S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game' • Hacker News Board

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#181

Post by pbhjpbhj » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

EmilioMartinez wrote: post #172

xattt wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do recognize the cognitive dissonance of my statement. I am just surprised at the restraint that ISPs have shown.

It really sounds like a waste of time and money though. What judge would ever side with them? I would fire a lawyer that even proposes that seriously

Judges implement the law though, so if the contract says "no business use" and this was made clear at the time of purchase -- eg by having business level accounts -- then what can the judge do? It's for the legislators to legislate, not the judges (under English law (UK), common law and equity aside).

Actual, I might be wrong here with how contact law is handled ... anyone?

A related consideration: when we moved into our terraced house the land was under leasehold and the lease specified 'no business use'. We bought the freehold some time back, but I've often wondered what my position might otherwise have been. Presumably breech of the lease conditions would be a tort against the landlord and so I'd have been fine as long as they didn't sue.

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#182

Post by EmilioMartinez » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

This is just a framing issue and I don't get the hate here. It would make sense that ISP's openly decide to charge flat rates to users while charging special fees to really large content providers. What's ridiculous is that this is being settled in courts of law, as if someone did something wrong, instead of being just business deals.

Internet infrastructure and usage is relatively recent and quickly shifting, so the social/political/economic aspects are always trying to fit into legacy arrangements. In this case it was easier to preserve the ISP-user agreement of how content is served and billed, while using pre-existing infrastructures (courts of law) to settle who actually pays the extra bills. It feels out of place, but if you strip the legal content out it's just business deals about services.

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#183

Post by LatteLazy » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

"Sorry, your ISP is suing us so we can't let you watch anything popular right now. Here is a link to other ISPs and a coupon if you wanted to swap..." is about to become the most popular show on Korean netflix.

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#184

Post by hereforphone » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

ojhughes wrote: post #11

Squid Game is one of those shows you can never "unwatch". It's quite harrowing but strangely addictive and a great critique of modern capitalism. Strongly recommended if you have the stomach for it

It's full of blatant inconsistencies and unrealistic to the point of being comic (and yes I am capable of attenuating my definition of "reality" for shows and movies.) I rarely watch TV but someone made me watch this, and I'm enjoying it as a comedy. Am I in good company or is everyone else taking it seriously?

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#185

Post by hereforphone » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

ojhughes wrote: post #11

Squid Game is one of those shows you can never "unwatch". It's quite harrowing but strangely addictive and a great critique of modern capitalism. Strongly recommended if you have the stomach for it

Everything is a "critique of modern capitalism" to the right crowd. Are you in college?

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#186

Post by hereforphone » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

injidup wrote: post #39

ojhughes wrote: post #11

Squid Game is one of those shows you can never "unwatch". It's quite harrowing but strangely addictive and a great critique of modern capitalism. Strongly recommended if you have the stomach for it

I'm dubious of this common posture of "horrible violence in entertainment" is ok because it's a critique of XYZ. It's like "free guy" (spoiler boring) tries to be a critique of video Game violence by positing the existence of another gaming reality where people are nice to each other. But this other reality is just a Macguffin. We come to watch the violence and mayhem and we come to watch squid game for the same reas…

This violence is unrealistic to the point that it's not disturbing (to me, at least). Someone pulls an undamaged bullet from a guy's forehead with tweezers. Blood is the color of cranberry juice. It's so over the top it's lost all impact.

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#187

Post by kmonsen » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:33 PM UTC

c12 wrote: post #152

dwighttk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet there is fine print that says they are delivering exactly according to the contract

I wouldn't be surprised. I have a gigabit connection and the contract specifically states that they guarantee a maximum throughput of 400Mbit at peak times.

It's like the geico commercials: you could save up to x% on your car insurance if you switch to Geico.

It says nothing, there are two weasel word exceptions in there.

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#188

Post by xwdv » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

MereInterest wrote: post #48

xwdv wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I guess ISPs could just drop traffic if they can’t afford it, but maybe if you push a lot of data you could pay more to have the content actually delivered to end users.

> maybe if you push a lot of data That's leads to a pretty simple conclusion, because Netflix doesn't push any data. I pull data from Netflix. I have already paid my ISP to pull data from anywhere I ask. If my ISP sits down at a negotiating table with Netflix and threatens to disrupt that, they should be laughed out of the room. "Pay me, or else I'm going to break my obligations to an unrelated third party." isn't a…

What if the ISP holds a powerful monopoly in some regions? Should we still be laughing?

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#189

Post by odiroot » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

ojhughes wrote: post #11

Squid Game is one of those shows you can never "unwatch". It's quite harrowing but strangely addictive and a great critique of modern capitalism. Strongly recommended if you have the stomach for it

> It's quite harrowing but strangely addictive and a great critique of modern capitalism.

Do you have some exclusive access to a version of Squid Game that we all don't?

Re: S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game'

#190

Post by yongjik » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

Couldn't have happened at a better time for Netflix. From what I've heard, Koreans are pretty pumped up that Squid Game is storming the global market (it's said that the producer of the show tried to make it for many years, except that nobody in Korea wanted to invest, thinking that it was too out-there), and then an unpopular ISP comes along and sues Netflix for profit ...

I have to wonder what the SK Broadband PR team was thinking, or if they were overridden by old guys at the top.