Archive for June 4th, 2009

CRTC New Media Decision: Hands Off The Internet. . . For Now

The CRTC has released its 2009 new media decision (full decision here) and it looks not unlike the 1999 new media decision.  Days of hearings, thousands of pages of submissions and the Commission has side-stepped the pressure to "do something," by maintaining its hands-off approach.  It concluded that regulatory intervention would get in the way of innovation and that a compelling case was not made that additional support through an ISP levy was needed.  Indeed, the decision notes that "the Commission is of the view that parties advocating repeal of the exemption orders did not establish that licensing undertakings in the new media environment would contribute in a material manner to the implementation of the broadcasting policy set out in the Act."

There is at least one very noteworthy change to the new media exemption, however.  The CRTC was clearly troubled by allegations of undue preferences being granted by wireless providers (the issue raised by the Weather Network and discussed in this March column).  It has therefore proposed amendments prohibiting such practices:

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June 4, 2009 16 comments News

St. Arnaud on the State of Canadian Broadband

CBC's Spark features a full-length interview with Canarie's Bill St. Arnaud on the state of Canadian broadband.

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June 4, 2009 2 comments News

Media Coverage of the Lobby Interference With Conference Board Study

The Ottawa Citizen runs the story in the front section; slightly longer Canwest article as well as coverage from the Vancouver Sun's Gillian Shaw.

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June 4, 2009 Comments are Disabled News

Vuze Study Finds P2P Users Are Hollywood’s Best Customers

Vuze has released a new survey it commissioned that found that P2P users attend more movies, rent more movies, and purchase more DVDs than general Internet users (hat tip: Ars Technica).

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June 4, 2009 5 comments News

Copycense on a History of The Special 301 Report

Copycense has a great piece that explores the history of the U.S. Special 301 list, dating back to the mid-1970s and the efforts of IBM and Pfizer to promote global intellectual property protection.

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June 4, 2009 Comments are Disabled News