Maple Heights sues Netflix, Hulu in Ohio Supreme Court for cable fees

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The City of Maple Heights only has about 20,000 people, but it is making statewide headlines by taking on two multi-billion dollar companies in the Ohio Supreme Court. The town argued Wednesday morning that Netflix and Hulu must pay franchise fees to municipalities, the same as cable companies.

The 2007 video service authorization law states companies deemed"video service providers" must pay a fee to local governments. "There's nothing in that definition of video service that requires Netflix and Hulu to operate facilities in the rights of way, nothing that requires them to construct facilities in the rights of way," Hawal said."They only must provide their programming over wires and cables, and there's no dispute."

Sridharan said that another program under the statute would be to even get the authorization from the municipalities. Justice Pat Fischer posed a hypothetical: if governments are taxing streaming services, does that mean that Columbus should tax the Ohio Government channel, where anyone can stream most state government hearings if they have access to the internet?"Video programming is defined in the statute as being comparable to that of broadcast television, and so our allegations are such that an entity like this, I mean—" Hawal started, getting cut off.

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

A California labor law that lets workers sue on the state's behalf faces its toughest testEach year, thousands of California workers bring claims under the law, according to data from the state Labor and Workforce Development agency. Most of those claims don’t result in civil penalties Nearly nine out of 10 claims allege wage theft 'Typically, private arbiters are paid by the employer.' 😐 Huh, imagine that.
Source: CalMatters - 🏆 261. / 63 Read more »

Opinion: Clarence Thomas should be removed from bench if he declines recusalOpinion: Clarence Thomas should be removed from bench if he declines recusal [Opinion] San Diego Union Tribune has really gone to printing trash impeachClarenceThomas impeachClarenceThomas ImpeachClarenceThomas impeachClarenceThomas impeachClarenceThomas ImpeachClarenceThomas impeachClarenceThomas impeachClarenceThomas ImpeachClarenceThomas impeachClarenceThomas ImpeachClarenceThomas
Source: sdut - 🏆 5. / 95 Read more »

Federal court won’t intervene in Ohio’s congressional districtsA federal three-judge panel still waiting on an Ohio legislative redistricting plan said Tuesday it won’t jump into congressional redistricting right now either. The deadline for registering should have been postponed! It blocked so many from registering for the congressional races. This needs to be stopped!
Source: WEWS - 🏆 323. / 59 Read more »