[Kevin]

While it's not 100% that this legislation will pass, nor has it been put in front of any "affiliate friendly" attorneys such as the NY legislation was, I need to point out here that this CA legislation, and all that will follow, were the reasons I screamed bloody murder whenever it was hinted at that the NY legislation was "not that big a deal".

Each sub-sequent state will write it tighter and "better", pushing the limits of what the last state got away with.

As I stated very early yesterday morning, my suspicion is that the INTENT of this legislation is to include Google advertising as well. Whether or not it's written well enough to do that remains to be seen. That would destroy affiliates in CA beyond repair.

Others have pointed out that OPMs and affiliate networks themselves may be in the cross hairs as well. My original read didn't include that thought, but I suppose it's very possible.

So once again, I ask the affiliate community... the WHOLE community... to stand up and take action. This is bigger than toolbars, and bigger than cookie crumbling (not to belittle those important issues...).

It's cookie preventing, and it needs to stop.

[mellie]

Excellent post Kevin.

You're right it will snowball. If you listen to proposed legislation or talk about proposing legislation they all seek to close the openings left by earlier legislation.

[Kevin]

A further clarification on my Google point:



Google has plenty of offices in CA.
Google receives "other considerations" for driving buying traffic (i.e. "selling", as we use the term) to merchants outside of California to residents IN California.
Therefore, we might conclude that any merchant running AdWords campaigns ON THE SEARCH NETWORK into California could potentially be liable for collecting the tax.

That's how broad and dangerous I read this one to be.


I look forward to seeing some legal brains have at this one.