Image by Luke Redmond via Flickr

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that the First Amendment protects a buyer from the government demanding to know the books, music and audiovisual products they’ve bought.

Amazon and the American Civil Liberties Union, which later joined the case, “have established that the First Amendment protects the disclosure of individual’s reading, listening, and viewing habits,” Pechman wrote.

The North Carolina Department of Revenue requires N.C. residents to pay sales tax on all purchases even those purchases made on the internet. This year residents will see a line on their tax return to report any online purchases and pay taxes on those items. N.C. claims that Amazon owes more than $50 million in taxes. However, since Amazon does not have a local N.C. presence, N.C. cannot force Amazon to collect taxes.

via http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/10/26/article/judge_free_speech_protects_amazon_buyers_data

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