Now they're taxing downloads

I just read that the Governor of New York state wants to introduce a tax on digital downloads of music, movies etc.

Is he serious or is this a very early April Fools joke?

Digital piracy and illegal downloading has been around for ages.

Apple are one of the few companies to build a successful download business in a marketplace where a large percentage of people are quite happy to get stuff for free rather than pay for it.

Surely a tax of this type will only move people away from legal stores like iTunes and back to torrents, rapidshare etc.

Reminds me of when I was young and the music companies wanted to put a tax on blank cassettes.

Funny how so called regulatory bodies always seem to trot out the same old solutions every few years. Don't you think?