It doesn't. Puerto Rico is barely 1,000 miles off the mainland. There are longer distances within the mainland that don't get charged more.

So you are intimately familiar with education in Puerto Rico?

As far as flags go, there is nothing wrong with displaying your state flag. Try to tell that to a Texan or a Hawaiian. What's wrong with having national identity? I mean people like you certainly make me feel unwelcome as part of the US, so its no wonder we have to remind ourselves that we have a place where we DO belong.

My point about taxes is that 1/3 of a middle class Puerto Rican's income goes to the state - because we have to fend for ourselves. Here in the US I pay the same percentage except it gets split between federal and state. How is that paying less taxes? So you're saying I should tack on another 20% and give it to the federal government in exchange for representation and not being able to vote for president.

No, I don't want reparations. I want you and the other half of America that thinks like you to give us some respect, and I want the US government to either give me representation and a vote for president, or let my country go. I don't want reparation, I want emancipation.

Personally I'm of the opinion that 100 years of being cannon fodder, 40 years of being cheap exported agricultural labor, 50 years as a nuclear submarine base, 50 years of having our fishermen's waters polluted by the U.S. Navy, and 50 years of being a cheap-labor pharmaceutical manufacturing heaven have all been things that the U.S. has profited from. I could ask you the same question - what has NJ ever given the union besides Sinatra?

Kristy;

No problem. I appreciate what you have divulged already. Bottom line people in Puerto Rico have to suck it up once more. This will never change for us, until we become a state.

I appreciate your responses, frankly I was surprised you were able to talk so much about the topic before getting yanked in the chain. I will be relaying this info to the people in my blog and the rest of the news papers in puerto rico covering this situation. I wont be bothering you anymore with questions. It is clear that Netflix wont do anything on behalf of Puerto Rico and their customers.

I had a good conversation with a couple of Lawyers that cover copyright, FCC, and movie distribution into Puerto Rico and the US. They said, that Puerto Rico is sanctioned under Federal Law, to enjoy any priviledges the United States of America has. Meaning that if a movie is streamed, sold or rented in any of the 50 States including the Disctrict of Columbia, it had rights approving its distribution, digitally, sales or rent in Puerto Rico without any restriction or condition.

They also explained that if a movie was prohibited in the 50 States or the District of Columbia, then it would also be restricted in Puerto Rico under the same laws without exception.

This is greatly explained in detail under the Distribution Law and the Puerto Rico Regulation of Fair Competition No. VI - January 21, 1980:

"For new enterprising companies wishing to include Puerto Rico into their venues, the safest option is to draft a detailed and precise contract that includes alternative dispute resolution options, limitations of jurisdiction and clauses which reserve the right to sell their products on a non-exclusive relationship.

Otherwise, they run the risk of facing several years of costly litigation, and seeing how a fruitful consumer market such as Puerto Rico turns into a sour venture for everyone involved."

This means that if Puerto Rican customers of yours that lived in Puerto Rico, and were affected by the Decision of Netflix not transmitting the streaming service (that is free for paying customers, but not free to everyone else), and they made a Class Action Suite against Netflix for discrimmination. I'm afraid Netflix would loose. This would be more costly to you guys than just streaming the content to Puerto Rican's.

Eitherway I appreciate you took time to answer my questions and give me a better perspective on how Netflix operates in terms of what they choose to offer to the US, its states, territories and the Disctric of Columbia (although there was no explanation why DC gets it or not).

Although I also understand that the streaming services are delivered "as is" meaning its not a service you guarantee to your customers to have.

Badr
-
With this I conclude my investigation on Netflix vs. Puerto Rico. My conclusion on this is that as the Netflix End User Agreement clearly states that Netflix is not obligued to offer their streaming service to anyone regardless they are on the 50 states or the exclusive District of Columbia because the "streaming service" is not a part of their services. Its a "free" ad-on for their paying customers, but if it doesnt work in your area of residence, its basically not their fault.
As you saw, Netflix is not giving away the specific reasons, as why they can offer streaming in the Nation's capital (Washington DC, which is confirmed by Netflix that it is not a State) but not on the US Territories like Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. I keep thinking that my assumption, that if the President of the United States doesnt receive his streaming into his TV, then Netflix would not exist. What Puerto Rico has to do is show the President of the United States, how much cheaper it would be for them to relocate the White House to Puerto Rico and this will solve ALL of the problems in the Island plus save a couple of billions to the US Government.

Well, Mexico is a whole other country, you know! New or Old makes no difference. We can only sell USOC tickets to Americans!

This went on for some length of time even after they were advised to get thee to a MAP and look over by Texas and Arizona. A sad number of people in this country just don't know their own country. They don't know about Guam, PR, VI, APO addresses, etc. Most of them only know the area where they live and they've never been anywhere else much less to a far away place like NEW Mexico.

http://www.hectorramos.com/journal/2009/6/5/netflix-responds.html

Kind of funny timing...

You simply don't know what you're talking about.

1) As was already said English is taught in all institutions from a very young age. Hell, Pedro Rossello (a pro-statehood governor) a few years back even tried to make English the official language in the island. People in more rural areas might not speak it as well but the population in those areas is very small. More than half of the population lives in metropolitan area and I can assure a lot of those people especially younger generations can speak English very well. As can people in somre of the bigger towns throught the island.

2) Puerto Ricans in the states tend to be more of the flag waving crowd, especially nuyoricans, a lot who have never even been to PR. But so what? I guess you've never met Texans who consider themselves Texans first and foremost.

However claiming people here don't wave the American flag is ridiculously wrong. I suggest you look for footage from the celebrations when the last governor, pro statehood Luis Fortuño, won. There were people all over San Juan with American flags. There are a lot more people here that favor statehood than those who favor independence. Your claim that "Don't want to be a real part of our country" once again shows you don't know what you're talking about. I guarantee you that if tomorrow Puerto Ricans had to choose between being a state and being independent they'd choose statehood. Just to put things in perspective since Puerto Ricans earned the right to vote for governors there have been 0 pro-independence governors compared to 4 pro-statehood.

3) You act as if Puerto Ricans had a choice in being part of the USA, as if they had a choice in wanting statehood or not. 1) Puerto Rico was INVADED by the USA. They had absolutely no say whatsoever in the matter. They chose to make us part of them so if you have a problem with it take it up woth your government. 2) The Jones Act which granted Puerto Ricans American citizenship was rejected by a lot of Puerto Ricans at the time. They still forced it upon us mainly because they wanted more soldiers to go fight in World War I. You have no clue about Puerto Rican history, don't act like you do.

You have no clue about taxes either. The entire point is that we don't reap all of the benefits states do. We have to abide by the US Constitution, the US has maximum sovereignty over the island, we have to pay certain taxes among other things, there have been hundreds if not more of Puerto Ricans who have died represting the US, if we were to trade with another country we would need the USA's permission, among other things yet we have ZERO representation in the US government save for a lobbyist with no real power.

There's a tinyly veiled racism to your post. It's funny since people like you is why I've always argued the island will never become a state but the pro-statehood people here will never understand.

But Indian Tribes get addresses located in the state that surrounds their reservations, and should have the same IP range as the country that surrounds their land, which would negate the problems that PR, GU, and VI face.

I cough up a third of my pay. Where's my presidential vote?

Thanks for responding.

I understand all your points, except one.

Washington DC is not a state, I dont know if its something between a state and a territory, but historically DC is not a state, yet they receive the same treatment as a state. Is it because it's the nation's capital (not trying to be sarcastic), and i bet if Obama doesn't get his streaming there are going to be problems. HA!

I understand the "streaming" portion of Netflix is a "free" service, then again its a service you offer to your paying customers, so people see it as a part of the package.

I would completely understand if Puerto Rico were outside of the US Territory Range, but even the Virgin Islands, get the streaming service, but Puerto Rico can't…

Why is this then? Can you explain to me how that "licesing" issue works and why specifically it cannot be offered in the Island?

I appreciate the time you take to answer my questions. I love Netflix, we enjoy it very much at our home, but I have taken an interest in this issue on behalf of other people.

Thanks for your time and wait for your next email.
Again, waiting for their response.

I know about it, you know about it... Tell it to them jajaja...

dude you're everywhere

ohh thank you for this, best tip ive read all day.

And as far as whether or not Puerto Rico is part of the US? Heck yea! I was born in San Juan, raised in Guaynabo, and I am one proud American!

Are you claiming that your puerto rican employees who work for your puerto rican company who live in puerto rico are paying federal income taxes? If so, then you should be the one telling them they are getting fucked.
The conversation here is discussing federal income taxes, not social security/medicare or import/export taxes. Or do you think that you shouldn't have to pay those either??

Well... there's Pierluisi, but he's useless.

I think the Netflix streaming issue is probably because the streaming rights for media PR are sold separately from the US. They used to do the same thing for TV shows on air and satellite, as well as movies in the theaters. Part of this could also be related to the release dates in PR. For some movies the movie is out on DVD in the US while it's still in theaters (with Spanish dub and/or subtitles) in PR.

The media companies could cause the same kinds of problems in the US by separately licensing streaming rights for the northeast and southeast. So for example you might go to Hulu in NY to watch a show, but you'd go to YouTube to watch the same show in FL. The difference in PR seems to be that no one has the rights, or the rights haven't vested yet in order for the theater revenue to come in.

I tell you one thing, the Dominican Republic would vote for statehood in an instant. And if PR were to vote for independence, they'd be in the same bind as DR with lots of corruption, which I am sure they have plenty of already.

No, only Mactels can stream Netflix. It is misleading to suggest that most Macs can do it, because most Macs are not intels.
If PR gets some sort of discount for not being able to stream, then I demand one as well. There is no reason to not support PPC Macs; they just make sure that they don't have to by claiming they need an MS product that purposely leaves out PPCs...

Most importantly, PR has severe restrictions on trade. Because of Federal laws, 90% of what we buy comes from the mainland. PR is not free to buy or sell from any other country. That more than makes up for not paying federal taxes. Trust me, if the US wasn't benefiting from that, they would have forced us out a long time ago.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Netflix can charge what ever price they want, its their prerogative of how they want to run their business. But if you have a single plan for everyone, and then you don’t deliver all the services, we as the consumers are compelled to take action. And if tomorrow they decide to run a 50 states price/service and a US territories price/service, then us, the consumers, can decide if we want to buy their services.

They probably abide by DC being the Capital of the USA and therefore it doesnt apply... but I will ask anyways.

I had to ship a gift (a bluray player) to my family that live on St Croix, FedEX and UPS were horidenously priced. Try the USPS Priority mail if possible, got to them on time and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

And for our fellow U.S. Citizens that are complaining about Puerto Ricans getting federal funds, remember that the reason the U.S. became independent from England to begin with was because they had to pay taxes to the crown without any representation. Sounds familiar?

"From: badr
To: Reed Hastings; Hastings; rhastings - reply
Sent: Tue Jun 02 20:12:06 2009
Subject: Question about Netflix & Puerto Rico

Mr. Hastings;

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I live now in the states, just because I got offered a job with a government agency that doesnt have an office in the island.

With all due respect I would like to know, why if Puerto Rico is a sanctioned US Territory (until a couple of years ago, the US Navy bombarded an island where civilians lived less than 5 miles from the blast radius... Vieques, google it), the residents have to pay the full price but not be able to stream the content.

Just curious if you could answer it it would be awesome... Thanks!"

I got a reply just now, not directly from Mr. Hastings, but either way a reply is a reply:

"Dear Mr. Badr:

Thank you for your email. Mr. Hastings makes every effort to read each and every email that is sent to him, but is unable to personally reply to all of them. Please know that we appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your feedback and comments.

You are unable to utilize our instant watching functionality in Puerto Rico due to licensing restrictions. We're only able to provide this functionality within the 50 United States. Unfortunately, our licensing agreement does not include U.S. territories at this time.

You are charged the same rate without instant watching is because instant watching is not a paid service. Currently, instant watching is a free added benefit to a paid DVD rental subscription. There are limitations to this functionality and unfortunately not everyone will have access to this feature. However, because it is a free feature, we do not discount accounts that do not have access.

If you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to contact me directly. I can be reached via email at Kgrey@Netflix.com.

Thanks,

Kristy Grey
Netflix, Inc
----------------------

And there you have it. If someone wants to post this in the consumerist, since I am at work and I cant access that site from here, be my guest since I think it would clear some people up from their doubts and what not. I am going to write back to them asking them to make an official statement on this on the Consumerist, so that people know what is going on.

Badr

@Justifan: That is quite possibly the dumbest analogy I've ever read.

@Artagnan: Very true.

I was just reading about the program to steralize Indians on the reservations here in the states.

I used to be a lot prouder of my country; I still am in many ways, but it's a bit more in the 'look at how far we've come' way.

In a video store, they get extra copies if there's a higher demand. Netflix could care less. I called them and asked why they don't buy more copies so this doesn't happen. They said it was customers' fault because they hold on to movies too long.

I wish there was competition out there.

Blockbuster does a similar thing at ripoff prices with limits on how many you get per month, so forget that.

For the record, this Puerto Rican pays full federal income tax AND PR income tax... yet I don't get a vote on a federal level.

Excuse me if your offer to appease me when my island starts paying federal income tax is refused.

exactly... even though I am not pro-statehood (hey, look at that.. prostate), I am so frustrated and fed up with the politics of status on this island, that I would accept statehood as a means to end this mess down here.

So in short... WRITE YOUR CONGRESSCRITTERS!

Like I said before, that's really optimistic. The reality is, unless the US gets tangible benefits (6 million new taxpayers isn't enough apparently), then congress won't do a thing about it.

6 million new taxpayers and new consumers of suddenly cheaper US made goods for starters

That's really assuming a lot, since when we voted none of the above when it came to statehood or independence, we weren't asked what we would like... or when we voted to amend our territorial status, no changes were made.

Frankly its ignorant of you to say that Puerto Rico should endure economic punishment by corporations that have no connection to the U.S. government simply by virtue of the fact that we are stuck in a crappy political situation that NONE OF US ASKED TO BE IN.

I hope you are never stuck in a situation that is truly beyond your control, cause you'll get no sympathy from me.

Please write your representatives and congressmen about that. We don't really have much of a say in the matter.

I think YOU need to shut up until you become more informed.

FYI, all Puerto Rican's study English since kindergarten, and most can at least talk basic stuff with tourists. How much Spanish do you remember from high school? About 48% - 51% of Puerto Ricans would like to pursue statehood, depending on the year. The U.S. flag is displayed at all public institutions that display Puerto Rican flags. Puerto Rico residents pay the same % of their income as taxes as you do - in PR it goes to the state government. BUT any income not earned in Puerto Rico must pay federal income taxes any way.

Finally, I'll reserve the right to come into "your country" whenever I want, mostly as payment for 100 years of using Puerto Ricans as cannon fodder, exported labor, and unwilling scientific test subjects. Don't feel bad, you can also come to "my country" whenever you happen to want a Caribbean vacation without the hassle of international travel.

If you want to be jingoistic while discussing U.S. immigration law, be my guest, but please keep it to yourself when you are talking about my island which has the county with the highest per capita cancer rate in the entire U.S. because of bombing exercises with depleted uranium rounds performed on our beaches and coastal waters.

Texas is a state on contract, they are the only state that can break away from the US legaly

But keep in mind that this only works with the U.S. Postal Service.

Some Puerto Ricans do want to cut loose entirely, but unfortunately that is all up to the U.S. Congress.

Some corrections:

1. Puerto Rican residents pay 1/3 of their income to the government. Except that it all goes to the Puerto Rican state government instead of the US federal govt. Fair enough if you ask me since we don't get to vote for the prez and get shafted on pretty much all federal aid programs.
2. All of Puerto Rico could vote for statehood, and it still wouldn't happen. Our political status is at the mercy of the U.S. Govt (Congress, specifically). So please, don't be ignorant talking about things that you don't know or understand.

And as far as the Netflix stuff goes, EVERY US corporation screws Puerto Ricans with international shipping and handling if they can get away with it. Dell charges $200-400 more for computers sold to residents of Puerto Rico claiming that it is an international location. It seems like it is just a part of being boricua :(

The reason for PR's problem is that it's a trade issue but also a distance issue. For the same reason shipping to Alaska or Hawaii is doable, but it'll take more time or money. With PR, it's a trade issue as well as a distance issue.

They'll get the full protections of the US government (and my sympathy) when they start paying income taxes. I'll let my kids stay up as long as they want and stay out as long as they want if they start paying part of the mortgage. Until then, my kids have limited priviledges.

I'd love for PR to be our 51st state. Currently they drain the treasury since they get social programs but don't pay income taxes.

The US Virgin Islands can't receive streaming either.

It's absurd that US citizens living in a US territory aren't considered Americans by Netflix.

@Corporate_guy:
Spot on dude. They need to at least vote for statehood. Congress would vote for it, especially one owned by the Democrats.

@tvh2k: Yep. They want social programs but don't want to pay income taxes. If they vote for it, and Congreess approves which they would to get the extra taxes, I'll be the first to complain to Netflix, but while they don't pay any income taxes they'll get no sympathy from me.

Come on, PR, join the team! :)

It's put up or shut up time in my opinion. If they want to reap the rewards, they should have to pay the price.

Damn you Netflix.

@Christian Pacheco:

He means other then the touristy beaches the place looks like the ghetto... But then if we did own them we could do full scale bombing training on the island. They cant bitch about it then when we start it back up after they apply for statehood.

Don't forget PR residents pay federal income tax on income derived from mainland US sources, as well as all federal employees on the island. As for the highway funding... we refused that one when we refused to raise our drinking age to 21. We can keep issuing bonds to pay for our highways for all I care... I'd rather keep our drinking age low. It's little things like this that keep us from becoming another Hawaii.

It's not like the US has paid any attention to what Puerto Ricans have had to say ;)

And the PR relationship with the US started out of the Spanish-American war. An invasion and later passed on as part of a treaty. Open a book, people!

Or are you in PR, where there is apparently a mail lag as well, making their services generally unusable? That makes more sense. But I think Netflix far and away delivers to me everything I pay for, and then some. But I live about an hour from a distro center.

Orly?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_Cases

Puerto Rico and even the Philippines could have been states a century ago, but the people living there were too brown and spoke too much Spanish, so the federal government made a new classification, "unincorporated territory," to distinguish it from places like Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico. The Supreme Court said the Constitution doesn't count there, just like Guantanamo Bay, unlike Alaska and Hawai'i. Thanks to that, Congress is effectively the supreme dictator of the island; no citizenship and no Bill of Rights unless Congress says so, and it can be revoked at any time.

It surprised the heck out of the Filipinos who sided with the Americans against the Spanish, only to find out that being under the Stars and Stripes didn't mean they had any rights and liberties. So then they wanted their independence, but Congress wouldn't let them have that, either. And then the shooting started.

Congress has a long and ignoble history of turning down potential states because of the number of brown people. We could have annexed Hawai'i during the Pierce administration, without the messy Dole coup. We could have annexed the Dominican Republic during the Grant administration. And heck, it's no coincidence that we only took the sparsely populated portions of Mexico.

So yeah, Puerto Rico could have been a state whenever they wanted, just like the Philippines. Whatever.

"Dont go screwing up my flag for an extra star."

WTF? For most of our history, we added a star at least once a decade! Five were added since we claimed Puerto Rico! Should we kick out the 37 newcomers as well? Have Maine and West Virginia annexed by their parent states again? Sure would look funny to see the Republic of Vermont all by it's lonesome...

There has to be some legal issue involved, or at least some complicated business or economic one. What other situation has come up where Netflix has turned away paying customers just because they didn't feel like doing something? Maybe different companies interpret the laws differently, or maybe there really are various and sundry situations that are more complicated than we know.

It's worth looking into further, I think, if you're a resident of PR.

Important distinction I think, though no less bothersome for you. Seems like something that lawmakers need to take a look at and fix.

"I know that, but I have to pick a state on this form, what STATE are you in?"

This went on for ten minutes. I can't recall how she finally got him to check for DC in the drop down box.

Now having addressed that it's funny that I argued these same points at someone else's blog and I was nearly ratified a Puerto Rican biggot...

Before anyone looses a cardiac valve, I am from Puerto Rico, where I lived most of my life before moving to the states.

You seriously need to get a grip. Just because you are in Puerto Rico doesnt make you a member of the 50 states in the United States. It makes you part of a country that has gotten a rotten deal thanks to politicians govern it. You should be pissed off at the idiots, who gave the US the rights to make Puerto Rico a territory… rather than make it a state once and for all. Its like being a member to Sams Club or Costco, but instead of buying the full boxes of cereal, you get the regular ones. Sucks doesnt it?

Now what netflix is doing for puerto rico is kind of rotten. I mean if they are going to offer only %50 of their service they should only charge %50 of the cost don't you think?

What you need to do instead is rant to NetFlix CEO, Reed Hastings. You should be able to email him at reed[dot]hastings[at]netflix[dot]com. According to Wikipedia, he is an educated man, graduated from industrial engineering at Stanford. I know the email cuz, I emailed him =)

I am pretty sure if you write tons of sensible emails to his email address he will (or mostlikely one of his lackeys) will answer your emails or get something done about it.

Just dont pretend because "PR is a US Territory, that you need to be served in a golden platter... It sucks they are charing the full price, and only delivering half the service. I am not a lawyer, but I think the word "Class Action Suite" it does ring a certain bell.

What about Texas, did they ever become a state!

Also, with Puerto Rico, I don't think that the Commonwealth is receiving all the benefits of statehood, quite the contrary considering it has no say in the House or the Senate, but its citizens enjoy many of the same federal benefits as mainland citizens but bear what I believe is a lower tax burden. Unless they've changed in the last few years, Puerto Rico's tax code was based on the 1939 US Tax Code. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

To cmdrsass, one of the principal objections to full DC statehood is that it automatically puts two Democrats in the Senate and one in the House. That and the fact that it would take a Constitutional amendment give a lot of people pause. But I do think that DC's citizens deserve a voice and a full voting representative in the House. Again, that's opinion.

As for DC, yes, many people object to giving DC a vote in the House. Once again, read up on it. And no, DC doesn't want statehood just because it's a major city. DC residents just want the same rights as residents of the 50 states, and the options for that are either statehood or re-joining Maryland.

Only DC is supported, outside of the 50 states.

What about Guam, and The Virgin Islands?

Saves money and the post office sees it as a mistake.

Don't get your panties in a bunch.

it reminded me of a problem Sony had with their Playstation Video Store when it launched. It wouldn't show up for Puerto Rico customers, and it was a Region Lock, but according to the sony represantive at that time. it was an Automatic Region Lock it set. And didn't even label Puerto Rico as even remotely part of the US. And after that they quickly fixed it in a few days. If only Netflix had that kind of support.

Puerto Rico is 1,038 miles from Miami, Florida.

Sure, lets just keep sending those Puerto Rico soldiers off to our war in Iraq, what other possible benefits could they offer to the USA?

The Netflix website states that Instant Watch will only work on devices within the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

If only they'd state that in their local ads in Puerto Rico.

You bring up a good point. Red Box kiosks have been popping up ALL OVER the island in the last few months. Most of the people I know, who cancelled Netflix, have switched over to Red Box since it is actually cheaper. Do the math (it usually takes 5 days for a disc to get to Netflix and then get your next disc back)

30 days / 5 days turnaround = 6 discs per month. That would be $8.99 on the Netflix unlimited plan, or roughly $1.50 per disc. You can get the same with Redbox for only $1 per disc. (You may argue that Red Box charges $1 per disc PER NIGHT, but the 30/5 math assumes that you watch the disc the same night you receive it so that you may send it back the next day. You can do the numbers and find out that keeping a Netflix disc for more than one day in Puerto Rico would be much more expensive than Red Box.)

There's also the $4.99 two disc a month Netflix plan, which comes down to $2.50 per disc. The only advantage to this over Redbox is that you could keep the disc for a week and some change before returning it in exchange for the second one. You're still limited to two disc a month, whereas for $5 you could rent five movies in the same time frame from Red Box.

@mkt3000:

And i hope we'd get a say in the approval so we can say hell no, join cuba. 50 is enough. Dont go screwing up my flag for an extra star. If they wanted in they would have asked for it long ago.

oh, and because they're a prime vacation spot.

Communism is the very definition of failure!

In DC, the District was a part of Maryland and was never intended to be a state (the Virginia part was given back from the original grant). While I don't think that anyone would rationally object to DC having a vote in the House, statehood and two senators is a reach. On that theory, almost every major city in the United States would be entitled to statehood on the basis of population before DC would be eligible.

There's plenty of "mainland" from which to choose a starting point.

This is Three Dog, awooooooo!

/sorry, Fallout flashback, I just came from Kotaku.

@Daurys Nolasco: Keep in mind Hulu is owned by the content providers-they "negotiate" with themselves for viewing rights. Netflix is hamstrung by the studios.

I have no Idea as to why Amazon et. al. have shipping restrictions.

@tvh2k: Thank you. They seem to think they can enjoy all the privledges of being a state without coughing up a third of their pay. Sorry, but no. You're a territory. Territory != state.

@tvh2k:

Give that man a cigar.

And does Netflix advertising the streaming videos there? Never been to PR, but do they have the same Netflix commercials/website as us?

@mkt3000: Some databases will recognize that the Zip doesn't match the state, though. I know our UPS program does.

@calquist: Corporate_guy tends to need things beat into his head.

Sorry, I meant:

Distance between mainland and Hawaii is about 2,600 miles.

Distance between mainland and Puerto Rico is about 1,000 miles.

Everything I've ordered to San Juan, PA 00907 has arrived on time to San Juan, PR 00907 ;)

Distance between mainland and Hawaii is about 2,600 miles.

Netflix, don't be a hater.

I think you do too... but with multiple people saying the same thing... well, y'know. It was the thing to do.

Hector even says it himself: No extra cost for the streaming movies. He is paying the same price for Netflix as he was before there was online streaming. It's not like they raised the price.

The residents of puerto rico could have a 100% turnout in favor of statehood, but unless congress approves it, it's pointless, since the decision is in their hands, not ours.

The residents of puerto rico could have a 100% turnout in favor of statehood, but unless congress approves it, it's pointless, since the decision is in their hands, not ours.

The residents of puerto rico could have a 100% turnout in favor of statehood, but unless congress approves it, it's pointless, since the decision is in their hands, not ours.

The reason no one pays "extra" for streaming is because EVERY customer is paying for streaming. Netflix obviously calculated that whatever they currently make minus whatever the streaming feature costs them still will still make them money (probably counting on current customers not leaving, and making new customers with the new offering).

That last part of the equation could easily be upset if they start losing customers because of this inequitable business practice.

Even if the restriction is borne out of Netflix's contract with the movie studios, I guess Netflix has now been given an incentive to actually make sure the studios also know that Puerto Rico deserves to be included in their agreements. I honestly don't see why they wouldn't be, because, state or not, the same Federal laws that protect copyrighted content in the 50 states will protect it in any U.S. territory.

Although it's true that Puerto Rico's situation is kind of confusing, at the end it's up to the company's management and how friendly they are with us. If there were a law discriminating against PR, then there wouldn't be ABC.com streaming, or Hulu. However, we're excluded from Disney's, NBC's, CBS's etc. streaming services.

Same with online stores. BH Photo, JR, Adorama happily ships everything to Puerto Rico and cheap! NewEgg will ship to Puerto Rico for an eye, and Amazon & others (even Walmart - can U believe that?) leave us behind in some or all of their offerings.

At least we have something in common with DC residents, now U know how we feel -worst.

Now, the best/worst part is: Isn't my US Department of the Treasury issued Dollars worth the same as the ones in mainland USA?

And for people who say that Puerto Rico should "just become a state already" -- there are a lot of issues that are more complicated than your desire to be able to say that it's a state.

U.S. Protectorates (including Puerto Rico)

Only the following items can be shipped to U.S. Protectorates:

* baby items
* books
* DVDs
* music
* software
* toys
* VHS videos
* video games

This can be found here:
[www.amazon.com]

So if I were to buy a Mac, one can not buy it from Apple, we have to seek a reseller or store such as Best Buy, which, by the evidence provided on this very site, don't offer the best customer service. Furthermore, if we were to seek repairs, we can't even send the computer to Apple, we have to go through a third party, specifically Geek Squad, and have to deal with them so they will send it to Apple.

In Amazon's case we are restricted to buying only video games, movies, music, and books, among other things. This make sit really difficult to by other things, computers as an example, if we find other companies don't either have the prices we seek, or simply, as is most commonly seen, won't ship to us.

Why don't they just become a state? I never understood the whole U.S. Territories, obviously netflix doesn't either.

Perhaps netflix is simply promoting PR statehood. :P

@sir_eccles: You can stream to a PC as well. Well, not if you're in Puerto Rico, apparently.

A little break down in logic there. Roku streaming is a no fee extra to Netflix. You don't pay extra for streaming. Following his logic, anyone without a Roku should be demanding a refund.