There are several media reports this morning (including an excellent piece in the Tyee) on the launch of Open Medicine, a new Canadian open access medical journal, conceived in the aftermath of the editorial firings at the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Archive for April, 2007
Blame Canada, China Edition
What happens when you get a steady stream of unfounded claims from the U.S. government and U.S. lobby groups on the state of Canadian copyright law? What happens when Canadian lobby groups representing largely foreign interests try to convince Canadians that they are a "pirate nation"? What happens when the […]
Michael Geist on Rogers Neutrality Violations
Michael Geist via the Toronto Star is reporting on Rogers Net Neutrality violations. From the article: Rogers’ traffic shaping practices have also raised concern among network neutrality advocates, who fear that the company could limit bandwidth to competing content or services. Some customers note that the bandwidth consumed by customers […]
Rogers and Net Neutrality
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the Rogers traffic shaping issue and the resulting impact on consumer rights, competition, and non-P2P applications. If you read my original posting and the many comments that followed, the column covers similar terrain. I therefore think it might be more useful to respond to an interesting posting from Matt Roberts on the Rogers issue. Roberts confirms the Rogers shaping (as does Mark Evans in a posting that refers to it as bandwidth management, a distinction without a difference in my view) but then takes me to task for wrapping it into the net neutrality debate.
The post raises an interesting and important question – is throttling/traffic shaping a net neutrality issue? I should note that regardless of the answer, I believe there is no question that there are problems with the current Rogers approach. The lack of transparency, the misleading service claims, and the inclusion of bandwidth caps that are rendered difficult to achieve all point to an issue that should attract the attention of regulatory agencies (and perhaps class action lawyers).
As for whether there is a net neutrality problem, that likely depends on your definition of net neutrality.
OECD on User Generated Content
The OECD has just issued an important and insightful report on user generated content and the policy issues it raises.
Recent Posts
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act 
Tweets Are Not Enough: Why Combatting Relentless Antisemitism in Canada Requires Real Leadership and Action
