For online shoppers, the party may soon be over: sales tax could be on its way to the Web, according to the New York Post, which reports that a new bill introduced to Congress this week would force retailers like eBay and Amazon.com to start collecting state sales tax from people who shop online or through mail order. The Post notes that this is not a new effort, but supporters think they may win this time because many states are broke, and badly need new revenue sources. "This would be fiscal relief for the states that wouldn't require any money …

The video game business has been noted for its resilience during the economic crisis, but sales finally showed declines in March, falling 17% year-over-year to $1.43 billion, research group NPD said on Thursday. Software sales were $792.8 million (down 17%), while hardware sales were $455.6 million (down 18%). Analysts blamed the big drop on an unusually stellar March 2008, which saw a major game release in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" for the Nintendo Wii. "March was just such an outsized month last year," Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said, although he added that the data indicates some weakness in the …

Are marketers ruining the Twitter experience? Bloomberg talks to several people who think so. One woman, who says she signed up for Twitter to keep in touch with friends, is now considering discontinuing her use of the microblogging service because random marketers keep contacting her. Home Depot, for example, wished her luck painting her room, a medical company recommended a device for helping her with her ear infection, and a DJ recently told her to check out his new single. "I don't want random people contacting me," she said. "Don't try to sell yourself through my Twitter." Christopher Peri, founder …

In a landmark ruling, Pirate Bay founders Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail on Friday, BBC reports. The foursome were also ordered to pay $3.6 million in damages to a number of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures. The total fell well short of the $13 million in damages and interest that the companies were seeking. In a Twitter post, Sunde said: "Nothing will happen to TPB, this is just theatre for the media." Later, …

"The first man in space. The first man on the moon. The first man with a million Twitter followers." Yes, congratulations to movie star Ashton Kutcher. He beat CNN in the race to be the first person/company to have one million followers on Twitter. TechCrunch's MG Siegler notes that Kutcher had humble beginnings on Twitter, starting with just a handful of followers when he and his actress wife Demi Moore signed up for the service a few months ago. "They would talk about nothing, like everyone else on Twitter, and sometimes they would talk about each other. It's a true …