Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains. California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero.
Google has released the full report of the Federal Communications Commission’s investigation into the data it collected and stored from millions of unknowing households across the nation while operating specially equipped cars for its Street View service. The search giant released the report, which had had heavily redacted passages, after wrangling with the FCC over which details could be publicly revealed.
Amazon.com and Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said that the online retailer will begin to collect Texas sales taxes beginning July 1, in an agreement that Combs said "resolves all sales tax issues between Texas and Amazon." Amazon said it will create at least 2,500 jobs in Texas and make at least $200 million in capital investment.
Yahoo Inc. returned legal fire against Facebook Inc. in the companies' ongoing patent dispute, calling Facebook's recent countersuit slapdash and asserting two new patents against its younger peer. Yahoo sued Facebook last month, alleging the social site infringed 10 of its patents related to online communication, advertising and privacy features.
A Colorado man says Apple’s smart cover for the new iPad and the iPad 2 violate his 2005 patent for a “Portable Computer Case.” Aspen resident Jerald Bovino filed a lawsuit in federal court asking Apple and retailer Target to pay royalties for using his technology.
The chairman of a key House Judiciary subcommittee warned the group that runs the Internet's domain name system that if it doesn't get the roll out of its new domain name program right, some countries may use it as an excuse to seek more regulation of the Internet. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., voiced concern about some of the problems the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is having with the database it is using to accept applications from those seeking to apply to run a new top-level domain name.
The House of Representatives passed a controversial cybersecurity bill that would allow private companies to exchange confidential information with the federal government. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which is designed to defend U.S. networks against cyber attack, passed the House 248-162.
The European data protection supervisor, Peter Hustinx, urged technology companies to “innovate” in the area of consumer privacy, saying that lawmakers on the continent would press ahead on a contentious proposed law that would, in part, compel companies to pare down the personal data kept in their digital vaults. “It really is based on the idea that when there is not good enough reason to keep the data, it should be deleted,” Mr. Hustinx told a conference on digital privacy, sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, which is part of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Google is firing back at the Federal Communications Commission on an investigation that led to a $25,000 fine against the Internet search leader. In a letter, Google Inc. disputed the reason for the fine.
VMware acknowledged that hackers obtained access to some of its source code and posted it online, but the firm downplayed the impact of the breach. In a statement, Iain Mulholland, director of VMware's Security Response Center, said his firm's security team became aware of the posting and said there is "the possibility that more files may be posted in the future."
The Federal Trade Commission said it has hired an outside litigator to take charge of an antitrust investigation of Google, a sign that the agency has moved beyond the preliminary stage of its inquiry and was preparing to go to court. Beth Wilkinson, a former Justice Department prosecutor who played a lead role in the conviction of the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, will take over the Google investigation, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a meeting with reporters.
China has stepped up its campaign to clamp down on the Internet, which has emerged as a virtual town square for exchanging information about the Bo Xilai scandal and the nation's biggest political upheaval in years. The popular Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo on Tuesday deleted the accounts of several users, including that of Li Delin, a senior editor of the Chinese business magazine Capital Week, whose March 19 post helped fuel rumors of a coup in Beijing.
A number of companies are raising concerns about what Google says it can do with documents stored on the new Google Drive online storage service. Critics pointed out that Drive, like any Google product, would fall under Google’s terms of service, which let Google scan and use its consumers’ content for Google’s own purposes.
The White House escalated its opposition to a cybersecurity-related surveillance bill with a formal veto threat. In a new statement, the White House's Office of Management and Budget said that the CISPA bill endangered Americans' privacy and inappropriately shielded private companies from liability.
A U.S. Marine sergeant who wrote in a Facebook post that he would not follow orders from President Barack Obama will be discharged from the military on "other than honorable" terms, a Marine spokesman said. California-based Sergeant Gary Stein was advised of the decision after a commanding general upheld the recommendation by a review board, Major Michael Armistead said.
Finland's Nokia and Taiwan's HTC won a key European ruling that a patent of German firm IPCom, which was threatening sales of their phones in Germany, was invalid in its current form. The ruling by the European Patent Office was a rare spot of good news for Nokia, which is struggling with dwindling sales and credit rating downgrades in recent weeks. Nokia said it meant it could continue selling products in Germany.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called for Congress to protect critical infrastructure systems from cyberattacks during a hearing but stopped short of calling for government regulations. He warned that cyberattacks could blow up natural-gas pipelines, derail trains, hack financial systems and cause chemical plants to leak toxins.
The U.S. government is close to completing rules for a long-awaited expansion of the number of defense contractors with which it swaps data on cyber threats, the Defense Department's chief information officer said. The number of companies would jump from 37 currently to 200, Teri Takai, the chief information officer, told a forum in Arlington, Virginia.
Apple may risk losing the right to use iPad trademark in China, as a Chinese court seeks to mediate a settlement between the technology giant and local company Proview Technology challenging the use of the iPad name. According to the Associated Press, Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, told reporters in Beijing that the Chinese government regarded Shenzhen-based Proview Technology as the rightful owner of the trademark of Apple's tablets.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said in court that he could not recall being told in 2005 that the company needed a license from Sun Microsystems to use the Java programming language. Schmidt was Oracle's final witness before Oracle rested its copyright case, and Google then called Schmidt as its first defense witness.
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