Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The Culture Minister of Friedrich Merz’s German Government has revealed that they are drafting legislation for a national digital services tax (DST) targeting the biggest internet companies operating in country, in particular US giants...
Senate Budget Bill Includes Modified “Revenge Tax” to Counter DSTs
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Senate version of the massive budget reconciliation bill includes a modified version of a tax provision included by the House of Representatives that penalizes foreign countries that impose “unfair” taxes on US companies....
Senate Version of State AI Regulation Moratorium Header to the Floor
Report from Politico In Brief – The budget reconciliation bill that will be considered by the full Senate will likely include a modified version of the 10-year moratorium on state laws regulating AI following a key decision by the Senate Parliamentarian. The...
Federal Judge Delivers Ruling That AI Training is Copyright Fair Use
Report from The Verge In Brief – Federal Judge William Alsup has ruled on summary judgement that artificial intelligence company Anthropic did not break the law when it used copyrighted books to train its AI chatbot without the consent of the authors or publishers,...
Judge Sides with Meta on AI Training Saying Plaintiffs Made Wrong Argument
Report from Reuters In Brief – In an order granting Meta summary judgement in an AI-training copyright infringement case brought by 13 authors, Federal Judge Vince Chhabria delivered an impassioned dissent to fellow judge William Alsup’s order released only a few days...
Apple’s Latest DMA Compliance Bid with New App Store Rules and Fees
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Apple has announced more changes to its European app developer policies to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and avoid more fines from the European Commission. They expand the ability of developers to communicate with...
FTC’s Ad Company Merger Agreement Prohibits Viewpoint Boycotts
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission has announced a consent decree with advertising companies Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group to allow their $13.5 billion merger after the companies agreed that they would not boycott media...
US Supreme Court Goes Easy on Age Checks for Online Porn Sites
Report from the Washington Post In Brief – The US Supreme Court has ruled that requiring online porn websites to use age verification tools to confirm that users are adults does not violate the First Amendment. Advocates for the porn industry argued that Texas’s...
AI Regulation Moratorium Stripped from Senate Budget Bill in Late Night Vote
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The moratorium on state laws regulating AI was stripped from the massive budget reconciliation bill carrying the budget and spending priorities of President Trump and the Republicans. A broad 10-year version, backed by AI industry...
Paris Court Pauses French Law Imposing Age Checks on EU Porn Sites
Report from Euractiv In Brief – A French administrative court has paused the implementation of a national law enacted in 2024 that requires all websites displaying adult content to use technical age verification methods to block minors in France from accessing their...
Malaysia’s Social Media Age Limit Regime Enters into Effect
Report from Channel News Asia In Brief – Malaysia’s aggressive online-safety framework goes into operation with new rules effective June 1. The regulations issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) require online platforms to adopt...
South Korea’s Take on AI Training and Copyright Fair Use
Report from Korea JoongAng Daily In Brief – South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has released an English version of its guide on the application of the fair use exception in South Korea’s Copyright Act to the training of generative AI models....
Sizeable Fine Expected in the Google Vertical Search DMA Case
Report from Reuters In Brief – The European Union is reportedly preparing to impose a high triple-digit million euro antitrust fine on Google this summer for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by unfairly prioritizing its own “vertical” search services in general...
Meta Offers a Month of WhatsApp Free to Chatbots to Negotiate
w/Commission Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – Meta has offered to allow rival AI chatbots to use WhatsApp to interact with their users in the EU free of charge for one month as it seeks to work out an agreement with the European Commission on how AI...
EU Court Says Italy Can Force Meta to Pay Media for Snippets
Report from Courthouse News In Brief – The Court of Justice of the European Union has upheld Italy’s forced media payments regime for the largest digital platforms, rejecting Meta’s challenge to national rules requiring tech platforms to negotiate compensation with...
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