'Consumer' Group Wants Netflix To Tax Customers To Give To Telcos?
from the really? dept
This one's a bit bizarre. We were just talking about the ridiculous boondoggle called the Universal Service Fund, which is one of those "taxes" on your phone bill that's supposed to go towards having the big telcos supply service to rural areas. Of course, since there's no oversight, it seems like most of the money just goes into the telcos coffers. There are all sorts of ways to deal with this, but one idea that makes no sense at all has been put forth by the Consumer Federation of America... who thinks that Netflix should be "taxed" to provide money for the USF. Why? Um, that's not clear. Basically CFA seems to think that big internet companies should now pay up just because:"The Internet is not an infant industry anymore. It can certainly bear the burden of making sure that wires and the communications mediums are there."So, really, what this "consumer" group is suggesting is that Netflix raise its prices on consumers, to give telcos more money that they just use to pay for operations, rather than actually investing in infrastructure for the disconnected. How does that possibly help "consumers"?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: broadband, consumers, tax, usf
Companies: consumer federation of america, netflix
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
"If we have [the contribution] debate at the same time we're doing distribution, I absolutely guarantee they won't have it done by the end of the year," he said.
So they don't know what it's for, they don't know where it should come from, and they aren't prepared to put those two questions on the same table. Remind me again why this fund exists, FCC...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well, this is epically stupid
I'm assuming that the CFA won't just stop at Netflix. Why would they, Youtube still uses more bandwidth then Netflix. Then we have all the other video sharing sites, and then the music sharing sites, then the program sharing sites. Why don't we just tax them all and say to hell with the consumer. They'd all be happier living in boxes on the street anyways, right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well, this is epically stupid
Here's the way the world is supposed to work:
1% of us are super wealthy and we're supposed to get anything we want at essentially no cost because we're entitled to it and just plain better than you.
The rest of the schmucks on this planet better break their fucking backs 20 hours and day and 82.357% of every penny they earn makes it way to my pockets anyhow--not that I need it, it's simply that they do NOT need it.
Now you know, you my cease being ignorant.
[/sarc]
;-P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Well, this is epically stupid
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Well, this is epically stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Well, this is epically stupid
Yeah, if you're American, the fourth graph already told us that. :P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Well, this is epically stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Well, this is epically stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Well, this is epically stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://thenextweb.com/ca/2011/02/18/netflix-may-get-slapped-with-fees-to-broadcast-in-canad a/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Am I missing something?
Aren't Netflix a service providor not a business that has anything to do with "wires"?
If Netflix is just a service providor, doesn't that mean that iTunes, uTube etc would be equally liable for such a tax? Or are they already? What's special about NetFlix?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Am I missing something?
So does Google--who owns YouTube so it's very likely if this BS slips thru they'll attempt to apply it there as well.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Am I missing something?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Netflix already pays into the USF
Oh, wait that's not what they mean? They want the USF to not be a flat tax, but to be a broadband usage based tax?
That's all we need is for the IRS to suddenly be in charge of auditing our broadband usage (please retain records for three years please).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anyone would like to create Consumer Group for that purpose?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response?
Your customers are requesting an ever increasing amount of data from our servers. It is not cheap for us to run the hardware to fulfill these requests. Accordingly we will be requiring you to pay us a little extra cash to ensure your customers are served to a reasonable standard.
Thanks a lot, love Netflix.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cool!
Oh, and sue the FCC- for anything. It's 'Big Government', and that kind of thing will fly right now. We'll get Congressional panels and hearings and in the end, 5 years from now, it all just goes away because we've all forgotten.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Let Him know...
Mark Cooper
Consumer Federation of America
mcooper@consumerfed.org
301-384-2204
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What About Me
What about my table? My laptop sits on the table and I use it for piracy. Shouldnt the table maker pay a tax to help fund anti-piracy efforts?
What about asshats? Should asshats be able to tax everything on the planet until they are satisfied?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
It's worth noting that one can use Netflix with the US Postal Serviceand a dvd player. Why did they get picked for the tax? (versus Hulu, or youtube?)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Goodbye good old USA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
USF
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
taxes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]