SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Charter can charge Netflix and other online video streaming services for network interconnection despite a merger condition prohibiting the practice, a federal appeals court ruled today.
The ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturns two merger conditions that the Obama administration imposed on Charter when it bought Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2016. The FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai did not defend the merits of the merger conditions in court, paving the way for today's ruling. The case was decided in a 2-1 vote by a panel of three DC Circuit judges.
[...] The case turned largely on the question of whether the consumers who sued had standing to challenge the conditions. Even if other factors besides interconnection contributed to the price increases, "the subscribers need not show that prohibiting paid interconnection agreements caused the entirety of the price increases, or even that it caused price increases of some specific amount," judges wrote. "For standing purposes, even a small financial injury is enough, and the consumers have shown a substantial likelihood that their bills are higher because of the prohibition on paid interconnection agreements."
[...] Charter told the FCC in a filing that it doesn't "currently" plan to impose data caps or charge video providers for interconnection, but the company wants the prohibitions lifted because they "put Charter at a competitive disadvantage" and "forc[e] Charter to run its network based on arbitrary merger conditions instead of market conditions." Charter's filing also claimed that broadband plans with data caps are "often popular" with consumers.
[...] Wood [VP of policy at consumer-advocacy group Free Press] pointed to a Free Press filing to the FCC that he said shows "Charter was delivering better value and getting better financial results for itself than any other big wired ISP. So the notion that either Charter or its customers have suffered from the conditions is a joke, as is any claim by the litigants that unconditioned mergers and monopolies are somehow better for people."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2020, @12:22AM (23 children)
The judiciary has to deal with the laws and precedents as we have.
The real problem is the legislature and the executive. We have voted them into office.
Hence, the real problem is us, "the people."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2020, @12:30AM (2 children)
We didn't elect Idjit Pai.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2020, @12:32AM (1 child)
We did elect Idjit rump.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 18 2020, @02:13PM
A minority of the population erected him.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 18 2020, @12:50AM (19 children)
You mean "we", the people are responsible for our own misfortune? That just cannot be. Everyone tells me that's preposterous! Has to be fake news
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday August 18 2020, @04:31AM (18 children)
As I always like to say, "every nation eventually gets the government it deserves".
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 18 2020, @05:33AM (17 children)
Don't know if they deserve it or not, but they do get what they ask for.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday August 18 2020, @10:34AM (15 children)
You assume you know who "they" are and what "they" are "asking" for via voting. Then assume that "they" "got" what "they" "asked" for.
As I've repeatedly noted, voting doesn't work [soylentnews.org] that way.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 18 2020, @02:25PM (14 children)
As I've repeatedly noted, voting doesn't work that way.
You are a collective, just like the commies.
Each individual can turn on a dime, as I have repeated noted... When they turn together, amazing things happen, things you would never believe. You own momentum is the problem, nothing else to it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 19 2020, @02:24AM (13 children)
Indeed.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 19 2020, @02:30AM (12 children)
Well, that's because you're unbelievable :-)
Big things would happen, whether you believe it or not.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 19 2020, @03:26AM (11 children)
Except if they don't happen, say because reality happens to be close enough to what I believe. This low content discussion isn't going anywhere. And I think the problem is because you've been begging the question from the start. You've attributed a degree of responsiveness to voting and such. When it doesn't happen, then you blame the voter. My take is that's like blaming the 787 MAX crashes on pilot error.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 19 2020, @05:25AM (10 children)
They don't happen because you choose to be slow. We find your lack of cooperation disturbing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 19 2020, @10:45AM (9 children)
More begging the question.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 19 2020, @02:05PM (8 children)
Maybe you are. In reality, there is no question. Nature is nature. You should learn to accept that
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 19 2020, @11:21PM (7 children)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 19 2020, @11:52PM (6 children)
You simply don't question nature. And you certainly don't pretend you're not natural
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday August 20 2020, @04:29AM (5 children)
Sounds like confirmation that you aren't a scientist.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 20 2020, @04:39AM (4 children)
Science does not question the authority of nature. You shouldn't either. It would be quite presumptuous
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday August 20 2020, @12:47PM (3 children)
Goalposts got moved. What does the authority of nature have to do with this thread?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 20 2020, @04:27PM (2 children)
You are under nature's authority. And nature says you and everybody else can turn on a dime, just like those little birdies (you already do, in slow motion), when you want to... To state otherwise is a lie
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday August 20 2020, @05:21PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday August 20 2020, @10:56PM
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 18 2020, @08:35PM
They didn't ask for this, any more than a victim of a con job asked to be conned. But they may deserve what they got, for falling for it.