Email From an Amazon

No, not that Amazon! The retailer!

I got this email this AM, in part:

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers - including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you - even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

Good to know that in tough economic times, small Internet retailers in California may lose at least one source, if not their sole source of income. Wonder if the added sales tax will make up for any losses of income taxes?

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

...We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Not going to really affect me, but if thousands of Californians got the same email I did, Governor Brown might be hearing from more than a few of them tomorrow.

Update:

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011.

UpdateII:More at Amazon ends deal with 25,000 California websites, Memeorandum

If You Don't Believe it is Theft, Then it Must Not Be!

Interesting opinion piece over at the NYT, by a teacher, who pirated the Internet for years from her neighbors' unsecured networks. There's a word for a person like this, but I can't quite put my finger ion it.

It may have been unfair, but I don’t believe I was stealing: the owners’ leaving their networks password-free was essentially a gift, an ethereal gesture of kindness.

Really? And if your neighbors had left their doors unlocked, would you feel free to raid the 'fridge, thinking it was an ethereal gesture of free food?

She says she did "freelance work from home", applied to graduate schools, paid her taxes online, streamed new episodes of “Friday Night Lights” each evening for a whole winter, reply to e-mails, video-chatted with my sister...until the neighbor "pulled the plug" by securing their network.

Sometimes I’d imagine my anonymous benefactors... thinking, “Well, I have Internet to spare.” And, really, who doesn’t? Home wireless networks can usually support five or more computers, yet there are only about 1.4 computers per American household.

Oh. So, as long as your neighbor has something in abundance, you can take it without asking for it? There's a great, if obvious, line in The Rocketeer, where the hero's much put upon assistant tells him, "If you "borrow" something without asking, that's stealing!"

And then the author slips in this bit of fluff at the end:

Perhaps the solution is a simple, old-fashioned gesture. Just knock on a neighbor’s door, and ask if she might be able to spare some wireless.

Read the piece for yourself, and see if there is the slightest indication that she ever asked permission to use any of their bandwidth? And some of her activities were real bandwidth hogs: she was streaming video and having video chats. Did it never occur to her that while she was enjoying herself at the neighbors' expense, they may have been putting up with slower downloads and less performance than they paid for?

I don't want to accuse her of hypocrisy, (Editor's note: Yes he does), but I'd be willing to bet that the good Ms. Rubenstein doesn't have a wireless network, and if she does, it has a password protecting it.

BTW, The word you are searching for is "leech".

H/T Closet Conservative

Cross posted at LCR.

Rasmussen: 67% Americans Better Informed Than 10 Years Ago

Rie Rasmussen (no relation)

Rasmussen is reporting poll results where "two-out-of-three Americans (67%) feel they are more informed today than they were 10 years ago." At first blush, this seems to indicate a triumph of the New Media over the old. And to a certain extent, this is true.

Adults ages 30 to 49 believe that more strongly than those in any other age group

That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. If you asked me if I was better informed at 29 than I was at 19, although the answer is "yes" it is largely irrelevant. What I knew at 19 was largely academic. What I knew at 29 had some real world experience to back it up.

Then, there's the phenomenon about lying to pollsters. "Are you better informed?" This question might be one that people might be inclined to fudge a bit on, even to an impersonal pollster. People are sometimes embarrassed to admit ignorance, even to strangers. Like asking adolescent boys how much sex they've had.

And finally, there's the reliability of the Internet.

Forty-four percent (44%) of all adults say the Internet is the best way to get news and information.

I agree. But, I have also seen too many people search the Internet merely for examples to bolster their ignorance and misconceptions. Truly informed individuals have learned how to sift through much of the dreck and misinformation on the web. After all, WhiteHouse.gov may have a better creative writing staff than say a FlatEarth.org, but in the end, you have to be able to compare more than one source to test the veracity of their claims. A closed mind will only look for or accept evidence that reinforces its own world view.

With those caveats, I am mildly encouraged. The demise of the stranglehold of the Old Media was unleashed by virtually unlimited access to information, via the Internet. Sans traditional filters, the consumer must be more discerning about what they receive, but then there is an abundance of material with which to fact check.

Persons today who are uninformed, choose to be.