Articles Posted in Other

Even as a librarian, as a bibliophile, a book-in-the-trunk (in every nook and cranny) sort of person, a web surfer, as a cereal-box reader since childhood (and you know you are one too) … even as all of these, I have always looked skeptically at the handheld, electronic “books” that get rolled out ever few years (though not for the reasons you might think – read on!). The latest e-book is just technologically more sophisticated than the first one – but it’s still wrong. (And I’ve started calling them Y-Books, for obvious reasons – don’t these tech designers commute?)

To me, apart from their tech/battery problems, the e-book creators never seemed to have grasped what a human Reader really is and what a human Reader wants and needs, especially the commuter or traveling Reader.

It’s incredibly simple:

The Oregonian ran an interesting story by Helen Yung on October 10, 2007, “Who pays the piper when musicians visit?” From the story:

“The way the state sees it, musicians like Kristin Hersh of Rhode Island and John Wesley Harding of New York were employed in Oregon.

Both internationally known artists performed for an evening at Mississippi Studios in North Portland. And those few hours, the state contends, made them — as well as the hundreds of other musicians who performed there in the past three years — employees of the club and subject to normal unemployment taxes.
…

The reason? Oregon statute 657.506, which states that musicians are employees of venues unless the contract expressly states that the musicians are responsible for filing reports and paying their own taxes. Language declaring the musician an independent contractor is not sufficient, said department spokesman Tom Fuller.”