"For years, retailers with "brick and mortar" stores in New York, such as Wal-Mart, have charged sales tax on orders placed through their Web sites. Yet Amazon.com and other e-tailers with no physical stores have not charged the tax"
The government is going to get theirs. Remember when they tried to charge for emails because it cut into their postal profits. I think this is going to be a trend that will eventually blanket the entire country. It will level the playing field and help the stores that have high overhead like CompUSA, which pays for property taxes per store, sales associates, etc. I only shop online because of the price and I don't like the atmosphere of the stores (mail in rebates.) I realize that someday I may be forced back into the stores again due to rising shipping prices and the loss of the tax-free buying. Wal-Mart stays competitive due to bulk shipping. Just enjoy buying things online without a sales tax, downloading music for free, and not paying for emails while it lasts.