Wisconsin Tea Party

Sorry it's been so long. I was finishing up my appellate brief at work, and then I was on a very long, relaxing, satisfying vacation in which I did absolutely nothing remotely related to the law (unless you count having one of my Sims from Sims 2 get into the law enforcement career track).

But I am back! And in the spirit of backness, I have some possible government action to complain about. I'm also considering making an entry about the regulation of sex and violence in broadcast television versus video games, inspired by my recent purchase of EverQuestCrack 2 and the creation of a well-endowed, sexy-walking, Barbarian fighter that would probably fall over if she were a real person. But first: taxes!

The governor of Wisconsin would like to make the 5% sales tax applicable to downloads on the internet.

[I]t would extend the 5% sales tax to "audio works," including music, books on tape and pre-recorded speeches; "audiovisual works," including movies, music videos and live events; "finished artwork," including paintings, designs and photographs; and "literary works," including books.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before (I probably have), but I am a firm supporter of the separation of Intellectual Property laws and Real Property laws. I think the argument is that all of these things could be bought in their "real" version: CDs, DVDs, books, etc. And I agree that, according to the Copyright Act, fixed "in a tangible medium of expression" extends to digital forms of dissemination. But this isn't as much about property (though it is, sort of) as about taxes, which is something I know nothing about. I therefore feel completely safe yammering on about it only to be corrected by someone who knows much more than me later, in my comments. Hopefully in a nice way.

This is a voluntary tax, that Governor Doyle (Democrat) expects Wisconsinians (What's the proper word here? Cheesehead is just... weirder than Masshole, I'm sorry.) to pay whenever they download works from a Wisconsin company. So you, as a Wisconsin downloader, would have to make sure you were aware of the location of the company you were downloading from, and pay your taxes. Can you imagine if the entire country weren't laughing at this idea, and federal legislation were introduced that required you to pay taxes on every download?

I imagine this tax only applies to downloads of things you're purchasing. So getting the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica off of a Torrent site wouldn't count. In general, I don't think that this law is something to freak out about. But the idea that someone in charge of a state has such little (or maybe a lot, but misguided) understanding of the operation of the internet and e-commerce is more disturbing than anything else.

Honestly, if I'm going to be taxed on downloads, I'm less likely to download anything legally. But that's just me. It's bad enough I've got to pay for music or movies anyway (especially the inflated amount I'm required to pay to support the executives in a lifestyle to which they have become accustomed) but to have to pay the Government for that? No thanks. I'd rather that they legalize prostitution and let me pay my taxes for sex. I'm not entire sure how they equate, but I think that we should legalize prostitution and tax it, and then we can not have to worry about taxing downloaders. Get the money from somewhere else.

This is basically what the Republicans in Wisconsin's legislature have said (except for the prostitution part). And they're using it as an opportunity to stress that they're interested in e-commerce and the continual existence of the internet. The Gov looks mighty dumb, but I can't help but wonder if there are people who agree with him. It's not like he's the first to propose something like this (States have, in the past, sued online companies for lost revenue. And then there was that nasty internet federal internet tax that was hanging over our heads before being frozen by Bush Jr.). Those, however, have both concerned actual items being bought over the internet and physically sent to peoples' homes. This is the first time anyone's wanted to tax the downloading process.

So let's tax downloading. And then we can tax IMing, the way we tax the telephone. We're already paying a tax on our ISP (or at least, I think I am), which I think should count towards whatever I'm using the internet for, don't you? I'd still rather legalize prostitution.