The Congressional tax change proposal for owners of LLPs, LLCs and S-corporations would fill only a small part ' about 1.5% ' of the projected Social Security funding gap; but the proposal looms much larger when compared with other elements of the Joint Committee's overall tax-revision package
If an influential congressional committee has its way, some professionals and many small business owners could be forced to dig into their own pockets to help bridge the projected $3.75 trillion funding gap for Social Security.
At issue is the sticky subject of limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships and so-called "S" corporations, and the manner in which participants in those businesses pay their Social Security and medical insurance employment taxes.
The effects of e-mail on American political campaigns are dramatic, as demonstrated last November, when e-communication played a decisive factor in several election victories. The Internet as cyber forum offers candidates the opportunity to contact a million voters for about $100 using unsolicited bulk e-mails, often called spam. Under the First Amendment, political spam is generally lawful, but political spam used for fundraising and other specific types of communication may cause legal difficulties for candidates and their agencies ' from canvassers to other entities sending the spam, however well-intentioned.
Predictions were that e-mail would revolutionize business communication ' and slash its cost. In fact, the doyens and novices alike of e-mail promised that this admittedly useful, and now ubiquitous, tool would eliminate postage and paper expenses, as well as the hidden-delay costs of waiting for even an overnight package to arrive.
But in an era when deals are negotiated and closed entirely online, has e-mail's reality lived up to its promise? While business is certainly being done more quickly than in the dark ages before e-mail ' remember, say, the early 1990s? ' is it being done more efficiently?
Can hyperlinks on one Web site that link to another site where copyrighted materials are displayed constitute copyright infringement?
Although courts in at least two decisions have declined to recognize the potential of copyright infringement from the mere use of such hyperlinks, the recent Indiana federal district court case, Batesville Services, Inc v. Funeral Depot, Inc., concluded that a defendant's use of hyperlinks on a Web site that link to copyrighted material on another Web site could constitute unlawful copyright infringement.
A $10,000 "side bet" wasn't enough to persuade a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals en banc panel to answer whether federal courts have jurisdiction over out-of-state Internet retailers.
As technology advancements and competition combine to drive information technology (IT) costs down, law firms of all sizes are poised to take advantage…
SXSW Music and Media Conference and Festival 2005 CLE Program, sponsored by SXSW. In Austin, TX, March 18-19. Will cover music law year in review, live performance and touring issues, alternative digital deals, artist career co-ventures, structuring agreements in the music industry and legal ethics in the digital age. For further information: 512-467-7979 or www.sxsw.com. …
Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
Everything that's contained in this issue, in one easy list.
