Businesses invest in technology to save money. They hope that the latest invention will live up to the marketers' claims of efficiencies over old ways of doing business.
But paradoxically, when "computing" the savings, don't forget the extra costs ' the "technology burden" as it's called ' imposed by innovation, whether cutting edge or mainstream. Keep in mind that sometimes you have to spend more ' a lot more ' before you can spend less.
Now that the 109th session of Congress is well under way, passing The Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act must be a top priority for legislators. This proposed legislation would prohibit states from imposing a punitive tax on nonresidents who choose to telecommute some or most of the time to in-state employers. By proscribing such a tax, the law would remove a significant obstacle to the continued growth of an important form of e-commerce: interstate telework.
Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
The latest state and federal legislative developments in Internet law.
Recent developments of note in the Internet industry.This month:
First Convictions in U.S. Peer-To-Peer Piracy Fight
Music Industry Boss Defends File-Sharing Lawsuits
8th Circuit: No ISP Subpoenas
Google and its general counsel, David Drummond, reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the company's failure to register more than $80 million in employee stock options in the 2 years prior to its IPO.
Law firms use Internet technology to communicate in ways that were simply not possible 10 years ago. This has allowed lawyers to share information as never before. More importantly, the technology associated with the Internet allows law firms direct control over Internet communications because they own the individual networks that allow information to be shared. This direct control brings increased liability for copyright infringement, unless firms comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Compliance requires little investment of time or money. Similarly, e-mail protection is readily available at little or no additional cost.
Could the right to search copyrighted images on the Internet be in jeopardy? That would be outcome if Perfect 10, Inc. (P10), a purveyor of adult entertainment, has its way.
The 19-year-old publisher of a Web site facing a recent lawsuit over an article about a top-secret $499 Apple computer originally had to plead for legal assistance. Not only did Terry Gross, a partner in the San Francisco-based Gross & Belsky LLP, step up to the plate, but he appears to be willing to play hardball.
Written by our new Board of Editors member, Ed Wesemann, and published in 2004 ' with profits donated to the ALA ' this collection of skillfully crafted essays provides illuminating observations and pithy advice on a wide range of challenges facing law firms and lawyers. The book's first chapter, on profitability problems larger firms have with small clients, was the springboard for this month's roundtable discussion
