Napster Wars Essays - Metallica, Intellectual Property Law, Napster

Napster Wars Fifth Amendment ?A young Shaun Fanning, attending school in high school in Harwich, Massachusetts had two loves: 1) Sports ( baseball, basketball, and tennis ) and 2) computers. As his curiosity grew for computers, he decided to stop his sport playing, and spend most of his time working with computers. He primarily focused on two aspects of the computer, programming and the Internet. His computer fascination grew into an obsession throughout high school. His freshman year at Northeast University in 1998 was spent trying to enter computer science classes higher than the entry level. Not finding anything challenging about the courses, he decided to start writing a Windows based program in his spare time. He started spending time in IRC chat rooms with experienced programmers who knew the tricks of the trade. Shaun's roommate loved MP3's, but disliked the unreliability of old sites, and having to search endlessly for songs that were usually not even available. With this in mind, and his developing skills as a programmer and his curiosity for the internet, Shaun decided to write the Beta for Napster. He used the idea of all users being connected to one central computer server, yet all having access to each other's music files. He wanted a continually updated list of songs to choose from. He wrote a small version and distributed it to friends and family. The results were all positive. He had fellow programmers detect bugs, and perfect the program. Napster got its' big break, when it was featured as Download.com's featured download. The system would be revolutionary, he thought. A sharp contrast to the traditional search engines, this community would be user powered, based only on what t he users want to share with other users. After the advertisement on Download.com, Napsters' user count sky-rocketed. Shaun was on the right path. How creative! This creativeness would soon turn to turmoil (Fanning p.1).? ?On May 8, 2000, the Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster and its' founders for music piracy(Borland p.1).? It is really a battle of individual rights and ingenuity, as opposed to copyrights. It has quickly moved its' way up to the US Supreme Court and has the media as well as the public hungry for the latest reports. Napster can be downloaded and installed for free on your computer. When setup, Napster serves as an online music community, where you can conduct a search through all of the other users songs that are currently online. ?There are consistently 800,000 people using the Napster service, limited only by their resources?(Fanning). This should give you an idea of the large music variety you have to choose from. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has decided to take it upon themselves to sue Napster and its founder's for promoting the illegal reproduction of copyrighted music, and not giving any royalties to the owners of the songs. ?Napster argues that it is not directly responsible for the distribution of songs, because it doesn't provide the songs for the users to download (Borland p1)?. The users download songs off of each others computers, thus they cannot control copyright matters. They also argued they should have the same leeway as Internet Service Providers (ISP) do, when it comes to copyright issues. ISP's are not held liable for copyright infringements if they do something about it. If they do not do anything about it, then they can be held liable. I have chosen to view this issue in perspective of the Fifth Amendment. In order to better understand what is going to be talked about, I will explain exactly what the Fifth Amendment entitles American citizens to. ?A concern struck people in early America of a strong central government. Too strong. To ease concerns like this, a Bill of Rights was proposed, which gave individuals certain rights, which was understood by the government not to infringe upon. Basically it gave humans some rights that the government could not touch. The Fifth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights and it holds that individuals cannot be required to give the government information which may be used against them in criminal cases. Subsequent case law has applied the Fifth Amendment in civil cases, too, when there

Military Dolphin Research essays

Military Dolphin Research essays As intelligent and beautiful creatures of the sea, dolphins long ago captured the imaginations of human beings. Ancient artists in Crete (2500 B.C.) painted frescoes on the walls of the Minoan palace at Knossis of dolphins jumping in the blue Mediterranean waters. Today, we see dolphins depicted on T-shirts, jewelry, posters, and tattoos. During the 1950s, the television program Flipper (played by a dolphin named Mitzi) made dolphin intelligence widely known. For many years, Mitzi was also the star of a dolphin show in the Florida Keys in which she did amazing tricks and pulled children around in a little boat. Moreover, dolphins are friendly and seem to like human beings. Areas where people live close to the water are replete with dolphin stories about the helpfulness and protectiveness of dolphins. They are said to kill sharks, for example, and to nudge little kids back toward shore when they go out too deep in the ocean. Perhaps because there is such affection for these an imals, much controversy has arisen over their use by the military in waging war. This essay will argue, however, that military research on dolphins is humane and safe, the animals are not being harmed, and the research is of tremendous benefit both to dolphins and to humans. The Navy Marine Mammal Program began in 1960 when the Navy acquired a Pacific White-sided dolphin and began experimenting to improve torpedo performance. The goal was to see if dolphins had a sophisticated drag-reduction system, but the technology of the day was not equal to the study, so it was not considered successful. By 1964, however, more sophisticated animal research was done to study their senses and capabilities such as sonar and deep diving. In 1965 a dolphin named Tuffy learned to carry tools to workers 200 feet down and to locate and guide lost divers to safety (Wikipedia U. S. Navy marine Mammal Program web site). According to LeVasseur (Whales on the Net &...

7 Editing Pet Peeves

7 Editing Pet Peeves 7 Editing Pet Peeves 7 Editing Pet Peeves By Mark Nichol We all have our editorial idiosyncrasies. Here are seven words, phrases, or other subjects that make me peevish: 1. â€Å"Beg the Question† If you see this phrase in print, it’s likely to mean â€Å"to bring up an obvious question,† as in â€Å"That begs the question of how we are going to balance the budget† or â€Å"to prompt a question in response to something,† as in â€Å"The new evidence begs the question of whether the defendant was guilty after all.† To beg the question, however, originally meant to make a statement that assumes that the proposition in question is true; an example is â€Å"Most scholars discount Smith’s theories because they don’t agree with him.† This original definition, however, is being overwhelmed by the new senses described above. They are so ubiquitous that they are coming to be accepted as valid, but such acceptance dilutes the value of the pure meaning. It’s best not to use the phrase at all. 2. â€Å"I could care less.† Perhaps I care about this too much, because it doesn’t come up often, but more than never is too much. The correct expression is â€Å"I couldn’t care less,† meaning, â€Å"The degree to which I care is the least possible amount.† Some people argue that â€Å"I could care less† is a way of shrugging an issue off by implying that the minimal extent to which one is concerned about it could be diminished even further. My opinion: It’s a mishearing of the correct form, and those who write it the wrong way are writing it the wrong way. 3. Different When I read a sentence like â€Å"Seventeen different languages are spoken by students at the school,† my first thought is, â€Å"As opposed to seventeen identical languages?† In other words, different is redundant to the statement of plurality. Different is the default. 4. Latin Latin abbreviations such as i.e. and e.g. are valid, but they’re often misused or at least punctuated incorrectly (or not at all), and â€Å"for example† and â€Å"that is† serve just as well. The same goes for the Latin for â€Å"and so on†: etc. which, by the way, is redundant not only to the foregoing abbreviations but also to â€Å"such as† and â€Å"et al.† (â€Å"and others†), which, outside of a bibliography, is simply not necessary. And why use ergo when you can write thus? A good proportion of English vocabulary derives from Latin, but I advocate minimizing direct borrowing. 5. Nonprofit I abhor the use of nonprofit as a stand-alone noun, and I find I must append the word organization to that word, converting it into an adjective: â€Å"nonprofit organization.† The same opposition applies to multinationals; I favor â€Å"multinational corporations.† 6. Quality I once worked for a publication whose editor in chief banned the word quality alone when â€Å"high quality† is meant, as in â€Å"This is a quality publication.† It was an oddly specific prohibition from a person who wouldn’t be expected to bother with such specific usage, but I agreed with her then, and I do now; I never use the term in isolation in that context. 7. Scare Quotes Quotation marks used as the written equivalent of wiggled-finger air quotes are usually unnecessary. They’re especially so in conjunction with so-called in fact, they’re redundant in that case: â€Å"So-called notification laws require businesses to notify customers when certain unencrypted customer data is improperly accessed.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Using "a" and "an" Before WordsUsed To vs. Use ToDealing With A Character's Internal Thoughts

Contextual and Theoretical Studies (Information Design - London Essay

Contextual and Theoretical Studies (Information Design - London Underground) - Essay Example This is normally not the case with other forms of art where it is not possible to know what part of the piece was intended for communication and what information it was intended to pass to the viewers. These reasons therefore argue for the case why people may choose a diagram to analyse at the expense of other forms of art (Penrice, 1975). The London underground diagram is used to communicate to ordinary people in the London underground railway system but due to the fact that people have gotten very familiar with it, they tend to ignore it and therefore fail to utilise the information that it provides. It was expected that the diagram would receive a lot of attention from the citizens of the country as well as British art critics due to the fact that the London underground diagram is considered a master piece of art of the twentieth century. Another reason that there should have been more appreciation directed to the diagram is the fact that a lot of artists of the United Kingdom hav e their residences in London as it is considered a centre for art and culture. It is therefore this reason that studying the diagram is important in order to understand how it communicates to the people of London in the city’s underground railway network (Walker, 1979). History of the London underground diagram The LUD idea dates back to 1931 and was brought by an artist named Henry C. Becks but was first rejected on the argument that it was a very revolutionary piece of art. This rejection was however over turned and the diagram was accepted in 1933 at the expense of Stingmore’s map. It is important to note that Beck, the original designer of the diagram, was also responsible for the various subsequent revisions that were carried out on the diagram to reflect the additions of various lines of the London underground railway line system. The reason why Beck chose to use a diagram instead of a map was as a result of a thorough evaluation of the needs of the public in ter ms of the need for clarity of the diagram rather than geographical accuracy. The fact that there were additions of various lines to the underground system made it impossible to maintain a geographically correct diagram and therefore the only option was to ensure that the diagram was clear to the public in the sense that they could see clearly the various lines and the outline of the underground train system (Penrice, 1975). The diagram as a map The diagram has been referred to as a map by various artists as well as ordinary people but it should be noted that this reference has been discredited due to various reasons. Most of the critics have argued that diagrams do not possess some of the unique and communicative features found in maps and therefore cannot be referred to as maps. It is however important to note that a further study by various academicians revealed that there are various common characteristics that are shared between maps and diagrams and therefore it is not wrong to refer to diagrams as maps. The main argument about the differences is due to the specific characteristics of maps as they are used to depict actual pieces of earth although in a much smaller size and on a piece of paper. It is also clear that maps are used to reduce

The Significance of World Religions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 11

The Significance of World Religions - Essay Example Religion is one such issue that is much misunderstood and raises passions to unexpected limits. Given the two sides of a coin, religion can be used constructively for the betterment of society or to serve the vested interests of a few. It is intriguing that intolerance in the name of religion has grown in spite of increased literacy and education on the one hand, and a better standard of living on the other. The fanaticism of today has its parallels in man’s hoary past. It is this past that communities repeatedly invoke to settle scores with those with a different outlook. It is in this backdrop that religious leaders the world over are endeavoring to facilitate dialogue not only among religions but also among the adherents of various religions. One such leader is His Holiness The Dalai Lama of Tibet who is a vocal advocate of religious harmony besides being a role model for Buddhists everywhere. Fisher opines that there is an inexplicable reality experienced by all cultures. The material world fails to provide answers to all our questions. It is this void that religion tries to fill. The man has overcome nature and is in a commanding position vis a vis nature many a time. It is questions that defy logic or are beyond his comprehension for which he turns to religion (12-13). Fisher mentions a set of human needs that religion fulfills. One of these is the question of the afterlife. Rational thinking cannot explain the journey of the self after death. Similarly, the aspect of perfection beyond the five senses is alien to human experience. Man strives to find the answer to perfection beyond sensory perception (14-15). Likewise, religion can give the true reason behind personal problems and how man overcomes these when there is no hope left. Apart from the physical self, man can also discover his true self, the soul, which cannot be easily described in a material setting.

columbia :: essays research papers

I would love to visit Columbia, but I would not like to live there. I wouldn’t want to live there because must of Columbia is poverty. One US dollar would equal 2,504.24. So, that means there money isn’t worth a lot. There literacy rate is 91% so they are educated. I would love to visit Colombia because Shakira was born there and she is really hot. I also want to experience a different culture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One reason I will never live in Colombia is because most of it is poverty. Population below poverty line is 55%. Maybe that's why they have drug cartel. One of the major drugs coming from there is cocaine. So the poor people have nothing to lose and everything to gain. One reason I would love to live there is because if you too $125,000 US dollars that would equal $62,606,000 Colombian pesos. So you would be rich over there. With that kind of money you could buy a mansion and impress a lot of beautiful women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One reason I would love to visit Colombia is they have really good coffee. Also Shakira was native there; so that means there are more beautiful women over there. I also want to learn some Colombian boxing or other kind of fighting. So that I could have experience when I join UFDC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). It’s no holds bared fighting, I wold also like to take a picture in front of Shakiras old house.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The last reason I want to go visit Colombia is I want to engage in a different culture. Not so much the religion part, but their way of living. I would also love to eat some of their native foods. I want to dress like them because they look funny in the clothes, but they always have a smile on their face. While I’m there why not get some Colombian rum in use, right. I wouldn’t mind boxing and making money to pay for the rum I’ll be drinking.

Structuring Repsol’s Acquisition of YPF

How significant are the expected synergies and restructuring effects? Please prepare an estimate of the value of these.For Repsol and its shareholders, the YPF acquisition deal is seen as an ideal strategic match. The Spanish oil company gets most of its revenues from activities like refining and gasoline stations, and must buy much of its crude oil from others, while YPF owns substantial reserves because its activities are dominated by exploration and production of oil. As a united company, Repsol will have a much better balance of business, quadrupling its reserves, and vaulting into the big leagues of the top 10 international players. But with the reserves of YPF, it will instead benefit from rising prices, and expand its activities to other countries in Latin America.Repsol-YPF seeks to achieve a balance between upstream and downstream operations, position itself as a market leader in Latin America, achieve operating and capital expenditure synergies and consolidate its business scale and financial strength. As part of its integration strategy, Repsol-YPF will begin to dispose of select assets which do not correspond to its core businesses outlined above or to its core geographic areas which include Spain, Latin America and North Africa.Synergies Estimate Cost savings after tax of $350 million by 2000, 1.6% cost savings in 1998, reduction in capital expenditure from $15.6 billion to $13.6 billion, reduced finding costs by 25.0%, as a result of decreased test drilling activity and the implementation of new technology, and lifting costs by 4.6%, as a result of synergies with YPF’s operations and increased levels for gas production, which has lower lifting costs than oil production, divesting non-core assets to yield $2.5 billion in 2002.2) Please assess the price that Cortina proposes to offer to YPF  shareholders. At $44.78 per share, would Repsol underpay, overpay, or just offer a fair price?Attached Excel,The price of $44.78 per share was a fair p rice as there was a strategic fit and synergies between the two companies. YPF was focused on upstream and thus balanced Repsol’s downstream activities.In the attached excel, I performed valuation of YPF by subtracting PV of Repsol from PV of Repsol-YPF combined with synergies at WACC of 10.9% (all debt financing).I got the value as 10.472 billion dollars./ The additional (13 billion- 10.472 billion) is the premium which Repsol is paying for geographic and business diversification.Adj PV Formula used by me: EBIT– Taxes on EBIT =Net Operating Profit After Tax (NOPAT) + Non cash items in EBIT – Working Capital changes – Capital Expenditures and Other Operating Investments =Free Cash FlowsTake Present Value (PV) of FCFs discounted by Return on Assets % (also Return on Unlevered Equity %) + PV of terminal value =Value of Unlevered Assets + Excess cash and other assets =Value of Unlevered Firm (i.e. firm value without financing effects or benefit of interest t ax shield) + Present Value of Debt's Periodic Interest Tax Shield discounted by Cost of Debt Financing % =Value of Levered Firm3) Please assess the current pricing of Repsol shares in the market. Is Repsol undervalued, overvalued, or just fairly valued in the global equity markets at this time? Is now a good time to issue Repsol shares?From Exhibit 11, the current price of Repsol stock is 18-19 $ per share. Actual Value of Repsol share is 7010/900 = $7.78per share from Exhibit 3.Using valuation using DCF, I arrived at $ 22.33 per share for Repsol(attached Excel). Hence it is fairly valued.4) Compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of offering to the shareholders of YPF either (a) cash or (b) shares of Repsol. If you were a shareholder in YPF, which form of consideration would be more attractive (assuming that the amount of consideration would be constant at $44.78 per share)?Advantages of cash financing are Cheaper than equity, tax benefits from tax shields, Decrease in co mbined cost of capital, creating value for shareholders, largest fixed income offer.Disadvantages of cash financing are Sudden increase in Repsol’s leverage, downgrade in debt ratings, increased cost of debt, inability to meet future unforeseen financial requirements, probability of default, sensitive to price changes, signaling to investors, shorter maturity period and uncertainties.Advantages of stock financing are Expand its unused debt capacity, prepared for aggressive growth via acquisitions, maintain coverage ratios and credit ratings.Disadvantages of stock financing are Reduced EPS due to dilution, more business risk, dependence on Repsol’s share price, clash in investors’ interests between shares of developed and developing economies.Cash financing is a better option for shareholders of YPF as they would  receive a fixed price and would not participate in additional gains or losses post acquisition.5) Whether or not you favor a cash-based offer for YPF , please compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of the (a) all-debt-financed cash offer, (b) all-equity financed cash offer, and (c) blended financing of debt, preferred stock, and equity. How significant are variations in default risk in the assessment of the financing alternatives (see case Exhibit 10)?Attached Excel sheet,Considering Country Risk, all debt financing gives the highest valuation of Repsol-YPF and variation due to risk is least in all debt financing offer.Considering minimum Country Risk, all equity financing gives the highest valuation of Repsol-YPF but variation due to risk is highest in all equity financing offer.Blended financing gives minimum variation in valuation of Repsol – YPF . The variations in default risk are significant in assessing the alternatives as that affects WACC and hence valuation.6) What course of action would you recommend that Alfonso Cortina adopt regarding form of payment and financing for the tender offer for YPF? On wh at â€Å"key bets† does your recommendation depend?Cortina should make an all cash payment to acquire YPF at 44.78$ per share to avoid the disadvantages of equity financing and also considering bylaws of YPF.Repsol’s strategic plan is based on three fundamental premises: growth, transformation of portfolio and profitability. The primary objective for Repsol is to guarantee sustainable dividend growth for its shareholders.Repsol will implement a strategy of profitable growth for all of its businesses, based on the optimisation of existing projects, the development of new projects, and the analysis of possible business opportunities in areas of interest to the company. It states that the downstream business which includes chemicals will contribute solid growth and stable cash flow for the company.The Repsol chemical business is believed to hold a ‘sound position in international markets', strengthened by a high integration with the refining and exploration and prod uction business areas, access to competitive technologies and the company's ongoing efforts in cost contention.7) In general, what is the influence of deal financing on other aspects of M&A deal design?A widely used approach to evaluating financing alternatives is the FRICTO framework. The framework can help to identify trade-offs along six dimensions:Flexibility: the ability to meet unforeseen financing requirements as they arise. Flexibility may involve liquidating assets or tapping the capital markets in adverse market environments or both. Flexibility can be measured by bond ratings, coverage ratios, capitalization ratios, liquidity ratios, and the identification of salable assets. Risk: This is the predictable variability in the firm’s operating cash flow. Such variability may be due to both macroeconomic factors (e.g., consumer demand) and industry- or firm-specific factors (e.g., product life cycles, biannual strikes in advance of wage negotiations).To some extent, pas t experience may indicate the future range of variability in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) and cash flow. High leverage tends to amplify the impact of these predictable business swings—this amplification is what is commonly called leverage. In theory, beta should vary directly with leverage. The firm’s debt rating will provide a second external measure of risk of the firm. Income: This compares financial structures on the basis of value creation. Measures such as DCF value, projected ROE, EPS, resulting price/earnings ratio, and cost of capital indicate the comparative value effects of  alternative financial structures.Finance theory tells us that (all else equal) the value-maximizing capital structure is also that which minimizes the weighted average cost of capital. Thus, the analyst can devote attention to the capital cost resulting from the different financial structures. Finally, economic profit, or EVA, summarizes the joint impact of capital structu re, investment, and operating profit effects. Control: Alternative financial structures may imply changes in control or different control constraints on the firm as indicated by the percentage distribution of share ownership and by the structure of debt covenants. Significant investors will be sensitive to the dilution in their voting position in the firm, implied by different acquisition financing alternatives.Timing: This asks the question of whether the current capital market environment is the right moment to implement any alternative financial structure, and what the implications for future financings will be if the proposed structure is adopted. The current market environment can be assessed by examining the Treasury yield curve, the trend in the movement of interest rates, the existence of any windows in the market for new issues of securities, P/E multiple trends, and so on.Chiefly, one wants to look for evidence of over- or undervaluation of securities in the capital market . Sequencing considerations are implicitly captured in the assumptions underlying alternative DCF value estimates and can be explicitly examined by looking at annual EPS and ROE streams under alternative financing sequences. Other: Since no framework can anticipate all possible effects, the â€Å"O† reminds the analyst to consider potential idiosyncratic influences on the decision. Two such items are investment liquidity of the owners and estate planning considerations. As these examples suggest, such considerations tend to be more influential in smaller and privately held firms. However, a major â€Å"other† consideration for large publicly traded firms is the signaling content of their financial choices.The issuance of equity is typically accompanied by decreases in share prices; issuance of debt is accompanied by increases. One interpretation of this result is that the type of financing signals optimism or pessimism about the future by insiders in the firm.This fram ework can be used to indicate the relative strengths and weaknesses of alternative financing plans. To use a simple example, suppose that your  firm is considering two alternatives for financing an acquisition: a new issue of debt to fund a cash payment or a new issue of equity in exchange for the target’s shares. Looking across each row, the decision maker can determine which alternative dominates on each criterion.The debt structure is favoured on the grounds of income (perhaps reflecting debt tax shields and no share dilution), the absence of voting dilution, and today’s interest rate conditions. The equity structure is favoured on the grounds of flexibility, risk, absence of covenants, today’s equity market conditions, and the long-term financial sequencing benefits.THINK LIKE AN INVESTORThe definition of a good capital structure would be one that maximizes shareholder value. This structure will also minimize the weighted average cost of capital and maximi ze the share price and value of the enterprise.