[IP] Is software a service or a tangible commodity?
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 09:37:47 -0500
From: tim finin <finin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Is software a service or a tangible commodity?
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Salon has an interesting article on the federal benefits laid-off workers
are eligible for when their jobs go overseas. That is, unless you are
a software engineer...
"...
Under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reform Act of 2002, workers
whose jobs have moved overseas can be eligible for a battery of extra
assistance, including income support, job training, tax credits for
health insurance, and job search and relocation allowances. Some older
workers can even receive a temporary income subsidy, a form of "wage
insurance," which helps cushion the financial blow when a new job pays
much less than the old one. For instance, if you go from writing code
for computers at $50 an hour to selling them retail at a computer
superstore for $10 an hour.
But Fusco and his fellow IBM employees who petitioned for the benefits
were repeatedly denied. The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and
Training Administration determined that programmers like Fusco do not
qualify, because of the nature of what they'd produced on their old
jobs: software. The government cited commerce and trade rules that
classify software as a "service" and "not a tangible commodity,"
rather than an "article" as the trade act stipulates.
..."
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2004/01/12/wage_insurance/print.html
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