Post Tagged with: "canadian heritage"

UFC by Aaron Parecki https://flic.kr/p/2kUtrTq (CC BY 2.0)

The Fight for Bill C-11 Exemptions Begins: From Adult Content to UFC Fight Pass, Groups Tell CRTC They Want Out

The debate over Bill C-11 was marked by a massive effort from digital creators to urge the government to exclude user content regulation from the scope of the legislation. While Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez misleadingly insisted that user content was not covered by the bill, it took a policy direction to the CRTC (which is still in draft form) after the bill was passed to make that a reality. Many other groups stayed on the sidelines during the Bill C-11 debates, choosing to instead to wait for the CRTC process to make their concerns known. That started this week with the CRTC’s Bill C-11 consultations on registration requirements and potential exemptions (a post on my submission here) with a myriad of well-known streaming services calling on the regulator to establish additional exclusions from Bill C-11’s requirements. 

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June 14, 2023 3 comments News
Newspaper Stands by Sue Thompson (CC BY-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/8dzPLs

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 170: The Bill C-18 End Game – What the Senate Heard About the Online News Act

Bill C-18, the Online News Act, heads to clause-by-clause review this week at the Senate Transport and Communications Committee. The committee’s study of the bill wasn’t as extensive as Bill C-11, but it did hear from a very wide range of stakeholders and experts. Last month, I devoted the Law Bytes podcast to my appearance before the committee, including my opening statement and exchanges with various senators. This week’s Law Bytes podcast takes listeners into the committee room for clips from media big and small, independent experts, Google and Meta, and Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez.  

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June 12, 2023 3 comments Podcasts
Wrong Direction by Thomas Hawk (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/2g4TPYt

The Draft Bill C-11 Policy Direction: Canadian Heritage Implicitly Admits What It Spent Months Denying

The government released its long-promised draft policy direction on Bill C-11 to the CRTC yesterday. The policy direction is open for public comment until July 25, 2023, after which the government will release a final version that gives the CRTC guidance on its expectations for how the bill will be interpreted. While Canadian Heritage was at pains to emphasize that the draft direction includes instructions that the “CRTC is directed not to impose regulatory requirements on online undertakings in respect of programs of social media creators, including podcasts”, the draft directive confirms that the government misled the public for months on the scope of Bill C-11 and highlights the problem with the CRTC’s rushed effort to establish regulations before the draft policy directive is final. I plan to file a submission by the deadline, but in the meantime offer several thoughts.

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June 9, 2023 8 comments News
extend deadline by Ian Burt https://flic.kr/p/6h55U (CC BY 2.0)

Extend the Deadline: My Submission to the CRTC on its Deeply Flawed Bill C-11 Consultations

The CRTC’s Bill C-11 consultations are off to a rocky start with mounting concern over short deadlines that may limit public participation and reduce the quality of the submissions. A dozen groups have asked the Commission to extend the deadlines with more groups joining in the call. The deadline for comment on the extension ended yesterday and I navigated an exceptionally difficult consultation process (more on that shortly) to submit the comments posted below. I support the extension but argue that a better approach would be to wait until the government’s policy direction process is final and there is certainty on support for public interest group participation.

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May 30, 2023 2 comments News
facebook error by Jeremy Yerse https://flic.kr/p/4LwdJ6 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The Government’s Epic Bill C-18 Miscalculation on Mandating Payments for Links

Meta executives faced another round of criticism at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage yesterday, yet beyond the usual outrage emanating from MPs that have labelled critics as racist or dismissed online news outlets at not news, was the growing realization that the company’s plan to block news sharing in Canada if Bill C-18 passes in its current form may not be a bluff. Meta has adopted a consistent position for months that the bill creates the prospect of unlimited liability for linking to news articles, the vast majority of which are posted by the media companies themselves. Paying for those links is viewed as uneconomic and untenable by the company, which would rather exit news sharing altogether in Canada rather than cough up millions of dollars for links.

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May 9, 2023 22 comments News