Every September 19, the entire international community is invited to Talk Like a Pirate. Here, you may indulge in that linguistic celebration, but that’s not the focus of your mission.
For this week’s Discussion, you must utilize your legal case research skills and find a case that dealt with intellectual property theft online. Your treasure map might have you begin at UC’s library, where Nexis-Uni may be effective.
This is not an exercise in finding an article or opinion piece. Your source material must be a legal dispute. In order to avoid the risk of discussing only a handful of cases amongst the hundreds or more that have gone to court and are available, do not discuss a case that another student has already initiated; review the Discussion II.b. Forum before you post your Initial Post to avoid that fate.
At a minimum, you must:
- Cite the legal case pursuant to APA citation guidelines for court decisions and cases (Purdue’s OWL has direction), and make sure to submit it to Discussion II.b.;
- What was the principle issue in the legal dispute? This should surround the legal issue at the heart of the lawsuit, and may include the essential facts of the matter;
- What was the rule or set of rules that the court analyzed to frame the legal dispute? Maybe they are federal laws or regulations, or it could be at the state level, or a combination;
- How did the court apply the rules to the set of facts posed by each side? Here, we want your summary of the logic, the critical thinking, and the rationale that the court built its conclusion upon; AND
- What did the court conclude? Who won, who lost, what’s left unanswered for the next phase of litigation if there is one to follow?
**Remember** Every Discussion in MSDF 633 fits into the same pattern:
- Review the Discussion prompt, which you are reading right now, and understand it and study any additional materials implicated within it;
- Submit an Initial Post no later than the end of Wednesday during the week the Discussion occurs;
- Submit at least one or two Responsive Posts, more are always welcomed, to your classmates’ Initial Posts no later than the end of Sunday during the week.
Savvy? So I thought.