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Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

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Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#81

Post by danudey »

jessaustin wrote: post #62
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? They probably mean the WiFi built into the cable modem.

How would that be anything other than a blatant lie? Are they going to mail the customer a different model of modem? Do any current cableco-provided modems not have built-in wifi?

> Do any current cableco-provided modems not have built-in wifi?

No, but all of their features can be enabled/disabled by the ISP remotely.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#82

Post by ossreality »

jessaustin wrote: post #62
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? They probably mean the WiFi built into the cable modem.

How would that be anything other than a blatant lie? Are they going to mail the customer a different model of modem? Do any current cableco-provided modems not have built-in wifi?

I can't tell if people are naive or clueless.

They fucking just turn it off dude.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#83

Post by Zancarius »

Alex_MJ wrote: post #57
Arjuna wrote: post #46

Awesome response to the C&D, via spokesman Jonathan Friedland: "This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider. We are trying to provide more transparency, just like we do with the ISP Speed Index, and Verizon is trying to shut down that discussion."

Am I the only one who thinks that this could hugely backfire from a PR perspective? The message is "The Verizon Network is Crowded Right Now." not "Verizon is Deliberately Slowing This Right Now." (or some less loaded version of that) It's bad PR for the ISPs, but combined with the fact that most people can hardly spell ISP, and that Comcast and their FCC homies keep describing the new toll booth as a fast lane, if I…

> "What the hell are they waiting for? Put in the fast lane! I wanna watch my damn movies!"

Telling a customer they're not getting what they paid for from their service provider is about as plain English as you can get. I daresay we need this sort of rhetoric, and I doubt their response will be levied toward Netflix unless they start getting letters from their ISPs saying "We're throttling you because you're watching Netflix and they won't pay up."

This situation could get ugly, though.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#84

Post by shurcooL »

jessaustin wrote: post #62
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? They probably mean the WiFi built into the cable modem.

How would that be anything other than a blatant lie? Are they going to mail the customer a different model of modem? Do any current cableco-provided modems not have built-in wifi?

Can't it be remotely disabled because it's not a part of the cheaper plan?

Similarly to how you only get the ability to tether your data with more expensive plans. It's a completely artificial client-side restriction that can be circumvented by rooting, etc. Not unlike DRM.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#85

Post by olegbl »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #23
aresant wrote: post #12

Here is the actual Cease & Desist: http://recode.net/2014/06/05/verizon-threatens-netflix-with-...

Interesting observation re: FiOS's performance with other video services. I'm not a huge fan of the incumbent ISPs in this country, but they do have something of a point there.

That's sort of the whole point... Lack of net neutrality leads to ISPs slowing down specific traffic (such as Netflix but not, say, Youtube).

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#86

Post by devrelm »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #48
scrabble wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? Reminds me of the late 90's when my ISP told me I couldn't get cable Internet because I didn't have a 486. I lied and told them I did to have the modem sent to me to hook up myself. It's a computer network, once it's in my house I can expose it as I like.

What do they mean WiFi won't work? How is that anything other than a blatant lie? They probably mean the WiFi built into the cable modem.

Or their comcast/xfinity hotspots, which is true.[1] Their lowest "Performance Starter" package does not have access to those hotspots, while the next higher "Performance" package does.

[1] http://www.comcast.com/internet-service.html

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#87

Post by stonemetal »

josh2600 wrote: post #54
Arjuna wrote: post #46

Awesome response to the C&D, via spokesman Jonathan Friedland: "This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider. We are trying to provide more transparency, just like we do with the ISP Speed Index, and Verizon is trying to shut down that discussion."

Playing Devil's advocate here for a second: If Netflix is 35% of global internet traffic at peak capacity (as per the Akamai CEO's comments at a number of events), is it really fair to treat them like every other company? That is to say, if Netflix is really the sole driver of Network upgrades, why does Verizon have to subsidize their costs of business? I'm not taking the stance that this is correct, only querying as…

>Verizon have to subsidize their costs of business

I don't see that argument going very far. Netflix has an ISP and pays for their own bandwidth. Why should they pay twice for their bandwidth?

If verizon has a problem with the amount of data their customers are requesting from netflix they could always disallow that or institute data caps etc.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#88

Post by lukecampbell »

djcapelis wrote: post #61
josh2600 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing Devil's advocate here for a second: If Netflix is 35% of global internet traffic at peak capacity (as per the Akamai CEO's comments at a number of events), is it really fair to treat them like every other company? That is to say, if Netflix is really the sole driver of Network upgrades, why does Verizon have to subsidize their costs of business? I'm not taking the stance that this is correct, only querying as…

If you want to play devil's advocate then let's advocate for all the devils. If Comcast wants to offer their customers video over a traditional cable network, they pay content providers. Why should the Internet be different? Shouldn't ISPs be paying people who provide the content their customers are buying?

I've never thought of it that way. That's a very interesting way to look at it! Isn't netflix driving business up for ISPs? The faster ISP gets business? I could be mistaken though.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#89

Post by cgman »

josh2600 wrote: post #54
Arjuna wrote: post #46

Awesome response to the C&D, via spokesman Jonathan Friedland: "This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider. We are trying to provide more transparency, just like we do with the ISP Speed Index, and Verizon is trying to shut down that discussion."

Playing Devil's advocate here for a second: If Netflix is 35% of global internet traffic at peak capacity (as per the Akamai CEO's comments at a number of events), is it really fair to treat them like every other company? That is to say, if Netflix is really the sole driver of Network upgrades, why does Verizon have to subsidize their costs of business? I'm not taking the stance that this is correct, only querying as…

It's like automatically charging my website visitors for my server costs because my site became more popular and using more resources. If Verizon doesn't want to upgrade - then they shouldn't. If they lose business because of it well, it's their damn fault.

Re: Netflix replies to Verizon cease and desist letter

#90

Post by josh2600 »

djcapelis wrote: post #61
josh2600 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing Devil's advocate here for a second: If Netflix is 35% of global internet traffic at peak capacity (as per the Akamai CEO's comments at a number of events), is it really fair to treat them like every other company? That is to say, if Netflix is really the sole driver of Network upgrades, why does Verizon have to subsidize their costs of business? I'm not taking the stance that this is correct, only querying as…

If you want to play devil's advocate then let's advocate for all the devils. If Comcast wants to offer their customers video over a traditional cable network, they pay content providers. Why should the Internet be different? Shouldn't ISPs be paying people who provide the content their customers are buying?

I think that the way the cable network works relative to the internet is a historical artifact versus modern parlance. My opinion is that precedent is not actually a guiding factor in how future arrangements should be determined.

The Internet is different in many ways, but notably because cable companies aren't doing peering and don't have to deal with the complex settlement of international data trafficking.

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