Tag: law

Judge.me – Internet arbitration

For years now I’ve heard (and said) that the legal system is lagging behind, that it needs to catch up and provide answers to some of those questions raised by the recent technological advances.  Given how complex and large our current legal system is, that’s not an easy task.  But the need is there.  And, as always, where there is a need, there is a business.

I’ve actually been wondering when we’ll see more and more lawyer start-ups, figuring out problems and providing solutions.  Today I’ve learned about one such start-up via this Slashdot post. It’s called Judge.me and it provides arbitration services over the Internet:

It’s not unusual for a freelance Web designer or developer to be burnt when a client refuses to pay up, citing one excuse or another. And what can you do about it? If a contract only amounts to a few thousand dollars, litigation to recover your fee can be far too expensive, and an increasingly vituperative exchange of emails is often not enough for client and contractor to come to agreement over who owes whom what. Into this gap steps judge.me: A start-up founded by Peter-Jan Celis that aims to provide internet-based, legally binding arbitration services — a ‘small claims court’ for the internet — with a particular eye on settling the conflicts that arise over freelance development and Web design.

The start-up is utilizing the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards that is recognized by 146 countries (yes, including US, most of European Union, Cyprus, and Russian Federation).  Read more on how it works.

There are still questions and doubts on whether Judge.me is the solution or a milestone on the road to one.  Some people are skeptical, yet others seemed to have tried it and got the results. But regardless of how good this particular service is, I’m glad to see some activity in this area.

26 years is a long time

Cyprus Mail reports:

AFTER spending 26 years in jail for killing two people, Andreas Aristodimou, aka Yiouroukkis, yesterday became the first lifer to be released on parole.

[…]

The board said the testimony before it had convinced them that Yiouroukkis was a changed man.

“The very serious offences committed by the applicant and generally his criminal record do not escape our attention,” the board said. “On the other hand, it is a real fact that the applicant has been in prison since January 16, 1987… ample time to punish all that he has done.”

That got me thinking on how long of a time 26 years actually are.

  • I was almost 9 years old when this guy went to prison.   That’s a second grade or so.
  • My brother was almost 2 years old.  And he just got married a couple of month ago.  Wow!
  • My parents were still married.
  • We all lived happily in the USSR.  Which, by the way, was still at war with Afghanistan.
  • Spyros Kyprianou was the President of Cyprus.  Until 1988.  Then there wer George Vasiliou, Glafcos Clerides, and Tassos Papadopoulos. Now Dimitris Christofias is almost done.
  • Cyprus was still using Cyprus Pouds, not Euros.
  • Cyprus wasn’t a member of European Union. In fact …
  • There was no such thing as European Union in 1987!  The European Union was established in 1993.
  • The Internet was in its infancy, and the Web wasn’t even invented yet.
  • The mobile phones weren’t mainstream by any means.  Cyprus Telecommunication Authority (CYTA) launched its mobile telephony services in 1988.
  • The biggest release in the movies was probably Oliver Stone’s “Platoon“.  James Cameron’s “Aliens” were about to hit the screens.  And people were definitely waiting for it after Cameron’s “The Terminator” a couple of years before that.
  • Kurt Cobain was still alive and Nirvana was just an idea.
  • The World Trade Center towers were still standing and we haven’t heard the term “war on terror” yet.

The list can go on forever, of course. But that’s not the point.  The point is in how drastically the world has changed in the last 26 years.  I know, that people in prison can communicate with others, have access to mass media, and do, sort of, know what’s going on on the outside.  But that’s not that same as living through all that.  Just image hearing about all these things for 26 years and then coming out and seeing it with your own eyes!

I remember going on a trip to Russia, visiting my home town back in 2006.  That was only about 9 years since I was there last, and I had weekly phone calls with some members of my family and friends, I had access to news and images online for all that time.  And still, when I went there, it blew my mind how much the place has changed.  People have grown up and started families.  Trees got older.  Buildings were raised and demolished.  A million of tiny little details changed.  Not to mention  that my own perception of that place has changed.  And that was only 9 years.  I can’t really image how it would have changed in 26 years.

Once in a while, I find myself in a conversation about prison time and isolation.  Something along the lines of “you’d rob a bank for a few million, hide the money, get caught, go to prison, come out in about ten years, get your life back and enjoy the money”.  Or something else like that.  Sounds simple, even almost makes sense.  Now that I look at the list above, I realize that it sounds so simple, because the talk is about a future.  As in you would know what you are missing.  Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the next ten years and if these years will be worthy of sticking around.  But if one would look back at the same amount of years, then it’s a totally different story.  At least for me, those years are full of fun and cherished memories that I wouldn’t miss for the world!

Now, back to the original story. Andreas Aristodimou missed the last 26 years of his life because he was in prison for murdering two people. He was sentenced to life in prison.  So not only he could have missed me more than 26 years, he could have stayed there forever.  And he is just around 50 now.  That sounds horrible.  On the other hand, he got out and he has his life back. Sort of.  Those two people that he murdered, they are gone for good.  They missed the last 26 years too.  But there is no way to bring them back.

Who is suing who in the mobile phone industry?

GigaOm links to an excellent visualization of smartphone patents’ legal battles.  It’s interesting how different is the representation of Apple and Google on this graph.  However, one needs to remember, that Google has acquired Motorola’s mobile division.

 

This seems to be a nice update to another graph that I’ve posted a couple of years ago.  Some of the lawsuits from the old chart are still here.  And there is a whole bunch of new ones.  I like this new updated one better than the old one, because company logos make it more readable. And this one also has references to the actual lawsuits, in case someone wants to follow.

Is parliamentary immunity obsolete?

While reading this article in Cyprus Mail, I had to ask myself if parliamentary immunity is any good.  Why do members of parliament need this privilege.  Wikipedia suggests:

Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which members of the parliament or legislature are granted partial immunity from prosecution. Before prosecuting, it is necessary that the immunity be removed, usually by a superior court of justice or by the parliament itself. This reduces the possibility of pressing a member of the parliament to change his vote by fear of prosecution.

I think this doesn’t work anymore in the modern society.  Those who do need to press MPs usually will find ways to do so, parliamentary immunity or not.  Giving MPs such an immunity relies on their good nature. And we all know how good-natured an average politician is.  The example was given in the above-mentioned Cyprus Mail article.

Update: another article in the same newspaper covers the story, and, among other things, suggests an interesting approach to the problem – a “name and shame” policy.

As we cannot expect our deputies to behave like law-abiding citizens with regard to traffic fines, the relevant article of the constitution, which allows them to flout the law, would have to be changed. Of course for the article to be changed, a two-thirds majority would be needed in the legislature, and we doubt there would be 38 deputies willing to vote for surrendering their privilege not to pay traffic fines.

There is an alternative. The police and municipalities could make public, once a month, the names of deputies who had refused to pay their parking and speeding tickets. A name and shame policy would be the ideal solution so that voters are aware which Representatives are so cheap they abuse their privilege in order not to pay a small fine.

Reduction of roaming prices in EU

Cyprus Mail shares some good news:

CYPRIOTS and other EU nationals on the move will now enjoy cheaper roaming charges under a deal struck yesterday by the European Commission and its lawmakers.

[…]

Under the new deal, charges on calls made while travelling in other EU countries cannot exceed 29 cents per minute and calls received while outside the home country should cost no more than 8 cents per minute.

Sending a text message while away has a ceiling charge of 9 cents per minute and accessing the internet, 70 cents per megabyte.

Currently under Cyta’s monthly-pay plan, roaming charges within the EU cost 41 cents per minute for an outgoing call, 12 cents per minute for a received call, 12 cents per text message, and 73 cents per megabyte for internet access. The new charges should reduce the cost of a call significantly for people using their mobile phones within the bloc. On outgoing calls alone users will save 12 cents per minute with the charge dropping from 41 cents to 29 cents.
By 2014 yesterday’s newly-agreed caps should go down by almost another third except internet costs, which would drop to 20 cents per megabyte, reports from Brussels said.

Ignoring the actual numbers, that’s music to my ears.  I hope mobile Internet will go cheaper faster than that.