Posts written by buteralaw

Napster: No Free Lunch?

In May of 1999 a 19-year-old Boston college student, Shawn Fanning, founded Napster, Inc., which, as many of you may know, operates a popular Internet site that allows personal computer users to download digitally recorded music for free in the MP3 format, a compression format… Continue reading

Latin Lovers

The term quid pro quo is often used in business negotiations, but few stop to think what the words really mean. Literally, the phrase means “what for what” or “something for something.” Used in legal matters, the term means the giving of one valuable thing… Continue reading

The Mortgage Satisfaction Law

If you are devoted and diligent enough to make all of your mortgage payments over 30 years, you will eventually pay off your mortgage. A more likely scenario, however, involves refinancing your mortgage with a new loan, which also results in the prior mortgage being… Continue reading

Queen’s English – Contractions and Apostrophes

In oral conversation we use contracted words routinely (and properly):                  isn’t for “is not”                 it’s for “it is”                 aren’t for “are not”                 it’s for “it has”                 couldn’t for “could not”                 who’s for “who is”                 you’re for “you are”                 let’s for “let us”                 they’d for… Continue reading

What is Expungement?

Suppose that when you were a teenager you suffered a lapse in judgment and decided to walk out of the music store with a Beatles cassette without paying for it. The storekeeper caught you and prosecuted you for retail theft. As a result, you were… Continue reading

Clown Hats: Final Comment — (at Least for Now!)

By the time you read this it may be history, but at the moment of this writing the election has us all in anticipation (or bored stiff?), awaiting the outcome. In reflection, about the biggest surprise was not Al Gore’s selection of Joe Lieberman as… Continue reading

Can Non-Union Employee Have Co-Worker Present for Investigatory Interview?

On July 20, 2000, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that the right of union-represented employees to have a representative present at disciplinary interviews also extends to non-union employees. Under this ruling, an employee in a non-unionized workplace may request a co-worker’s presence at… Continue reading

Trade Secrets

Think about what gives one business the advantage over another: unique business concepts, technological innovations, customer lists, etc. These are also examples of information which the courts have found to constitute trade secrets. In fact, practically anything that gives one business an edge over its… Continue reading

Home Sweet (New) Home!

It became a major local news story, and it was fun: The King of Prussia Inn has been rescued from the ignominy of the polluted, cacophonous, barren, and soulless island PennDOT created a couple decades back. And it looks beautiful, even in its pre-rehabilitated state… Continue reading

Just (Stop) the Fax, Please…

There are innumerable occasions when advertising intrudes into our lives, from the commercial timed to interrupt the most suspenseful part of The X-Files to the billboard blocking our view of the countryside. On an entirely different level of intrusiveness are those ads that come over… Continue reading