You have to hand it to the NY governor - the digital download tax proposal is a masterstroke of distraction to get all the media to ignore the meat of the budget proposals and focus on one of the least important aspects.

Seriously!? Anyone with 1/2 an IT brain don't use the piles of overpriced junk anyway. I won one in a competition and had it in my cupboard for months before giving it away to someone. I refuse to install iTunes and have it pollute my hard drive....

My Nokia mobile phone plays music beautifully, and, doesn't try and converty my thousands of mp3's to a DRM crippled useless file, plus, it's an organizer, SMS machine AND a phone.

Tax the downloads at 4000% for all I care, MP3 is a better protocol. I wonder if my Nokia will read an OGG file.......

no common any more in this times.

F**k the Hype and tell me what it is really going on... you just did, well done!

And if we werent the most taxed state before (pretty sure we were but no biggie) we are now. TAKE THAT CALIFORNIA!!! But in all seriousness I can see Mr. Patterson not being reelected after this. TTFN

What about, say, other streams of 'digitally delivered entertainment' like online comics, Flash game sites like Miniclip and just about anywhere online that you can receive something of amusement?

Anyone who infects their machine with iTunes deserves all they get :-)

Aren't these the same whingers who wanted taxes on all online business but with nearly 4000+ different taxing districts in the US. can't figure out a sensible way to put their hands in people's pockets and pick them clean?

wankers one and all

Paris, ' cos she understands wanking.

I presume there's no good way to force overseas businesses to pay these e-taxes? If we want to make sure as few people as possible want to continue operating inside the US, I can't think of a better way than to tax the crap out of online services. Perhaps a few New Yorkers can get temporary jobs loading servers onto boats.

Nah, just joking.

Freetards Unite!

it's not about what is taxed, or the excuses why. If your government is so damned bloated that it needs to steal more from it's population, then there's a problem. If government officials are giving away services in order to buy themselves continued reelection, then cannot afford those services without increasing the ripoff of citizens, then *that's* where the problem is.

Instead of scoffing at the misleading title of a taxation increase report, or justifying it by showing dozens of other money grab proposals, or excusing it by spinning reports of government shedding some bloat as a bad thing, we need to focus at the core problem: government is too big, getting itself involved in too many things, insinuating itself into more lives, and exercising way too much control with it's bureaucracies. All the evils done by faceless cogs in the machine are enabled by allowing the government machine to get too big. And when it cannot support itself, it justifies even more oppression, by taking money from those who need government less, to provide for those who've given more control to Big Government and Nanny States.

I don't know about most of you, but I wanted to grow up and move out from the parents so I could control my own destiny. I don't want to be forced to move back in with a government nanny who's going to tell me how to live for "my own good", for efficiency and cost saving measures. Nor do I want to be penalized for this choice, to reward those who've chosen to stay "at home", chosen to accept curfews, what friends they can hang with, and what's for dinner-subjects to be controlled by an undeserving, arrogant elite.

This goes for bailouts as well. And it goes everywhere, not just Bloombergland, but everywhere in America.

The FountainheadZero Headline reads "New York State Budget Crisis: iPod Tax?" because that's what people are searching for. The article isn't about "ipod tax" so much as "New York Budget Crisis". I attack big government voraciously whenever called upon. Let's not cannibalize each other, shall we?

Aside from that, I agree with everything you've said ;)

-Zero

Won't work - the New Deal didn't(Morgenthau even admitted it just succeeded in exploding the US debt). But then, if its subjects - er, citizens - don't know how to live within their means(the true cause of this crisis, which would be a useful catharsis for the economy if unfettered with), why should it?

Taxing a product that's already over-priced considering that their competing with P2P, which offers the same service (sometimes higher quality, and DRM Free) for FREE.

All that's going to achieve it put more people out of work (Artists etc.)

"digitally delivered entertainment services"

Do they have a Sky Digital equivalent over there ?

I have an ipod. i brought it in the jan sales a few years back because it looked good. Does this make me a Shinytard?

Nope, it makes you a Shine-iTard. Sounds the same, but includes the correct perjorative.

Sounds like a sensible tax at a sensible level. If services are expanding, anyway. If not, then the less useful services should be cut. If this fails to work, or you're already running lean and are still out of cash, THEN raise taxes. As someone above said, Gov'ts are really overstretching themselves nowadays.

Half you retards didn't even read the article did you? DURHUR I DIDN'T BUY AN IPOD.

It's a download tax. Any music you actually BUY from anywhere will have the tax on it, regardless of your player of choice.

Even then it wasn't the focus of the fucking article. FSM fucking wept.

My iPod has 160GB, far more capacity than your tinny Nokia mobile phone.

MP3 is indeed a great protocol, it's what I use on my iPod, as do many other people

iTunes has NEVER tried to convert my 45GB of MP3s into any other format. It has actually converted the few WMA files I had, into MP3.

Anyone with 1/2 an IT brain would have known this.

I commend you for a very reasonable article (pointing out how misled others are), but judging by the comments it's mostly wasted.

You go out of your way saying "it holds for all digital entertainment" and you get muppets commenting "anyone using iTunes deserves all they get"?

The end is near. Or, why not have a stricter commenting policy: [1] remove duplicates unless funnier than original, and [2] remove tired trolls and those missing the point unless Webster or amanfrommars. It's not like anyone reads beyond comment no 25.

"I presume there's no good way to force overseas businesses to pay these e-taxes?" It didn't stop the EU doing exactly the same thing a few years ago. They took a pragmatic approach; lots of companies delivering digital content have registered subsidiaries in Europe (e.g. Apple, Vivendi for WoW etc.), so they're the ones they go after and largely ignore the rest. I'm sure it will be the same in New York. Of course the US could make a lot more money out online taxation if the states simply put together a federal online VAT plan...

Despite the headlines it isn't a tax on iPods, it's a tax on music downloads. Did you actually read the article before engaging your rant mode?

Oh, and you obviously have never used iTunes - it doesn't convert your MP3s to anything. It attempts to convert Windows Media files to AAC (if you want it to) when you install it on a Windows PC *without* DRM. Because iPods can't play WMA... and the original WMA files are left untouched.

Sheesh, get your facts straight.

Damn, I fed the troll...

You need to actually READ the article instead of skimming it or, as I suspect you did, simply reading the headline. This way you wouldn't look like such an idiot when you post a comment slamming people for buying iPods after the article was specifically trying to point out that the tax is not aimed at iPod owners but at downloadable media content.

(No I do not own any Apple products, I am not a fanboy, I simply possess basic reading comprehension skills.)

Very well said sir (or madam), I totally agree with you.

I believe I have 1/2 an IT brain, but I didn't know this.

I specialize in enterprise data solutions... why the feck would I need to know about some music thingy that the youth of today use as status symbols and drive local crime in terms of muggings, thefts, burglaries and so on? I can't play my vinyl on it can I? You folk these days think IT is all about music and the internet rather than principles of computer science used to deliver profitable services to businesses, rather than who is the |-|@><0r l33t 5|<1llz at downloading ripped music and movies...

As stated, 50% of the comments clearly indicate people don't read.

Living in NYS and being quite annoyed by these proposals I'll offer a different take. There is more to NYS than New York City. So for everyone not from here, learn it. The rest of the state is forced to provide financial support to the cesspool that is NYC. Well, the Democrats get what they deserve now.

Reflectorized license plates (pimp my ride!)

Taxing haircuts, pedicures, etc.

Taxing gym memberships (this presumably offsets the 18% tax on non-diet soda)

There's a lot more BS in this bill than a 4% tax on digital entertainment.

It won't pass... or I'll be paying for a new license plate.. in another state.

"... Reflectorized ... " - please, for those who don't speak Merkin, can you put it in plain English please? :)

So is that just reflective number plates? If so - how have you not had these for years anyway??

Unfortunately, it sounds like NYS has got the worst of both worlds - supporting and financing the few who can achieve "The American Dream" in NYC, along with a little "Rip-Off-Britain" thrown in for good measure... sucks to be you... you could always come over here though, but I'm assuming Britain is the most highly taxed US state (oh come on, we practically are!)... so you might just be going to somewhere much more crappy.