It's the law. (Panorama).COPYRIGHT A Brazilian court ordered Brazilian CD manufacturers Novodisc Brasil Industria and Trace Disc Multimidia to pay more than US$1 million for music piracy piracy, robbery committed or attempted on the high seas. It is distinguished from privateering in that the pirate holds no commission from and receives the protection of no nation but usually attacks vessels of all nations. violations, It is South America's largest fine ever for such violations. The ruling followed a three-year investigation into pirated pi·rate n. 1. a. One who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without commission from a sovereign nation. b. A ship used for this purpose. 2. One who preys on others; a plunderer. 3. CDs featuring major international performers. It is estimated that about half of all CDs sold in Brazil are pirated copies. TELECOM Unefon, a Mexican wireless company partially owned by broadcaster TV Azteca TV Azteca is the second largest Mexican television network. It was established in 1968 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión ("Imevisión"), and was privatized under its current name in 1993. Its flagship program is the newscast Hechos. , is suing Canadian equipment manufacturer Nortel Networks (Nortel Networks Limited, Brampton, Ontario, www.nortelnetworks.com) A world leader in telecommunications products, which includes switching, wireless and broadband systems for service providers and carriers, telephones and systems for residential and business users, computer telephony for US$900 million. The Mexican operator alleges it lost profit and equity value when Nortel failed to furnish a $618 million credit facility on time, as agreed in a financing contract between the two. TOBACCO Philip Morris, tobacco manufacturing giant, won a suit against Venezuela, which was trying to recover billions of dollars in damages for tobacco-related deaths and illness in the country. The government claims the economy was affected by the lack of healthy workers that would have otherwise paid more taxes and produced more. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against Guatemala and Nicaragua in similar cases. LABOR A Peruvian court ordered Telefonica del Peru to rehire Re`hire´ v. t. 1. To hire again. 480 workers fired during cost-cutting in June. Peru's Constitutional Tribunal ruled the dismissals were unconstitutional. Unionized workers at the phone company had been on strike to protest the firings pending the outcome of their lawsuit. ADVERTISING Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch consumer product company, is suing Brazilian Unisoap for launching a television ad comparing soap from both companies. Unilever alleges the commercial, which compares its Dove to Unisoap's Francis, is damaging to the product. Unisoap's marketing team claims the ad was a good-humored and creative strategy to gain market share. BORDERS El Salvador El Salvador (ĕl sälväthōr`), officially Republic of El Salvador, republic (2005 est. pop. 6,705,000), 8,260 sq mi (21,393 sq km), Central America. has asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague for a new ruling in a border dispute with Honduras. The world court's 1992 ruling, which favored Honduras, concerned El Salvador's border at Goascoran and ownership of the Conejo islet islet /is·let/ (-lit) an island. islets of Langerhans irregular microscopic structures scattered throughout the pancreas and comprising its endocrine portion. . El Salvador's competing claims are based on a Spanish navigator's 1794 map. SOURCE: National Law center for Inter-American Free Trade (natlaw@natlaw.com); Translegal Inc. (translegal@earthlink.net) |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion