Columns

CRTC Net Neutrality Hearings Open Amid ISPs’ Conflicting Claims

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hosts long-awaited network management hearings this week, pitting Canada’s telecom and cable companies against a broad range of consumer, creator, and technology groups in a fight that may help clarify whether Canada has – or should have – net neutrality laws.

The telecom and cable companies will likely maintain that managing their networks, which may include using "deep packet inspection" to identify subscriber activity and limiting available bandwidth for certain applications (a practice known as throttling), is essential to ensure optimal access for all subscribers. Consumer associations, independent Internet service providers (ISPs), broadcasters, creator groups, and technology companies are likely to warn against network management practices that raise competition, privacy, and consumer rights concerns.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that as the Commission weighs the various claims, it would do well to consider the testimony it heard just a few months ago during the February new media hearings. The issue at play at those hearings was whether ISPs should face a levy to fund new media or be required to prioritize Canadian content (the CRTC declined to do both in its decision released last month). Interestingly, the same telecom and cable companies that will now argue that managing their networks is essential, offered a somewhat different take when confronted with the prospect of doing so in the name of supporting Canadian content.

July 6, 2009 — 21 comments — Columns

Ordinary Thursday Anything But For Canadian Internet

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that last Thursday began as an ordinary, rainy, spring day in Ottawa. Canadian politicians, having just avoided an unwanted election, were only two days away from an extended summer break. Yet by the end of the day, a trio of events unfolded that could help shape the Internet in Canada for years to come.

The first event took place mid-morning, with the introduction of new lawful access legislation. The bills would dramatically change the Internet in Canada, requiring Internet service providers to install new surveillance capabilities, force them to disclose subscriber information such as name, address, and email address without a court order, as well as grant police broad new powers to obtain Internet transmission data.

June 22, 2009 — 14 comments — Columns

In Search of A Canadian Digital Action Plan

In recent months, there has been growing support for a national digital strategy. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission explicitly identified the need for a strategy in its new media decision as have prominent leaders in the technology, telecommunications, broadcast, and education communities. The issue now appears to be resonating within government. Industry Minister Tony Clement has convened a digital strategy summit later this month, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore has emphasized the importance of online platforms, and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has pledged to support a national strategy.

My weekly technology column (shorter Toronto Star version and Ottawa Citizen versions, longer homepage version) notes that the need for a national strategy stems from the realization that Canada is rapidly falling behind much of the developed world on digital issues. The gradual hollowing out of the Canadian technology sector (one-time giants such as Nortel, JDS, Corel, Newbridge Networks, and Entrust are all either gone or unrecognizable today), the absence of a strategy to digitize Canadian content, the inability of the CRTC to make sense of its governing legislation as it applies to the Internet, and the plummeting rankings of Canadian high-speed Internet and wireless services all point to a problem that can no longer be ignored.

June 16, 2009 — 6 comments — Columns

Canadian Patent Appeal Board Rules Against Business Method Patents

Catching up from a column last week (Toronto Star version, homepage version), the Canadian Patent Appeal Board recently denied an appeal by Amazon.com over a "one-click" ordering system patent with strong language that challenged the notion that business method patents are patentable under Canadian law. Business method patents took off in the U.S. in 1998, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (one notch below the U.S. Supreme Court) ruled that patents could be awarded for business methods in a case called State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Corp.

In the aftermath of the State Street Bank decision, companies rushed to file patent claims for a wide range of business practices. Amazon.com became the most visible business method patentee with its one-click patent for a service that allows repeat visitors to move directly to the virtual checkout with one click (completing payment and shipping information in the process). The Canadian experience with the Amazon.com one-click business method patent has been much different. The Canadian Patent Office rejected the application in 2004 based on obviousness and non-statutory subject matter. Amazon.com appealed to the Canadian Patent Appeal Board.

June 5, 2009 — 16 comments — Columns