Last week I examined the failure to effectively enforce the guidelines, however, this case raises the question of whether Shaw is violating the rules by offering an over-the-top video service that does not count against a user cap while traffic from competitors such as Netflix does. The obvious complaint will be that Shaw is giving itself an undue preference in violation of Section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act:
The submissions include the usual fear mongering about services like Netflix. The winner so far comes from the Stingray Digital Group, which warns:
Just as Napster wreaked havoc on the record label industry in the early 2000’s and played a major role in the collapse of the music retail industry, so too will the new breed of OTT music services materially disrupt licensed Canadian music services and the Canadian broadcasting system if the status quo is left unchecked.
Other submissions contains lots of rhetoric about the dangers of an unregulated over-the-top services market, but no actual evidence of real harm.
David Ellis has a must-read two part series (part one, two) on Netflix, the CRTC, and the efforts of some groups to regulate over-the-top video.
SOCAN has filed an application with the Copyright Board of Canada for interim tariff to cover royalties for the communication to the public by telecommunication of musical works in connection with movie/tv streaming and user generated content sites. The obvious targets of the interim tariff are some of the biggest […]
Rogers Vice Chair Phil Lind has told Cartt.ca that Netflix should face Canadian regulatory obligations, though he declined specify precisely what they should be.
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 200: Colin Bennett on the EU’s Surprising Adequacy Finding on Canadian Privacy Law 
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act
Michael Geist
mgeist@uottawa.ca
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