Color us completely unsurprised, but it's being reported that a number of state politicians are looking at the possibility of imposing new laws to levy taxes on digital downloads as a method of taping up shattered budgets. Yep, anything from music to videos to books are at risk, as a growing number of lawmakers are looking to start collecting taxes from each iTunes track and Kindle eBook you purchase. Of course, this idea is far from new, and a number of US states already impose such taxes, but it seems that the ever-growing amount of content purchased online has caught the eye of those looking for new streams of tax revenue. Needless to say, the issue as a whole is about as far from black and white as you can get, but we're not asking you to take our word for it -- tap the read link to get a good feel of just how sticky the situation really is.

[Image courtesy of Izzy]

The Sierra Club -- a group dedicated to environmentalism and preservation -- has proposed that a tax be levied against kids who choose video games or computers rather than venturing out-of-doors. The tax, also being referred to as "No Child Left Inside," would ostensibly encourage kids to get up off of their fat, lazy back-ends and hit the trails, mountains, and waterways of our nation's parks and other natural treasures... by further taxing video games and TVs. Recent studies have shown links to obesity, lowered academic scores, and the rise of attention-deficit disorder in America's kids to increased time spent indoors, though we suspect the problem lies with bad parenting rather than an entire industry of game-makers and electronics companies. Would adding a one-percent sales tax on our gear (and penalizing children who have plenty of good reasons to stay inside) increase kids' desire to head outdoors instead of "finishing the fight?" We've got our doubts.

[Thanks, wasp2151]

Read - A Tax to Remember
Read - Sierra Club proposes 'couch potato' tax

Splendid news on the Canadian front -- it seems as if that proposed tax on digital recorders and storage devices (you know, like Apple's iPod for instance) will actually not come to pass. According to Judge Karen Sharlow, the board "had no legal authority to certify a tariff on digital audio recorders or on the memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders." The ruling enables all music lovin' Canucks to breath a sigh of relief, as it makes tacking on fees ranging from C$5 ($4.95) to C$75 ($74) in order to "compensate the recording industry for music that was copied" illegal . From here, a decision still needs to be made to clarify the legality (or illegality) of copying music from discs to DAPs, but at least we're seeing a touch of levelheadedness in the music biz, regardless.

[Via ArsTechnica]

We've been hearing about these highway use tax trials for years now, but apparently, a new $16.5 million Road User Charge Study will be looking for 2,700 mettlesome individuals that won't mind driving around with a tracking unit riding shotgun. The absurdly expensive initiative is purportedly seeking to figure out whether Americans "would accept the idea of paying by the mile, instead of by the gallon." North Carolina-based Innovation Management -- which will "oversee the study" in the Triangle region of NC -- proclaimed that folks who volunteer to take part in it would have their vehicle fitted with "GPS and computer hardware to track the miles they travel through each state and local government jurisdiction." Best of all, however, is the tidbit noting that these very guinea pigs will also receive "make-believe bills" each month displaying what taxes they would owe if they were indeed being taxed per mile. Anyone want to guess how much revenue they could rake in from accidental payments?

[Via The Wolf Web, image courtesy of WRAL]

Just a few months after it deemed it suitable to reinstate a levy on digital audio players, the Copyright Board of Canada looks set to stir things up once again, with it now ruling that music downloads should be taxed as well. That decision comes after the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (or SOCAN) had pushed for such a levy, a position the Copyright Board appears to have sided with entirely. Under the new rules, online music stores will have to pay 3.1 cents for each individual track and 1.5 cents per track for entire albums sold directly to SOCAN, which will in turn distribute the funds to the artists. Sites that offer temporary downloads or customizable radio stations will also be facing taxes, although the board hasn't yet released a decision for those that offer music on personal websites. What's more, according to CanWest News Service, the levies will be retroactive all the way back to 1996, which is when the music industry first started pushing for the tariffs.

Researchers from the University of Iowa Public Policy Center have developed a system for charging drivers federal taxes by the distance traveled rather than on gallons of gas purchased. The study is being conducted with 2,700 drivers from states like Maryland, Texas, Iowa and California to gauge public reactions and experiences with the system. The basis for the study is the declining tax dollars being paid for car use in the States; as fuel prices rise, cars get more efficient, and alternatives like ethanol and hybrids gain ground, our 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax on gas (which was set in 1993) remains static, thereby making it harder for The Man to get paid. Eventually, the government will have to find another way to generate tax dollars from drivers -- and researchers think this might be it. Instead of paying a constant fee on the fuel we purchase, drivers cars are equipped with a taxi-like meter, and users will be given a monthly bill for the miles that they've driven. We can only hope this is avoidable, perhaps due to the spontaneous existence of a free, plentiful, environment-friendly fuel source... or another revolution.

[Via Autoblog]

It looks like Switzerland is going down a road other countries have traveled before, with a Federal Court now confirming a tax on digital audio players and other devices that had originally been slated to go into effect in March of 2006. That date ended up being pushed back after complaints from various groups, some of whom deemed the tax to be too high while others thought it was too low, according to SwissInfo. The court apparently found the tax to be just right though, and it's now set to go into effect next month, tacking anywhere from $25 to $75 onto the price of various audio devices, including flash and hard drive-based digital music players, as well as other hard drive-based audio/video recorders. Seems like our gadget-happy Swiss friends just can't catch a break these days.

[Thanks, Jonathan D]

Just days after hearing that Steve Jobs was indeed looking into the possibility of letting third party applications play nice with his precious iPhone, along comes a suitable patent application that further proves his hesitance to let it happen. Jobs didn't shy away from suggesting that non-native apps aren't usually cellphone-friendly, and a new filing from Cupertino's lair details an "accessory detector" that would "detect whether an external accessory coupled to the connector may interfere with wireless communication with the handheld device." Of course, no direct mention of the iPhone is given, but it sounds like this here invention would alert the user via on-screen messages and flurries of frightening noises if the inserted / installed accessory did not match up with an internally stored "list" of okayed devices. Additionally, the handset would be able to adjust itself on the fly if the add-on did indeed "interfere" with operations, and while no verbiage mentioned any kinds of shut downs or undercover dial-ups to Apple HQ for unauthorized use, there's always the possibility that this type of scrutiny could lead to an easier implementation of a "Made for iPhone" type royalty program.

[Via UnwiredView]