- Eugene Volokh on Lineage II “addictive videogame” lawsuit [Volokh Conspiracy, earlier]
- New “Trial Lawyers Inc.” report on environmental litigation [Manhattan Institute, related from Jim Copland on a Richard Blumenthal suit]
- Furor continues over Philadelphia’s $300 “business privilege tax” on bloggers and other low-revenue businesses [City Paper, Instapundit, Atlantic Wire, Kennerly]
- “DoJ seeks Ebonics translators” story affords glimpse of oft-abused market for prosecution experts [Ken at Popehat]
- Much more on FASB show-the-adversary-your-cards litigation accounting proposals [Cal Biz Lit and more, Beck, Hartley, ShopFloor, PoL (with Chamber views), earlier]
- “The Many Ways In Which Fashion Copyrights Will Harm The Fashion Industry” [Masnick, TechDirt, on the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act, earlier links here]
- Denmark carries out a real-world experiment in the incentive effects of unemployment compensation [Stossel]
- “Junk fax” suit demands $2 trillion [eight years ago at Overlawyered]
Filed under: accounting, bloggers and the law, copyright, Denmark, environment, expert witnesses, Philadelphia, taxes, unemployment benefits, videogames
5 Comments
I often see items in the roundup posts, like the “Junk fax” item today, that have only links to old Overlawyered posts (or occasionally old posts at other sites), and wonder why? Is there some new news about this case, and the link was accidentally omitted, or is this just here because you thought we’d enjoy seeing again?
I have to say, while I’m no fan of taxes, the “Tax on Bloggers” story is overblown. I have a business in Sunnyvale, California, and I have to pay the City of Sunnyvale for a business license every year.
If someone’s going to say they’re a “blogger” when asked what their occupation is, and they make money doing it, they need to pay for a business license. Period.
Brian –
As a frequent Overlawyered visitor, those posts are “greatest hits” links, highlighting extreme cases of what Overlawyered covers.
There really are some gasp inducing archives, and with so many to go through, it’s nice to have Wally (oh yes, I went there) pick out a doozy now and then.
R – I think a valid analogy would be to replace “blogger” with author, writer or poet. Such pursuits have no direct impact on City services or infrastructure.
It appears the main difference between “blogger” and “author” is that a blogger has a slightly higher visibility prior to any real success (i.e. money) and fame in the endeavor.
Sorry, Roy. There are a lot of taxes, for example, that cost me more in bookkeeping and compliance costs than the actual tax is. For example, my county, Santa Clara California, has a “Business Property Tax” where I am taxed on the value of my office furniture in my rental office. It’s a small office; the tax is about $200/year. I spend more than that on compliance, record keeping, etc, and the value of my time when I have to meet with the County Compliance officer who makes a personal visit each year.
I think it’s a good reality check for these “bloggers” to get an understanding of what doing business in America involves. If you have a business, you have to pay taxes. If there’s an exemption for low-income business, what’s to stop me from forming a new business for each hour of work I perform?