Archive for July 6th, 2011

The Netflix Fear: Competition (But Not the Competition You Might Think)

The CRTC’s deadline for submissions to the over-the-top video “fact finding” exercise passed yesterday. While many notable submissions will likely appear on the CRTC site today, there are enough there already to get a good feel for where this is headed. I wrote last week about the perceived bias against consumer interests in this consultation, but the reality is that the industry arguments are thus far so devoid of actual evidence that the Commission should be well positioned to leave the issue alone at least until the next new media hearing in 2014.

The submissions include the usual fear mongering about services like Netflix. The winner so far comes from the Stingray Digital Group, which warns:

Just as Napster wreaked havoc on the record label industry in the early 2000’s and played a major role in the collapse of the music retail industry, so too will the new breed of OTT music services materially disrupt licensed Canadian music services and the Canadian broadcasting system if the status quo is left unchecked.

Other submissions contains lots of rhetoric about the dangers of an unregulated over-the-top services market, but no actual evidence of real harm.

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July 6, 2011 13 comments News

NY Times on Internet Access as a Human Right

The NY Times has published a supportive editorial on the recent UN report linking Internet access to basic human rights. The editorial references graduated response rules, calling the French and UK laws “draconian.”

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July 6, 2011 9 comments News

Nowak on Seven Steps for Telecom Reform

Peter Nowak posts seven steps to Canadian telecom reform, noting that the issues are not left or right from a political perspective.

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July 6, 2011 Comments are Disabled News

Beware Big Pharma Ghostwriters

Dr. Marc-André Gagnon, an assistant professor with the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University and Dr. Sergio Sismondo, professor of Philosophy and Sociology at Queen’s University, write an op-ed about the growing problem of big pharmaceutical companies ghost writing opinion pieces in support of their drugs.

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July 6, 2011 1 comment News