Legal Tidbit:
On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law one of the most consequential pieces of legislation of his presidency and of the 20th century. The Social Security Act became law that day and established a sweeping set of social safety net programs including the Social Security program, Unemployment Insurance, and child welfare programs.
This Week:
- How California's Prop. 22 is helping Gig Economy firms afloat
- The scuffle over a domain name brings cybersquatter laws into focus
- From Boomers to Gen Z, who's talking to who at the office?
📉Economy
Gig Troubles
For much of the 2010s, the Gig Economy was a hot topic. Companies like Uber, Etsy, and Airbnb were darlings of Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
Now, with inflation putting an end to the free money years post-Great Recession, these companies are losing customers to high prices and calling the entire Gig Economy and the so-called "millennial subsidy" in question.
"I remember Ubers used to just be a no-brainer, and it would be like $20 here, $15 there, super easy. And now I mean it's $40 or it's $50, and you got to question that. …I mean, that can be more than your meal." Grant Plotkin, a 26-year-old Gen Zer, told Business Insider.
The Millennial Subsidy is a term coined to describe the years of cheap, convenient services from apps like Blue Apron, Uber, DoorDash, and more.
Still, some question this dip. Uber's gross bookings for the second quarter of this year are up 19%, with revenue up 16% year over year. The numbers at Lyft, Instacart, and DoorDash all look the same.
So, what's going on?
"It appears that consumers accustomed to the ease of hailing a ride or having something delivered to their doorstep with the touch of a button are loath to give that up," writes the Financial Times. "But gig economy companies — which are labor intensive businesses — can also benefit when the economy slows. More people look for side gigs to supplement their incomes. This increases the pool of drivers and delivery people. Delivery times and prices come down; the service becomes more reliable and affordable. This helps attract more users."
And labor is a central piece of the puzzle. Ridesharing companies have long fought to keep their workforce under contractor status rather than full-time employees (a distinction that saves the companies massively).
In 2020, Californians passed Proposition 22, which shielded Uber, Lyft, and other gig economy apps from reclassifying their labor pool as employees. Late last month, the California Supreme Court upheld the proposition, giving it momentum to spread to other states.
“The companies and proponents of Prop 22, including some gig-based workers, are going to try to scale this to other states,” Caroline Donelan, partner with labor and employment firm Blank Rome, told CNBC. “And at the same time, there’s going to be more pushback from unions and opponents of Prop 22 to go straight to various state legislatures to seek more protections for workers.”
“I think it provides a template for the types of laws they could try to get passed in other states, whether it’s through ballot initiatives, where that’s an option, or legislation,” added Gary McLaughlin, partner at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.
The Union Push
Long-established unions like the SEIU fought alongside upstart unions like the California Gig Workers Union to defeat Proposition 22. But with its passage, these labor groups see unionizing as their best defense. "They can unionize, but they cannot, if they’re properly characterized as independent contractors, bargain for wages and conditions of employment,” William Gould, professor of law emeritus at Stanford Law School and a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Instead, with a union, "they could speak out politically. They could fund litigation designed to improve their conditions. They can try to get legislators elected who are sympathetic to them.”
Verdict
The way we work and our economy as a whole has undergone massive change (thanks in no small part of Silicon Valley) over the last decade-plus, so it's no surprise our labor rights are also in flux. If the paradigm secured by California's Prop. 22 will now be scaled across the country, the role of the union and who it can represent should change alongside it.
💻 TECH
Squatter's Rights
When Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate late last month, it became immediately clear that the domain name HarrisWalz.com was now worth something. $15,000, by Jeremy Green Eche's estimation.
Eche registered the domain back in 2020, taking a gamble on a bevy of candidate combinations he believed could one day run for office. “When I hit the jackpot, it happens to be profitable,” he told Bloomberg Law. “Fundamentally for me it’s just a hobby, something I enjoy doing.” More than a hobby, it's also something of an advertisement for his trademark registration business JPG Legal LLC.
But some argue that Eche's practice of "cybersquatting" may not be entirely kosher.
“I think it’s unlawful. I think it’s unsavory. I think it’s unethical. Congress passed a law that says, ‘Don’t do this,’ and this guy said, ‘I’m doing this,'" David J. Steele of Tucker Ellis LLP, noted. He added that Eche is "'clearly articulating his intent, and his intent was to register the name of another living person' and to make money on a sale of the domain."
To settle such disputes, cases are handled under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy which was created by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—the same group that creates new domains like ".biz" and ".club".
But trademark attorney Joel Feldman of Greenberg Traurig believes that there is no fundamental law against "prospecting" for domain names. In fact, if Eche and other cybersquatters are to be litigated against, "it’d have more success in a lawsuit…as US federal law on registering names is more explicit. Intent to profit is also legally different under US law, where it’s a term of art into which Eche’s behavior squarely fits," Bloomberg writes.
Taylor Swift Gets Involved
Earlier this year, Swift's intellectual property entity, TAS Rights Management, filed cybersquatting cases against registrants of domains that they say infringe on her IP rights, reports Domain Name Wire.
The domains (which are various iterations of the "taylor swift" and "merch shop") were registered by a Pakistani man looking to mirror Swift's official website. TAS Rights Management has requested the World Intellectual Property Organization transfer the domains to them under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.
Verdict
It seems capitalizing on a brand like Taylor Swift is one thing when registering a domain name for profit. But claiming the same for "HarrisWalz" might be a harder case to prove. Regardless, speculation as business model is not exclusive to the realm of the net.
💼 WORK
Office Talk
Finding it hard to understand the casual slang of the Gen Z interns and associates are you firm? Or is the old-school email and phone style of the Boomers at your office slowing things down?
A survey from Law.com tried to understand the issue, asking employees across 81 firms if intergenerational communication is hindering operations.
Nearly 55% of respondents said that "different generations' communication style" was hindering their firm's ability to operate effectively and/or achieved a desired outcome.
Similarly, above 56% said that they were offended by the way a different generation communicates.
And workplace aggression also stood out as an issue. About two-thirds of respondents have said a superior has yelled at them in the workplace, with almost 77% agreeing that yelling is never appropriate in the office.
So, what's to be done to solve these intergenerational tensions?
"Virtual mentorship sessions—including reverse mentorships, where a less experienced employee mentors a more senior one—can help expose team members to different perspectives," Andrey Khusid, CEO of Miro, wrote in Fast Company. "Employee resource groups (ERGs) and affiliation groups are another way to connect people across generations, highlighting the strengths of each."
"Most of the evidence for generational differences in preferences and values suggests that differences between these groups are quite small," notes the Harvard Business Review. In fact, a meta-analysis of 20 different studies found that, "although individual people may experience changes in their needs, interests, preferences, and strengths over the course of their careers, sweeping group differences depending on age or generation alone don’t seem to be supported."
Verdict
Longer career spans, diversity of hires, and even remote work have all contributed to varying communication styles at the office. It's key for a firm's culture and efficacy to acknowledge these differences and work to bridge them.
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