Legal Matters

If you are a new business will need to deal with legal matters and engage a solicitor at some point in the future of the life of your business. Legal matters can be the most daunting task for small business operators. You will have to learn how to avoid the risk of fines, prosecution, business disputes, being sued or worse by considering your legal obligations by taking early preventative measures.

Florida Man Charged with Stealing $130 Million CC numbers

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a Miami man with the largest case of credit and debit card data theft ever in the United States, accusing the one-time government informant of trying to gain access to 130 million accounts.

Albert Gonzalez, 28, broke his own record for identity theft by hacking into retail networks, according to prosecutors, though they say his illicit computer exploits ended when he went to jail on charges stemming from a previous case.

Gonzalez is a former informant for the U.S. Secret Service who helped the agency hunt hackers, authorities say. The agency later found out that he had also been working with criminals and feeding them information on ongoing investigations, even warning off at least one individual, according to authorities.

Gonzalez, who is already in jail awaiting trial in a hacking case, was indicted Monday in New Jersey and charged with conspiring with two other unnamed suspects to steal the private information.

Sentencing Delayed for Chris Brown

Citing a need for additional details from Virginia, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg has delayed the sentencing of Chris Brown for three weeks. The R&B singer pleaded guilty to felony assault and part of his sentencing is expected to include community service in his home state.

His next court appearance is set for August 27.

Chris Brown to be Sentenced

R&B singer Chris Brown is set to be sentenced today for his savage beating of Rihanna last February. He pleaded guilty to felony assault and is expected to be sentenced to five years probation and six month of community labor.

Although the assault and trial took place in Los Angeles, he is expected to be allowed to serve his probation in his home state of Virginia. He will also have to go back to California every three months for domestic violence counseling.

From published reports:

Brown was arrested Feb. 8, hours after an early morning fight erupted between the singer and his then-girlfriend in a car in Los Angeles' Hancock Park neighborhood. A search warrant affidavit filed by police described the brutal attack, stating that Brown beat, choked and bit Rihanna and tried to push her out of the car.

The beating occurred hours before the pair were scheduled to appear at the Grammy Awards, and both have been forced to cancel several high-profile appearances since then.

Brown's career has suffered, with radio stations refusing to play his music and sponsors dropping him.

Tenenbaum to Pay $675,000

A jury ruled that admitted illegal song sharer Joel Tenenbaum must pay the RIAA $675,000 for 30 songs he shared online. That come to $22,500 per song.

From published reports of the verdict:

That sounds steep but it actually compares favorably to the second verdict leveled against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was the first individual ever found guilty of copyright infringement over a peer-to-peer network. The original 2007 verdict against her (damages: $9,250 per song) was thrown out after a mistrial was declared, but in June a new jury found her even more guilty than before, with fines set at a whopping $80,000 per song. In comparison, Tenenbaum is getting off easy.

Tenenbaum Waits to Hear How Much

After admitting liability on the stand, Joel Tenenbaum is now waiting to hear how much he will have to pay the music industry in his trial for illegally downloading and sharing songs.

The Boston Globe reports:

US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner ruled Thursday night that Tenenbaum, 25, admitted on the witness stand that he infringed on the copyrights of 30 songs that he downloaded and shared online.

As a result, she plans to direct the jury to only consider the amount of damages he should pay four record labels that sued him in federal court and whether his infringements were "willful," which could result in much higher damages.

Under federal law, the jury can award the labels $750 to $30,000 for each copyright infringement and as much as $150,000 for each willful infringement. That means that Tenenbaum could owe as much as $4.5 million.

Music Downloading Trial Begins

Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum of Providence, R.I., is on trial in a Boston federal court accused of "downloading songs and making music files available for distribution on the Kazaa file-sharing network."

The Associated Press reports:

Tenenbaum's case is the second such case to go to trial.

Last month, a federal jury in Minneapolis ruled that a Minnesota woman must pay $1.92 million for willful infringement of the recording industry's copyrights by posting music on Kazaa.

The industry has threatened about 35,000 people with charges of copyright infringement over the past five years, typically offering to settle for $3,000 to $5,000.