Government regulation: Good

One of the purposes of government is to regulate the overlords (people with money) from abusing the middle class and the poor. A lot of businesses have been attempting to misuse the "internship" position - hiring people to work for them without pay and just a hint that maybe, someday, there might be a paid position for them. There's been some debate in some circles of government that perhaps unpaid internships should be outlawed. Probably, from my standpoint, a good idea.

 From Raw Story...
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Two interns who completed unpaid work on the Oscar-winning film Black Swan have won a landmark case against the studio behind the movie, 20th Century Fox.

Alexander Footman and Eric Glatt had complained they were made to undertake menial work with little or no educational value that ought to have been carried out by paid employees. US law makes it clear that unpaid interns must gain educational benefit from their work experience and cannot be used to replace regular paid workers. Federal judge William Pauley ruled yesterday that Footman and Glatt were in fact "employees" of studio offshoot Fox Searchlight, which oversaw production of Black Swan, meaning they were entitled to legal protection under minimum wage and overtime laws. The judge also dismissed suggestions by Fox that the interns were working for Darren Aronofsky's production company, rather than directly for the studio. Finally, Judge Pauley confirmed he would certify a class action that will explore internships throughout the corporate departments at Fox.

McCain Getting Sued

During the 2008 election campaign, John McCain's team utilized a number of musical recordings at his appearances that did not have the permission of the writers and artists involved in the production of that music. Some of the musicians complained - loudly and publicly. In several cases, it turned out, McCain's staff had gotten rights from a publisher and so the issue seemed to go away.

But it turns out that perhaps the McCain campaign wasn't so careful after all. The following is from Music Net News...

The US District Court for the Central District of California has denied the motions of Senator John McCain and the Republican National Committee to stop the lawsuit filed by singer/ songwriter Jackson Browne for the unauthorized use of Browne's voice and song Running On Empty in a presidential campaign commercial. A legal victory for Mr Browne, who filed his suit in August, 2008 for copyright infringement, false endorsement and violation of his right of publicity. In a series of rulings on February 20, 2009, Judge Gary Klausner, rejected McCain's/RNC arguments that the First Amendment or copyright's fair use doctrine allows their unauthorized use of Browne's voice and song because the use occurred in a political campaign commercial.

Browne's attorney, Lawrence Iser, said; "The Court's decision is a solid victory for songwriters and performers and reflects an affirmation of their intellectual property rights and their freedom from being conscripted as involuntary endorsers of political candidates and campaign messages. We are happy that the Court recognized that persons and parties running for office are not entitled to violate an individual's intellectual property and publicity rights simply because they are engaged in political campaigns. We look forward to presenting Jackson Browne's case to the jury."