Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Google warns on German copyright bill November 4, 2012 3:39 pm By Gerrit Wiesmann in Berlin Germany is leading a growing European movement to let newspaper publishers charge internet search engines for displaying links to their articles – a move market-leader Google warns could cause an internet news blackout. The so-called ancillary copyright bill – to be debated by the Bundestag for the first time at the end of November – will give newspaper and magazine publishers the right to stop search engines and news aggregators from linking to their web pages if Google and its rivals refuse to pay royalties for their use. Günter Krings, a senior lawmaker in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, calls the initiative the “little brother” of copyright law. “Just like that which protects the rights of a songwriter or music company, ancillary copyright levels the playing field between print publishers and search engines and aggregators,” he said. The idea of forcing intern...

  Apple Paid Just 2% Tax On Overseas Profits 5:53pm UK, Sunday 04 November 2012 Apple paid less than 2% tax on its overseas profits, documents have revealed, after the technology giant slashed the amount foreign taxmen receive. The iPad and iPhone creator paid $713bn (£445m) in corporation tax outside the US in the year to September 29 - despite foreign pre-tax earnings soaring more than 50% to$36.8bn (£23bn). Papers filed with US regulators revealed Apple's overseas tax rate fell to 1.9%, compared to 2.5% the previous year amid a headline corporation tax rate in the UK of 24% and 35% in the US. The slide in its overseas tax rate comes as the company sold 125 million iPhones, 58 million iPads and 13.5 million MacBook laptops worldwide. Apple is the latest company to come under scrutiny for overseas tax payments after Amazon, Starbucks, Facebook and Google. Coffee giant Starbucks reportedly paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in 14 years of trading in...

Summly: Teenager launches top-selling news app 2 November 2012 Last updated at 08:45 ET Nick D'Aloisio took time off school to develop the Summly smartphone app A smartphone app which provides summaries of news stories soared to number nine in Apple's app store just two hours after its release in the US. The app, called Summly, was designed by 17-year-old Londoner Nick D'Aloisio, and has received more than $1m in funding from investors. High-profile supporters include Stephen Fry, Tech City CEO Joanna Shields and Newscorp owner Rupert Murdoch. However some early reviewers have described the app as "confusing". "Navigation unclear," wrote Oliver Devereux on the app store's review page, while another described it as "quite unintuitive". But the app is still rating an average score of four out of five possible stars from users overall. Mr D'Aloisio took time off school to develop his idea for a smar...

Court OKs warrantless use of hidden surveillance cameras In latest case to test how technological developments alter Americans' privacy, federal court sides with Justice Department on police use of concealed surveillance cameras on private property. by Declan McCullagh  October 30, 2012 10:45 AM PDT Police are allowed in some circumstances to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a search warrant, a federal judge said yesterday. CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown. This is the latest case to highlight how advances in technology are causing the legal system to rethink how Americans' privacy rights are protected b...

Judge Orders Kan. Newspaper To Reveal Name Of Commenter October 31, 2012 2:28 PM TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas newspaper has been ordered to identify a person who posted a comment on its website about a story on a murder trial for which that commenter was serving as a juror. Shawnee County District Judge Steven Ebberts last week denied a request by The Topeka Capital-Journal to quash a district attorney’s subpoena seeking the name, address and Internet Protocol address of a poster who goes by the pseudonym “BePrepared.” That person is believed to have been a juror in the first-degree murder trial of Anceo D. Stovall, 27, who was being tried on 11 charges that included the shooting death of Natalie Gibson and the wounding of her partner, Lori Allison, on July 21, 2011, during a robbery. The Capital-Journal reported that court records indicate BePrepared accessed a news story posted July 19 while the person and other jurors were deliberating Stovall’s fate tw...

iOS Designer Forstall Pushed Out At Apple Scott Forstall, responsible for Apple's iOS platform, has been shoved out the door following the iOS 6 Maps flap. By Eric Zeman InformationWeek October 30, 2012 09:30 AM Apple may have hoped Hurricane Sandy would drown out some bad news that the company announced Monday evening. Apple has reorganized some of its senior executives. Two men are out, and several others gain new responsibilities as Apple CEO Tim Cook shakes things up. The biggest piece of news surrounds Scott Forstall, who's headed iOS since its inception. Forstall has been with Apple since it scooped up NeXTStep in the 90s. He's had a hand in both iOS and OS X ever since. In the press release issued by Apple, it says that Forstall will remain an advisor to CEO Tim Cook through early 2013. iOS has been an unparalleled success since its 2007 debut. Apple has sold more than 400 million iOS devices in the last five years in iPhones, iPads and iPod T...

France 'hits Google with €1 billion claim' in content row LATEST UPDATE: 31/10/2012   French tax authorities have filed a €1 billion claim against Google to pressure the search engine to pay a portion of its advertising revenue for access to French media websites, a Paris-based newspaper reported on Wednesday. By News Wires French tax authorities have made a billion-euro ($1.3 billion) claim against Google to pressure it in a dispute over compensation to media websites, a French newspaper reported, a claim denied by the US Internet giant's local arm. The weekly Canard Enchaine said in its edition to hit news-stands on Wednesday that the tax claim concerns the transfer prices set between Google's Irish holding company and the French unit for four tax years, without disclosing its sources. French tax authorities told AFP they do not comment on specific cases due to taxpayer privacy. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A...