In one of several examples of how Bill C-61 takes a very short-sighted view of technology and the Internet, the new time shifting provision explicitly excludes Internet-based transmissions (unless communicated simultaneously via radio or television). With a growing number of Internet-only broadcasters, this time-shifting provision fails to keep pace with emerging forms of broadcasting. In fact, even conventional broadcasters are adopting a joint television – Internet approach with shows such as The Office offering up Internet-only "webisodes." Since the rationale is to permit temporary copies to be watched at a more convenient time, it makes little sense to permit one form of copying but not the other. The better approach would be a flexible fair dealing provision that would ensure that the legality of time shifting more easily adapts to a changing technological environment.
61 Reforms to C-61, Day 6: Time Shifting Provision Excludes Internet-Only Recording
6 Comments
Recent Posts
Accountability and Antisemitism: The Canadian Heritage Committee Needs To Step Up 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 186: Andy Kaplan-Myrth on the CRTC’s Last Ditch Attempt to Fix Canada’s Internet Competition Problem 
On Media Bailouts and Bias: Why Government Media Policy Is Undermining Public Trust 
Canadian Government Quietly Backs Down on its Implementation Plans for a Digital Services Tax 
Bill C-18 Bailout: Government Announces Plans to Pay For 35% of Journalist Costs for News Outlets as It More Than Doubles Tax Credit Per Employee
How would this apply when Cable CO’s move to IPTV or IP set top boxes? How does the law differentiate between “the internet” and a service provider who has a converged network that runs its TV service over the internet.
Telus TV
Telus TV runs over the internet and it is available from Telus now. The question of whether this applies to Telus TV (and IP TV in general) is a good one.
What about CBC podcasts?
Right now I listen to several CBC podcasts (Quirks and Quarks, Radio 3, etc). With C-61, these would become illegal?
This doesn’t make any sense!
Bell/Rogers need to sell off Web div
Well this really helps keep the Rogers/Monopoly going for another century.
Clearly it\’s a conflict of interest to have laws that reward one industry (traditional broadcasting) at the expense of the rest (the internet).
Maybe it\’s time the Bell and Rogers be forced to sell off their internet divisions.
Download TV shows
I don’t download movies or music, but I do download TV shows, using newsgroups and bitorrent. In fact I don’t watch much ‘live’ TV at all.
Does this Bill mean that we can all go to jail for downloading last week’s episode of the Simpsons?
if the program is still available to be watched by internet, why is there any need to download it anyway?