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Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Selling on eBay without an auctioneer's license?

Ebayers in Pennsylvania, watch outIf you're outside of Pennsylvania, you have nothing to worry about, probably. But one Pennsylvanian woman who started selling goods on eBay to stay at home with her daughter who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, is being prosecuted by the state of Pennsylvania for not having an auctioneer's license.

The story essentially boils down to the idea that people who are doing well on eBay in Pennsylvania need to be regulated, and at this point it looks like suing them for not having a costly auctioneer's license is the way it's going to happen. So far, only two people have been hit, apparently to make a legal point.

Correct us if we're wrong, but isn't eBay technically the auctioneer, while sellers are just people/businesses putting items up for auction? Now whether this is just a case of misguided bureaucracy or a way to create some commotion in order to get online auction related legislation in place, this seems rather wrong.

If she was dodging taxes on her at-home business, that is one thing, but from the looks of it, she's getting sued over a point which technically doesn't even apply to her. But then again, there are those who think the Internet is a "series of tubes."

[via Techdirt]

Filed under: Internet, P2P

The $1.77 trillion FCC fine for Comcast - Official inquiry begins

Comcast, you're fineLast week, news broke that Comcast may be paying a steep FCC fine to the tune of $1.77 trillion dollars for throttling peer-to-peer traffic such as BitTorrent. Yesterday, Comcast confirmed that it has received official word that it is under the investigation of the FCC, but an FCC spokesman would not confirm the letter, saying that "Enforcement Bureau communications of this type were not to be made public," according to Multichannel News.

If you had hopes that Comcast is going to be held responsible for even a fraction of that $1.77 trillion, think again. Although it made some ripples in the blogosphere, Comcast will most likely wiggle out of this one just fine. Apparently, FCC policies aren't exactly formal "rules" and as such are flexible when it comes to "network management."

So what does Comcast say? Naturally, that they are in accordance with FCC policies since "reasonable network management is necessary for the good of all customers." In other words, it's fine if we throttle your BitTorrent connection since it's for the good of all. Wonderful. They are probably going to resolve this all over a cup of coffee anyway. "Oh that neutrality thing? Yea, you know, peak times, things get busy, networks need to be managed - always have to keep in mind the common good, right?"

[via paidContent.org]

Filed under: News, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft isn't fine with Europe's ruling

MicrosoftMicrosoft doesn't want to be fined like anyone, so they are appealing the ruling on a $350 million fine by the European Commission. Microsoft has since the ruling produced a version of Windows XP that does not include Windows Media Player easing some of the problem, but the EC still says they owe the fine $1.5 million for each day they did not comply with the EC's anti-trust ruling. The bad thing is that the version of XP without media player isn't even selling. Obviously what the EC wants, and what customers are buying are two different things. What computer user really cares what comes on their computer with Windows? I would prefer not to have to go delete all the cruft on a new PC that is non-Microsoft, like the ISPs, music and photo software I have never and will never use. That should be abolished too, while we're at it.

Filed under: Microsoft

Microsoft to be fined $2.4 million/day

Bill GatesThe European Commission is threatening to fine Microsoft $2.4 million every day until it complies with the March '04 order that it provide documentation that will allow competitors to interoperate with its server software, according to BBC News. Microsoft has been given five more weeks to comply, but they they claim to have followed the Commission's "more than 100 requests" to the letter and vow to appeal.

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