Flixpac, who else is cancelling their netflix?

[greenhills]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74929.html

In yet another move to boost its Washington profile, Netflix has formed a political action committee, new federal records indicate.
Called FLIXPAC, the committee may now make contributions donations directly to federal candidates — up to $5,000 per election.

And it provides Netflix with another political tool with which to aggressively press a pro-intellectual property, anti-video piracy agenda — an effort it began in earnest in 2010, when the company began heavily investing in federal lobbying efforts.
In 2009, for example, Netflix spent just $20,000 on federal lobbying, congressional records show.
But that figure grew to $130,000 in 2010 and $500,000 in 2011, as legislative debates over the Stop Online Piracy Act, Protect IP Act and Video Privacy Protection Act raged.
Last year, the company reported using the services of nearly two-dozen registered lobbyists, including in-house advocates and those from three lobbying firms — Franklin Square Group, Monument Policy Group and Kountoupes Consulting.
A company representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
New federal filings show FLIXPAC will be based in Los Gatos, Calif. Its treasurer is Christopher Libertelli.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz1raB4WYSD

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthi...ittee-flixpac/


politics ruin everything.

[ronin sparthos]

You mean greed ruins everything.

[Day]

You mean greed ruins everything.

^

[Doombard]

But...but... they just added FiM to netflix...

[Deader2818]

Netflix has been in politics since 2009. Why suddenly now cancel it because they made a super pac?

[Velgadess]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...superpac.shtml

No, Netflix Has NOT Formed A Pro-SOPA SuperPAC

from the bad-reporting dept

Okay, can we kill this story quickly? There's a ton of buzz going around claiming that Netflix has built up a Super PAC to promote a pro-SOPA agenda. As far as I can tell, this is simply not true. It started from a report in Politico, which mentioned (accurately) that Netflix had formed a PAC called FLIXPAC, and is getting much more aggressive in the lobbying/legislative front. This follows Netflix's trend of spending more and more on lobbying in the last few years: $20,000 in 2009, $130,000 in 2010 and $500,000 in 2011. Where it gets odd is that Politico tries to tie this to SOPA/PIPA by listing out those amounts and noting that the $500k in 2011 was spent "as legislative debates over the Stop Online Piracy Act, Protect IP Act and Video Privacy Protection Act raged."

In turn, the folks at RT played a game of bad reporter telephone and spun it into Netflix funding a pro-SOPA super PAC, "whose main goal is to promote SOPA-like legislation." I don't know what's up with the folks at RT. While their TV reporting can be quite good, their online reporting is abysmal at times. They clearly exaggerate stories or write from a position of ignorance.

The truth is that Netflix was basically neutral on SOPA, knowing that it had to balance its technology side and the fact that it is constantly negotiating with the big Hollywood studios on deals. Politically, it basically had to take a neutral position. But the company knows better than to out-and-out support really bad internet legislation. The company has been active on things like net neutrality and the Video Privacy Protection Act -- things that do have a direct impact on it. Sure, it would have been great if Netflix had been a strong anti-SOPA faction, the fact that it stayed neutral and is now ramping up its lobbying does not, in any way, mean that it's suddenly pushing for pro-SOPA legislation. The company appears to have a lot of other things on its legislative agenda.

[Cantih]

I don't know what's up with the folks at RT. While their TV reporting can be quite good, their online reporting is abysmal at times. They clearly exaggerate stories or write from a position of ignorance.

There's an old joke (really old, with slightly different named papers, it goes back to before WWII).
In Russia, there are two newspapers, Novosti (News) and Pravda (Truth). Novosti was state run and utterly propaganda, Pravda is the Russian version of Weeky World News.
The punchline is, there's no truth in the News, and no news in the Truth.

RT is nowhere near as bad as Novosti was during the cold war, but it is still very slightly biased. They don't spin as much as Fox, but they do spin.

[Dimmauk]

If this helps them get better content on Netflix, then im ok with it. Cause they have old crap on there now.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

Netflix could be using its superPAC to fight carriers that wish to choke out internet speeds and stifle competition. This could be a good thing and a counter-balance to the influence the big ISPs have on Washington and the FCC with regard to them wanting to have control over deliverable content. A lot of what Netflix needs to do to survive runs counter to the wishes of these behemoth ISPs. Fucking people always starting at outrage instead of dissecting an issue before having an opinion on it.

[Brill Weave]

Fucking people always starting at outrage instead of dissecting an issue before having an opinion on it.

Hi. I'm America. Nice to meet you

[greenhills]

yeah, had the story forwarded to me and knee-jerked posted that.

where could they have even pulled that idea from though if it had no shred of truth? besides thin air. unless someone is just having a laugh.

This could be a good thing and a counter-balance to the influence the big ISPs have on Washington and the FCC with regard to them wanting to have control over deliverable content.

i thought half of the big isp were actually for net neutrality.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

i thought half of the big isp were actually for net neutrality.

That just means they have better PR than the other half

[Acevalefor]

I see Netflix moving toward ISP status then Comcast buying them in 5 years when they are a threat to Comcast's global domination scheme.

Or maybe it will be more like Pinky and the Brain and Netflix will follow Comcast around asking what "we're" going to do next.