Introduction
Small businesses have experienced rough conditions in 2020, and this situation is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the existing companies and those on the plan to be established, the current economic crisis has been unexpected. Additionally, the American political environment has also been chaotic, which bares adverse problems for many entrepreneurs. The following is the analysis of major legal issues that relate to business concepts and affect organizations’ operations.
Content Creators and Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The online broadcasting platform Twitch has advanced publicity after Amazon possessed it. The viewership and involvement with this medium have improved to compete with YouTube and exceeded cable television (Jassal, 2017). The growth of these two video publishing mediums, including many others, has supported introducing a Gen-Z business recess called content creation (Jassal, 2017). Although there have been some advancing pains in the method, one sample of legislation seems to be the compelling reason for future interests.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a law that aims at curbing the capability for people and companies from applying the internet to bypass copyright rules. It foredates the introduction of YouTube and Twitch, but their occurrence has expressed many opposing opinions on these two mediums (Jassal, 2017). On Twitch, an increase of digital millennium copyright act puts downs request on video led buy adverse monetary problems for many streamers running content on the software (Jassal, 2017). This issue resulted in a protest that facilitated an official statement from the organization. YouTube’s group of creators have been adversely affected by the digital millennium copyright act. Large corporations have applied this law as a way to sabotage members’ income with a minor due procedure to protect them (Jones, 2018). Therefore, this tendency might start to reverse after an effective DMCA claim from GitHub for running a famous YouTube downloader.
Bitcoin and the Patriot Act
Bitcoin has made headlines this year, and this situation has led to various clarifications, including phobias of the world reserve currency depreciating resulting from the activities of the national reserve. One of the essential explanations is the improved adoption from millionaires and large companies (Burks, 2017). After the news, before PayPal and Venmo would commence actualizing cryptocurrency into their software, competitor fintech company announced a $ 50 million capital into Bitcoin (Burks, 2017). With such influential participants joining the industry, excitement around crypto and blockchain technology is continuing to establish.
There have been several legal issues in the past relating to bitcoin. It was mainly connected with black markets like Silk Road and the massive adverse case of fraud, like when the medium was hacked and lost $ 400 million of their customer’s finance (Burks, 2017). After the meteoric growth in value of $20,000 per coin, including other famous cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Chainlink, it has become the target of criticism for entrepreneurs with dollar signs (Burks, 2017). Unfortunately, there is still a dangerous legal situation required to fully incorporate this technology, consisting Title III of the Patriot Act.
Social Media and Section 230
An emphatic entrepreneurial success story of the 21st century is Silicon Valley. Commencing with telephones and computers, and later the programs hosted on these machines, organizations like Apple and Facebook have advanced cutting-edge technology that explains the way people live and how they converse (Pahnke & Welter, 2019). Part of the Communications Decency Act section 230 explicitly covers interactive computer services that use social media networks like Facebook and Twitter (Pahnke & Welter, 2019). This concept confirms that these organizations are not legally recognized as publishers of the content offered on their platform. While it may sound negligible, this minor part of more comprehensive legislation is vital to prominent participants in Silicon Valley and other technology organizations.
The Business Guidance Based on Analysis of the Cases
Based on the legal issue of content creators and the digital millennium copyright act. Many discussions from the case surrounding the unauthorized application of material, but the problem is to maintain and protect the reputation of the authors. The reason is that many cases show that the brand of the writer, originator, or artist is being dishonored when the material gets shared in a low-quality form on the internet (Wallace et al., 2017). There are many incidences where digital millennium copyright acts are influenced to protect intellectual possession in social networks. Therefore, it can be a contentious practice, realizing a slight difference between proper application and entirely theft. Every legal issue is supposed to be independently verified based on directives set out in the Act.
Bitcoin and patriotic Act issues are vital for a business to invest in Bitcoin for successful entrepreneurship. The currency’s digital structure enables cheaper, easier, and faster cash exchange, whereby business benefits. In addition, blockchain, a technology that bitcoin is established on, creates an avenue for entrepreneurs not to depend on banks to process their monetary operations (Wallace et al., 2017). The main reason to recognize bitcoin is that there are no fees because it costs one percent and no cost for the transaction. Like other currencies, Bitcoin fluctuates in value, but it is less stable than the business in cash, gold, or other items applied in trade (Wallace et al., 2017). This currency is, therefore, the best investment opportunity to consider in business.
The insinuation of section 230 on current technology organizations and their future is still under discussion. However, this information outshines the effect of changing this law on upcoming, smaller businesses. Therefore, new entrepreneurs have minimal chances to make a successful social media company because even the current influential organizations face issues that affect their progress. Consequently, it is not economically viable to create new social media companies due to the current legislation.
Recommendation on the Course of Action Based on the Legal Issues
Based on the case concerning content creators and the digital millennium copyright act, the recommended action is to file a DMCA takedown to protect business reputation. This process includes guarding the different copyrights and trademarks connected with the respective brand (Grygiel & Brown, 2019). If copyright violation has been noticed, the company that owns it can file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown to maintain business reputation and protect their assets (Grygiel & Brown, 2019). In the bitcoin and the patriot act, the best action is to put the patriot act into law to prevent local terrorism and convict cryptocurrency criminals (Grygiel & Brown, 2019). Implementing the Communications Decency Act covering social computer services is essential in sorting the issue related to interactive media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Conclusion
From the analysis of these legal issues, it is essential to determine which one individually affects a person’s business, study more about the concept, and resolve it. The best way to make a difference in business for this year and beyond is to determine a clear image of legal battles because they are most likely to predict the future. For people living in the United States, this plan can also be efficiently fulfilled by getting involved in politics.
References
Burks, C. (2017). Bitcoin: Breaking bad or breaking barriers? North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology, 18(5), 244.
Grygiel, J., & Brown, N. (2019). Are social media companies motivated to be good corporate citizens? Examination of the connection between corporate social responsibility and social media safety. Telecommunications Policy, 43(5), 445-460.
Jassal, K. K. (2017). ” Let’s Go Crazy” with fair use: Amending the digital millennium copyright Act. Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts, 12(4), 481.
Jones, M. L. (2018). Silencing bad bots: Global, legal and political questions for mean machine communication. Communication Law and Policy, 23(2), 159-195.
Pahnke, A., & Welter, F. (2019). The German Mittelstand: Antithesis to Silicon Valley entrepreneurship? Small Business Economics, 52(2), 345-358.
Wallace, L., James, T. L., & Warkentin, M. (2017). How do you feel about your friends? Understanding situational envy in online social networks. Information & Management, 54(5), 669-682.