Business

The news Down Under

Facebook and Google are taking completely opposite approaches to a proposed law that would require them to pay for news in Australia. Read More

Tech

Big Tech opens wallet for publishers as Australian news code looms

Enlarge / Close-up photography (credit: John Lamb | Getty Images) Google and Facebook are rushing to agree to deals with Australian publishers, offering them the most generous licensing terms in the world in an attempt to persuade Canberra not to apply rules forcing tech groups to pay for news. MPs began debating legislation on Wednesday […]

Tech

Report: Google will pay $76M over three years to link to French news sites

Enlarge / Google’s main headquarters. (credit: Cyrus Farivar) Google will pay $76 million over three years to 121 French news organizations to comply with a new French law requiring Google to pay when it uses “snippets” from news articles, Reuters reports. The payments range from $1.3 million paid to Le Monde to $13,741 for a local […]

Tech

State lawmakers override veto, become first in nation to tax online ads

Enlarge / None of these companies are keen to hand over a slice of their revenue to Maryland. (credit: Malik Evren | Getty Images) Maryland today became the first state in the nation to impose a tax on digital advertising revenue, overriding an earlier veto from the governor and incurring the wrath of piles of […]

Tech

Google, Facebook tell SCOTUS it should be harder for you to sue them

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images / Aurich Lawson) Suing technology firms when they mess up is already hard, especially over privacy violations. Now, Facebook, Google, and the trade groups representing all the big tech firms are asking the Supreme Court to make it even harder for class actions to pursue cases against them. Facebook, Google, and […]

Tech

Chrome users have faced 3 security concerns over the past 24 hours

(credit: Chrome) Users of Google’s Chrome browser have faced three security concerns over the past 24 hours in the form of a malicious extension with more than 2 million users, a just-fixed zero-day, and new information about how malware can abuse Chrome’s sync feature to bypass firewalls. Let’s discuss them one by one. First up, […]

Tech

Microsoft backs Australian law forcing Google to pay for news links

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. (credit: Microsoft) Google has portrayed itself as a defender of the open Internet as it battles an Australian proposal to force Google and Facebook to pay Australian news organizations to link to their articles. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has argued that the ability to link to […]

Business COVID 19

GameStop futures rally again. Should investors worry?

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here. Good morning, Bull Sheeters. U.S. futures are in the green on the back of strong results from Amazon and Alphabet’s Google yesterday. But, don’t look now: GameStop is up 11% in […]

Tech

Google settles federal gender and race discrimination charges for $3.8M

Enlarge (credit: Sean Gallup | Getty Images) Google has agreed to a $3.8 million settlement with federal regulators to settle allegations that it both underpaid women software engineers and unfairly passed over women and Asian candidates for software engineering roles. The settlement breaks down into three pools, the US Department of Labor announced Monday. As […]

Business COVID 19

GameStop plunges again as the retail rally fades

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here. Good morning, Bull Sheeters. As we’ve learned from the meme-stonks trade, what goes up, must also come down. Gulp. Not only is GameStop in a tailspin, but traders are quickly unwinding […]