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Just as it did in public statements, Apple's taking a strong stance in its defense against alleged price-fixing actions in concert with major ebook publishers. In US District Court filing yesterday, Apple claimed that "the Government's Complaint against Apple is fundamentally flawed as a matter of fact and law," going on to say that "Apple has not 'conspired' with anyone, was not aware of any alleged 'conspiracy' by others, and never 'fixed prices.'" Apple even acusses the government of "[siding] with monopoly, rather than competition."All in all, it's quite the strenuous defense. Unsurprisingly, Apple claims its entry into the eBook...

Amazon may have just upended Congress — to the chagrin of those pushing for a federal online sales tax bill. The online retail company last week inked deals with Texas and Nevada to begin collecting sales taxes on purchases. The company has brokered seven such agreements in recent months while bills to standardize collection of Internet sales taxes nationwide are mired in politics on Capitol Hill. That puts lobbyists and others who have been fighting for a federal bill in a quandary: If the biggest states begin to see sales tax revenue from Amazon’s collections, is it still worth the...

Brazil will boost its military presence in the Amazon region to protect its huge natural resources from any external threat, Defense Minister Celso Amorim told the Senate. "The commitment to the defense of the Amazon is fundamental. Navy, Air Force, all services will boost their presence in the Amazon in the next few years," he said without giving further details. Amorim said Brazil did not feel threatened by any neighboring country but added: "We cannot rule out that some power from outside the region" may covet the natural resources of the Amazon, the planet's largest rainforest and its main source...

House Bill 3659, colloquially referred to as the "Amazon Tax," was passed in March of last year which broadened the scope of which companies would be required to collect use tax from its customers. ......... Now according to Crain's, Cook County Circuit Judge Robert Lopez Cepero ruled that the state overstepped its bounds with the law, and that it doesn't pass constitutional muster.

Not long ago it was discovered that Amazon was operating a facility in Texas without paying sales tax. This of course was a problem because everyone else in Texas pays sales tax, including the small local bookstores. A little over a year later, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs has announced an agreement with Amazon that settles the tax dispute and will bring 2,500 new jobs to Texas and $200 million in capital investments. This is great news for the Texas economy. This is also great news for Amazon.com because Texas is very business friendly and Amazon will enjoy a great environment...

President Obama has a mistress. Her name is Amazon. Whereas former Presidents Kennedy and Clinton rendezvoused with female interns, Obama rendezvous with an e-commerce company. Amazon currently monopolizes e-book sales, controlling 60 percent of the market. And, like a jealous lover, Obama is suing Amazon’s competitors in order to further strengthen her e-book monopoly. Obama may be faithful to his wife, but he is breaking his vow to the American people to defend the Constitution. He is openly abusing his executive powers and giving preferential treatment to Amazon—hoping to curry favor with consumers and ensure his reelection in November. Obama’s...

The U.S. filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Corp., Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York district court, claiming collusion over eBook pricing. Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books, according to people familiar with the matter. They will argue that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry, which was dominated by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 By AppleInsider Staff Published: 10:05 AM EST (07:05 AM PST) An antitrust suit accusing Apple and a number of book publishers of price fixing and collusion was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday. The complaint was filed in a New York district court against Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Penguin, according to Bloomberg. Indications first surfaced on Tuesday that the Department of Justice was readying an antitrust suit. The justice department is expected to settle with "several publishers" this week, as Reuters reported earlier that Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins...

Amazon.com's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, says he's funded a successful effort to locate the mammoth rocket engines that sent the Apollo 11 mission on the first leg of its mission to the moon — and now he's planning to bring them up from the Atlantic Ocean floor.... The five F-1 rocket engines were on the first stage of Apollo 11's Saturn 5 rocket, which dropped into the Atlantic just minutes after liftoff in 1969. In an online statement, Bezos acknowledges that the undersea artifacts, like other hardware associated with the space effort, still belongs to NASA — and he imagines...

...an article in The New York Times which reported on the discovery in Acre, only a few hours travel from the Madre de Dios Indians, of extensive, deep straight trenches, ridges and mounds dating back to pre-Columbian times, indicating a large, well-developed society. This was just the latest evidence that the Amazon, or at least parts of it, was heavily populated by well-organized societies in much the same way as the high Andes were remodeled by the Tiahuanuco, the Chavin, the Chachapoyas, the Huari, and the Incas. Over the past couple of decades the pre-history of the Americas has been...

A group of students and professors from Yale University have found a fungi in the Amazon rainforest that can degrade and utilize the common plastic polyurethane (PUR). As part of the university’s Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory educational program, designed to engage undergraduate students in discovery-based research, the group searched for plants and cultured the micro-organisms within their tissue.

A guide to how NASCAR fans can earn money while enjoying their sport. NASCAR venues offer easy ways to earn money which the author took advantage of for two full seasons and parts of several more. Detailed examples based on the author's own experiences are given on how fans can earn at least several hundred up to a couple of thousand dollars at each NASCAR race. A bonus section is included that will reveal the "Ground Zero" for all wholesalers where the prices are rock bottom. Even if the reader has no interest in NASCAR this wholesale information can...

Edmar Araújo still remembers the awe. As he cleared trees on his family’s land decades ago near Rio Branco, an outpost in the far western reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, a series of deep earthen avenues carved into the soil came into focus. “These lines were too perfect not to have been made by man,” said Mr. Araújo, a 62-year-old cattleman. “The only explanation I had was that they must have been trenches for the war against the Bolivians.” But these were no foxholes, at least not for any conflict waged here at the dawn of the 20th century. According...

I am interested in self-publishing on Kindle. Eventually I would like to publish a book but first I want to publish articles via Kindle of just 500 to 1000 words each. I would like to make the articles available for FREE to the public. This is to familiarize the general public with my humor and would be great publicity for my book.So what I want to know is if it is okay to publish stuff on Kindle that would be available to the public for FREE. Also is there some sort of Kindle index in which such articles would be...

Online giant Amazon.com Inc. is planning to open two distribution centers in the Richmond area next fall that would employ a total of 1,350 people, state and local officials said Wednesday. The $135 million investment in Chesterfield and Dinwiddie counties is Virginia's largest single economic development deal since 2004 in terms of jobs created. The official announcement by Amazon and Gov. Bob McDonnell is expected this morning.

Video on Demand Live Radio Communities YouNews Latest KOMONews.com headlines Sky Metalwala's father awarded custody of daughterTrooper, officer among many crashes due to black iceKen Schram: Occupy leaders need to reassert controlInslee wants 6 gubernatorial debates with McKennaMore » Page 1 of 1 ST. IGNACE, Mich. - A top executive with Amazon.com was one of two men killed in a plane crash late Saturday in northern Michigan, officials confirmed. Coast Guard crews found the plane wreckage about noon Sunday after detecting a signal from an emergency locator beacon. On board the crashed plane was Amazon's web services director, Thomas Phillips,...

Pepper-Spray Used at UC Davis Becomes 'Hit' on AmazonBy Shailesh Shrivastava November 29, 2011 5:56 AM EST Since a campus policeman pepper-sprayed Occupy protesters at the University of California, Davis, the campus has been witnessing protests almost every day. **SNIP** The pepper spray Lt. John Pike used has become famous since the brand name and product id have now been registered in people's mind. Amazon users have posted many creative pictures under the product "Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream, 1.3% Red Band/1.3% Blue Band Pepper Spray." The sarcastic comments as the product review also show that people are in no...

I wore these in the 1970s during Nixon& Carter. These were out of fashion for years but are making a comeback. They are drab and dark. To me they reflect an awful economy for young people who wear these. Do the occupy Wall Street kids wear them? I would think so.http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/apparel/ref=pd_dp_ts_a_1 Amazon Best Sellers in Clothing 1.6 days in the top 100 Kenneth Cole Reaction Men's Melton Peacoat With Bib Kenneth Cole Reaction 4.2 out of 5 stars   (6) Price: $73.50 2.1 day in the top 100 Kenneth Cole Reaction Men's Plush Peacoat Kenneth Cole Reaction Price: $67.50 3.1 day in...

The days of skirting around having to pay retail sales tax by shopping online may be coming to a close—and Amazon, of all companies, is supporting the effort. Online retailer Amazon.com has a long history of fighting requirements for shoppers to pay their local state sales tax whenever a purchase is made via the Internet. Most recently, Amazon has been battling it out with California, which has been trying to force Amazon and other online retailers with ties to the state to collect sales tax on purchases.

Oct 25 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc shares slumped after reporting weaker-than-expected results as it spent heavily on a new tablet computer and other long-term projects. The stock plummeted 14 percent to $194.31 after hours, after closing at $227.15 on Nasdaq. The world's largest Internet retailer said on Tuesday its third-quarter net income was $63 million, or 14 cents a share, versus $231 million, or 51 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was $10.88 billion, up 44 percent from the third quarter of 2010, it added. Analysts had expected Amazon to report third-quarter earnings per share of 24 cents on...

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136 in Movies & TV

Putting to rest the endless speculation, Amazon on Wednesday officially introduced not one, not two, but four new Kindle devices. The company aims to lock up the e-reader market with an entry-level $79 Kindle, and to do what countless tech companies have failed at: building a color tablet device at a reasonable price that can compete with Apple's wildly successful iPad. The Kindle Fire is that gadget. It's designed mainly as a media consumption device rather than a touch computer and it undercuts Apple's iPad by hundreds of dollars—$199 compared to $500 for an iPad. It will go on sale...

The company's new Kindle Fire tablet, a 7-inch touch-screen device powered by Amazon's content ecosystem and priced at just $199, may be an orange to Apple's iPad apple, but I'd argue that it's an iPad killer all the same. On paper, the Kindle Fire has half the features of the iPad. In fact, it's almost literally half the features--here's a handy comparison chart so you can see for yourself. There's no camera, front or rear; the 8GB of onboard storage is half the amount of the base-model iPad; the Fire has no cellular options, no built-in GPS, and no Bluetooth,...

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is expected to launch its long-awaited tablet computer on Wednesday, sporting a low-enough price to give Apple Inc's iPad some serious competition for the first time. At a news conference Wednesday morning in New York, Amazon will likely unveil a seven-inch tablet that will let users read e-books, download digital music and video games and stream movies and TV shows. Analysts expect the tablet to be priced around $250, roughly half the price of Apple's dominant iPad, which starts at $499. "If Amazon prices the Kindle Fire at $250, it has the potential to become the...

SAN FRANCISCO – Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday reflecting a truce among the state, brick-and-mortar retailers and Amazon.com, giving the e-commerce giant a one-year reprieve from collecting California sales tax. The agreement spares the state a ballot fight over the collection of online sales taxes: Amazon will suspend its bid to repeal California's online tax law, while the company and other online retailers will have until July 31, 2012, to lobby Congress for national tax standards. Amazon said it plans to reinstate thousands of affiliates based in California.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state and local governments cannot force out-of-state companies to collect taxes for them, since this would interfere with interstate commerce. States and localities may only require companies with a "substantial physical presence" or "nexus" in their state to collect sales taxes. That's as it should be. But some public officials aren't content with that ruling. Gov. Engler, for example, strongly supports a National Governors' Association (NGA) proposal that would apply sales taxes to virtually all Internet, catalog, and 1-800 number purchases. Labeled the "Streamlined Sales Tax Project," the proposal would deputize a private...

My GF found this ditty after watching the Seahawks got their butts kicked awhile ago. She was looking for a how-to tutorial on how to open and build an Amazon webstore..then an astore for affiliates. Check out this uploader: annabellasgiftshop, also on Amazon. She starts with "let's start with Laura Bush's book"...I said, hmmm. Then she continues with "Alright, let's go to Sarah palin's book"..Usually there should be Bush-haters on YT, but this was a good find. Subscribed as well. She's into this chick stuff so she did. Just thought I 'd pass this around for all those Freepers who...

<p>Amazon agreed to drop its finding of the peasants' referendum.</p>

Texas Gov. Rick Perry takes great pride in talking up Texas’ business friendly climate. To hear him tell it, Texas is a magnet for businesses from all over the country (see here). So it came as a bit of a shock to read that online retail giant amazon.com will close a fulfillment center near Dallas in April due to the ”unfavorable regulatory climate” in Texas. In addition to closing the Irving facility, Amazon is scrapping plans to expand in The Lone Star State — home to the world’s 15th-biggest economy — at the cost of more than 1,000 new jobs...

Amazon.com has said it will add 7,000 workers to its payrolls in California, but only if the state agrees to temporarily postpone implementation of a new sales tax on online purchases. According to Reuters, the web services giant also said that it would stop pushing a ballot measure to overturn that new tax if the state waits until 2014 to being collecting revenue from online purchases. The sales tax went into effect July 1. News of the offer broke Thursday night, just before the federal government unveiled Friday morning new labor statistics showing that no net jobs had been created...

Gov. Jerry Brown said this morning that he's leaning against Internet retailer Amazon.com's proposal to put off enforcing a new law that taxes online purchases in exchange for the company launching several California distribution centers that would create several thousand new jobs. "I'm concerned about anything that will reduce revenue going forward because we have a very uncertain economy," the governor said shortly after speaking at an awards ceremony at Sacramento's Radisson Hotel honoring California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees. "Look, we need more revenues unless we're going keep curbing schools, courts, corrections."

SACRAMENTO -- The big showdown between traditional retailers and the online sales giant Amazon may dissolve into one big handshake. Amazon is considering backing away from a referendum to overturn a law forcing the company to collect sales taxes if a deal can be worked out with brick-and-mortar retailers and legislative leaders, according to Capitol sources. Amazon would get a two-year reprieve on California taxes but would pledge to support Congressional action on leveling the playing field on Internet sales taxes nationally, according to one person involved in talks between the traditional retailers and Amazon. The negotiations took place Tuesday...

When it comes to avoiding the requirement of collecting sales tax from its consumers, Amazon is not afraid to open its wallet. More than nine months before a proposed June 2012 referendum asking that California’s new Internet sales tax law be overturned, Amazon, the Seattle-based online retailer, has already spent $5.25 million, state records show, more than any company has spent in California this far from a vote in at least a decade. “The initiative and referendum process have been hijacked,” said Loni Hancock, a state senator from Berkeley, who wrote the law Amazon is trying to overturn and who...

Nan Brasmer says she won't buy anything from Amazon anymore. The 72-year-old president of the 950,000-member California Alliance for Retired Americans is among dozens of community leaders planning to gather in Sacramento Monday morning to launch a consumer boycott of the Seattle-based retailer. The boycott -- and an online petition at ThinkBeforeYouClickCA.org -- targets Amazon for its efforts to overturn a new California law that requires internet retailers to collect sales tax from their customers. The boycott is backed by many Demoratic members of the state Legislature, including East Bay Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner and State Senator Loni Hancock, both of...

Congressional Democrats scheme to prop up state spending with online leviesThe class warriors in Congress won’t rest until everything is taxed multiple times. The idea that online retailers aren’t collecting tribute for states in which they have no physical presence galls Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, and Rep. John Conyers, Michigan Democrat. So they dreamed up the Main Street Fairness Act to force Internet shoppers to prop up the big spenders in state government. Crony capitalists are lining up in support. Big players in the online space such as Amazon and others with nationwide physical footprints such as Sears...

Three Democrats have introduced a federal bill that would require online retailers such as Amazon.com to collect states' sales taxes. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Representatives John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) call their proposal that was introduced July 29 the Main Street Fairness Act. Amazon.com, which has been fighting individual states – including California – over efforts to require online retailers to collect state and local sales tax, is supporting the bill, according to a letter to Durbin from Amazon.com Vice President for Global Public Policy Paul Misener.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduces legislation that would require online retailers such as Amazon to collect sales taxes. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) plans a similar measure in the House.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will introduce a bill on Friday to allow states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes. The measure has the support of online giant Amazon. Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Jack Reed (D- R.I.) will co-sponsor the bill, titled the Main Street Fairness Act. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) will introduce a companion bill in the House. Supporters of the bill argue it will close a loophole that allows online purchases to go untaxed, giving an advantage to online retailers over traditional, brick-and-mortar stores. “Our bill levels the playing field to give...

Amazon.com can begin collecting signatures to overturn California's new online tax collection law after state Attorney General Kamala Harris issued ballot language Monday for the retailer's proposed referendum. The retailer and its online allies will have until Sept. 27 to gather 505,000 signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot. Should it qualify, the state would have to suspend its new sales tax law until voters decide on the matter next June.

Financially, the so-called "Amazon tax" is a relatively tiny piece of the budget package that Democratic legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown enacted last month. Politically, however, it's a very big deal. The budget trailer bill would compel Internet retailers to collect sales taxes, notwithstanding a U.S. Supreme Court decision that constricts states' powers to do so. Democrats like it because it would raise some money, and California's retailers such as Wal-Mart like it because it would make Amazon, Overstock, et al., less competitive. Amazon has severed its relationships with California "affiliates" and filed a referendum petition that, if it makes...

...The referendum moves to overturn this law in its entirety, allowing affiliates to get back into business with their respective online retailers within 90 days of the referendum’s passage. In order for the referendum to appear on the next state-wide ballot, 504,760 must be collected from California residents. The Internet tax law has already proved to be harmful in California. In order to avoid paying for the unconstitutional tax, online retailers have already started cutting ties with their in-state ad affiliates. Many affiliates, whose income is dependent upon their relationship with online retailers, have already stated their intentions to move...

Amazon.com, in a fresh attack on California's new online sales tax law, is pushing a ballot referendum to have the law repealed. The Internet retailer Monday called it "a referendum on jobs and investment in California." The effort comes two weeks after the law was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. It requires online merchants to collect sales tax on goods purchased by Californians. Amazon hasn't been collecting the tax. The Seattle retailer responded the day the law took effect by severing ties with its 10,000 California affiliates – individuals, businesses and nonprofits that earned commissions by referring customers to Amazon....

In addition, South Korea will create a cloud-based server system for its schools that allows students to download textbooks on their tablets Mobile devices have become a crucial part of everyday life for many people. More recently, tablets have gained popularity as new models, such as Apple's iPad 2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab, have upped the mobile experience. Furthermore, tablets are not only being used for entertainment purposes. More and more businesses and schools are replacing textbooks and print manuals with tablets. For instance, Alaska Airlines replaced its flight manuals with iPads, and American Airlines is looking to adopt the...

So, I went online Friday looking to buy a copy of John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967." Thought it might be timely to revisit the Harvard economist's distinction between "private affluence" and "public squalor." Barnes & Noble's website was selling it for $26.53. Total, which included California sales tax: $28.79. "Total Before Tax" at Amazon.com: $26.40. "Estimated Tax To Be Collected: $0.00."At Overstock.com, I could still buy furniture and various knickknacks free of the 7.25 percent tax, even though California's law mandating out-of-state Internet retailers to start collecting the taxes was now in effect. In other...

Online retail giant Amazon.com is threatening to pull its California affiliates, as efforts to tax online purchases in the state gains steam. In an email to Amazon Associates who are located in California, Amazon said that it will terminate the associates program for California-based participants, as of the date of any law on the issue becomes effective. The move would not be the first for Amazon, which has been fighting a running battle with states, who have been aggressively trying to tax purchases made through the e-commerce giant. One side effect of the aggressive tax efforts by states--which might have...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California’s tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts say. The bill, AB 28X, takes effect immediately. The state Board of Equalization says the tax will raise $200 million a year, but critics claim it will raise nothing because online retailers will end their affiliate programs rather than collect the tax. Amazon has already emailed its termination of its affiliate advertising program with 25,000 websites

Beginning Friday, Amazon.com and other large out-of-state retailers will be required to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make online.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California's tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts say. The bill, AB 28X, takes effect immediately. The state Board of Equalization says the tax will raise $200 million a year, but critics claim it will raise nothing because online retailers will end their affiliate programs rather than collect the tax. "This law won't impact Amazon that much but it is a crisis for website owners who make revenue by placing ads on their websites for thousands of online retailers," Madigan said. "Most...

From an email sent out by the Amazon Associates Program to California affiliates: For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers -- including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you -- even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

Amazon.com is negotiating a deal with Texas officials that would see the online retail giant promise to create more than 5,000 jobs and invest $300 million in the state over the next three years. In exchange, lawmakers would have to grant Amazon a 4½-year exemption from collecting tax on online sales in Texas, according to documents obtained by the American-Statesman. The proposal would be attached to Senate Bill 1, the fiscal matters bill being debated in the Legislature's special session. SB 1 is a must-pass measure essential to balancing the state's 2012-13 budget. The American-Statesman obtained a draft copy of...