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Several other states are taking notice of New York's new sales tax law and watching the situation closely. California is one state that is considering similar legislation that would broaden online sales tax requirements.

Please see New York's Ambitious Sales Tax Law--Broader Than Amazon and the Internet?

Senators pressed executives from Yahoo, Google, and Cisco Systems on Tuesday to justify their business practices in China and other Internet-censoring countries.

New Jersey’s Governor signed legislation would allow the state to monitor or restrict Internet access by convicted sex offenders.

The Department of Homeland Security leaked a disturbing experiment video which highlights the need to guard against cyber-security threats  to critical infrastructure like power plants and the telecom system.

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New York Governor David Paterson signed legislation Wednesday, taking another step in policing the Internet with a new law aimed at keeping an eye on what convicted sex offenders do online.

As a result of New York State’s move to collect internet sales tax, Overstock.com has become the first major Internet retailer to cancel its relationship with affiliates in New York.

On July 1, Washington will join 18 other states that require some e-commerce businesses to collect sales tax. About 1,100 online retailers have volunteered to collect taxes, and in return, states such as Washington promise not to sue them for back taxes.

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Big businesses need to start planning now to handle changes that will take place when a new version of the Internet's fundamental routing protocol becomes ubiquitous, or risk losing online customers, according to ICANN.

A hacker broke into Chile's government sites mining personal data from six million people which they then posted on two popular servers on the Internet.

Amazon.com has been operating a distribution center in Irving, TX since 2006, giving it a "physical presence" in Texas. The Texas Comptroller's Office is investigating whether the Internet retail behemoth, owes Texas possibly millions of dollars in uncollected internet sales taxes on purchases made by its customers in the state.

Florida Attorney General announced a nationwide partnership requires Facebook to digitally screen profiles, eliminating convicted sex offenders. It also checks that subscriber profiles match personal information, as well as an automatic "pop-up" warning will appear when youngsters try to contact adults.

ICANN chief says business leaders are grossly underestimating their firms' reliance on the internet and the risks of web-based threats.

Wholesale fees for Internet addresses ending in ".org" will increase 10 percent Nov. 9.

Two senior House Judiciary Committee members introduced a bill Thursday that could subject cable and telephone companies to antitrust enforcement if they unfairly handle Internet traffic.

Madonna has become the first artist to officially endorse the secondary ticket market.

The Tax Man Cometh….on June 1st

New York State recently passed an interstate sales tax law that threatens to impose tax collection burdens on catalog and online retailers in every state of the country.  It requires out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by New York residents.  The retailers must register as vendors with New York by June 1 – less than one month away. 

Today, current law mandates that a business must have physical presence or nexus in a state in order to be required to charge sales tax in that state.  This “nexus” may be the one point of contention that businesses have against this law.

To that end, we’d like to encourage states to take a close look at model legislation developed by The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Three states – VA, Iowa and Texas – have already passed it.  While it won’t change this existing NY law, it will help to guarantee that home state businesses have a home state forum to settle questions of nexus and tax responsibility.

This legislation simply gives a special declaratory judgment action, which a business can seek in their home state courts to determine if that business has the requisite nexus, or physical presence in another state which would justify the requirement to collect and remit sales and use taxes. 

It gives in-state retailers important protection from unfair and costly litigation in foreign-state courts, by foreign-state tax administrators. 

We encourage states to protect their state’s businesses from New York’s tax collection burdens, by introducing this ALEC model legislation.

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Amazon has filed a lawsuit asking a New York court to declare the state's new internet tax unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that states cannot require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax unless they have a physical presence, like a brick-and-mortar store, in those states.

A group of professional ticket brokers enlisted the help of Richard Vitale, who is not a registered lobbyist, to help pass the amended ticket resale bill. This action by the brokers may have violated Massachusetts law.

Virginia public schools will soon launch Internet safety lessons across all grade levels and are going to integrate safety skills into the curriculum, not simply teach them in one lesson.

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Security Fix is launching a new feature today called Cyber Justice Chronicles, which will periodically provide short snippets of news about individuals who have been arrested or convicted of computer crime offenses.

The New York Times is reporting on Amazon's lawsuit contesting the recently enacted New York state law which requires online retail outlets to collect sales tax on items sold to the state's residents without a physical presence in the state.

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One Tennessee representative is pushing a bill that would collect taxes on digital media sales, including download of music, movies, TV programs, ringtones and electronic books.

Canadian Internet Registration Authority celebrated its one-millionth domain name registration, and announced the implementation of a new "whois" policy that will better protect users’ privacy.

On social networking sites, many users don’t realize that the downloading of an “application” allows developers access to almost everything on a profile.

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Two bills are pending in Congress that would allow tax collectors to target out-of-state Internet and mail-order retailers. Steve DelBianco, executive director of the NetChoice Coalition, whose members include eBay and Yahoo, said he doesn’t think the plan has really simplified matters for retailers, nor has it produced the effects states were seeking.

A growing number of state politicians are proposing new laws to levy taxes on digital downloads, including music, video, and books, as a way to remedy budget pains.” If a state wants to start taxing a product or service not previously taxed, they've got to enact new legislation, such as the Maryland computer services tax that was just repealed," said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, which represents e-commerce companies like eBay and Yahoo. 

The House has voted to approve The Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008 that would require the Internal Revenue Service to notify taxpayers if it suspects identity theft and strengthen efforts to fight scams.

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The US military is recruiting for people to defend against cyber threats. As computer networks play increasingly vital roles in the U.S.military—and expose it to new dangers from skilled information warriors trained by other nations, American is in need of a new type of 21st century soldier.

The NY assembly has passed a bill to protect kids from sexual predators online. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo introduced the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act in January. The act requires registered sex offenders to provide online screen names to state officials.

Last week, New York legislators approved a bill that will require out-of-state online retailers to begin collecting sales taxes on purchases shipped to New York addresses.

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Maryland leaders capped off a whirlwind legislative session yesterday, signing into law the legislation that repealed Maryland's new computer services tax.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency offered internet safety classes to parents to teach them how to protect their children from sexual predators and other Web dangers.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it posted the schedule for its public Meeting to be held in Paris June 22-26, 2008.

Portland State students and faculty are the latest to be hit by phishers claiming to be from User Support Services and other IT departments within the university. The scammers, dubbed "spear-phishers," try to gain user's confidence by posing as trusted individuals within an organization.