House Kicks Internet Tax To The Curb, Forever

  

Jonah Bennett

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A bill passed by the House on Tuesday forbids state and local governments forever from taxing Internet access,reports the Hill.

For Republicans, the point of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, originally enacted in 1996, is to reinforce market stability and consumer certainty. The recent measure would renew the almost expired extension passed in 2007.

“This legislation prevents a surprise tax hike on Americans’ critical services this fall,” saidHouse Judiciary Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte. “It also maintains unfettered access to one of the most unique gateways to knowledge and engine of self-improvement in all of human history.”

Although some Democrats like Rep. Judy Chu of California were concerned about the permanent status of removing taxation power, they nevertheless allowed the bill to pass. In particular, Chu was worried that prohibiting governments from taxing Internet access doesn’t take into account changing and unique circumstances which governments sometimes are forced to face.

http://goo.gl/aNKXLs

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From Google to Amazon: EU goes to war against power of US digital giants

In Europe there is a growing fear of becoming a 'digital colony' ruled by Silicon Valley, whose giant firms wield huge power over privacy – and like to avoid tax. Now regulators are striking back

• • Juliette Garside
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  • The Observer, Saturday 5 July 2014

An anti-Google protest banner hung outside a developer's conference in San Francisco. Photograph: Noah Berger/Reuters

Within the salons of the Elysée Palace, along the corridors of the European parliament and under the glass dome of the Reichstag, OldEurope is preparing for a new war. This is not a battle over religion or politics, over land or natural resources. The raw material that Paris, Brussels and Berlin are mobilising to defend is the digital environment of Europe's inhabitants; their enemies are the Silicon Valley corporations that seek to dominate it.

Coal, gas and oil powered the industrial revolution, but in the digital era, data is replacing fossil fuels as the most valuable resource on Earth, and the ability to collect and interrogate it has created organisations with a power that can at times seem beyond the control of nation states. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google represent, in the words of Germany's economy minister Sigmar Gabriel, "brutal information capitalism", and Europe must act now to protect itself.

"Either we defend our freedom and change our policies, or we become digitally hypnotised subjects of a digital rulership," Gabriel warned in a passionate call to action published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine. "It is the future of democracy in the digital age, and nothing less, that is at stake here, and with it, the freedom, emancipation, participation and self-determination of 500 million people in Europe."

http://goo.gl/3H2xtm

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China’s e-commerce giant takes on eBay and Amazon

By David Piper

Published June 13, 2014

FoxNews.com

There’s a new kid on the block looking to take on eBay and Amazon.

At first glance you may think 11Main.com is just another Internet startup that will quickly fade and disappear, as have so many others that tried to compete with the big boys. But 11 Main has a big brother in the form of Alibaba, the largest company in China’s vast e-commerce marketplace.

Alibaba will list in the U.S. later this year with an initial public offering likely to raise as much as $16 billion. Analysts believe the decision to start 11 Main now is an attempt to feed off the publicity of the upcoming listing.

http://goo.gl/L2uP4F

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Amazon Unintentionally Created a Shopping List for Drug Dealers

Walter White would probably have avoided leaving a trail of drug-production purchases on Amazon.

IMAGE: AMC

ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL for The Atlantic 20 hours ago

 

 

One day, some drug dealer bought a particular digital scale — the AWS-100 — on the retail site, Amazon.com. And then another drug dealer bought the same scale. Then another. Then another.

Amazon's data-tracking software watched what else these people purchased, and now, if you buy the AWS-100 scale, Amazon serves up a quickstart kit for selling drugs.

http://mashable.com/2014/04/15/amazon-drug-dealer-guide/?utm_cid=mash-prod-email-topstories&utm_emailalert=daily&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily

Visualizing 15 Years Of Acquisitions By Apple, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, And Facebook

Posted 2 hours ago by Josh Constine (@joshconstine)

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You grow old, you slow down, and you die. That is, unless you can inject some fresh blood. After watching the last generation of tech giants wither or stagnate, today’s juggernauts are relying on acquisitions to keep them young and relevant. Check out the interactive infographic below to compare the size, frequency, and focus of the last 15 years of acquisitions by Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/the-age-of-acquisitions/