Posthuman Blues

Congress proposes tax on all Net, data connections

"The congressional report comes not long after the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department said they were considering how the Spanish American War tax should be reinterpreted 'to reflect changes in technology' used in 'telephonic or telephonic quality communications.' Tech companies including Microsoft, Intel and Skype slammed that idea in a September letter, asking the IRS to 'refrain from any attempt to extend the excise tax to VoIP services.'"

This reads like urban myth. (Remember the government's nefarious plan to charge email use to make up for declining postage stamp revenue? I'm still hearing about that.)