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A federal appeals court ruled (PDF) yesterday that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) doesn't apply to Netflix, since the online video provider is "not connected to any actual, physical place."
Donald Cullen sued Netflix in March 2011, attempting to kick off a class-action lawsuit on behalf of disabled people who didn't have full use of the videos because they aren't all captioned. A district court judge threw out his lawsuit in 2013, and yesterday's ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upholds that decision.
The decision is "unpublished," meaning it isn't intended to be used as precedent in other cases. However, it certainly doesn't bode well for any plaintiff thinking about filing a similar case in the 9th Circuit, which covers most of the Western US.
At least one other court has come out the other way on this issue. Three months after Cullen filed suit, the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) filed an ADA lawsuit against Netflix in Massachusetts over the same issue. In that case, the judge found that Netflix was a "place of public accommodation" and would have to face the lawsuit against the disability rights group.
After the company lost the initial motion, Netflix settled the case with NAD, agreeing to pay $750,000 in legal fees and caption all of its videos by the year 2014.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/9th-circuit-rules-netflix-isnt-subject-to-disability-law/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 04 2015, @03:01PM
> Why is the responsibility apparently at the retailer end, rather than the producer/distributor end?
That's a pretty dumb question. Just think about it for a second.
You are arguing that the FCC should be involved with enforcement at every point in the supply chain, micro-managing the shit out of everybody instead of just focusing on the single point where subtitles actually matter - delivery to the viewer. This way leaves all of the companies involved free to manage their business relationships as they think best as long as the end product meets a minimum quality standard.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday April 05 2015, @09:45AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves