A package of bills (with broad bipartisan support) was under consideration Tuesday in the Michigan Capitol which will provide business tax incentives to film producers, video game developers, and other entertainment based ventures. The key component of the legislation introduced last week is a 40% business tax break for firms engaged in moviemaking in Michigan, [...]

My article “Enforcing Rights Against Online Infringers: Brandishing the Double-Edged Sword of the DMCA” is being published in the upcoming State Bar of Michigan Litigation Section Newsletter (Winter 2008). The article discusses the legal ramifications for rights owners in using “takedown” procedures and cease-and-desist letters under Section 512 of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. A [...]

A federal class action lawsuit in California against Target, brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer’s Web site is inaccessible to the blind, has been allowed to go forward. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), Title III provides that “goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations” of places of “public accommodation” must be made accessible [...]

Here’s an update to my post on The Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen, and “the Wikipedia Problem.” Virgil Griffith, a CalTech graduate student, has built a search tool that traces the addresses of those who are editing Wikipedia. The not surprising answers: Diebold — to suppress criticism of their electronic voting machines and to [...]

Probably everyone reading this has a broadband internet connection. But if you’re like me, you have parents and other significant people in your lives for whom you are the “IT Department.” Holiday time may involve sessions sitting at a vintage Windows machine with an installation of Millenium Edition because “email is broken.” And the worst: [...]

I just posted the updated and revamped Trademark Use FAQ. Trademarks are becoming more and more important with the rise of lifestyle goods and the social network, as people claim their affinity for brands and product lines as a means of self identification and a way of quickly locating potential friends with common interests. The [...]

Need to get rid of yesterday’s cameras, camcorders, cellphones and other electronic gadgets? Check out SecondRotation. The company buys your not-so-new gear and re-sells it on eBay. Fill out a packing slip, put the item in the mail, and your PayPal account gets credited for the amount paid after your item checks out. Second Rotation [...]

iPhone envy may be chewing you up, but Google has lots of savvy options for the humble low-tech phone. Who needs web browsing? Using Google SMS (in beta) you can use your plain-vanilla cell phone to send a text message to GOOGLE (466453) and retrieve a broad variety of information: local bars and restaurants, dictionary [...]

Here’s an Infoworld item on Ed Foster’s Gripelog about those annoying email disclaimers. Should anyone use email disclaimers? Should everyone use email disclaimers? Are they legally effective? Are they worth it? I commented on the blog entry for Ed’s readers, but the legal issues are worth exploring on here. Email disclaimers as a form of [...]

Grooveshark blogs about alternative ways to provide a fair return to artists on downloads of digital music, without burdening the files with DRM: Amie Street has a unique strategy in which songs start off free and rise in price depending on the number of times a song is downloaded. The more a song is downloaded, [...]