New York's recently enacted state budget for 2008 - 2009 requires online retailers to collect and remit sales tax monies to for online purchases made by New Yorkers, regardless of whether the retailer has a location in the state or not. The move, which the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reports applies only to large e-tailers collecting more than US$10,000 from New York residents, is expected to add US$50 million to the state's revenues. By requiring the collection of state and local sale tax monies, New York is directly contradicting the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which stated that states were not allowed to require companies without a physical presence within the state to collect taxes.

Writers, tempted to ignore this news because it only affects large e-tailers like Amazon and others, should keep in mind that such a move potentially opens the door to future taxation of smaller retailers (including independent publishers) and service providers, regardless of location, working with clients in New York. In addition, if New York's collection attempts are successful, other states, communities and even countries may follow suit.

In their second music rights acquisition of 2008, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, a Dutch pension fund, has purchased classical music publisher Boosey & Hawkes for £126 million, PIonline.com reports. Boosey & Hawkes is a leading classical music publisher and rights group, controlling the rights to more than 116,000 works of music and choreography not only from famous classical composers of the past but also of many of the most renowned composers in the world today, including Peter Maxwell Davies, Karl Jenkins, John Adams and Steve Reich. The acquisition is part of a long term strategic investment strategy for Imagem Music, the music publishing fund of ABP and CP Masters BV, one of Europe's leading independent music publishers. ABP is the pension fund for public employees in the governmental and education sectors in the Netherlands.

"We are committed to be a long term investor in this space and find intellectual property rights, among which music rights is an important category, a lucrative new asset class with interesting characteristics for a long term investor that is looking for real absolute returns," Ronald Wuijister, Head of Strategy and Research, APG Investments, said in a prepared statement.