Message from the Editor: The economy is chugging along. The war on terrorism is still at large. Homeland Security is a reality and at the forefront of all. The ENRON hearings in Washington have opened the eyes of corporate leaders while many Americans are searching to simplify and live a better quality life. This month I would like to recognize a very special event that will benefit Shelter Partnership and will be honoring Advisory Board Member, Ross DeVol of the Milken Institute.

Shelter Partnership works to create permanent affordable housing, and also works with over 200 homeless service providers throughout Los Angeles County to help increase their resources and ability to serve homeless persons. Shelter Partnership will be honoring Mayor James Hahn, Ross DeVol of the Milken Institute and Herbalife International of America on Wednesday, March 20th at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. Tickets are available at a special price for Technolink Members of $150.00 per person. This is a great cause and a great networking opportunity. For more information, please call (213) 688-2188.

Warmest Regards, Ssusan Forte O'Neill

THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FOR 2002
Did we or Did we not just have a "R" Recession ?

by Laurie Matthias,
president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the
National Association of Business Economics
and senior writer at Capital Guarding Trust Company.

The February 21 survey from the National Association of Business Economics showed that most respondents believe the recession is over and that although the recovery will be modest by historical standards, it is likely to reach a 3.5% growth rate by the second half of 2002. Our chapter's guest speaker in February¾Professor Ed Leamer of the UCLA Anderson Forecast¾had painted a slightly less optimistic picture for us two weeks earlier, saying that this was a mild recession, we'd soon be out of it, and that 2% growth was the most likely outcome for the economy.

While weak corporate profits and plenty of consumer debt may hold back the economy in the short run, long-term prospects are quite good for the United States. Productivity gains remain high, which will help inflation remain relatively low. In fact, the NABE panel predicts a long-term inflation trend of 2.5%. Structural changes that have occurred over the past several decades and increased transparency in the financial markets have also been important underlying strengths of the U.S. economy. One of the positive results of the scrutiny into companies' accounting practices following the collapse of Enron, will be to strengthen companies' accounting practices, which will help ensure a high-level of transparency that is essential to an efficient capital-markets system.

For more economic news, please contact Laurie Matthias at 213.486.9960 or ljm@capgroup.com

SUPREME COURT RULING ON EXTENSION OF COPYRIGHT LAWS COULD HAVE MAJOR IMPACT YOUR INNOVATIONS

Congress in 1790 established a term of 14 years, renewable for 14 years in the first Copyright Act. In 1909, the Copyright law was rewritten and Congress then established a term of 28 years, renewable for an additional 28 years. When the 1976 Copyright Act was passed (effective January 1, 1978) Congress again changed the Copyright term to life of the author plus 50 years. This was again changed by the Sonny Bono Act in 1998 by extending the Copyright term for an additional 20 years, ostensibly to harmonize the U.S. Copyright term that is in Europe and most of the rest of the world. The U.S. Supreme Court recently accepted an appeal to review the constitutionability of the extension of the Copyright term. If the term extension is ruled unconstitutional, it will cause works of all types now protected by Copyright to fall into the public domain. An issue will be what term is constitutional, the 1909 Act term, the 1976 Act term or
something entirely different.

The constitutional policy for granting exclusive Copyright to authors is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts and the founding fathers placed a limited time on the grant. Technology has grown, and science and the useful arts have expanded exponentially because investors were willing to risk their funds because of the exclusivity in works of authorship provided by Copyright. One can only ask, if the Supreme Court does reverse the term extension casting works of authorship into the public domain, will that have a chilling effect on the investment community thus, causing authors to slow or abandon the creative process which in turn, could provide less choice in such works for the purchasing public? You can contact Billy Robbins, Intellectual Property Attorney, at Fulbight & Jaworski L.L.P. at 213.892.9200 or e-mail: brobbins@fulbright.com