[FINDLAW_NEWS] FindLaw Legal Grounds - Friday, July 2, 1999

[Jim Twu <legalgrounds@FINDLAW.COM>]

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Web News Roundup with Jim Twu

Top News - Relevant Hearsay
   GTE Sues Over Y2K Repairs
   Valley firms win compromise on OT law
   Silicon labor practices to be probed
   FDA wants warning labels on egg cartons

Cyberlaw News - Download This!
   Apple Sues Maker of Candy-Colored iMac Look-Alike Computer
   UK Bans Web Porn Made in the USA

Entertainment Law - Legally Entertaining
   Fired producer sues CNN

Criminal Law - Arresting Developments
   Dallas minister found guilty in IRS case

Weird Legal News - Eat My Justice!
   Dog Freezer Lands In Jail
   Sleepy Nun In Court For Dodging Fare On London Bus

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Top News - Relevant Hearsay
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Cover My Y2K "Occurrence"
GTE Sues Over Y2K Repairs
New York Times

GTE Corporation has sued five insurance companies seeking $400 million
to cover its spending on Year 2000 computer repairs and testing. It is
believed to be the first lawsuit to test whether insurers may be
compelled to pay for at least some of the tens of billions of dollars
that big companies are spending on Year 2000 repairs.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/biztech/articles/02suit.html
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No Overtime for Flex-Time Workers
Valley firms win compromise on OT law
Mercury Center

High-tech employers in California will not have to pay overtime to
employees currently working 10-hour shifts four days a week who
voluntarily opt to keep that flexible work schedule - even after a bill
restoring the eight-hour workday is signed into law. The overtime bill
was amended yesterday at the request of Silicon Valley lawmakers and
employers, who said the bill threatened to disrupt alternative work
schedules that are key to attracting and retaining high-tech employees.
Employers argued that they would not be able to offer flexible schedules
if they were forced to pay workers overtime after eight hours on the
job.

http://www.mercurycenter.com/business/top/038438.htm
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High Tech Sweat Shops?
Silicon labor practices to be probed
ZDNet

U.S. federal and state officials will launch a probe to determine
whether Silicon Valley employers are using Asian immigrants to assemble
electronics components at home -- sometimes for as little as a penny a
part.

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2287524,00.html
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"It sounds like a yolk, but it's not."
FDA wants warning labels on egg cartons
Washington Times

The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that it wants each
carton of eggs to contain a warning: "For your protection: Keep eggs
refrigerated; cook eggs until yolks are firm; and cook foods containing
eggs thoroughly." In addition to the caveat about soft-yolked eggs, the
FDA wants the carton warning to include these words: "Eggs may contain
harmful bacteria known to cause serious illness, especially in children,
the elderly and persons with weakened immune systems." No word on
whether such warning labels would be required for plates of Caesar
salad.

http://www.washtimes.com/news/news3.html
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Cyberlaw News - Download This!
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Looks Like a Lawsuit
Apple Sues Maker of Candy-Colored iMac Look-Alike Computer
SF Gate

Apple Computer sued the maker of an iMac look-alike yesterday, charging
that Future Power and Korean conglomerate Daewoo unlawfully copied the
candy-colored iMac's industrial design.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/07/02/BU2
2401.DTL
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Union Jack Long Arms Web Porn
UK Bans Web Porn Made in the USA
Wired News

A British judge ruled that the content of American Web sites could be
subject to British jurisdiction. British law prohibits the distribution
of pornography for financial gain under its Obscene Publications Act of
1959. The law was amended in 1994 to include computer-related
pornography. Just after the ruling, a 28-year-old businessman pleaded
guilty to running Britain's largest Internet porn operation.  He ran a
group of for-profit US porn sites from his home in Sutton, South of
London, and had argued the porn material was published outside of
Britain.

http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20539.html

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Entertainment Law - Legally Entertaining
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"Do you smell sarin gas? Nope, smells like a lawsuit"
Fired producer sues CNN
Fox News

A television producer, April Oliver, fired by the Cable News Network
after it retracted a story alleging U.S. forces used nerve gas on
American defectors is suing CNN, seeking $106 million in damages. The
suit claims Ms. Oliver was wrongly dismissed and alleges defamation,
intentional interference with contract, intentional infliction of
emotional distress, fraud and conspiracy. The suit requests $6 million
in actual damages and $100 million in punitive damages.

http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/national/0702/d_ap_0702_61.sml
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Criminal Law - Arresting Developments
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The Phantom Tax Credit
Dallas minister found guilty in IRS case
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A part-time minister in Texas who received more than $30,000 from the
IRS by claiming a "black tax credit" was convicted on three felony
counts yesterday for trying to help his friends do the same. The man
filed a tax return in 1996 and asked for a $43,209 "black tax credit,"
which someone told him he was owed as a descendant of slaves. There is
no such thing but that didn't stop the Internal Revenue Service from
mailing him a check for $30,085.89 -- the amount he requested, less some
$13,000 owed for child support and student loans. The jury apparently
had to deliberate whether the man honestly believed such a tax credit
existed (like the IRS did initially) or whether he was intentionally
trying to claim a bogus deduction and tricking his friends into doing so
as well.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:METRO49/1:METRO49063099.html
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Weird Legal News - Eat My Justice!
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"Get your cold dead puppies here!"
Dog Freezer Lands In Jail
Reuters/Excite News

A British dog breeder who kept the corpses of dead puppies in her
freezer to later thaw them out and make bogus insurance claims on them
has been sentenced to 18 months in jail. The 52-year-old woman kept the
puppies in labeled plastic bags in her fridge-freezer among her frozen
groceries, the tabloid Daily Mail reported.

http://news.excite.com/news/r/990702/11/odd-dogs
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"A pound of flesh or sterling, sister"
Sleepy Nun In Court For Dodging Fare On London Bus
Reuters/Excite News

London's bus operators took a nun, who had fallen asleep on a bus and
overshot her stop, to court for dodging a fare worth $1.57. Nigerian
Sister Virtus of the Roman Catholic Sisters of the Daughter of Divine
Love came to a rude awakening after she one stop beyond the fare zone
covered by her pass on the number 105 bus and was confronted by a ticket
inspector.

The magistrate threw out London Buses' one pound compensation claim --
estimated to have cost the company hundreds of pounds in legal fees --
and instead gave the nun a six-month conditional discharge.

http://news.excite.com/news/r/990702/11/odd-nun
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