Agree with Amazon

Pretending that affiliates actually mean "presence in the state" is legal trickery, IMHO.

Also, the NY state is actually threatening them to retroactively ask for all the sales tax they should have collected in previous years - that is, when they already had affiliates in NY but when it was not yet considered "presence in the state".

Technically, the state should go after the buyers who didn't report their online purchase... But of course, those people vote.