Post Tagged with: "icravetv"

London anti-Uber taxi protest June 11 2014 035 by David Holt (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/nWtp1Z

Uber Battle the Latest Chapter in the Internet’s Never-Ending Story

For the past two decades, it has been the Internet’s never-ending story. Established, successful businesses face Internet upstarts who leverage the advantages of a global network and new communications technology to offer better prices, more choice or innovative services.

In the 1990s, it was online retailers such as Amazon, who presented more selection at lower prices than most bookstores could offer. In the 2000s, Wikipedia brought the decades-old encyclopedia business to an end, online music services provided greater convenience than conventional record stores, and Internet telephony technologies used by companies like Skype changed the rules of international voice and video calls. Today, services such as Uber, AirBnB, and Netflix have upended the taxi, hotel, and broadcast worlds.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that in these David vs. Goliath type battles, the established businesses don’t quietly fade away. Using their remaining influence, they often look to laws and regulations that increase costs, prohibit activities, restrict consumers, or regulate pricing to create barriers for the new entrants.

July 13, 2015 — 11 comments — Columns

The Ghost of iCraveTV?: The CRTC Asks Bell For Answers About Its Mobile TV Service in Net Neutrality Case

Before there was Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, and broadcasters streaming their content on the Internet, there was iCraveTV. iCraveTV, a Canadian-based start-up, launched in November 1999, by streaming 17 over-the-air television channels on the Internet. The picture was small, connection speeds were slow, but the service was streaming real-time television years before it became commonplace. The company relied upon two Canadian laws to provide the service: the Copyright Act, which contains a provision permitting retransmission of broadcast signals subject to certain conditions, and the CRTC’s New Media Exemption order, which excluded new media broadcasters from regulation.

The company faced an immediate legal fight from Hollywood and broadcasters. Within months of launching, the service shut down. U.S. demands for Canadian law reform ultimately led to changes to the Copyright Act, which effectively excluded “new media retransmitters” from taking advantage of the retransmission provision.

iCraveTV is long forgotten for most Internet users, but the legal framework that ultimately emerged was invoked this week by the CRTC in Canada’s leading net neutrality case.

August 7, 2014 — 5 comments — News