I wish Netflix would man up when these kinds of extortions show up.
Just imagine telling "Fine, we're out. Enjoy telling your city why they can no longer have Netflix".
Just imagine telling "Fine, we're out. Enjoy telling your city why they can no longer have Netflix".
I wonder - what if you took the code for Popcorn Time, made your own front-end and used the majority of your funds to sign deals with production companies? If it's P2P you could be based in Iceland for all it matters. You could avoid goods and services taxes everywhere because P2P is ephemeral and you'd avoid lawsuits from the rights holders for being a legitimate front-end for their content.
Your attack surface would mainly be P2P blocking in countries that don't like the cut of your jib or throttling from ISPs.
This is not going to happen.
How in the world is that not extortion? This is literally a cash grab by Chicago.
But netflix obviously doesn't have any physical presence in chicago.
Is it good that Chicago is subsidizing services by taxing some other activity, mainly those that are not really utilizing those services, and taxing residents that might not even use or benefit (directly) from those services? Well, maybe not. But since it only provides a very small selection pressure it's unlikely that residents will move out, or speak out.
Extortion: the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. [1]
It's the literal definition of extortion. If you don't give the government your money, they'll [shut your business down|throw you in jail|fine the hell out of you]. The DVD tax is also extortion, but it's more easily justified because there are actual physical things moving through the city's jurisdiction.
1) https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...
> Extortion (also called shakedown, outwrestling, and exaction) is a criminal offense of obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion.
It's not a criminal offense when the government is doing it legally, which they are in this case because the legislature passed a law through the normal process.
Do you call all taxation "theft" as well?
It's saying that extorsion is a criminal offense, not that only criminal offences can be extorsions. In other words, the criminal offense originate from the act of extorsion, not the reverse.
Curiously, it is the government who defines the term "criminal".
I think that when OP referred to extortion, he was referring to Chicago collecting through Netflix, instead of requiring its residents to remit the tax themselves.
If Netflix does not have a sufficient nexus with Chicago to force them to collect, I too would like to see them tell Chicago to go suck donkey lincolns. My reason is not because of any philosophical objection to their tax, but simply because of the effects if other municipalities also decide to do this.
Collecting tax for thousands of municipalities would be a nightmare. There would be a plethora of ways they would provide rate data. Some would have a reasonable way to get it, like a URL that retrieves the current rate and valid date range, and the upcoming rate when it is going to change. Some would have arcane online protocols. Some would have a .DOC file you can download. Some would have it in a memo that you can get a PDF copy of. UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!
Then there would be actually paying the tax. That would be like getting rates--many different methods of reporting, with many different requirements for what you have to report.
I've seen this with sales tax, and with VAT in the EU. Every Thor damned taxing authority seems to assume that they are the only taxing authority you are collecting taxes for, so if they make part or all of the process hard to automate it is no big deal. Let every municipality in on this, and small companies will need a full time person just dealing with tax rate tracking and tax reporting.
[1] well actually it's my state's use tax, not my state sales tax, in this case, but for all practical purposes they are the same.
Sadly, Netflix appears to have a shipping center in Chicago (and 3 more in other parts of Illinois), so they probably can be forced to collect.
Spotify appears to have an office in Chicago (their jobs page has an opening for Sales Development Manager, Midwest, listed as being in Chicago, and Chicago is an item on the location dropdown on that page).
Apple has two retail stores in Chicago.
Amazon has a warehouse there.
Microsoft has an office there.
Rackspace has a datacenter there...and I just realized that tzs.net is in that data center. Oops. I'm not selling anything, so it's not a problem now, but I'll probably move it to Dallas to future proof it.
Honestly I am surprised it took this long for services delivered by out of state companies to get taxed after the fiasco with taxing purchases from Amazon and the like. The same train of thought applies, its "unfair" to local companies who cannot compete with the pricing models internet companies have. While to me there is a lot of bunk in that statement it does quite well in selling the taxes and fees.
Anytime money exchanges hands there are government agencies who can charge a fee, tax, or whatnot. What the majority fail to understand is the sheer amount of taxes they pay, both direct and embedded. Each tax carries a cost outside of its direct application in the form of the overhead at the sellers place and the taxing authority.