EOC Week 10: Robert Kearns

Robert Kearns was portrayed in the movie "Flash of Genius". It is a typical David and Goliath story where he took on all the major automobile makers and eventually won. Though it costs him everything, including his health, family and decades of legal fights, he stayed the course and decided that his idea was just that, his, and fought the bully auto makers for stealing it from him. Most people would have given up and let it go but Mr. Kearns fought for the principles and ethics he believed in, which was you do not steal. Although I don't know if I would be willing to give up my family, in many ways I admire Mr. Kearns for having the fortitude to stick it out till the end.

First Amendment and the News

Vivian Diamond
EOC: Week 9
The First Amendment and the News

In the news this week was the issue of a Florida pastor declaring to all who would listen that in remembrance of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11, he and his church followers were going to burn copies of the Koran. It garnered much publicity in the news to the point that even President Obama has stepped in to ask this man not to go ahead with his plans.

Should this pastor, Terry Jones, be allowed to put American soldiers and citizens in Muslim countries at risk of danger or even death in retaliation of his act? Or should his First Amendment rights supersede those of many other Americans that may be in harm’s way?

I personally think this is almost like yelling “Fire” in a crowded building. It is against the law because of the danger to life and limb it can cause in inciting panic in a crowd. If you have followed the news about this story, you will have seen how many Muslims are already up in arms over this matter. I would go even further to say that if Pastor Jones wanted to go to Pakistan and put on his show there, than fine, take chances with his own life, not those of innocent people who may or may not have a choice in being in a prominently Muslim country when the firestorm is set off.

Was President Obama justified in speaking up? Yes, in protection of his fellow citizens abroad, I feel it is time that we have leadership that isn’t afraid of expressing an opinion when it comes to religion or other touchy topics when American lives are involved. Mr. Jones has said that he has reconsidered because the other issue of the Mosque being built in New York near ground zero has been changed. (which I read this morning isn’t true)

Legal Questions

1. If I am asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement, can I use skills I developed in the company for freelance work?

2. Can you incorporate a public domain design into a specialized design and copyright it?

3. What rights do I retain when using company software?

4. In a series, do you copyright individually or as a series?

5. What is the average price to keep an attorney on retainer?

6. If you do a design, etc. for a client and are not paid for it, does the actual design belong to you or the client?

7. If I come up with an original idea when working for a company, who owns the idea if there was no contract specifying this beforehand?

8. Do salaried employees have any rights to finished products?

9. If I rough out a design on school/company software but finish on my own professional software at what point does it become a creation and what are my rights?

10. If I am given a design to work on that is stolen but I don't know it, can I be sued as well as the company?

What Legal issues concern you most?

Children’s rights have always been a huge concern of mine. Having adopted five children, I personally know that there are many more deserving children out there that need good homes but are never placed because of custody laws or other reasons. There are many kids that fall through the cracks due to incompetence from social workers, CASA workers and the fact that many foster parents are used only as “soldiers” to take care of the children but cannot voice the child’s needs in court because they are not asked or allowed to speak. Who better would know a child than the people that spend 24 hours a day with them. Also, when a drug-addicted parent that has more than one child already in custody is believed before a licensed foster parent that goes through much screening, background checks, fingerprinting, training and many other hoops to jump through before being licensed, it is sad. But in personal experience, parents have more rights than the child. When drug addicts are allowed to keep having children that have emotional, physical and psychological problems because of the parents’ addictions, mandatory birth control should become an issue for the whole country.
Other legal concerns I have are copyright and trademark laws due to the business I am in. My husband and I are business owners that do embroidery and silk screening. There are times that I wonder when logos or graphics are given to us, if they are not trademarked when they look similar to something else out there already.

Week 6: Illicit? What did you think?
The movie “Illicit” really opened my eyes as far as illegal trafficking goes. With the internet, global has taken on a whole new meaning for everyone, but especially within the illegal trade business. Criminals and organizations are making millions, if not billions of dollars from producing, shipping and selling everything from fashion accessories to fake pharmaceuticals and the human beings it takes to supply their sales force. Unfortunately, the ones who suffer the most are either the end user, that got pseudo medicine, or the poverty stricken workers that are no more than slaves. The corruption has infiltrated into every part of society, including politics, with some corrupt officials actually in charge of whole countries.
What fuels the trade is no more than common greed, some for power but mostly for the money. What used to be difficult to clean has now become easy as borders are almost nonexistent in today’s world. Electronic banking has made moving money from country to country almost impossible to track dirty money. The pitiful few resources that law enforcement has to combat the crime, becomes almost invisible when trying to cross borders to catch the criminals. This is compounded by the fact that many of these officials often themselves become corrupt because the pay is so much better to look the other way than to enforce the law.
How can we ourselves be part of the solution and not the problem? At this point I am not sure but I know that my curiosity is peaked enough to want to investigate it further. As an artist and a human being, it is frightening to think that no matter what I may produce or create can be stolen, copied and dirty money and misfortune can be attached to it at some point

EOC WEEK 2: What do you think of lawyers?

Lawyers are much like doctors, in the sense that many have a GOD complex, or they think that they can walk on water and are better than anyone else. I was a legal secretary for years and believe me, the exception to this rule is rare, but there are a few that exist. When you get into the “meat and bones” of the law and the background research, etc., many common-rule ethics get thrown out the window along with morality. Any lawyer will tell you that emotion also does not come into play when practicing law. One particular case I worked on was the lawsuit against breast implants. Many women had toxic or serious medical issues from the implants, especially when they leaked saline into the body. Some died. In doing the background research into the testing for the implants I found that the manufacturing company had tested the saline by taking terminal burn patients and floating their bodies in a huge pool of saline for many hours a day. This is what they call “safe testing” since the patients were already certain to die, there would be no repercussions to the company that manufactured the implants when they did pass away. How they were supposed to determine whether the saline was harmful or not to humans from this procedure is beyond me.
My other more personal experience with lawyers involves my son, who has been handicapped most of his life. Diagnosed at eighteen months old with scoliosis, he ended up having his first spinal fusion at the age of seven. Understand, this was 1982 and there was no internet to research what doctors told you, believe me, I tried. Faced with the option of having titanium rods placed in his back (which is common for this disease but normally only when the patient is in their teens and has pretty much stopped growing) or having a spinal fusion done, I chose the spinal fusion. I was told this would only have to be done once whereas the rods would have to be replaced numerous times as he grew. Fast forward to after he turned twenty, another spinal fusion, (the second of three so far) rods being put in and taken out and numerous other spinal surgeries, and we were sitting in his orthopedic doctor’s office when he tells us that if the first surgery had been done right, my son’s back would have been perfectly straight. After getting past the horror and anger, we contacted a lawyer. We were not rich and being a single mom since he was three, I worked three jobs to pay the medical bills, so it would have had to be pro bono. We were told that it would have to come down to “the experts” testifying against each other since doctors most probably wouldn’t. Experts cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and can tie up the process for years. When it comes to the law, money talks. Unless you can find the exception I was talking about at the beginning, good luck if you are the common man. My son has suffered a lifetime of pain with no recourse to even go after the doctor that started it all. And it is one of the fallacies of our country that when a doctor or lawyer does something wrong, who judges them? Other doctors and lawyers do. That is why it so rare for either one to lose their license, whether to practice medicine or law. It is the same as having the police investigate themselves, who is going to punish themselves if they don’t have to?

Week 1:EOC About Me

As a graphic designer, I enjoy the vastness of the field. Working with many different mediums lets me expand my creativity constantly. The ever changing internet gives me boundless information to be able to pull from as well as compare to and investigate. Already owning my own business lets me incorporate this new knowledge into work and share it with my clients. I crave new and exciting ways to “WOW” my clients, many of whom have no idea of what they want when they come to me for job. As an older student, I have more history to pull from as far as digging into the past to portray the future of advertising. I enjoy making old things new again as well as creating the unseen that comes from within everyone’s mind. The most exciting thing about this journey is learning the science and logic behind a field I have always enjoyed, Art. As a mother, student and business owner I have had the opportunity to wear many hats. Art is, however, my passion. It is a field that will allow me to keep my current lifestyle as well as try on various other different hats. Inspiration surrounds all of us, but it takes the artist in us to appreciate and corporate it into the rest of our lives.