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SameOldStory · 05-01-2010, 10:20 AM

I haven't seen this anywhere else so -

N.C. defends request for Amazon customer records

"North Carolina's tax collectors said Wednesday that they never demanded personal information such as book titles from Amazon.com"

"In a letter to Amazon dated December 1, 2009, Romey McCoy, the state Department of Revenue's audit manager, asked for "all information" relating to nearly 50 million purchases that customers in that state had made between 2003 and 2010. McCoy's letter did not exempt the titles of books or Blu-ray movies and did not address the privacy implications of the request."

"McCoy replied in a second letter on March 19, 2010, saying Amazon had until this Monday to divulge the full records of each transaction or North Carolina "will" take legal action"

" In a 2002 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects an "individual's fundamental right to purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference."

"Update late Wednesday: Beth Stevenson, the North Carolina Department of Revenue's director of public affairs, sent me this statement: "As mentioned in our previous statement, the Department of Revenue has not requested information regarding specific titles of books or CDs. The request for 'product/item code or description' simply requested the type of product purchased, for example, 'book.' Information regarding the type of product is necessary to determine the correct rate of tax."

Thats clear. NC must tax books at a different rate than things like a TV.
And NO ONE would mistake the request for a "product code" as a request for a product code identifying the book/item.

Remember that old song that ended in "and the land of the free"?

05-01-2010, 10:20 AM	#1
SameOldStory My True Self Posts: 3,126 Karma: 66242098 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Trantor, Galactic Center Device: Galaxy Tab 2 7.0	North Carolina's tax collectors VS Amazon (and us) I haven't seen this anywhere else so - N.C. defends request for Amazon customer records "North Carolina's tax collectors said Wednesday that they never demanded personal information such as book titles from Amazon.com" "In a letter to Amazon dated December 1, 2009, Romey McCoy, the state Department of Revenue's audit manager, asked for "all information" relating to nearly 50 million purchases that customers in that state had made between 2003 and 2010. McCoy's letter did not exempt the titles of books or Blu-ray movies and did not address the privacy implications of the request." "McCoy replied in a second letter on March 19, 2010, saying Amazon had until this Monday to divulge the full records of each transaction or North Carolina "will" take legal action" " In a 2002 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects an "individual's fundamental right to purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference." "Update late Wednesday: Beth Stevenson, the North Carolina Department of Revenue's director of public affairs, sent me this statement: "As mentioned in our previous statement, the Department of Revenue has not requested information regarding specific titles of books or CDs. The request for 'product/item code or description' simply requested the type of product purchased, for example, 'book.' Information regarding the type of product is necessary to determine the correct rate of tax." Thats clear. NC must tax books at a different rate than things like a TV. And NO ONE would mistake the request for a "product code" as a request for a product code identifying the book/item. Remember that old song that ended in "and the land of the free"?