Re: Re: Owner as author?

To ring a further change on what Steve is saying, I will point out that the law of agency is, properly stated, the law of "principal and agent." To have an agency requires a principal, and in the case of employment, the employer is the principal and the employee is the agent. This runs through a chain, so that the grunt employee is the agent of the supervisory employee, who is the agent of the management employee, who is the agent of the business *if* the business is incorporated or otherwise a cognizable legal entity, which in some cases can be said to be an agent of its owner(s). The law allows owners of incorporated or other limited-liability entities, subject to a few extraordinary exceptions, to avoid vicarious liability for the acts of their "agents," but note that the owners of proprietorships and general partnerships (and the general partner in a limited partnership) does not escape such liability and is the ultimate principal.

So, as Steve says, it's not a circle, it's a (food) chain. Back, as it were, to first principals.

Vance

On 4/14/05, Steven Jamar <sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu> wrote:
>
> On Thursday, April 14, 2005, at 02:00 PM, Heather Vargas wrote:
>
> > This agency/employee issue is circular.
>
> How so? If one uses agency law principles to distinguish between an
> employee and an independent contractor, where is the circle?
>
> > The Supreme Court said in CCNV v. Reid that the determination
> > regarding whether one is an employee or not is made using traditional
> > agency principles. Clearly there is a distinction between Keith's
> > Exxon example, Steve's CEO example, and the Mom and Pop scenario I am
> > dealing with (which does not involve software, by the way).
>
> If the owners are employees, then the owners are employees because they
> are employees, not because they are owners. Even in the smallest
> business mere ownership does not mean one is also an employee or even
> an agent. Some businesses have investors who do nothing but put up the
> money. It is not the size of the organization that matters, it is the
> relationship between the individual and the business that matters.
>
> --
> Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox:
> 202-806-8017
> Howard University School of Law fax:
> 202-806-8428
> 2900 Van Ness Street NW
> mailto:sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu
> Washington, DC 20008
> http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar
>
> "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as
> old as the hills."
>
> Gandhi
>
>

-- 
Vance R. Koven
Boston, MA USA
vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com