Amazon Drops Affiliates in Two States Over Tax Dispute

Amazon has shut down its affiliates program in Connecticut and Arkansas over the controversial issue of collecting state taxes. The company announced the move in letters to affiliates, noting that contracts with all Connecticut residents who participate in the Amazon Associates Program would be terminated effective immediately, while contracts with affiliates in Arkansas will be terminated on July 24.

Turkish Police Detain 32 'Anonymous' Hackers

The Turkish police have detained 32 members of Anonymous, a collective of professed activists, on suspicion of planning attacks on a number of Web sites, the Turkish state-run news agency Anatolian reported. The action came in response to a complaint from Turkey’s directorate of telecommunications, whose Web site was taken down as part of a protest against what Anonymous says is government censorship of the Internet.

Apple Wants to Intervene in Lodsys Patent Suits

Apple filed a request to intervene in a patent lawsuit brought by Lodsys against seven small independent iOS application developers. Developers have sought Apple's formidable legal help and financial resources in the patent case after being confronted in letters from Lodsys in early May over alleged patent infringement for technology used to help customers make purchases inside iOS apps sold in the App Store.

'Anonymous' Hackers Claim Retaliation After Arrests

A group of hackers tied to a series of security breaches on websites across the world said it attacked the Spanish police's main website in retaliation for the recent arrest of three alleged members of the group. In a statement sent to local media and posted on several websites, alleged representatives of the "Anonymous" group said they plan to keep the fight against Spain's "corrupt" state.

IMF's Computers Suffer 'Very Major Breach'

The International Monetary Fund, still struggling to find a new leader after the arrest of its managing director last month in New York, was hit recently by what computer experts describe as a large and sophisticated cyberattack whose dimensions are still unknown. The fund, which manages financial crises around the world and is the repository of highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations, told its staff and its board of directors about the attack, but it did not make a public announcement.

U.S. Helping Dissidents with Alternative Internet Access

The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks. The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”

High Court Upholds $290M Patent Judgment Against Microsoft

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a $290 million judgment against Microsoft for patent infringement. The award is the largest ever upheld on appeal in a patent case. A small software company called i4i sued Microsoft in 2007, alleging that the industry giant had, without permission, used an editing tool patented by i4i -- specifically, that the program was used in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007.

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Citigroup Falls Victim to Largest Financial Hacking

Major U.S. banks came under growing pressure from banking regulators to improve the security of customer account information after Citigroup Inc became the latest high-profile victim of a large-scale cyber attack. While Citigroup insisted the breach had been limited, experts called it the largest direct attack on a major U.S. financial institution, and forecast it could drive momentum for a systemic overhaul of the banking industry's data security measures.

Apple Bans Apps Identifying DUI Checkpoints

Apple has just updated its App Store Review Guidelines, in which it now explicitly bans the implementation of driving under the influence (DUI) checkpoints in apps for iOS-based devices. Section 22.8 of the updated guidelines clearly states that "apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies, or encourage and enable drunk driving, will be rejected."

EU to Investigate Facebook's Face-Recognition Feature

Facebook Inc. will be probed by European Union data-protection regulators over a feature that uses face-recognition software to suggest people’s names to tag in pictures without their permission. A group of privacy watchdogs drawn from the EU’s 27 nations will study the measure for possible rule violations, said Gerard Lommel, a Luxembourg member of the so-called Article 29 Data Protection Working Party.

Cloud Services Can Help Fight Piracy, U.S. Official Says

Services developed by Apple and Google for people to store photos, music and data online may do more to combat online piracy than regulation can, a U.S. official said. Victoria Espinel, the coordinator of U.S. intellectual property enforcement, said corporate innovation was often more effective than law enforcement or other rules, which are sometimes applied inappropriately.