Los Angeles Times

Seeking to end the long-running battle over the collection of sales taxes for online purchases, the House Judiciary Committee debated possible compromises that included two ideas to tax Internet sales based on the retailer's home state, rather than the buyer's.

Proponents said that such a system would be easier for Web-based retailers to implement because they would need to consult only a single tax rule rather than comply with more than 9,600 local and state tax jurisdictions nationwide.

“The way to level the playing field is to make sure that every business -- brick-and-mortar or online -- is required to do things the same way and follow the same rules," said Chris Cox, a former Republican congressman and counsel to NetChoice, an advocacy group that represents EBay, Overstock.com and other online sellers.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy are urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp.

The privacy groups are asking government regulators to block the proposed acquisition until any privacy issues are resolved. At issue: Whether Facebook will exploit reams of personal information of WhatsApp’s more than 450 million users to target advertising.

Jacob Kohnstamm, who leads a group of EU privacy officials known as the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party as well as the Dutch agency that was already investigating WhatsApp, told Bloomberg the main concern is the collection of data from users’ address books on their phones when they download the application.

“It is tempting to use this data” for other purposes, he said. he company’s “collection of data of people that aren’t using WhatsApp is extreme and is not compliant with Dutch and European law.”

Walt Disney and satellite TV provider Dish Network's sweeping new agreement could lead to changes in the way consumers watch television.

The comprehensive distribution deal is expected to become a blueprint on how the television industry treats the increasingly important digital rights for valuable programming. Wireless television service would create a new business opportunity for Dish, which provides service to 14 million customers. The planned service would be designed to appeal to the so-called never-connected generation of young people, who consume much of their entertainment via computers and tablets, and thus have been difficult recruits for traditional cable and satellite TV providers.

"It would hit a market that they want to reach -- single people, young couples -- those who don't otherwise subscribe to pay TV," said Michael Nathanson of the Moffett-Nathanson research firm. If and when it arrives, Dish's Internet service might look a lot like what Dish offers now — a set package of channels -- and not the "a la carte" service that some consumer activists have been demanding from the industry.

Two of the nation's preeminent legal experts on copyright law are siding with broadcasters in their legal fight against Aereo, a start-up service that transmits local television signals via the Internet.

In a brief filed at the Supreme Court, UCLA School of Law professor David Nimmer and Peter Menell, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law, warned that if Aereo were found to be legal it could "decimate multiple industries." The broadcasters are hoping that the high court will overturn the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruling that found Aereo's transmissions and recordings are not "public performances" of copyrighted material.

The new distribution contract CBS signed with Time Warner Cable last summer after a bitter fight could be a casualty of Comcast's proposed acquisition of TWC.

According to people familiar with the deal, it does not include provisions protecting all the terms of the pact should Time Warner Cable be acquired by a distributor with a sweeter arrangement. These people requested anonymity because the agreement is confidential. Terms of the CBS-Time Warner Cable pact were never publicly disclosed, but Comcast, which signed a 10-year distribution agreement with CBS in 2010, is believed to be paying a lower fee to carry the network's TV stations. Should Comcast get regulatory approval of the Time Warner Cable purchase, it can carry CBS under its current deal.