Ed O'Bannon VS the N.C.A.A.

Former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon was named lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The suit claims that former student-athletes should be compensated for the use of their images and likenesses in television adds, video games and on apparel. The N.C.A.A. makes an estimated $4 billion in licensing deals, yet student-athletes see a overwhelming $0 of that money. Ed O'Bannon is not pushing for money for himself, even though he could use it now that he is a car salesman in Las Vegas. He wants current athletes to benefit from the money they are bringing into the N.C.A.A. But why should they see any of that money?

I looked more into that question, and came up with a few reasons why they should.

1. Lets compare how the N.C.A.A treats student-athletes compared to how colleges treat students who are professional actors or musicians. Unlike student-athletes, student-actors and musicians can keep their earnings without jeopardizing their scholarships.

2. The N.C.A.A. made a deal with CBS that they have all rights to the men's division one basketball tournament. This deal made the N.C.A.A. $6 billion over 11 years. A deal that can only be made because of the student-athletes they have to broadcast.

3. If the N.C.A.A paid students, they could avoid issues they have run into like point shaving and illegal payments. It would also give student-athletes an incentive to stay in college and finish their degree program, instead of leaving college for the pros to make money.

4. Antitrust Law: If former student-athletes could negotiate their own licensing deals, more licenses would be sold and it would make for a more competitive market, triggering lower prices for the consumers.

5. Division 1 Student-athletes are required, if not forced, to sign a series of documents in order to participate in their respective sport. The document specifies that, "You authorize the NCAA . . . to use your name or picture to generally promote NCAA championships or other NCAA events, activities or programs." This sounds like it answers everything, except for its not signed under very fair circumstances. The athletes signing this are, in some cases, under 18 years of age. Also, they don't really have any other choice but to sign this, for if they don't, they are deemed ineligible to play and risk losing their athletic scholarships.

Now, it's hard to put a price tag on how much a college athlete is really worth to a college program, but in my opinion, way more than nothing. If we like it or not, college athletics are a business, and the athletes are the biggest and quite possibly the only money makers. With out them there would be no broadcasts, no pictures, no video games, no merchandise and no interest. Just like in every business in America, the people who bring in the money, see a cut of that money. That's why i believe college athletes should see some money. I don't think they should be getting rich, or it would just be the pros, but they should be getting enough money to live nicely on.

iPhone or icard?

(Photo above Courtesy to MapData Sciences)

What if iPhones had credit card capabilities? We already have access to numerous online ordering sites such as Amazon, eBay, and of course itunes. It’s only sensible that the next step would be physically allowing iPhones to be used as swiped cards.

Three major companies are competing for such an innovation. These competitors are going through the process of developing three different ways to adapt a magnetic strip to the iPhone. Recently co-founder and Chairmen Jack Dorsey of twitter released a new startup square this December. For more infromation here is the product's wedsite. (https://squareup.com/) Dorsey says his company will release its square-shaped credit card reader, each about the size of a quarter early this summer.

This “square” has attracted the attention of major investors such as Marissa Mayor, VP of Google products, Kevin Rose founder of dig.
According Crunchbase.com up to $10 million in venture capital is at stake.

(Photos above Courtesy to PMP Today)

Other companies such as VeriFone, and Mophie plan to release there own version of compatible accessories for the iPhone relating to credit cards.
Who might use a mobile credit card reader? According to Douglas Bergeron, the CEO of VeriFone, "The guy that comes to your home to detail your car, the repairman who comes to fix a broken faucet, the person who sells you a piece of art and maybe sells only two or three a week."Dorsey also says, "Signing up for Square is just a matter of putting your name and address and picture in our system.” These rival companies want to simplify things as much as they can for the user.

According to bloggers from Techcrunch (http://techcrunch.com/), “What PayPal was to eBay, Square is to the real world”. Another blogger from Techcrunch said, "I can sell homemade t-shirts at football games, and take credit cards".

To me, the square sounds like a useful product with real world capabilities. Although, I found one issue with the square, it seems to offer too much control to the seller. The seller can set the price to whatever is being sold, there are no standards. Also you can keep return customers cards on file for future use. The only thing that separates you from their sweet credit is a signature. Also I never found any information wheather the individual must have an iPhone or must it be registered under a company. What I have found is that it is easy to get a virtual merchant account to take payments directly, alowing almost anyone and everyone to have a square.

Privatization Of China

The Chinese government for 30 years has been reforming its economy to the standards of the United States and western European countries. They have been trying to make a market economy, that democratic countries use. Many believe that is very strange for a Communist nation approaching towards a democratic approach. But with its expanding population , which already at 3 billion, they need this step to support the country. Most of the economic structures in China like railways, telecommunication, banking and utility have been all managed by government controlled agencies, but in the last 20 years, the power has been shifted to state owned companies. China has also reformed its banking system to support its growth, the four major banks of China, IBC, ABC,BOC,and CCB have outmatched American banks in Assets, loans, and profits and branches from the bank of America.

Back in the old days, their were many corrupt officials , because of bad loans made by the banks, not knowing if the credit was bad and when it was going to be paid. The Chinese government is still trying to reform its economy to compete with foreign banks, or all they have done so far will be for nothing.

Even if the reforms keep happening in China, foreign banks will over power the Chinese banks. The Chinese have made considerable advances towards market economy, but most of the profits of the banks are government owned banks, which means they are far off from the democratic western banks, which have no control form the government. I think it will take many years for the Chinese to adapt the market system, but unfortunately its very hard to do when its still a Communist country. In the near future, foreign banks will take the clients of the Chinese banks and use them against them for profit. The western European banks are more liberal and have more freedom in loans, profits and assets then Government owned Chinese banks. In my opinion it will take years for the Chinese to

catch up to European banks.