Business News
Tumblr has been sued by porn publisher Perfect 10 for violating its copyright. In a lawsuit Perfect 10 claims that Tumblr re-published their pictures.
Perfect 10 also alleges that Tumblr employees posted nude pictures “to help start the business” and that “Tumblr turns a blind eye” to copyright infringement on its servers.
In 2006 Perfect 10 sued Google for using thumbnail images while indexing its content for the Google search engine.
A bombshell report set to be released by the government shows that massive privacy violations at Google weren’t isolated mistakes as the company claimed.
The New York Times reports that a Federal Communications Commission report into Google’s Street View program that resulted in fines for the search giant also reveals that “Google’s harvesting of e-mails, passwords and other sensitive personal information from unsuspecting households in the United States and around the world was neither a mistake nor the work of a rogue engineer.”
The Times also reports that Google engineers were told by managers that they could access the illicitly obtained data for use in Google sponsored projects.
The FCC found that Google did not break any laws, but did obstruct the investigation and had to pay the agency a fine.
In yet another sign of economic recovery in America, new car sales surged to start 2012 at a pace that would be the best the auto industry has had since 2007.
Strong sales in January and February have four auto industry research firms predicting between 13.6 to 14 million new cars will be sold in 2012. Jeff Schuster of LMC Automotive told the Washington Post that, “This is happening because the economy seems to be in a better place.”
VIA Washington Post
Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith has quit the firm and written a scathing editorial in the New York Times. In the Times piece Smith, a ten year veteran of the Wall Street titan reflects on a culture of greed he sees at the financial giant.
Smith writes, “The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.” He continues: “I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.”
He describes a culture inside the trading firm of bringing rich clients in, convincing them to trade their money in a way where Goldman can best profit — not looking out for the client’s financial needs. ” I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them,” he writes.
Smith goes on to note: “It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off.” He says Goldman insiders continue to refer to clients in a derogatory fashion over e-mail, even after such practices were subject to congressional condemnation.
VIA New York Times
President Obama is set to ask congress to drop the top corporate tax rate by 7%, from 35% to 28%. The president’s proposal seeks to cut various loopholes and subsidies in exchange for the lowered rate. Administration officials also told The New York Times they would request a minimum tax from multinationals, to discourage hiding profits in offshore accounts.
Conservatives have often complained about the corporate rate, but have often done so while requesting that the corporate subsidies remain in place.
VIA New York Times
The Wall Street Journal reports that Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus (AL) is about to be the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into insider trading.
Bachus, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will likely be investigated for options trades he made possibly based on inside information he received. Securities and Exchange Commission rules prohibit such trades based on information not available to the public.
In 2007 and 2008, Bachus was criticized for option trades he made in advance of the global financial crisis where he profited from losses on the international stock exchanges.
The STOCK Act, which would prohibit insider trading by members of congress, recently passed the House. [Wall Street Journal]
The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3% in the latest sign of economic recovery for America. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 243,000 jobs were added to the economy in January 2012.
Economists had expected for between 125,000 to 150,000 jobs to be added.
National Confidential is breaking news, as it happens. Click here to contact us.
© National Confidential 2012 | Contact Us
