E-Commerce News: Controversies

Large Tech Firms: Beware of Obama Administration's Antitrust Plans

Thursday - July 2, 2009

In a dramatic repudiation of Bush administration policies, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice withdrew its recent report setting standards for the prosecution of monopolization offenses. Announcing the change of policy, Christine A. Varney, the new assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division, stated that "the Antitrust Division will be aggressively pursuing cases where monopolists try to use their dominance in the marketplace to stifle competition and harm consumers." [More...]

Amazon Turns Gears of Internet Tax Wars

Wednesday - July 1, 2009

More companies are joining in the fight over Internet taxation begun by Amazon.com. Blue Nile and Overstock.com have joined the Web's largest retailer in dropping affiliate programs in North Carolina and Rhode Island, according to numerous press reports. Amazon also reportedly dropped its affiliate program in Hawaii. [More...]

Green Dam Protesters Wait for China's Other Shoe to Drop

Wednesday - July 1, 2009

China reversed itself Tuesday, lifting the mandate to install Web-filtering software on all personal computers sold in the country. The government's announcement of the requirement, made without warning in June, was met with widespread opposition. It could be that the day of reckoning has simply been postponed. [More...]

China Wobbles on Green Dam

Tuesday - June 30, 2009

The government of China says it will put off the July 1 deadline for mandatory installation of the controversial Green Dam Youth Escort Internet filtering software on new PCs, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Originally, the country's government had said it would require vendors to include Green Dam with all computers sold in China. [More...]

The Flawed Focus of Universal Broadband

Friday - June 26, 2009

This month, the Federal Communications Commission begins drafting a national broadband plan as part of the 2009 stimulus package. This is not the first government attempt at broadband ubiquity, so the FCC can learn from past failures. The commissioners have less than eight months to "ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability." [More...]

China Waves Big Stick - Will Google et al Cower?

Thursday - June 25, 2009

China's bid to clamp down on online porn has sparked a flurry of activity. PC makers are scrambling to install Green Dam Youth Escort, an Internet filtering software application, on every desktop and laptop sold in the country by the July 1 deadline issued by the nation's government. However, they're not taking things lying down. [More...]

US to China: Green Dam Won't Pass Muster With WTO

Wednesday - June 24, 2009

The Obama administration filed its first official complaint about China to the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, and it was all about steel, aluminum and access to raw materials. Its second complaint may focus on software, PCs and access to the Internet. U.S. trade officials have sent a letter to their Chinese counterparts, asking them to back off on their Green Dam demands. [More...]

Is Linux Suffering From Mono?

Monday - June 22, 2009

In the general population, "Mono" may be best known for infecting teenagers with the "kissing disease." On the Linux blogs, it's recently caused a different kind of anguish as geeks far and wide have debated whether it's infected Linux too. It's a different Mono, of course, but its effects -- or, at least, the discussion of them -- have been no less agonizing. [More...]

The Music Industry's $2 Million Can of Worms

Sunday - June 21, 2009

The $1.92 million verdict against a Minnesota woman accused of sharing 24 songs over the Internet could ratchet up the pressure on other defendants to settle with the recording industry -- if the big fine can withstand an appeal. "Normally in our American legal system, we say the punishment should fit the crime," said Ken Port, director of the Intellectual Property Institute. [More...]

Drug Company Data Mining: Healthcare or Marketing?

Saturday - June 20, 2009

The prescription drugs you take are on the minds of a lot of people: judges on two federal courts, legislators in several states, countless doctors and, at the center, the companies that make money by figuring out who's prescribing what. Data-mining firms have sued to block laws restricting their activities in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. [More...]

The Front Line of the E-Commerce Tax Battle, Part 2

Friday - June 12, 2009

Many local governments have initiated class action lawsuits in an effort to compel the collection of sales taxes on hotel room markups. Online travel companies have responded to these cases along three main lines of defense, marshaling both procedural and substantive arguments. [More...]

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