Legal Current

Welcome to Ill Repute, a podcast about reputation and the forces in the 24 hour news cycle and social media that inpact them. In this edition, Susan Martin is joined by Thomson Reuters resident PR consultant, Leonard Lee, as well as Communications Lead Gretchen DeSutter. This week, they discuss the reputation management of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, KFC's fried rat scandal, and the latest social media food fight between Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure and T-Mobile CEO John Legere.

Trade Secret Misappropriation and Employment Contracts

With a hot technology sector and an improving economy all around,

workforce mobility has been on the rise in Silicon Valley, along with

efforts by companies to acquire premium talent from competitors. New

words like "acqui-hire" have even been invented to describe start-up

acquisitions by larger companies that target a start-up's employees,

rather than its businesses.

Warren Wayne of Bird & Bird in London discusses the changing landscape in protecting trade secrets in the US and Europe.

In the 11th edition of Wait, What? the guys talk about government surveillance programs, particularly as they have been executed in the United States. The show looks at the USA Patriot and USA Freedom Acts and discusses what responsibilities and rights any government has or should have when it comes to data collection on its citizenry. The conversation covers a broad slice of government data collection programs, but each of the guys has a different spin, which makes for a great discussion. One of the questions coming out of the discussion, is whether or not citizens should be prepared to accept certain risks to their civil liberties for the protection of their nation from its enemies. The discussion also touches on the revelations brought to light by groups like Wiki-leaks and individuals like (former NSA contractor) Edward Snowden. The group also discusses the difference between corporate versus government use of data and whether or not people even care.

China intellectual property rights have undergone significant reform in recent years.  But is it enough?  What more needs to be done?

Welcome to Ill Repute, a podcast about reputation and the forces in the 24 hour news cycle and social media that inpact them. In this edition, Susan Martin is joined by Thomson Reuters resident PR consultant, Leonard Lee, as well as John Shaughnessy, vice president of Business Communications at Thomson Reuters. This week, they discuss the reputation management of the transition from Bruce to Caitlyn Jenner, how the NAACP is handling the Rachel Dolezal scandal, and how no one is safe in an age where cameras are everywhere.

In a very special episode of "Wait, What?!," the guys travel to AwesomeCon in Washington, D.C. to take in all the sights and sounds. Additionally, the show wanted to get up close and personal with the comic book/science fiction industry to see what people think about the technology and culture associated with these genres. One of the takeaways from the hours spent at the convention was that there are so many different ways to ingest media. The guys saw everything from folks buying physical comic books to people reading them on their tablets. The conversation that follows is one that questions the actual need for physical books and magazines at all, and whether or not we're in for a paperless future.

One of the other topics that the guys explore is the idea of "creativity" and whether or not drawing your own version of an established comic book, video game or movie character is actually being creative, or if it’s just copying someone else's work.

The guys had a great time interviewing people on the floor of the convention which you either listen to at the end of the show, or listening individually below.

The highlight of the convention for the show was their interview with Ming Chen (@MingChen37) and Bryan Johnson (@TellEmSteveDave) from AMC's Comic Book Men. You can listen to Matt become a complete fanboy and botch his portion of the interview.

Keep listening as we're going to have some great folks sitting in with us in the near future.

AMC's Comic Book Men at AwesomeCon 2015

Superman and Batman at AwesomeCon 2015

Increasingly, people are dropping their cable providers and opting instead for streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as new standalone services like HBO Go. But even these services would see dwindling subscribers, as value-added taxes have taken effect based on location. Jason Roberts, attorney and legal analyst with the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters, talked with us about the legal and economic approaches to taxing online content, and specifically, what is being referred to as the Netflix tax rolling out in countries around the world over the last year or so.

Welcome to Ill Repute, a podcast about reputation and the forces in the 24 hour news cycle and social media that inpact them. In this edition, Susan Martin is joined by Thomson Reuters resident PR consultant, Leonard Lee, as well as Social Media Specialist Joel Leeman. This week, they discuss the reputation management of the Josh Duggar scandal, the implications of Barack Obama and other politicians being more active on social media, and the growing disdain for pedal pubs due to online community hate groups.