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Amazon dropped its Illinois business affiliates last week. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
The Illinois commerce department will try to find new partners for businesses that previously sold products through Internet retailers like Amazon.com and Overstock.com. Amazon and Overstock plan to drop Illinois-based affiliates this spring to allow them to avoid collecting sales taxes under a new law that applies to Internet businesses that team up with Illinois partners. Get the full story »
Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. is opening its investment research database for free remote access by Chicago Public Library members.
Remote access means users can log into the Morningstar Investment Research Center from any computer using their Chicago Public Library credentials and do not need to create accounts at morningstar.com. Get the full story »
Motorola Mobility says it will start selling a Wi-Fi-only version of its Xoom tablet computer for $599 on March 27. Get the full story »
The Northwestern sex toy scandal got another shot in the arm Tuesday afternoon, as a blog post surfaced that quotes the Chicago advertising executive involved in the demonstration defending his actions and castigating the media for mischaracterizing them.
Jim Marcus, creative director of Tribal DDB, the digital division of DDB Chicago, demonstrated the use of a sex-toy on his fiance in a voluntary assembly after a human sexuality class at Northwestern University this month. The news, first reported in the Daily Northwestern, led to a call for the ouster of professor John Michael Bailey. Get the full story »
An advocacy group has filed a complaint with the federal government accusing New York University and Northwestern University of discriminating against the blind by adopting Google’s e-mail program. Get the full story »
Business travelers can book rail trips online with Orbitz for Business as a result of a partnership with SilverRail Technologies, an online search and booking service. Get the full story »
Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer for Microsoft, shows IE9 last month in in San Francisco. (Reuters)
A new version of Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer to be released Tuesday will be the first major Web browser to include a do-not-track tool that helps people keep their online habits from being monitored. Get the full story »
(Charles Osgood/Chicago Tribune)
For the first time, online readership and advertising revenue has surpassed that of print newspapers.
Online advertising revenue in the United States is projected to overtake print newspaper ad revenue in 2010, according to the latest report, the State of the News Media, from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The study also found that more people — 46 percent of Americans surveyed — said they get news online at least three times a week, versus 40 percent who said they get their news from newspapers and their companion websites. Get the full story »
A Bank of America customer uses an ATM. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Anonymous, a hacker group sympathetic to WikiLeaks, released on Monday emails that it obtained from someone who said he is a former Bank of America Corp employee.
In the emails dating from November 2010, people that appear to be employees of a Balboa Insurance, a Bank of America insurance unit, discuss removing documents from loan files for a group of insured properties.
Neither the emails nor correspondence released by Anonymous indicate the reason behind the electronic record keeping discussion. Get the full story »
AT&T Inc. said it would begin to cap DSL data usage for its customers and begin to implement charges for anyone who goes over the limit.
The Dallas telecommunications giant said that customers who went over a limit of 150 gigabytes of data a month three times would be charged $10 for every extra 50 gigabytes of data they consume. Customers on its higher-end U-Verse Internet service have a limit of 250 gigabytes. AT&T will impose the new limit on May 2. Get the full story »
Amazon.com took action in Illinois, as it had threatened to do, to counter a new law aimed at forcing online retailers to collect sales taxes in the state. Hawaii, North Carolina and Rhode Island have enacted similar laws, and California is weighing action. Amazon is also in a court battle with New York over such legislation.
The Illinois law, signed by Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday, requires online retailers that work with affiliates in the state to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Illinois residents and businesses. Amazon responded to the measure by cutting ties to its Illinois-based affiliates, which are blogs and other Web sites that refer traffic to Amazon and get paid commissions if customers make purchases there. Get the full story »
An Amazon employee loading boxes, Dec. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Scott Sady, file)
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Thursday to require online merchants with a physical presence in Illinois to collect and remit sales tax.
The controversial law, called the Main Street Fairness Act, means online retailers — including giant Amazon.com Inc. and Overstock.com Inc. — must collect sales taxes on purchases made by Illinois residents as long as the retailer has a physical presence in the state. The law is effective immediately. Get the full story »
