HHR New Media, Entertainment and Technology Group

Apple recently posted an “App Store Tip” on its iPhone Dev Center putting developers on notice that location-based applications, whose primary purpose is to deliver geo-targeted ads, will no longer be permitted in the Apple Apps Store.  Apple permits developers to use Apple’s “Core Location” framework included in the iPhone OS software to build location-based apps to determine the current location of users and deliver geographically targeted information (e.g., local weather, nearby ATMs, restaurants, etc.).  However, Apple requires developers to solely distribute apps which provide “beneficial information” rather than apps that “primarily enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location”.  Apple has stated that it will return any apps that fall into the latter category to the developer for modification. Continue Reading »

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• E-commerce sites, especially Amazon, the biggest of them all, got some bad news as the New York Supreme Court upheld the validity of a law requiring e-tailers to collect state sales tax. Amazon and Overstock.com sued based on a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that a company had to have a physical presence in the state to collect taxes.  Appeals are likely but for now, it looks likely that sales tax on e-commerce is inevitable.  More information is here.
• A task force has been formed by four Madison Avenue trade groups, with the support of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, to develop industry guidelines for new forms of online behavioral advertising and to lobby the government regulators and policymakers on the benefits to consumers.  The initiative is in response to potential government regulations that would limit new forms of online user targeting.  More details here.
• Reports out of Washington say that Julius Genachowski is being considered to take the chair of the Federal Communications Commission.  Although he was a former general counsel at the FCC and knows the agency well, he is better known as a digital media veteran, a longtime executive at InterActiveCorp and founder of a D.C.-based VC firm which has invested in numerous Web companies.  Here’s a piece from all things digital.com discussing the proposed appointment and industry reaction.
• Two consumer groups are set to appear before the FCC to seek an investigation into mobile ads.  The Center for Digital Democracy and US Public Interest Research Group claim that mobile ad firms don’t fully disclose the extent of the information they collect from consumers.  Here’s an article from the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the debate.