Surveillance & IT

SURVEILLANCE & IT ------------------------------------------ >Apple has begun 2 store user data on servers @ mainland #CHINA / first time tech giant has stored user data on Chinese soil ! Google 2 build gigantic 120-megawatt data centre in the Netherlands $772m / intl submarine cables+ / http://goo.gl/2ZmTiB  / 4th centre #IT ------------------------------------------ USA  -  RULE 41 – USA SURVEILLANCE INVASION OF INTERNET - WORLDWIDE DOJ changes to Rule 41 would allow FBI to hack into & remotely control PCs located anywhere in world! - http://goo.gl/I507N5  - #USA #LAW >> "broadest expansion of extraterritorial surveillance power since the FBI’s inception" - law professor Ahmed Ghappour /nww FBI to examine & covertly upload files, photos, emails, or do anything the PC can do - eg turning on the webcam & microphone" ------------------------------------------ PROPOSED RULE 41 Amendment  http://justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/proposed-amendment-rule-41.pdf … NEWS CORP / MURDOCH  -  GOOGLE  - EU - MONOPOLY News Corp letter fm CEO to #EU competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia, criticizing Google & championing regulators http://goo.gl/iqLlAe demanding “a regulatory veto” notwithstanding fact they “haven’t demonstrated any economic harm” stemming fm search provider. >> .. threatened by disruptive innovation in the marketplace, seek to manipulate the regulatory apparatus to their advantage. http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-property/092214-newscorp-salvo-google-shows-even-free-markeeters-will-demand-regulatory-responses-disruption/ ------------------------------------------ AUSTRALIA – G20 – FINANCE MINISTERS – COMMON REPORTING STANDARD .. some 47 countries including Australia had signed up to a common reporting standard to being in 2017 that would see banks exchange information on individuals' finances, which could then be passed on to countries' tax offices. Another eight G20 countries would join by 2018, although there were another unnamed 14 countries who are apparently unwilling to go down this path. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/the-g20-finance-ministers-meeting-explained/5759262 G20 expect multinationals 2 voluntarily bring profits back to the US @ tax 35 -40% when the corporate tax rate in Ireland is 12.5% / murdoch ------------------------------------------ CANADA - SURVEILLANCE - WARRANTS RULING The ISPs enacted their new policy following a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in June stating that law enforcement authorities must get a warrant to request subscriber data, even basic subscriber details such as name and address. However, a recent report in the Star reveals that police are still making requests for subscriber data without a warrant, though the number of requests has dropped significantly. Rogers’ transparency report revealed the government made nearly 175,000 requests for subscriber data to the company last year, or about 480 per day. Telus’ transparency report, released last week, found the company got 103,500 requests last year, or about 283 per day. Government documents released under access to information laws earlier this year estimated that the government makes about 1.2 million such requests every year. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/22/julian-assange-canada-privacy_n_5860774.html ------------------------------------------ CANADA - C-13 OpenMedia is leading a coalition of orgs. against Bill C-13 which #Canada govt tabled re high-profile cyberbullying cases /huffpost.ca #Canada - http://goo.gl/85s8vG  - Bill C-13 = authorities access to the private lives of Canadians without a warrant CSEC 'Spy Palace' Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency, CSEC, is getting a new $1.2-billion headquarters in Ottawa, the most expensive government building ever built. Here are some illustrations of the finished building. http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/336920/slide_336920_3412305_free.jpg ------------------------------------------ COMMENT Not clear on the status of Canada's C-13 bill.

How low can Tony Abbott go?

AUSTRALIA - TONY ABBOTT'S MO

"Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission"

SMH Article   Tony Abbott briefed Rupert Murdoch on paid parental leave before party room PUBLISHED: 11 hours 7 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 5 hours 50 MINUTES AGO Tony Abbott gave media proprietor Rupert Murdoch a detailed briefing on his controversial $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme before he announced it without consulting his shadow cabinet or MPs. ... Madonna King, the author of Hockey: Not Your Average Joe, writes neither the Coalition party room nor the businesses who would pay a levy to fund the expensive scheme were consulted before it was announced in 2010. But Mr Abbott “conferred with one leading business figure, the media proprietor Rupert Murdoch, who had been in Australia the month before”. The book says Mr Abbott, a former Murdoch employee and then the new leader of the Liberal Party, “like many before him, had dinner with Murdoch, where he gave the media mogul a full rundown on the scheme – ­supplying enough detail for Murdoch to later have his Australian-based editors briefed on Abbott’s plan, which [Murdoch] considered a visionary approach to dealing with a real problem in his workforce”. “They were encouraged to support it, notwithstanding that it represented a tax impost and was skewed to be of most benefit to parents outside their middle-Australian readership,” the book says. ... The book discusses two contentious policy issues – the Green Army and the paid parental leave scheme – which it asserts involved Mr Abbott making significant policy announcements without discussing them at all, or at least in any detail, with his shadow treasurer. ... “Joe says he didn’t think too much more about it, believing it was an un-costed proposal, not an Opposition policy. At least, that was until Abbott announced it publicly.” The announcement of the policy provoked criticism from the Coalition party room (and subsequently threats that some MPs and senators might cross the floor to vote against it). It also created bad blood with big business. In response to the criticism, Mr Abbott told a joint party room ­meeting he had made a captain’s call on the policy. ‘‘Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,’’ he said at the time. ... Mr Hockey told Sydney radio on Wednesday he was confident big business would pay the levy to fund the parental leave scheme, after it was put to him that business was arranging its affairs so it wouldn’t be liable for the impost. “They will pay it Alan, they will pay the 1.5 per cent to pay for the paid parental leave scheme, there is no doubt about that because at the end of the day, they are the also the ­beneficiaries of it and the beneficiaries of more women going into work”, he said.  ... extracts only ... entire @... SOURCE - AFR - here.

SMH Article Tony Abbott's green army enlisting now March 2, 2014 Tony Abbott's federally funded ''green army'' will enlist 15,000 young people in environmental work, striking young workers from official dole queue figures as youth unemployment soared in the year to January to 12.4 per cent. But young people who fill the green army's ranks will be paid as little as half the minimum wage ... ... Under the legislation introduced by Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday, green army participants - who will be aged 17-24 - will work up to 30 hours a week. They will be given the chance to undergo formal training as part of their duties, but will lose their Centrelink benefits for taking part in the scheme and fall off official joblessness figures. ... The government is aiming the scheme at indigenous Australians, people with disabilities, gap-year students, graduates and the unemployed. Enlistees will do manual labour, including clearing local creeks and waterways, fencing and tree planting. Green army members will not be covered by Commonwealth workplace laws, including the Work, Health and Safety Act, the Fair Work Act and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act. ... But ACTU president Ged Kearney said the workers should be covered by the appropriate federal workplace protections. ''This is about taking away well-paid, well-protected jobs from people and replacing them with low-paid, unsafe jobs,'' she said. ''This is not about getting people on the margins of the workforce into work, this is about providing a low-paid workforce.'' Greens MP Adam Bandt said: ''Only Tony Abbott could create a 'workforce' where the workers aren't legally workers and have no workplace rights. If a green army supervisor and a worker under their command get injured while wielding a pick or building a lookout, the supervisor will have the same safety and compensation protections as ordinary employees but the worker won't.' Source - SMH - here.

Just when you think Abbott and the Liberal party couldn't sink any lower ...

An independent blogger indicated that the Greens may oppose the PPL in senate and that without their support the Liberals won't get the legislation through [Source - here].

RUPERT MURDOCH - on redtape & stifled economic growth

uk.news.yahoo.com

Murdoch tells G20 governments to take a back seat for growth
By Jane Wardell | Reuters – 15 minutes ago

By Jane Wardell

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch ... criticised excessive financial regulation as stymieing free markets and urged Group of 20 governments to "take a back seat" to allow businesses to drive economic growth.

Murdoch also said U.S. President Barack Obama was penalising businesses by cracking down on so-called "profit shifting" by major corporations to countries with lighter tax regimes, a technique that is also in the sights of the G20.

"My blood pressure goes up when I think of the number of local, state and federal regulations we have in our lives today," Murdoch told a meeting of the Business 20 leaders in Sydney...

"That is just in America. Don't even get me started on the European Union."

The B20 was set up in 2010 to give policy recommendations on behalf of the international business community to the G20. Business leaders meeting here are looking to influence the outcome of the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane in November.

"I believe that business does have a role in shaping public policy, mainly in helping limit the size and scope of government," Murdoch said.

"... too much red tape, too many subservient politicians stifling economic growth and entrepreneurism."

...G20 is tackling corporate "profit shifting", which has allowed multinationals such as Starbucks Corp, Google Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc to avoid paying taxes.

G20 finance ministers ... endorsed a set of common standards for sharing bank account information across borders, with automatic exchange of information among G20 members to take effect by the end of 2015. [WORLDWIDE POLICE STATE???]

Obama ...  proposed tightening restrictions on U.S. multinationals that shift their tax domiciles abroad ... Obama wants to raise the minimum level of foreign ownership in a newly inverted holding company to 50 percent from about 20 percent, making the deals more difficult to carry out.

"Do we really expect overseas companies to voluntarily bring profits back to be taxed at 35 to 40 percent in the United States, when the corporate tax rate in Ireland is 12.5 percent?" Murdoch said. "This is not the way to achieve economic growth."
...

SOURCE - uk.news.yahoo.com - here.

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COMMENT

So US is a corporate free-for-all.  BUT with a proviso -- keep it in the US?

The 'international' bank account sharing is getting a bit much.

 [WIKIPEDIA]

Wider concerns

The G-20's transparency and accountability have been questioned by critics, who call attention to the absence of a formal charter and the fact that the most important G-20 meetings are closed-door.

The cost and extent of summit-related security is often a contentious issue in the hosting country... 2010, the Toronto G-20 summit sparked mass protests and rioting, leading to the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.

He's right about the red-tape.

Also, all these extra-national gangs are just another step to world totalitarianism -- or something like that.  LOL.  

It just doesn't seem right - all this global ganging up, bullying, controlling, prying etc. 

MURDOCH'S 21ST CENTURY FOX INC - AFTER TIME WARNER INC

Reuters Article

Time Warner win would make Murdoch U.S. media king

By Soyoung Kim and Liana B. Baker

NEW YORK Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc made an audacious offer for Time Warner Inc that if it succeeds would transform the American media landscape and cement the 83-year-old's status as the most powerful magnate in U.S. media and entertainment.

While Time Warner, whose assets include the HBO cable channel and the Warner Bros movie studio, rejected the $80 billion bid, Murdoch is unlikely to abandon the pursuit and has the “disciplined determination” to get the deal done, people close to the situation said. Investors expect he will eventually raise the offer and increase the cash component – 40 percent - to win the prize.

Murdoch's proposal, fresh on the heels of his high-profile divorce and a damaging phone-hacking scandal that involved his British tabloids, is aggressively bold even for a media mogul whose ambitions are legendary.

A combined Fox-Time Warner would have a massive array of media and sports content and be in a very powerful negotiating position with cable and satellite distributors - some of whom have themselves announced mega-deals and newer ways of getting to consumers, such as online video distributors Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
...
... Time Warner pushed back strongly against Murdoch's approach, insisting the offer undervalued the media conglomerate and raising fears about the dominating role that his family would play, another person close to the situation said on Wednesday. In particular, the board is worried about the future value of Fox's shares, which represented 60 percent of its cash-and-stock proposal. Those fears were magnified by a lack of voting rights, the source said, as that would concentrate too much power in the hands of Murdoch and his sons.

"To do a merger of this scale and size where Time Warner shareholders have no insight into the destiny of the company is very troubling," the source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told Reuters. 
...

The acquisition, if ever completed, would mark the second-largest media deal ever, when debt is included, trailing only Time Warner's disastrous takeover of AOL in 2000. 

EXTRACT ONLY
FULL ARTICLE - SOURCE - Reuters - here.

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COMMENT

Wow, that's pretty exciting.

Even though concentration of corporate interests -- particularly media -- probably isn't all that great,  I can't help wishing Murdoch well.

Get 'em Murdoch.  LOL