Amazon should release the identities and contact information...

Amazon should release the identities and contact information of owners of video programs on its Instant Video service with closed captions that don’t comply with FCC rules for IP video, said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in an FCC filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/18EQZ1t). It’s the latest in a proceeding that began last year (CD April 19 p11) with a formal complaint against Amazon submitted by TDI and several other consumer groups over problems with Amazon’s IP closed captions. The FCC should “establish daily base forfeitures for subsequent violations of the rules by Amazon, and issue a forfeiture sufficiently large to make clear that non-compliance with the Commission’s rules is not simply an acceptable cost of doing business,” said TDI. Previous Amazon filings have blamed the captioning problems on the video programming owners (VPOs) which provide content on its streaming video service, but though that information was submitted to the FCC it was redacted from public documents, TDI said. “The Commission’s confidentiality measures are not intended to protect the identities of parties who violate their obligations to make their programming accessible from public scrutiny.” Amazon’s filings don’t provide the information required by a request for confidential treatment, and don’t explain how disclosing the information would harm Amazon, TDI said. It said the commission should “compel Amazon to reveal the identities of VPOs it believes to be responsible for violations of the Commission’s closed captioning” rules.