my design prof had mentioned this the other week in class: California Illustrator Wins Tax Victory in State’s High Court
“Although the justices disagreed on some issues,” Preston’s attorney, Nicholas Blonder, commented, “all seven concluded that payments received by an artist for the licensing of a copyright interest are not subject to sales or use tax. This effectively ends the Board’s long-standing practice of applying tax to all royalties received by an artist.”
“The state got their head handed to them in a big way,” said attorney Eric Miethke, California counsel for the Graphic Artists Guild and a coauthor of the amicus curiae brief filed in the case. “Guild members should feel vindicated by the Court’s ruling. We’ve been saying all along that tax should not be applied to the copyright — that at most only the rental value of the disk should be taxed — which is an infinitesimal amount.”