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Cities Want to Tax Streaming Video Services, but They’re Not Sure Why
Tax Foundation ^ | February 27, 2023 | Jared Walczak

Posted on 03/02/2023 4:24:37 AM PST by gattaca

Keen technophiles may recall that the internet is “a series of tubes” (not a “big truck”), and sometimes those tubes get congested. The late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) fretted about streaming services crowding out other data packets. The analysis is highly technical, but do your best to follow:

“Ten movies streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet? I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.”

(Excerpt) Read more at taxfoundation.org ...


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1 posted on 03/02/2023 4:24:37 AM PST by gattaca
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To: gattaca

2 posted on 03/02/2023 4:27:36 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: gattaca
” an internet was sent by my staff “

??????????????????

3 posted on 03/02/2023 4:36:01 AM PST by Apple Pan Dowdy (... as American as Apple Pie)
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To: dfwgator

One of the episodes of the IT Crowd.


4 posted on 03/02/2023 4:43:06 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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To: gattaca

the ‘why’ is easy... they want more money.

how they can convince you they are due more money is their only problem


5 posted on 03/02/2023 4:46:08 AM PST by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: gattaca

“I just the other day got, an internet “ Wow. You got a whole internet. Quit reading right there.


6 posted on 03/02/2023 4:49:35 AM PST by pas
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To: gattaca

““Ten movies streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet? I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.””

______

Maybe there was a kink in the line somewhere, like when the water hose gets bent so that the water flow turns to a trickle. The left may not know how something works, but they certainly want to tax it every step of the way.


7 posted on 03/02/2023 4:51:33 AM PST by CFW (old and retired)
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To: gattaca

“Don’t ask me what I want it for...if you don’t want to pay some more...”


8 posted on 03/02/2023 5:00:02 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (You can never have enough clamps. Thanks Ben.)
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To: wally_bert

Too many people typing “Google” into Google.


9 posted on 03/02/2023 5:00:32 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Back in about ‘94 or so, I attended a sort of bulletin board convention held by the magazine Board Watch.

On the last day, the picture you posted was exactly what was presented.

Much of the meeting was concerned with what graphic standard was going to prevail but the announcement of the internet outright killed the growing bulletin board business.


10 posted on 03/02/2023 5:02:35 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
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To: gattaca
“Ten movies streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet? I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.”


11 posted on 03/02/2023 5:08:34 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: Yo-Yo

I know Sen. Stevens passed away, but what a great example of legislators and other bureaucrats writing laws and regulations about things they know nothing about.

Combine that with the thick layer of morons and dullards... we’re screwed.


12 posted on 03/02/2023 5:25:04 AM PST by Made In The USA (Ellen Ate Dynamite Good By Ellen)
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To: Made In The USA

I know Sen. Stevens passed away, but what a great example of legislators and other bureaucrats writing laws and regulations about things they know nothing about.

~~~

It would be more more logical to throttle media streaming. We already have the technology to do it, and you wouldn’t even have to burden the ISPs and telecoms. You could require the streaming services to do it. Youtube, for example, has it’s browser client check to see how much media has been viewed before downloading more data.

The idea of taxing or charging for streaming is something that is common to the mindset of leftists in particular but politicians in general. They really just want more of people’s money, but they rationalize it in their own minds as solving a problem when in fact it doesn’t solve it at all. It just punishes common behavior.


13 posted on 03/02/2023 5:33:10 AM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: dfwgator
"There were 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every two days"
- Eric Schmidt in 2010
14 posted on 03/02/2023 5:42:34 AM PST by COBOL2Java (Gun laws empower criminals. Guns empower the people.)
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To: z3n

Class of service could be offered to consumers to differentiate products and mate to user needs. It would add a big layer of complexity and I’m doubtful ISP’s would want to be accountable to SLA’s.

Think the real driver here is the incessant hunger to tax. Charge a special tax for heavy streaming, charge a tax for file sizes of a certain size, tax for exporting your data to another country, use tax, non use tax, it’s Thursday tax....


15 posted on 03/02/2023 5:52:09 AM PST by Made In The USA (Ellen Ate Dynamite Good By Ellen)
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To: dfwgator

I typed too fast and left out “best”.


16 posted on 03/02/2023 5:53:54 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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To: Made In The USA
Thursday tax....

~~~

Yep. you got it.

Some places tax rainwater, if I am not mistaken.

I always used to joke, and it seemed like a far off concept, but that someday they would tax people to breath the air. Now, I'm not so sure it's not coming soon...



17 posted on 03/02/2023 5:55:29 AM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: gattaca

I wouldn’t laugh too hard at the late Senator Stevens. He was born in 1923 (before bubblegum was invented) and died in 2010.

He left the senate in 2007 shortly after the iPhone was invented,Blockbuster was still in business, Netflix hadn’t started streaming, and Hulu wasn’t released.

He also seemed to have a better grasp on tech than most of these ditzes running the show today.

I don’t like falling into the trap of history only starting yesterday.

EC


18 posted on 03/02/2023 9:16:01 AM PST by Ex-Con777
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To: dfwgator

That was the best episode. “ I dont care if you are from Iran.” Lolol.


19 posted on 03/03/2023 6:21:17 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: Ex-Con777

Lol. Streaming services did slow the internrt in past years. Frequent spinning arrows were the order of thecday.


20 posted on 03/03/2023 6:48:01 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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