Business

Amazon.com will more than double the revenue share for periodical publishers as it faces rising competition, at least in public perception, with Apple and other rivals for magazine and newspaper publications. The move comes shortly after Amazon announced that it would make magazines and newspapers a...

The Colorado Department of Revenue has relaxed a first-in-the-nation information reporting requirement for sales by Internet vendors to customers in Colorado. The new legislation, adopted earlier this year, requires etailers that have more than $100,000 in sales to Colorado customers to notify all c...

Previously in this space, I've discussed the collapse of the venture industry since the bloodbath began with the collapse of two Bear Stearns funds. While publicly traded stocks have been hammered, the private market is undergoing its own painful restructuring. As of the first quarter of this year,...

In her third trial, Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas-Rasset -- whose fame has extended well beyond the proverbial 15 minutes -- was once again slapped with a fine for sharing 24 songs. On Wednesday, the jury awarded $1.5 million in damages to Capitol Records. That's $62,500 for each of the 24 songs ...

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association -- a case stemming from a 2005 law passed in California that forbids the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. Lower courts subsequently struck down the law, pointing to precedent ...

If you use Gmail, you received an unusual email late last night from Google. The company sent a notice to its millions of U.S.-based Gmail users announcing the settlement of its privacy class-action lawsuit over Buzz. Google launched the social networking service last February. Soon after, a privacy...

Since the early 1990s, companies have moved applications development and maintenance work to lower labor-cost countries, to varying degrees. Often referred to as "offshoring" or "outsourcing," this labor arbitrage has had an important effect on businesses' ability to reduce costs of ADM. Although co...

Google has filed a federal suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging that the agency inappropriately favored Microsoft as it crafted the requirements for a messaging platform it wanted to procure. The suit, which seeks to have DoI conduct a competitive procurement process for the co...

Microsoft reported strong revenue and solid earnings Thursday, with particular strength in Windows sales during its first fiscal quarter ending September 30. Revenue set a Q1 record of $16.20 billion, up 25 percent year-over-year. Net income was a healthy $5.41 billion. Office 2010, Windows 7 and X...

E-commerce continues to experience significant growth. In fact, in 2009, e-commerce sales grew by 5.5 percent to $205 billion. Online retail sales are expected to increase by another 12.7 percent in 2010, according to Javelin Research. While the research proves that e-commerce sales will continue to...

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison insisted on Wednesday that recently appointed HP CEO Leo Apotheker knew of the theft of Oracle's software while he was CEO of SAP. Ellison also dismissed HP chairman Ray Lane's statement that Apotheker didn't know anything about the theft as an "absurd lie." Oracle filed sui...

A vestige of the music wars at the turn of the century was shut down Wednesday by a federal district court judge in Manhattan. File-sharing service LimeWire was ordered by Judge Kimba M. Wood to stop distributing its peer-to-peer software because its overwhelming use was to encourage its users to ma...

Dismayed by the prospect of Google acquiring a key service provider in the travel industry, online traveler providers have banded together to formalize their opposition to the deal. In July, Google announced a $700 million agreement to acquire ITA Software, a company that provides airline travel sof...

Over the last couple of years, in presentations around the U.S. about social media, I've asked audience members whether they take the time to read website terms of service, privacy policies or click wrap agreements. Very few have raised their hands. Recently, one CIO summed up the reasons: "Why both...

Citing First Amendment protections, a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle has ruled in favor of Amazon.com in its battle with North Carolina over potentially sensitive customer data the state claims it needs to calculate taxes. Judge Marsha J. Pechman ruled Monday that Amazon is not obligated to pr...