Non-EU businesses to pay VAT on electronic services

As of yesterday, electronic services supplied by non-EU based businesses to EU customers will have to pay VAT. Previously EU businesses had to charge VAT on electronic services, whereas non-EU businesses could provide the same service to EU customers free of VAT. Many companies - most notably Freeserve, complained that this gave US ISPs like AOL an unfair competitive advantage. ...more

Robot pet overload

Just when you thought you'd seen the last of Aibo and all the other robo-pet imitators, steel yourself for an invasion from Korea. Intz.com has just signed a deal with Tiger Electronics to market and distribute a pair of digital pets outside of Korea and Japan. ...more

CAN-Spam catches home working mother

Jobs that allow mothers to stay at home with their children may be few and far between, but spamming porn it would seem is one of them. Jennifer Clason, of New Hampshire, USA had been running a successful Internet operation for more than seven years, as well as a website offering support to mothers looking to work from home. Quite the entrepreneur, she also claims to run more than 10 other online sales sites. ...more

HP memo highlights Microsoft threat to open source software

A two year old memo from a senior executive at HP has been uncovered which reveals the company's growing fear that it might be on the wrong end of a broad legal assault against companies selling open source software. The email, dated 3 June 2002, was sent by Gary Campbell, then vice president of strategic architecture, to a number of other HP execs, following the completion of a cross-licensing deal with Microsoft. 'Basically Microsoft is going to use the legal system to shut down open source software,' he wrote,' Microsoft could attack Open Source Software for patent infringements against OEMs, Linux distributors, and least likely open source developers. ...more

ICANN opens public consultation on new Net domains

The body that controls Internet standards is calling for public input on the development of a new process for creating, approving and adding gTLDs. These are generic top-level domains on the Internet, such as .com, . ...more