Netflix has filed paperwork to form a political action committee (PAC), Politico reported on Saturday.
The aptly titled FLIXPAC hasn’t collected a dime yet, much less contributed to any campaign, but it does give the parent company Netlifx “another political tool with which to aggressively press a pro-intellectual property, anti-video piracy agenda,” as Politico reported.
Ars Technica isn’t so sure, pointing the company has typically chosen to push for net neutrality over other political issues.
Netflix has also called for and strongly endorsed an amendment to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) of 1988 (passed in the wake of the leak of then-Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental records). Currently, the act prohibits any video rental company, like Netflix, from sharing a customer’s rental history. Netflix needs the act overturned in order to legalize its Facebook app, which includes the ability for customers to share rental histories, for use in the U.S.
The company has also markedly increased its lobbying dollars in the past four years, up to half a million dollars in 2011.
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