Government & Policy
11 February 2013
Microsoft, Apple, Adobe summonsed to explain high Australian prices ABC News
Microsoft and Apple have been summonsed to appear before a federal parliamentary committee to explain why Australians are forced to pay more for some of their products compared with other countries.
06 February 2013
EU wants to tackle money laundering on gaming sites Reuters
The European Union may try to counter money laundering through online betting sites by extending legislation beyond casinos to include Internet gambling.
Google faces yet another EU antitrust complaint from tech group ZDNet
While Google continues to work with European authorities to settle an ongoing antitrust investigation, the search giant is facing yet another complaint from a coalition of rival technology firms.
05 February 2013
Apple, Google facing Australian tax crackdown The Age
Global giants including Apple and Google will be forced to reveal how much tax they pay the federal government, under a plan to name and shame firms seen to be dodging their responsibilities by using tax havens.
German publishers say Google won't get the same deal it got in France Computerworld
German newspaper and magazine publishers said Monday that they won't give Google the same copyright deal as it struck with French publishers to settle a dispute over revenue lost when news article snippets appear in search results.
EU's Copyright Reform Talks a Waste of Time, Says Digital Rights Group CIO
Civil liberties activists attending the European Commission's new copyright talks on Monday declared the process a "waste of time" and an "outrageous attempt to avoid copyright reform."
04 February 2013
US tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks Washington Post
The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.
03 February 2013
US, European Data Protection Laws, an Ocean Apart New York Times
Over the years, the United States and Europe have taken different approaches toward protecting people's personal information. Now the two sides are struggling to bridge that divide.
02 February 2013
Google settles French newspaper links dispute BBC News
Google has agreed to create a €60m ($82m; £52m) fund to help French media organisations improve their internet operations.
01 February 2013
Just Under Deadline, Google Responds to European Antitrust Concerns All Things D
Google hit the European Commission's deadline of January 31 to provide a substantive response to antitrust concerns -- but just barely.
31 January 2013
Yahoo, Facebook, others sharply criticise German online copyright bill Computerworld
As German government officials prepared to meet to discuss a controversial online copyright bill on Wednesday, Yahoo, Facebook and German online startups slammed the proposal that would allow publishers to charge search engines such as Google for reproducing short snippets from news articles.
30 January 2013
CSIRO gives digital economy a boost: New national research push to create A$4 billion a year in digital services by 2025 CSIRO
CSIRO will today launch Australia's largest publically-funded research initiative focused on the digital economy. The Digital Productivity and Services Flagship, CSIRO's tenth National Research Flagship, is a A$40 million research initiative focusing on the services sector and optimising the full value of national broadband infrastructure.
NBN the tip of the iceberg for Australia's tech future: Berners-Lee ZDNet
Looking on as the CSIRO launches a digital research project aimed at using the NBN for boosting the Australian economy, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said that the network is just the start of bigger and brighter things to come.
29 January 2013
Google will not oppose clampdown on tax avoidance, chairman says The Guardian
Google would not oppose any moves by the government to tighten up the tax regimes that has allowed it to use Bermuda as a tax haven, its executive chairman Eric Schmidt said on Monday.
28 January 2013
U.S. firms, officials resisting Europe's push for stronger digital privacy rules Washington Post
The push for strict new limits on how Internet companies collect and use consumer data in Europe has hit stiff resistance from U.S. industry groups and the Obama administration, dimming hopes that the effort could lead to expanded privacy safeguards for users worldwide.
27 January 2013
Silicon Valley Companies Lobbying Against Europe's Privacy Proposals New York Times
Silicon Valley technology companies and the United States government are pushing hard against Europe's effort to enact sweeping privacy protection for digital data.
25 January 2013
Microsoft Mum On Skype Surveillance As Privacy Advocates Call For Transparency Huffington Post
Privacy advocates are calling on Microsoft to disclose whether -- and how often -- governments are snooping on Skype users, a move that comes as the software giant integrates the popular video and voice messaging program with its Office productivity suite.
23 January 2013
FTC study taking aim at online marketing of booze Reuters
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans this summer to recommend ways that the alcoholic beverage industry can better protect underage viewers from seeing its advertisements online.
22 January 2013
Google v the French press: how to avoid a lose-lose scenario The Guardian
Google and the French press have been negotiating for almost three months now. If there is no agreement within 10 days, the government is determined to intervene and pass a law instead. This would cause serious damage to both parties.
Even if It Enrages Your Boss, Social Net Speech In US Is Protected New York Times
As Facebook and Twitter become as central to workplace conversation as the company cafeteria, federal regulators are ordering employers to scale back policies that limit what workers can say online.
'Curious' Cuban net cable has activated, researchers say BBC News
A high-speed fibre-optic cable connecting Cuba to the global internet appears to have finally been activated, monitoring experts have said.
20 January 2013
A Year After SOPA, A Look At The Next Five Battles For Internet Freedom Electronic Frontier Foundation
One year ago today, Internet users of all ages, races, and political stripes participated in the largest protest in Internet history, flooding Congress with millions of emails and phone calls to demand they drop the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) -- a dangerous bill that would have allowed corporations and the govenrment to censor larger parts of the Web.
19 January 2013
EU Ministers Express Doubts on Expanding Data Protection Laws New York Times
E.U. justice ministers reacted coolly on Friday to a plan that would give consumers the ability to expunge the personal details Internet businesses have collected on them, essentially allowing individuals to block most kinds of online ads.
All You Need to Know about the EU Privacy Debate Der Spiegel
The European Union is seeking to increase the private sphere of its citizens by strengthening data protection laws for the web. Large Internet firms and lobbyists are fighting the plans. Here's an overview of the debate in Brussels.
France studies new tax measures on web giants Reuters
France plans to study different measures to collect more tax from global Internet companies, including a new type of levy on the personal data of web surfers that the likes of Google and Facebook use to make money.
