Canadian Broadcasters Seek New Internet Regulation

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist's weekly Toronto Star column reports that the Canadian broadcasting community, including broadcasters, copyright collectives, and actor labor unions, are all calling on Canada's broadcast regulator to increase its regulation of the Internet. Some groups want sites such as YouTube to be subject to Canadian content requirements, while the broadcasters want to stop U.S. broadcasters from streaming television shows online into Canada."

Re:Dear CRTC

[i_should_be_working]

Yeah, good point. It's funny how some people just can't seem to get that the internet changes everything. With radio and television it was somewhat reasonable for the government to insist that a portion be Canadian content. There used to be a limited amount of stuff that could be broadcast across the airwaves. And many people, including myself, wanted to hear/see local (as in Canadian) artists.

But now with the internet it doesn't cost anybody anything extra to get content from everywhere. Having access to terabytes of Japanese anime and American country music doesn't at all limit my access to Canadian artists.

Culture fascism

[Butisol]

As a Canadian, these kinds of stories are very disturbing. It's not so much that I'm worried about these laws actually passing as I'm worried about the socio-political ideology in which these ideas are born. On the one hand are profit driven enterprises trying to protect their markets, which is nothing new and quite expected. But on the other hand in the ministries is a virulent strain of "we have the right to decide how much of what Canadian viewers get to see in the name of protecting 'Canadian culture'." THEY WANT TO DECIDE WHAT MEDIA I HAVE ACCESS TO. This is just as reprehensible as the Catholic church burning pagan classical writings, without even the excuse that it's for a divine purpose.

Rip those fucking fascists. Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid!!!! Berzerker!!!

Re:Internet's reply:

[spun]

Oh, exactly. I wasn't saying they will, I'm just saying they can. Your original post made it sound as if they don't have the capability to even attempt something like that, when in fact they do, they just lack the political motivation for something so dumb.

I doubt any country would be dumb enough to try to firewall off commercial content that certain national industries don't want. Based on the rulings regarding Internet gambling, I'd be willing to bet that the WTO would come down against a country trying that as de facto restraint of trade.

I'm pretty sure the only country-wide firewalling we'll see will be ideological, not commercial.

Read that again

[LihTox]

Wait a second...
"The Canadian broadcasting community, including broadcasters, copyright collectives, and actor labor unions, are all calling on Canada's broadcast regulator to increase its regulation of the Internet."

Well, of course they are. The American broadcasting community wants increased regulation of the Internet, too. Heck, the Tongan broadcasting community probably wants it too. We should keep an eye on them, but don't blame Canada for having greedy broadcasters.

Re:A call to arms

[CastrTroy]

While I realize you're trying to be funny, but you do illustrate the point well. How is a site consisting only of user created content supposed to adhere to content laws? How are they supposed to control the amount of Canadian content?

BULLSHIT!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm Canadian and I don't remember requesting nor mandating anyone in our government to make any changes at all to the Internet.
This sounds like another MPAA RIAA or other mafiAA tactic to try to strip our freedom.
Take off, eh, you hosers!
Leave my Internet alone!

Re:what's a little competition here and there?

[drinkypoo]

If people are going to stream those videos in Canada, those broadcasters want them streamed from their sites, not US sites. Doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

It's unreasonable because all of these artificial boundaries are bullshit. The internet is a challenge to the established order because the only boundaries it recognizes are those between networks. On the internet we are all peers. Anyone can produce and distribute content. As you may have noticed, this terrifies the entrenched media conglomerates.

CanCon

[Mark_MF-WN]

Why do they always have to embarass us like this? The great thing about youtube is that all the media is in direct competition. It's exactly the arena where Canadian content should shine -- any of it that is worth seeing in the first place, that is. It's not like with television where networks can be deliberately myopic about only selecting programs that will appeal to American demographics. The very nature of youtube makes nationality irrelevant. Canadians can access all of the Canadian content on youtube just as easily as they can access the American, Russian, or Swahili content.

If Canadian broadcasters want Canadians to see Canadian content on youtube, they should put some awesome videos on youtube and then promote them to people. THAT'S how you encourage the development and advancement of culture. By making things that kick ass and then spreading them far and wide, not by keeping out things that happen to kick asses of the wrong nationality. Maybe if they'd get past their intense penis-envy towards American-style copyright law, they would see that.

This is free market - government need not regulate

[unity100]

Yea.

If you cant compete, quit the field and go do another business.

people are not bound to be LIMITED in their freedoms using the taxes they THEMSELVES are paying, for the sake of any sector's personal profit and protection.

fucking bastards.

Re:WTF is Free Trade for anyway?

[Scrameustache]

If Canada doesn't want to compete with the US in various sectors, why did it opt in to NAFTA?
Canada needs to friggen grow up.

1- Soft lumber, STFU.

2- Culture is excluded from trade agreements.

The Saddest Industry in the World.

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who aren't familiar with the context around these kind of issues in Canada, here's a quick primer:

In Canada, TV and Radio broadcasts are required by law to feature 30-40% "Canadian content" [wikipedia.org], the nature of which is determined by some reasonably complex rules. In addition, there are heavy subsidies to broadcasters, production companiesm, artists and the like to produce domestic and foreign broadcasting in the country.

However, the media Canadians overwhelmingly prefer to consume is American. Apart from newscasts and some sports, Canadian prime time television lineups and radio playlists are overwhelmingly dominated by American content. In order to meet the Canadian content requirements, dead zones like Saturday nights are filled with mediocre Canadian lawyer and detective shows that have no discernable audience or quality.

The Internet has effectively sidestepped these regulations, and if Canadians can just tune in to their favourite shows on the sites of American broadcasters, or on YouTube, they ruin the major revenue stream of the big Canadian broadcasters, and sidestep the forced exposure of Canadian content (which few watch or listen to anyway).

This situation has led to a strange, unholy alliance of big media companies like Bell Globemedia [wikipedia.org], left-wing "nationalists" like the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting [wikipedia.org] who are trying to combat "American Cultural Imperialism", and the various actors unions, who benefit greatly from the flood of tax dollars into Canadian productions.

This sad mix of financial self-interest and anti-American nationalism probably won't result in a special 30% Canadian YouTube or anything, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a tax on internet connections that will be put to a program development fund that will further line the pockets of big media companies and the big media unions.