Reference no: EM131094286

1. CONTRACT TERMS, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR ARE SIGNING

A contract is simply an agreement that can be enforceable in a court of law. People enter into contracts daily and may not know it.

For example: If you go into a restaurant, order and eat your meal and don't pay, what happens? When you get on the train, bus, subway, etc. and you don't pay, what happens? How about parking your car or buying groceries and don't pay? These are a few examples of contractual relationship where you can get arrested and be charged a fine if you don't pay.

Remember, the key is whether the agreement can be enforceable in court.

Do you read every word in a contract before you sign it? Better yet, do you understand all the terms and conditions of the agreement that you have signed? Do you know what are your duties, responsibilities and liabilities under the agreement?

Do you have an account with Google, Facebook, or YouTube? Have you ever wondered what you are agreeing to when you clicked the "ACCEPT" button? How many of you have read the agreement by any or all of these companies in their entirety?
POLICE STOPS, WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

The purpose of having the police is "to serve and to protect" to public from harm. Among their many duties, police officers, deter or stop crime, apprehend criminals, manage and control the flow of traffic, etc.

The police officers do this by patrolling the areas that they are responsible for to observe what is happening in the environment, and to investigate anything that appears to be "out of place" or out of the normal flow of business in that particular environment. Examples of activities being out of place including: a speeding car in a school zone while children are out; a speeding car on the highway or a car weaving in and out of traffic; a bank robbery; or people who appear to be loitering around a home or business and they don't look like they belong. Most of the time, a police stop is not personal, the officer is just doing his or her job.

Sometimes, police stops can turn into tragic incidents, like the cases of Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri), Freddie Gray (Baltimore, Maryland), Sandra Bland (Prairie View, Texas), and Laquan McDonald (Chicago, Illinois).

Protecting the public is a very dangerous and high stress job. Officers are injured or die on the job every year, especially the last couple of years. Its surprising not more officers are reported to have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

We, the public, want their protection but some don't want to show any respect. Police officers are also human, so their first priority after a STOP is to protect themselves from getting killed or injured. They are on a heighten alert for danger and anything you can do to lessen their concerns about their personal safety will go a long way towards ensuring your personal safety.

Here's some ideas:

Watch this public service video by Chris Rock entitled "How not to get your ass kicked by the police" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2plo4FOgIU, and read the attached two articles "10 Tips to Avoid Speeding Tickets" and "An Ex-Cop's Guide to Not Getting Arrested"

After you have watched the video and read the articles, reflect on how you should engage the police when you are stopped. Are race or social economic background a factor? Is the system broken? Why or why not and how can we fix it?

Assignment:

Go to either the Google, Facebook or YouTube website (just one) and pull its Terms of Services Agreement.

Read it carefully and identify five (5) things you didn't know were in the contract, and explain what you think each of them means and why they are important to you and/or to the company. Make sure you provide the direct web-link to the document and the direct link to each provision in the contract that you are commenting on.

Now do you still believe there is such a thing as a "free lunch"? Payment (i.e., Consideration) doesn't always have to be in "dollars and cents." How do you think you are paying for this "free" services"? Explain.

2. Uber, Tesla, Air BnB Oh My, ...
It's like traveling on the Yellow Brick Road in the Land of Oz.

Venture capitalists and angel investors are constantly looking for the next "big thing" that will revolutionize the market place and that will make them a 10x (i.e., ten times) return on their investment. Unfortunately, not every investment will achieve these high-yielding results. The truth is that not many startups ever make it to the marketplace and those that do often achieve more modest results. That is why early stage investors like to play the law of averages - invest a little money into more companies so their investment portfolio has more chances for success. It's akin to playing baseball. Home runs may be inspiring, but it's the single hits that make up the bulk of the game.

The more recent flavor of the day in terms of early stage investments has to do with the application of new technology into industry and society. The technology must have the ability to disrupt the current status quo in the marketplace and/or have the ability to be adaptive to new markets. Sometimes the technology has the opportunity to do both.

Laws are created to create certainty in the marketplace and to protect the public. At the sa
me time, these same laws can be used to protect the special interests of established companies already in that space.

Uber, Tesla and Air BnB, are each going up against established players in their respective industry.

Research the web on what each of these three companies are doing in their respective markets, who are their major competitors, what laws currently regulate their space, and how each company is trying to deal with the rules and regulations in their space (i.e., how are laws being used to stop potential competitors from entering their market space? For example, the last successful automobile manufacturer to set up shop in the United States was Ford Motors over a century ago. Should there be two sets of rules, on for established players and another for startups? Why or why not? What kind of disruption will the technology have in the market place and who will or should be paying for the cost of the innovation? Remember, each choice brings a number of repercussions down the food chain.

PLEASE ANSWER ABOVE 2 QUESTIONS AND MAKE SURE TO READ THEM CAREFULLY BEFORE ANSWERING.