[IP] Weekly column: Supreme Court to take up Net-wine sales case
Begin forwarded message:
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Date: November 8, 2004 11:37:02 PM EST
To: politech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Politech] Weekly column: Supreme Court to take up Net-wine
sales case
I've placed New York state's Supreme Court brief here:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/ny.alcohol.1104.pdf
---
http://news.com.com/Prohibition+redux/2010-1071-5442340.html
Prohibition redux?
November 8, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next month in a lawsuit that
will, if successful, permit American adults to freely buy beer and wine
over the Internet.
It's slightly bizarre to think that it takes the nation's highest court
to guarantee online shoppers the right to order a case of fine Merlot
or Pinot Noir from California. You can thank a crowd of pusillanimous
state legislators for that.
Dozens of state legislatures, including those of New York,
Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, and Michigan, have slapped severe
restrictions on out-of-state shipments of alcohol. The culprits behind
these rules: Lobbyists for beer and wine distributors, which currently
enjoy profitable markups in the 25 percent range that they stand to
lose if direct Internet shipping becomes legal and popular.
While this unfortunate situation may pad the bank accounts of
distributors represented by the influential Wine and Spirits
Wholesalers of America, it amounts to a tax on Internet shoppers.
No local distributor has the warehouse space to stock products from
more than a fraction of the thousands of wineries and breweries that
are online--which means that aficionados of a rare brew or a
less-advertised vintage are likely out of luck today. The Web site of
the Kendall-Jackson winery, for instance, flatly refuses to ship to
prohibitionist states.
[...]
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