Google, Facebook, Twitter and even Starbucks are being criticized and investigated for what several European governments consider to be tax avoidance. In the UK and France in particular Google is under scrutiny. And earlier this week a French newspaper (albeit like the satirical Onion) reported that French authorities had served a whopping EUR 1 billion tax bill on Google. Google has denied that it has received such a bill. Google's practice of billing advertisers and running profits through its Irish subsidiary, which is legal, allows the company to minimize taxes. According to a Reuter [...]

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After all the saber rattling, commentary and anticipation yesterday there was an expectation that Google would be asked by European data protection authorities, led by the French privacy regulator CNIL, to "unravel" or roll back its unified privacy policy. There was also a strong suggestion that there might be fines imposed. Instead we essentially got a relatively polite request to make some modest changes to the privacy policy, mostly around disclosures to end users. The coverage today of the CNIL letter to Larry Page (embedded below) is all over the map, with some outlets focused on hypot [...]

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Earlier this year, in March, Google consolidated more than 70 different privacy policies into a single more unified policy that allowed it to combine user data from all Google properties into a single view. Google argued that it represented privacy simplification for users (which was true). However it also benefited Google with more insight into its users' activities on the Google network, the ability to deliver more personalized search results and presumably enabled better ad targeting. The Europeans raised concerns about Google's new privacy policy at the time and suggested that it might [...]

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The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced today that it had settled long-standing litigation with Google over its book scanning project. Google was sued in late 2005 by the AAP (and individual publishers) and the Authors Guild on behalf of writers. The litigation sought more than $100 million in damages for copyright violations. The settlement of the AAP claims doesn't impact the Authors Guild class action suit, which lives on. The specific book-publisher plaintiffs in the action were McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Penguin, Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Simon & Schuster. Specifi [...]

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Danny has written two articles about Android, openness and the degree of Google's control over the ecosystem. These were sparked by the recent controversy surrounding computer-maker Acer's attempt to use a non-authorized version of Android (the Alibaba-made Aliyun OS) on mobile handsets: Google: Acer Can’t Work On “Non-Compatible Android” & Be Part Of Open Handset Alliance What Is The One True Android & How “Open” Is It? Aliyun OS "Incompatibility" Acer was set to announce that it was going forward with the Aliyun OS on one or more handsets but abruptly cancelled t [...]

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Recently Apple won a major victory "at home" and lost (partly) "on the road" in South Korea, where a court last Friday issued a split decision in its IP litigation with Samsung. Earlier today Samsung won a round: a court in Japan found that the Korean company did not infringe Apple patents that involve "synchronizing music and video data with servers." From the published reports it appears the court was skeptical of Apple's claim to such basic functionality. Following the decision, Samsung shares gained back some of the losses they suffered in the wake of the major defeat the company suffer [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Legal | Legal: Patents

Reuters is reporting that Google's CEO Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook have been involved in "behind-the-scenes conversations about a range of intellectual property matters." Like Russia and the US during the cold war, Reuters says the "two companies are keeping the lines of communication open at a high level." The article suggests the discussions started before the recent Apple victory over Samsung in the much-watched US patent trial. That litigation was widely thought to be a proxy fight against Google-Android. And many assumed that direct Apple-Google litigation was likely in its wake [...]

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Will Apple's sweeping, yet still preliminary, patent victory over Samsung have a positive or negative impact on Android? Will it have any impact at all? Will it be the death of competition or a boon for competition? Opinions are all over the place. Over the weekend Google issued a statement (via TheVerge) that the decision will have no impact on "core Android" features or capabilities: The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims. Most of these don’t relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Pate [...]

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As you may recall the judge in the Oracle v. Google patent and copyright trial (William Alsup) asked both sides to reveal authors, bloggers, journalists and others with whom they had financial relationships. Oracle disclosed that it had retained Florian Mueller, who writes the widely read patent blog FOSS Patents. Google said that it had no such relationships. The judge wasn't satisfied with that response and ordered Google to try again and produce a list of paid commentators by August 24. At the end of last week, Google complied by filing a supplemental disclosure listing several nam [...]

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In the Oracle vs. Google litigation, which is winding down, Judge William Alsup ordered the companies to disclose authors, bloggers and journalists with whom they had financial relationships. Oracle previously disclosed that it had retained Florian Mueller, who writes the blog FOSS Patents. Google disclosed that it had paid no one. On August 17, 2012 Google filed a statement that read in part: Neither Google nor its counsel has paid an author, journalist, commentator or blogger to report or comment on any issues in this case. And neither Google nor its counsel has been involved in any [...]

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Apple has been waging a proxy war with Google and Android through its global litigation with Samsung. Now the companies will be directly battling it out in a new action filed by Google subsidiary Motorola before the US International Trade Commission (ITC). Motorola filed and partly won a patent case before the ITC, prior to the Google acquisition. But this is the first case filed under Google ownership. The earlier Motorola ITC patent victory was based on a single claim related to wireless 3G standards. Motorola seeks an import ban on iPhones in that case. A final decision from the administ [...]

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According to Reuters the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has opened a formal antitrust investigation against Google. The article reports that CCI received a complaint that Google had "contravened" an Indian "competition rule." However that rule and the substance of the complaint aren't identified. Google told Reuters that it was cooperating with the CCI and was confident that it hadn't violated any Indian regulations. This is merely the latest legal headache for Google in India. The country has also sought to impose aggressive censorship rules on Google that require Google to block [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: International | Google: Legal | Legal: Antitrust

Beginning this week, Google will be penalizing certain sites that are frequently accused of violating copyright laws. In a blog post Friday morning, Google explained the change this way: Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily.... Rights groups such as the Recording Industry Association of Americ [...]

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It's official. As earlier reported, Google will pay $22.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it placed tracking cookies and served targeted ads to Safari browser users, after it said it wouldn't. The cookie placement violated the privacy settlement Google reached with the FTC in October of last year. It's the largest penalty ever posed for violation of an existing order by the FTC, according to the Commission, but it represents a drop in the bucket for Google, which had Q2 revenues of more than $12 billion. When questioned about the sufficiency of the penalty, [...]

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Reuters is confirming that the civil penalty Google will pay to settle the "Cookiegate" episode, in which it bypassed the default Safari privacy settings on the iPhone, is $22.5 million. This figure was previously reported and represents a fine of $16,000 per violation per day. In February the Wall Street Journal first reported that Google and other ad networks (i.e., Gannett’s PointRoll) were discovered circumventing mobile Safari’s default “no third party cookies” settings. Google said it was simply trying to make its +1 buttons work on iOS and nothing sinister was intended. [...]

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Despite assurances to the contrary, Google told the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today that it still has some of the WiFi payload data that it's Street View cars collected in 2010. That data may include personal information such as usernames, passwords and email addresses that Google collected via unsecured WiFi networks. Google's collection of such data has sparked numerous governmental investigations around the world -- some of which are still in progress. Google had previously promised the UK government and public that it had deleted all of the data. But Google attorne [...]

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Google and Facebook both increased their spending trying to educate (read: influence) Congress in the second quarter, according to filings made under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. Companies that employ lobbyists must file these reports on a quarterly basis. The disclosures show that Facebook spent just under $1 million ($960,000) on lobbying in Q2, up from $650,000 in Q1 2012. That compares with $320,000 spent trying to influence lawmakers in Q2, 2011. A wide range of bills and issues were cited on Facebook's disclosures. Among them privacy, intellectual property reform, corporate [...]

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The Wall Street Journal reports Google and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to announce the terms of 'Cookiegate' fine. This fine is due to Google bypassing the default privacy settings in Apple’s Safari web browser. The Wall Street Journal says they expect the fine to be the "largest penalty ever levied on a single company" by the FTC. The amount is a whopping $22.5 million according to sources. For Google, $22.5 million is not much but for their reputation, it just tacks on one more dent to their "do no evil" reputation. The penalty is $16,000 per violation per day, a [...]

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Be In, a company that created the video sharing service CamUp, is accusing Google of stealing trade secrets and violating its copyrights when it added a "Watch with Friends" video sharing feature to Google+. CamUp is a New York-based online service/community that allows users to share multimedia content via connected webcams. GigaOm has posted a copy of the lawsuit, which claims Be In has suffered losses in excess of $75,000 and "continues to suffer irreparable harm." The suit asks the court to shut down the Hangouts feature on Google+, to make Google remove the Hangouts button on YouTube [...]

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The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was mulling whether to reopen the Google Street View "Wi-Spy" investigation. This was prompted by the US Federal Communications Commission report that found the collection of so-called consumer payload data by Google was intentional. The ICO investigation has now been reopened, accordingly. The original 2010 investigation was closed without any penalty being assessed against Google. But the subsequent finding of intentional conduct by Google and executive knowledge of the capture of payload data was sufficient to justify reopening the inve [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Mobile | Google: Street View