Appeared in the Toronto Star on March 9, 2009 as Storm Clouds Ahead for Wireless World Public frustration over the state of the Canadian wireless industry has generally focused on consumer-oriented concerns including pricey data plans, misleading system access fees, and text message charge policies. Given the consumer focus, the […]
Post Tagged with: "net neutrality"
Little New In New Media Hearings
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission new media hearings take a break over the next few days before concluding with a steady stream of appearances by Internet service providers, who are certain to argue next week against the imposition of a new ISP tax to fund the creation of Canadian new media. My technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) this week argues that the break is much needed, as the past two weeks have been huge disappointment with submissions short on specifics, long on rhetoric, and filled with inconsistencies.
While there is plenty of blame to go around, criticism must start with the CRTC, since it set the tone for the hearings with a series of conditions that make little sense. The Commission tried to limit the hearings to "new media broadcasting," explicitly excluding issues such as net neutrality and the potential regulation of user generated and non-commercial content.
Yet each of these distinctions cause the entire new media hearing edifice to crumble.
Quebecor Opens Door to Canadian Three Strikes Policy
The CRTC's net neutrality hearing submissions have generated several comments that link net neutrality with copyright. As noted yesterday, CIRPA believes that content blocking of P2P sites should be considered. Quebecor, which owns Videotron, a leading Quebec ISP, goes even further. While ISPs in countries such as New Zealand are […]
B.C. Government Voices Support for Net Neutrality
I've already discussed noteworthy submissions to the CRTC net neutrality proceeding from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (privacy and DPI), Pelmorex (wireless net neutrality) and Canadian creator groups (P2P for distribution). While the submission from the Open Internet Coalition has attracted some media interest, I think several others deserve attention. Interestingly, the B.C. Government, through Network B.C., has also jumped into the fray. According to their submission (zip file):
Net neutrality should be accepted as the bedrock upon which the Internet rests. Net neutrality also depends heavily on investment in robust and scalable network infrastructure. However, “aggressive traffic shaping” practices contributes little to network infrastructure investment and only leads to a short-term false sense of security that existing and legacy networks can be squeezed to meet future capacity requirements. Further, the use of aggressive traffic shaping practices potentially defers what should be ongoing network upgrade practices thus potentially leading to the need for massive network investments in the future.
Canadian Creators Groups Come Out for Net Neutrality
Earlier this week, Denis McGrath noted that Internet users should be remember that the same Canadian creator groups being criticized over the new media hearing, will be supportive of arguments for net neutrality. Several submissions to the CRTC's net neutrality proceeding from leading creator groups such as CFTPA, DOC, Canadian Conference of the Arts, and the CBC confirm their support for net neutrality and emphasize the importance of P2P as a distribution technology. For example, the CFTPA says:
while P2P applications are undeniably used for the distribution of unauthorized content (as are email, newsgroups and the web), they also are increasingly serving as the foundation for new business models that will enable independent producers to make full use of broadband as a delivery vehicle for Canadian audio-visual programming. Consequently, the CFTPA is concerned that discriminatory traffic throttling may inhibit the development of new applications that would facilitate the ability of independent producers and other content providers to better monetize their content – whether self-distributed, distributfinds its way onto the Internet.
It therefore submits that the CRTC "require as a condition of service that ISPs refrain from employing any traffic management practice that discriminates on the basis of application or protocol."
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