Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”:
Four cities in Indiana are suing Netflix and other video companies, claiming that online video providers and satellite-TV operators should have to pay the same franchise fees that cable companies pay for using local rights of way.
The lawsuit was filed against Netflix, Disney, Hulu, DirecTV, and Dish Network on August 4 in Indiana Commercial Court in Marion County. The cities of Indianapolis, Evansville, Valparaiso, and Fishers want the companies to pay the cable-franchise fees established in Indiana's Video Service Franchises (VSF) Act, which requires payments of 5 percent of gross revenue in each city.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Friday August 21 2020, @07:53PM (1 child)
Netflix et. al. should block all service to those cities and replace the web page with one telling people they are blocked, why they are blocked, and giving the date, time, and place of the next relevant meeting (with a map) as well as phone numbers for the various city officials.
The video services aren't using any right-way that wasn't already paid for in full by local ISPs and telcos.
The only right-of-way like thing DirecTV uses is regulated at the federal level.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 21 2020, @10:03PM
Nothing is ever paid in full when politics is involved. New taxes and fees can be imagined at any time.
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