S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge

Fri Oct 1 14:19:34 UTC 2021

On 10/1/2021 8:48 AM, Sean Donelan wrote:
> South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has sued Netflix 
> to pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work 
> because of a surge of viewers to the U.S. firm's content, an SK 
> spokesperson said on Friday.
> [...]
> Last year, Netflix had brought its own lawsuit on whether it had any 
> obligation to pay SK for network usage, arguing Netflix's duty ends 
> with creating content and leaving it accessible. It said SK's expenses 
> were incurred while fulfilling its contractual obligations to Internet 
> users, and delivery in the Internet world is "free of charge as a 
> principle", according to court documents.
> [...]
>
> https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/skorea-broadband-firm-sues-netflix-after-traffic-surge-squid-game-2021-10-01/ 
>
>

I'll never understand over how ISPs see content providers as the enemy 
(or a rival). The content is why ISPs have customers. Don't get upset 
when your customer uses the service that you sold them (in a way that is 
precisely in accordance with the expected usage)!

Netflix, as an example, has even been willing to bear most of the cost 
with peering or bringing servers to ISPs to reduce the ISP's costs and 
improve the ISP customer's experience. It's about time Netflix played 
chicken with one of these ISPs and stopped offering service  (or offered 
limited service) to the ISPs that try to extort them and other content 
providers: Sorry, your service provider does not believe in net 
neutrality and has imposed limitations on your Netflix experience. For a 
better Netflix experience, consider exploring one of these other nearby 
internet providers: x, y, z.