Law in Business

The US government regulates products safety with regard to the quality and quantity of products. Through this initiative, the government is able to protect its citizens from exploitation and harm from producers or distributors. Some of the crucial agencies involved in the exercise include the FDA, CPSC, and NHTSA. These agencies have specialization within the areas they regulate and tasks handled. The FDA, being one of the vital agencies, is involved in the regulation of adulterated and misbranded products. The agency adopts two approaches, which include the subjection of products to premarket approval processes and assessment of products distributed by a firm (Hellemans, 2009).  

The punitive damages awarded to the plaintiff in ‘The Ford Pinto Case’ were reasonable in light of the tort of strict liability. Since the design of Ford Pinto had defections, which posed threats to humanity, the verdict on case was appropriate. In this regard, the occurrence of the fatal accident, which caused permanent disabilities to the plaintiff, was simply because of the default of project managers to take precautionary measures. In my opinion, the plaintiff deserved to be compensated due to the company’s negligence.

The manner in which contract law and tort law are considered within the manufacturer liability is different. The contact law encompasses the violation to contractual agreements by the manufacturer and other persons. In this case, it results due to failure to comply with the duties or responsibilities agreed. For the tort law, it involves the cases that results from the manufacturer injury or wrongdoing of parties out of their negligence or misconduct. In this case, the damages would be attributed to the villain based on the reasonable predictable damages on the victim (Keenan & Riches, 2007).

The alternative approach of combating consumer goods such as alcohol, tobacco, guns, motor vehicles, and junk food is one of the appropriate measures that enhance sustenance of healthy lives. Since the approach provides consumers with substitutes to the current products, there are possibilities that exposure to health risk would decline. This approach is an ideal method of solving chronic behaviors associated with consumption of goods that pose threats to human life. Nevertheless, this approach could affect multiple companies as well as the government revenue generated in this regard.

The findings in the case of Sony BMG music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum support the idea of fair use. Since Tenenbaum was involved in copyright infringement of the Entertainment providers, he was bound to pay for the damages of violation of the law. The fact that Tenenbaum argued to be favored due to his age was not valid and had to comply with the verdict made by the court. Thus, the case depicted a fair use. 

The downloading of music from the internet is one of the vital concerns to the owners of music and the customers. This practice is seen to affect the music market, as there is no exact means through which copyright can be maintain by the producers since the internet has no limitations on the activity. As a result, producers are bound to lose huge revenues, while piracy would increase significantly. The digital millennium copyright act is anticipated to influence the music industry positively. In this case, there would be thorough regulations with respect to digital music and producers would not be exploited (Mazzone, 2011).

The concept of protecting individual inventiveness is elicited by the use of patents. In this case, the inventor obtains some time to conclude or enjoy the benefits of his or her inventions for almost twenty years. After the period, the other adopter of the knowledge could assimilate the ideas leading to vibrant shared culture. As a result, the invention would be beneficial to both the inventor and adopter. Microsoft creativity with regard to its software illustrates this scenario, but software production is not restricted to the company only.

The global intellectual property rights helps to protect creativity or innovation of individuals. In this case, the right holders can enjoy the returns and distribution of their services, which prevents competition and exploitation on one’s innovation. Though it poses challenges to the concept of shared culture, it promotes creativity and hard work. An example is the Microsoft Company, which enjoy the creativity of Windows software.

The drafting of Sarbanes-Oxley Act resulted from the multiple scandals that had hit the US market. These scandals cost investor billions of dollars due to lack of regulation subjected to companies such as Enron and WorldCom. Based on these eventualities, the investors trust in the securities market had declined immensely necessitating the establishment of the Act. In my opinion, this was crucial to counter malpractices and misappropriation of funds by business organizations. (Manz, 2003)

During the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the concerned parties overlooked multiple underlying causes such as the independence of auditors and foreign direct investment in the security markets. The enactors derived their concepts on the notion that auditing firms were dependent on scandalous firms and never exercised their authorities fully. Similarly, legislators overlook the need of foreign direct investors in the market, which led to decline in international investments due to stringent regulations.

The ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the short run include the creation of confidence within the security markets and eradication of malpractices within the industry. In this regard, the fund managers as well as the investors would gain trust of the market due to genuineness of corporate financial statements. As a result, scandals that cause shocks or loses of huge costs would not emanate.

On the other hand, the ramifications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the long term would entail the regulation of auditing institutions, corporate governance, and appropriate financial disclosure. Through this, auditors firms will be independent, while the internal assessment of firms would portray the real values of the firm. In addition, the disclosure of financial statements would exhibit accountability and transparency. This is because of the law, which provide for fines and penalties for violators.