ADISQ, which promotes the Quebec recording industry, raised two noteworthy issues in a French-language article earlier this week (Google's translation). First, it opposes lawsuits against individual file sharers. Instead, it supports actions against Torrent trackers and similar sites. Second, it would like the CRTC to require ISPs to prioritize Canadian […]
Post Tagged with: "Cancon"
Internet Video, Internet Regulation, and Canadian Content
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the growing push from the Canadian broadcasting community to revisit the CRTC's 1999 New Media decision, in which Canada's broadcasting regulator took a hands-off approach to the Internet. The support for greater regulation is often couched in Canadian content terms, but I argue that the current changes have the potential to dramatically alter Canadian content production from one mandated by government regulation to one mandated by market survival.
The issue began to percolate last June, when Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda asked the CRTC to conduct a six-month consultation on the effects of changing technology on the radio and television industries. The CRTC report, which was quietly released in mid-December, went almost unnoticed, yet submissions from broadcasters, copyright collectives, and labour unions all point to an increased regulatory role for the CRTC.
The underlying theme of many stakeholder submissions is that unregulated new media represents a threat to the current regulated Canadian content model.
Broadcasting Community Surprisingly Calls For Internet Regulation
Appeared in the Toronto Star on April 2, 2007 as More Web Regulation Doesn't Make Any Sense The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has faced seemingly continuous criticism for years, however in May 1999 it released a decision that generated near-universal praise. The New Media decision, which adopted a hands-off […]
Reconciling Cancon Requirements in the Age of the Internet
My regular Law Bytes column (homepage version, Toronto Star version) provides some further commentary on last week's CRTC pay radio decision. I argue that the Commission made the best of a bad hand and delivered a policy approach that prioritizes Canadian artists by adapting Canadian content requirements to emerging new technologies.
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