Netflix has managed to annoy a good number of its users with an announcement about an upcoming update to its Windows 11 (and Windows 10) app: support for adverts and live events will be added, but the ability to download content is being taken away.

Netflix must realize that it's a huge frustration for people who relied on offline downloads to watch content without internet access: on planes, trains, and campsites, and anywhere else where Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable.

There's a small chance that Netflix will change its mind if it gets enough complaints, but the streaming service seems determined to add as many money-making features as possible, while taking away genuinely useful ones.

The New Orleans Collector of Revenue (“Collector”) failed in its attempts to subject music streaming services to the City’s sales tax. In* *Apple, Inc. v. Collector of Revenue of the City of New Orleans et. al., Docket No. L01283 (May 2, 2024), the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals, Local Tax Division, analyzed the Company’s summary judgment motion and noted (1) that the City did not file an opposition to the motion and (2) that the City would “not consent to the granting of the motion.” We often see collectors raise no specific objection to an assessment challenge, except proffering their “we say so” positions, essentially arguing that if a court will give you a win, so be it. That is not fairness in tax administration, and we hope the Louisiana Governor is listening.

The City issued assessments to the Company for the periods January 1, 2016 through October 31, 2018, asserting sales tax, interest, and penalties with respect to the Company’s music streaming subscriptions. The Company challenged, asserting the City’s assessments were an illegal, discriminatory tax under the Internet Tax Freedom Act (“ITFA”) codified in the notes to 47 U.S.C. § 151. The Board found three undisputed material facts: (1) the Company’s service uses the Internet to stream audio content, such as music, to devices connected to the Internet; (2) satellite radio service allows the streaming of audio content, such as music, using satellites to devices capable of receiving satellite signals; and (3) the audio content streamed using the Internet to the Company’s subscribers is similar to the audio content streamed by satellite radio providers using satellite signals.

The linked article is the intro message from her. I copied a part of it here:

Why I’m Joining Mozilla as Executive Director

Delight -- absolute delight -- is what I felt when my parents brought home a Compaq Deskpro 386 for us to play with. It was love at first sight, thanks to games like Reader Rabbit, but I fell especially hard once we had a machine connected to the Internet. The unparalleled joy that comes from making things with and for other people was intoxicating. I can’t tell you how many hours were spent building Geocities websites for friends, poring over message boards, writing X-Files fan fiction, exchanging inside jokes and song lyrics on AIM and ICQ chats with friends and far-flung cousins across the world.

Actually, I could tell you. In detail. But it would be embarrassing.

Years later I would learn that the ability to share, connect, and create is rooted in how the Internet works differently than the media preceding it. The Internet speaks standards and protocols. It links instead of copying. Its nature is open. You don’t need permission to make something on the Internet. That freedom holds enormous potential: At its best, it helps us explore history we didn’t know, build movements to better the future, or make a meme to brighten someone’s day. At its best, the Internet lets us see each other.

That magic -- this power -- is revolutionary. Protecting it, celebrating it, and expanding it is why I’m so excited to join the Mozilla Foundation as its executive director.

I started my career as a media lawyer to protect those who made things that helped us see one another, and the truth about our shared world. Almost fifteen years ago, I co-founded and built a media law clinic to train others to do the same. After a stint at a law firm, I joined BuzzFeed as its first newsroom lawyer, which felt sort of like being a lawyer for the silliest and most serious parts of the internet all at the same time. In other words, I was a lawyer for the Internet at its best.

I am not naive about the Internet at its worst. From the Edward Snowden disclosures to a quick trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, much of my career has confronted issues of surveillance -- including of my own religious community. I watched as consumers became more concerned about surveillance and other harms online, and so we built an accountability journalism outlet, The Markup, to serve those needs. The Markup’s mission is to help people challenge technology to serve the public good, which intentionally centers human agency. So we didn’t just write articles: Our team imagined and made things people used to make informed choices. Blacklight, for example, empowers people to use the Web how they want, by helping them see the otherwise invisible set of tracking tools, watching them as they browse.

I find it hard to believe that, outside of work computers, many people would be choosing Windows over Mac or Linux, especially is AI is their goal.

I'm also curious why the comments are turned off for this article unless it is a paid ad for Microsoft.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.smeargle.fans/post/165906

HN Discussion

Those Silicon Valley geniuses have done it again!

Next week- "it's like the subway, but with AI!"