January 22nd 2009
Avatars may not be taxed directly yet, but their creators may soon be. China and Australia are already experimenting with taxation of sales in virtual worlds. Now, in the US, the IRS’s “taxpayer advocate” has encouraged the service to consider taxation in virtual worlds. The Washington Post suggests the IRS could improve voluntary tax compliance […]
January 20th 2009
It seems that only natural disasters happen suddenly. Man-made ones begin small. The EU is adopting policies that secretly allow the police to hack into personal computers anywhere, at any time, for any reason – all without any judicial oversight, which would be the start of a man-made disaster. According to the TimesOnline: The hacking […]
January 17th 2009
Web Videos of Oakland Shooting Fuel Protests “The devices people carry in their pockets give them the ability to turn what would normally be a case played out in the courtroom into one in which anyone with an Internet connection can serve as virtual judge and jury.” This both shows how online movements start, and […]
January 15th 2009
Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Dr. Megan Moreno of the University of Wisconsin analyzed MySpace profiles of 18-year-olds. Better than half contained information about high-risk behaviors: 41 per cent mentioned substance abuse, 24 per cent sexual behavior and 14 per cent violence. Sex, drugs and violence on the minds of teens? […]
January 14th 2009
Lexus believes it’s a good thing to speak to its customers about certain things occasionally, and that’s usually an indicator of excellent marketing. But of course, choosing the right communication channel can make all the difference. USA Today reports: [Toyota] announced Wednesday that new Lexus vehicles will start being delivered later this year with a system […]
January 13th 2009
Tim Stanley, Carl Malamud, and the the team at Altlaw.org are tenacious, creative and on a mission. Individually, each is finding creative ways to make America’s vast quantity of legal documents available over the Internet at no charge to the public. Together, they are opening up America’s legal system to the public through the Internet. […]
January 12th 2009
Some time back, Usefularts reported on the failure of the RIAA’s “Making Available” Argument – which stated that simply having files that could be downloaded is the same as if they had been, ignoring any concept of intent. Well, the other shoe has fallen. The RIAA has filed for a voluntary dismissal for the first […]
January 11th 2009
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is one of the heroes of this blog. My friends who have made this effort both possible and fun, Carolyn and Brandon, also admire EFF. And if you’re reading this, I suspect you may dig EFF too. So, in honor of all that, for each new subscriber to UsefulArts.us from now until […]
January 8th 2009
Marketing Vox has a nearly day-by-day analysis of Firefox’s increasing popularity during the US election and holiday season. Microsoft’s share has eroded a bit, and other competitors such as Chrome and Safari just aren’t growing like Firefox. This puts Firefox on the right side of the 80/20 divide, which is how many developers assess what […]
January 7th 2009
The Consumer Law & Policy Blog describes a case of arguably false advertising, in which a “face lift” firm paid for keywords relevant to people complaining about their trademarked service, but connected them to a site singing its praises. Their apparent intent was to draw those seeking information for detractors to a forum which only […]
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