Amy Ione Online » Law

Filmmaker Wins Case Against I.R.S.

ione — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:33:27 +0000

Good news for artists! The producer and director Lee Storey won her case last week against the commissioner of Internal Revenue in United States Tax Court. The I.R.S. tried to disallow Ms. Storey’s deduction of expenses incurred while making and marketing the film “Smile ’Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story,” claiming she was engaged in a hobby — not a business — because she enjoyed filmmaking and wasn’t turning a profit despite considerable efforts to do so.

“The primary issue,” the judge stated, “is whether [Storey], a law firm partner and full-time attorney, was involved in the trade or business of film production under section 162 during the years at issue. We hold that she was engaged in the trade or business of film production during each of the years at issue and that she was engaged in this business for profit.”

Case was LEE STOREY AND WILLIAM STOREY, Petitioners v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent

Court opinion is at http://www.documentary.org/images/news/2012/Storey_court_comments.pdf

Full story

Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books

ione — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:18:16 +0000

A federal judge rejected Google’s $125 million class-action settlement with authors and publishers, delivering a blow to the company’s ambitious plan to build the world’s largest digital library and bookstore.

Full article

Art and Justice

ione — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:33:13 +0000

As someone who once thought about becoming a lawyer, and turned to art instead, I am always intrigued by conjunctions of the two, so I was fascinated to discover that a book has just come out that examines the iconography of Lady Justice and her blindfold. Randy Kennedy’s review in the New York Times says the following about Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms by Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis: “As a legal tome the book is probably the only one ever to mingle Supreme Court citations with interviews with contemporary artists like Tom Otterness, and Jenny Holzer, both of whom have created permanent art installations for federal courthouses that tweak conceptions of justice.

FYI: Ted Kennedy and visual art

Amy Ione — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:48:13 +0000

So few of the tributes to Ted Kennedy have mentioned that he was a champion of the arts, including authoring the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), that I thought I would make a note of this. VARA gives artists the power to control reproduction of their work and to retain rights even if the work is sold. More information