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A Breakdown of Fair Use

Is your small business trying to spruce up your website by adding some new pictures? Want to raise money for your nonprofit by hosting a community movie night? Trying to update your marketing materials with a brand-new promotional video with cool background music? If so, you could be opening yourself up to potential copyright lawsuits and should read up on the doctrine of fair use! An important aspect of starting a small business or nonprofit is exposure, and as organizations work to market themselves and increase awareness of their goals and activities in the communities they serve, they could open themselves up to legal danger. Litigation is expensive, and the cost can be especially devastating to small businesses and nonprofits. In all promotional or informational materials (including brochures, flyers, websites, etc.), organizations need to be sure that they are legally protected from copyright infringement claims.   What is Fair Use? Fair use is a legal doctrine that per...
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Navigating Liability Across Multiple Ventures for Michigan Businesses: Alternatives to Series LLCs

  The Problem: Managing Liability Across Different Ventures   Many business owners manage multiple ventures. This often entails dealing with different types of risks and liabilities. Whether selling different lines of products or operating multiple services within a business, it is really important to keep liabilities isolated to protect assets. For example, consider a business owner who owns both a restaurant and a catering business. In the event that a customer sued the restaurant for something like a slip-and-fall accident, the owner’s catering business could also be at risk if the ventures are not legally separated. Without proper legal structures, a lawsuit or financial issue affecting one part of the business could easily spill over, putting the entire business at risk. For this reason, business owners should look for ways to separate liability across their ventures and ensure that issues in one area don't threaten the stability and success of the others.   Liab...
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BIPOC Executive Leadership Representation in Nonprofits

  Halloween has already passed, but as a lowly law student with arithmophobia, I feel compelled to provide you all with some spooky statistics in November. It is no secret that the upper ranks of America’s professional workforce have a diversity problem, and in particular, a racial diversity problem. Unfortunately, this remains true in the nonprofit sector: -           Studies have shown that just 20% of nonprofit executive directors and CEOs are people of color, and 66% of nonprofit Board members are white. [1] -           Another study reported that between July 2019 and January 2024, “ 47% of all staff… 70% of CEOs/Executive Directors (EDs)... as well as 66% of Board members identify as white.” [2] Compare these figures with the general population per USAFacts: over 40% of the U.S. population identified as non-white in 2023, a figure that has grown over 17% since 1990. [3] ...
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