Verizon and Cable Cos Keep Playing Games

Verizon and the cable companies filed an objection to try to stop Netflix's outside counsel from reading the companies' license transfer, agency, resale, and Joint Operating Entity agreements. Why? Because Netflix has not filed a petition to deny opposing the deals.

Verizon and SpectrumCo are making a pretty technical procedural argument here. They say that only "parties" can sign confidentiality acknowledgements to view confidential information and that Netflix can't be considered a party because it did not file a petition to deny the transactions. So by Verizon and SpectrumCo's logic, companies or organizations only have a right to read the agreements after they've submitted formal filings opposing the agreements. That is ridiculous. As a general rule of thumb, if your interpretation of Federal Communications Commission rules leads you to the conclusion that the FCC is encouraging or requiring entities to oppose a deal before they know what's actually in that deal, you probably went off track. This is also, interestingly, the first time Verizon and SpectrumCo have brought up this argument, even though every single entity that has read the agreements in this proceeding did so before filing a petition to deny. Some never filed petitions to deny at all: for example, the organization TechFreedom obtained access to the agreements only after the petitions to deny had been filed, so it could file reply comments.