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.

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.

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

HN Discussion

• Google Cloud accidentally deleted UniSuper's account and backups, causing a major data loss and downtime for the company.
• UniSuper was able to recover data from backups with a different provider after the incident.
• The incident highlighted the importance of having safeguards in place for cloud service providers to prevent such catastrophic events from occurring.

Microsoft is trying to restore Bing as the default search engine on users' browsers by spinning it as a "repair" through a utility app called PC Manager.

PC Manager is designed to boost a Windows PC's performance by freeing up memory and eliminating unused apps and files. It offers "Health check" and "Repair tips" buttons, which users can click on to see the recommended actions.

However, Windows Latest noticed the app pushing a curious recommendation: Both Repair tips and Health check nudge you to restore Bing as the default search engine on the Edge browser.