a criminal offense, the Secureus front desk together with the manager may get a punishment of fine or sent to prison for years. (Thomas 319)

On the other hand, from this scenario, Brie, the haircut stylist and Charity may be sued by the company for spreading information about the company without its consent. From the law, whoever publishes news, comments or pictures which revolves about the secret of a company, a family or an organization may face lawsuits and conviction which may lead to detention for a period not exceeding one year and a fine. In this case, Brie heard rumors from the boss about the company filing for bankruptcy the following and went on spreading the talks to the haircut stylist, who passed them to the family and later to Charity who gave them to Rayyan. This was against the law as the stories ended up tarnishing the name of the organization, and thus, those involved should be charged.

The shareholders (plaintiffs) may also file a lawsuit against Rayyan who knew about the looming crisis in the company but never informed them duly to take the necessary action for saving the company. He instead went ahead and sold his shares in the company, getting a considerable amount of money while the other shareholders were at risk of losing their shares. From law, a shareholder who knows about a looming collapse of a company but keeps it secret for his selfish interests is subject to prosecution and may end up losing his/her shares in the company and sent to jail or fined. Rayyan, therefore, should also be sued for not informing other shareholders about the company going filing for bankruptcy.

Episode 2

Aaliyah loves to build four-wheel-drive trucks. She invents a new shock absorber for the car that raises them six feet off the ground. The next available highest shock absorber has the capability of increasing the truck only four feet. Her invention is superior because of its ability to provide an extra cushion in the shock absorber. However, she has tentatively sorted to sell it, especially the marked container with the name "MonsterShock." She has come up with an app that can tell the people on the ways of installing the shock absorber alongside with a CD and a downloadable installation manual. She has further designed a costume in the shape of a shock absorber that is worn by the salespeople as a mascot while bouncing a dance at a football match. She has also created choreography for the dance. The costume indistinctly appears in children's books with a character called "MonsterShock" and a new superhero. She also makes the drawings and even tells people that she will not allow anyone to use her ideas unless they sign a contract to give her most of the money they may make. BBoy is very angry because Aaliyah broke up with him. BBoy copies Aaliyah's children's book, choreography, drawings and in his photographs, Aaliyah's heroine is always weak and loses to BBoy monster trucks and at the end of the story says am sorry to BBoy. Young boys have despised Aaliyah's books and buy BBoy's copies. This paper will identify all legal issues that Aaliyah has to prove for her to win the lawsuits and ways she may use to succeed. (Garcia 1)

The law states that infringement of copyright is an award of damage. Whenever accused of infringement of copyright, the copyright holder can seek statutory destruction. The court can order the infringer to copyrights holder court cost and attorney's fee. Violation of copyright is a criminal punishment which may attract a substantial penalty. If an offender makes a profit, which is higher than $25000, the infringement becomes a felony with a maximum of $250000 fine and five years in prison for this offense (Joyce 23)

This type of an offence can be described as a contributory infringement. This applies when one part induces causes or materially gets involved in infringing conduct of another knowingly. However, this term knowingly is sometimes misleading since in this setting is said to take on unusual meaning. It does not mean "awareness of infringement" but instead it indicates some significant capacity to discourage or prevent infringement. Introduction of optimal digital copyright policy would stop scaring off innovators from carrying out their part and also allow cost-effective compliance of copyright in digital environment.

In our case, Aaliyah, who is the original inventor, has a right to sue BBoy for illegally infringing her work and using it to make her look feeble. Thus, Aaliyah has to file a lawsuit charged against BBoy for copying and using her work without her consent. As per the law, BBoy has to be convicted and charged heavily for copying another person's idea in an unauthorized way. The court has to set appropriate penalties against BBoy which may include;

1. Payment of the damage and profit to the plaintiff.
2. To each of the work copied, he has to pay a range of about $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed.
3. The court can as well issue an injunction which may help to curb and control the infringing acts.
4. The infringer may be forced to pay the court cost and the attorney's fee.
5. The court may as well impound the illegal works, and the offender sent to jail.

From the lawsuit, Aaliyah may win the case since she was the pioneer of the monster trucks, if and only if she may give valid evidence or witnesses about her work.

On the other case, copyright infringement may be a significant violation of the law. For instance, when a book is precisely copied, in this case, the actual damage will be very high. In this case, printing copies and selling them as original will attract a fine (the real damage) will cost the total number of books printed. In case you are sued, and you lose the case, you are entitled to pay your lawyer and be subjected to actual damages. On top of that, the punitive damage has been adopted in many states, and therefore it has always been sounding excruciating since most people fear to repay the plaintiff and the lawyer in case, they lose the case.Copying of other people work and using it as yours for personal gain can again be a big blow to the inventor or the owner. It not only denies the owner of a specific work materialistic reward but killing the zeal of other interested persons in that field of innovation.

Episode 3

Javier is a diamond artist who is famous in the importation of rare, voluminous, and quality diamonds in the world. Because of his fame, he has got highly valued diamonds which has been named as the J Jewels. Javier, a presenter, has been invited to an upcoming event in Vienna which involves the new collection of diamonds. During his preparation for the fact, he receives a call from a friend called Syd, who is a known diamond distributor. He informs Javier about a cargo of diamonds that have been shipped for him. Although Javier understands that Syd in most cases, to engage in illegal businesses of stolen goods. However, he agrees to purchase the jewels from Syd but asks for an escort from his friend Maurice so that they may pick together with the diamonds. Since Javier understands the goods from Syd to be not credible, he informs Maurice, but Maurice insists and agrees to assist Javier to go and pick the diamonds.

During the process, undercover police called Melinda was investigating Syd's premises for she had a glimpse of information about the secret businesses that Syd was undertaking. When Syd, Javier, and Maurice were transacting the business, Melinda slipped into Syd's office and discovered that Syd had opened an offshore bank account two days prior when going through the files in Syd's office. Thinking about the cry, she went to the next room and found a sparkling diamond jewel and necklace that had been stolen five days ago. This paper analyses the crimes that Javier, Maurice, and Syd may have committed and the defences that they can raise (Slapper 44).

From the rules, each jurisdiction has its set standards when it comes to the crime of selling and buying of stolen goods. The most significant factor that is considered in this case is whether the buyer or seller knew if the products were taken. As much as the knowledge makes a difference, also, not understanding will not allow a purchaser nor a seller to keep the proceeds nor the goods. However, the jurisdiction has a greater say depending on the value of goods though depending on a country, the issue may be taken as petty.