The Copyright Office released a report on March 15, 2009 which provided for increases in several fees, citing rising labor costs and current budget constraints. While the cost of basic online copyright registration (eCO) for most types of works remains the same, the cost of registering a copyright via a 2D barcode application has increased [...]

A recent survey showed that 60% of workers leaving a job take information with them.  According to an article on employee data theft in the Washington Post, almost 80% of terminated employees who admitted to taking employer data admitted that they knew it was against company policy, or had signed a written agreement prohibiting the [...]

Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a new Michigan law modifying foreclosure and loan modification rights (2009-PA-0029, 2009-PA-0030, 2009-PA-0031) to help financially distressed homeowners on May 21, 2009. The new foreclosure law takes effect on July 5, 2009. I have posted a copy of the new Michigan foreclosure law. [PDF - all acts] Individual bills/acts in the [...]

With massive layoffs, Wall Street bonuses, and employment contracts in the news, many people are taking a close look at their own employment contracts for the first time and focusing on new concerns and questions about job security and performance: What does the contract say about your right to continuing employment? What would justify your [...]

As part of the No Worker Left Behind law [PDF], Michigan has created a Green Jobs Initiative which provides statewide, regional and local resources and training opportunities in alternative energy, green building and construction and retrofitting, and sustainable business practices. If you’re unemployed or looking to re-educate and change careers, you can identify training opportunities [...]

This blog focuses on the concerns of hard-working ordinary people creating new companies and new ideas. They want to sell these products and services globally, but let’s face it, prosperity begins at home. Sometimes it’s hard to get up in the morning to face such injustice in the morning paper: The tarring and feathering of [...]

Courtesy of Rep. Barney Frank and the New York Times’ Dealbook: a copy of the AIG Financial Products Corporation 2008 Employee Retention Plan (aka the “AIG contract”).

I stated in the previous post that “Contracts are good.” I didn’t, however, say that contracts were sacrosanct or could never be broken (or that you can wave the word “Contract!!” like a magic wand, as if to repel the snakes from Ireland). But that is indeed the argument advanced by several media pundits as [...]

Here’s a brief update to the copyright controversy created by the text-to-speech function of the Amazon Kindle 2:  I was right. Just a few days later, Amazon changed course, announcing that it will allow authors and publishers to decide on a book-by-book basis whether or not to allow text-to-speech functionality. Apart from making nice and [...]

Do you have an internet business? Do you sell into Nevada or Massachusetts? E-commerce companies who do business in these states, or with customers in these states, are now subject to data privacy laws requiring not only notification of data breaches — but encryption of stored or transmitted personal data. In 2008 both Nevada and [...]