Click here to sign up for a FREE Refer-it Webmaster Account
Find a job or the right person
|
|
|
(or, The Diary of a Confessed Caffeine Abuser)
Rumors Tax the Net
...and it might not just be an urban legend in the making
By David "Spam Me and Die" Fiedler
Don't kill the messenger.
And don't ignore the message.
American politics, of the left vs. right variety, has raised its ugly head again. Due to a very recent judge's decision regarding copyright vs. the fair use doctrine (which itself is probably worth a future column), I am quite loath to quote text from the original articles I am referring to, since they were only available on the net free for 24 hours.
Now it would cost you $10 or more to verify in detail that what I'm about to tell you has validity, but there's still a way to get the gist of it. Go to http://www.washtimes.com/archives_search.html, plug the words "internet taxes" into the search box, and press the Search button. The results you get back should give you pause. There finally are real plans in the works to impose taxation on the Internet in the U.S. -- plans which would, needless to say, severely hobble e-commerce, cause many problems, and ultimately take billions of dollars out of people's pockets. Not to mention that it would be hard to collect taxes from companies located in the Cayman Islands, where all e-commerce firms would immediately relocate to.
Many people will, unfortunately, ignore this warning, because it comes from The Washington Times, a publication that (if memory serves me correctly) is owned by people who have been linked by some to followers of the Korean Reverend Sun Myung Moon. What's worse, in some people's eyes, is that The Washington Times tends to take a conservative position on things.
Well, if that don't beat all. One might as well say that The Christian Science Monitor is useless as a news source because it also has links to a religious organization, or that The New York Times is suspect because many of its owners are Jewish.
But if you're still with me, it's interesting to note that the Washington Times articles attacked Republicans and Democrats alike who are supporting the tax plan. And what's more interesting is that there's been virtually no coverage of this yet in what's rapidly becoming the laughingstock known as the "mainstream media".
I personally don't care if The Washington Times is run by the Moonies or the Blue Meanies. They've shown a very good record at carrying accurate coverage in the past of other topics that the "mainstream media" had ignored for weeks or months. See if this isn't picked up by those outlets in the future. Then remember where you heard it first, and maybe your mind will open just a bit more. People with open minds, not holes in their heads, will lead us into the next millennium.
-- D. Fiedler
David Fiedler is Editor-in-Chief of WebDeveloper.com®, and his opinions are definitely his own.
Last modified: Thu Jun 15 06:22:25 EDT 2000
Visit the complete archive for this column!
Copyright © 1999-2000
internet.com Corp.All Rights Reserved. Legal Notices.
Contact the WebDeveloper.com® staff
Last modified: Thu Jun 15 06:22:25 EDT 2000
Refresh Daily
Join Editor-in-Chief David Fiedler
and find truth, justice, and a clue or two.
ActiveX / VBscript Animated GIF Archive Browsers CGI / Perl Database Connectivity Design / Graphics E-Commerce HTML-Advanced: DHTML, CSS HTML / Site Authoring Tools Intranet/Groupware Java JavaScript Multimedia: Audio / Video / Streaming Technologies Opinions Refresh Daily: Editorial Column Security Servers & Server Tools Site Design / Graphics Site Management / Marketing / Log File Analysis Tutorials VRML / 3D XML
