California’s labor commission has decided that one of Uber’s drivers is an employee and not an independent contractor. Uber, a ride-hailing service and popular app, may have to change its business model in the state. While the ruling was made in March, it has now become public due to Uber filing an appeal.

Classifying the drivers as contractors has allowed Uber to avoid paying for Social Security tax, paid sick days, health insurance, car maintenance and gas along with other expenses. Uber will be obligated to pay for these expenses if their drivers are defined as employees, and the effects could be felt by customers as well as set a precedent for future lawsuits.

Article via CNET, 17 June 2015

Photo: GREAT experience with @Uber via Anne Ruthmann  [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Intel Capital has dedicated $125 million to helping diverse startups, a measure that has been developing since last December. According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, the company has hired more than double the number of diverse candidates this year.

Lisa Lambert, VP  and Managing Director at Intel Capital, said that the initiative is not a social program and that minorities and women are ready to lead.  “What we’re convinced of is, as you seek out diverse points of view, you’re going to produce better returns. All the studies show that.”

Diversity statistics in the tech industry(according to Lambert):

  • Only 15 percent of venture capital-backed companies in the U.S. have a executive team with a woman
  • Less than one percent of Silicon Valley startups were created by  Latino or African American  entrepreneurs
  • Eight percent of tech founders are women

“The industry, as a whole, has some improvement to make,” she said.

Some of the startups selected by the fund include Brit+Co, a company with a workforce of more than 80 percent female employees, and CareCloud, a healthcare IT startup which has a workforce that is 50 percent underrepresented minorities and 56 percent female.

Article via CNET, 9 June 2015

Photo: Intel via Morton Lin  [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Companies are increasingly facing defamation claims from former workers, along with being sued for discrimination and wrongful termination. According to the Recorder, the defamation claim usually accuses the organization of giving inaccurate reasons for firing an employee.

The employment sphere isn’t the only place one might find defamation claims due to social media and review websites, according to Internet law attorney Karl Kronenberger.

L. Julius Turman, a Reed Smith partner and attorney, said that 60 to 70 percent of his wrongful termination and harassment cases incorporated defamation claims.

In a suit by Robert Sallustio, a defamation claim made a large difference in the outcome of his case. Sallustio argued that Kemper Independence Insurance Co. fired him after wrongly claiming that he wasn’t attending work in the morning. He won his defamation judgement in the California case last year, which was nearly $5.7 million, despite losing his retaliation and wrongful termination claims.

Article via ABA Journal, 27 May 2015

Photo: construction via J J [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

A recent complaint against Google claims that the company was violating antitrust regulations when it banned a privacy app. The app, Disconnect, stops malevolent advertising and secretive user tracking. The creator of the app filed a complaint with the EU on Tuesday. According to Disconnect, Google’s decision to discontinue the app on the Google Play store was an abuse of its dominant position in mobile tech. Google said the app violates its policies and their complaint is groundless.

“We don’t oppose advertising and understand ad revenue is critically important to many Internet companies, publishers and developers,” Disconnect Co-founder and CEO Casey Oppenheim said. “But users have the right to protect themselves from invisible tracking and malware, both of which put sensitive personal information at risk. Advertising doesn’t have to violate user privacy and security.”

The complaint is just a part of the increased scrutiny Google is undergoing as it hopes to increase the influence of its Android Mobile operating system. The ongoing European Commission investigation into Android shines a light on regulators’ worries concerning how Google exercises its power.

Disconnect argues that Google is using Android in monopolistic ways and has consolidated inadequate security and privacy features into its presiding products, thus bringing harm to consumers and giving itself a discriminatory advantage.

Google, on the other hand, claims that Disconnect has violated its policies, according to clause 4.4 of Google’s Developer Distribution Agreement which forbids apps from interfering with other apps.

Article via CNET, 2 June 2015

Photo:Big Google brother?  via Alain Bachellier [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

The word ‘hackathon’ may inspire mixed emotions, depending on the legal ramifications surrounding the event. Brooklyn Law School Professor Jonathan Akin debated organizing such an activity for this very reason; that is until 2012, when he helped arrange a legal hackathon with the support of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic.

A hackathon is a conference, meet-up or workshop where experts from a variety of disciplines get together with tech aficionados who are seeking innovative solutions and structures to take on long-established problems. A challenge or problem is presented, and then groups put on a demonstration.

Hackathons are proving to be a way for like-minded lawyers to find each other and help them discover new directions in their careers. The event may produce an app, policy proposal, service or other work product that addresses problems in the real world. After the Brooklyn hackathon, a number of Legal Hackers chapters spread across the United States.

These events create a way for like-minded attorneys to connect, innovate their careers and help students allocate a job in a contracting legal market. Hackathon organizers’ first challenge is overcoming the stigma surrounding the word ‘hacker.’ “To most lawyers, ‘hackathon’ probably sounds like an invitation to commit felonies,” says Dazza Greenwood, a lawyer and research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. “But to people who get it, a legal hackathon is about lawyers, engineers and policymakers interested in solving problems at the intersection of the law and technology.”

Article via ABA Journal, 1 June 2015

Photo: HACKERS MEET JOURNALISTS via Ophelia Noor [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]