The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission backed down in its public spat with Netflix and Google yesterday, releasing public letters advising the two Internet giants that without the supporting evidence it was seeking, the CRTC will remove all Netflix and Google materials (including submitted documents and transcripts) from the public record. The Commission emphasized that it maintains the power under Section 16 of the Broadcasting Act to require disclosure of information and that participants cannot pick and choose the parts of the regulatory process they participate in. Yet rather than enforce that power, it has decided not to fight the Netflix and Google refusal to disclose information, instead opting for a regulatory right to forget.

Read more ›