Canadian Regulator Says No To New Internet Regs 76
An anonymous reader writes "After months of fears that the Canadian broadcast regulator would try
to regulate the Internet, the CRTC has come to its senses. Its new media
decision today takes a hands off approach — no new regulation — and
even adopts a rule against undue preferences for wireless providers."
To bad... (Score:1)
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I was under the impression it was the other way round - that EU countries were getting their own DMCA + cutting you off the Internet (French idea, what a suprise ;-) )
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Except the DMCA was passed to normalize US copyright laws with those in Europe and there is no 3-strikes rule in the US.
Except that when the DMCA was enacted, it was to ratify the WIPO treaty which was being pushed by American media companies and therefore "normalization" didn't really happen, and the various 3-strikes laws being proposed are entirely new and not part of the WIPO treaty at all.
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Except that when the DMCA was enacted, it was to ratify the WIPO treaty which was being pushed by American media companies and therefore "normalization" didn't really happen
Those WIPO treaties were being pushed by the American media companies to normalize with the more stringent copyright laws that were passed in the EU.
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Those WIPO treaties were being pushed by the American media companies to normalize with the more stringent copyright laws that were passed in the EU.
What colour is the sky in your world?
Name ONE country besides the US that had DMCA-like copyright provisions before 1999. Just *ONE*.
DMCA != Stringent copyright law (Score:1, Interesting)
There is no Fair Use for example in the UK. "Fair Dealing" isn't as extensive. Ergo, the UK law WITHOUT a DMCA law enacted was more strict than the US.
Now the US ISPs and Wireless Telcos will (Score:3, Funny)
Blame Canada!
No regulation? (Score:5, Interesting)
However, no regulation still means NO regulation which isn't a bad thing. And I do have the ability to switch service providers as a consumer and inquire about throttling before I move.
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Is there an extra fee for that? I don't see anything about it on their website.
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In addition to throttling certain types of traffic from other DSL ISPs, you'll note that 5Mbit/s is the fastest you can get from any of the 3rd parties like TekSavvy (which I use). Bell offers 7Mbit/s, 10Mbit/s and 16Mbit/s if you're willing to pay for it.
Why aren't these higher speeds available to people using 3rd party DSL? Aren't they using the same cables, etc. that my tax dollars helped pay for?
Bell having control over a service I buy from an independent company is one kind of bad, and not providing
Sympatico: Microsoft Stooge (Score:2)
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Bell got into bed with MSN (and Rogers got into bed with Yahoo!) so they wouldn't actually have to provide any of the services they offer (such as email) as part of their broadband service.
Recently (the last year or so?) Bell reabsorbed the Sympatico brand so they could call all of their stuff "Bell".
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The problem, and what I believe is still before the CRTC is that ALL internet is Throttled.
Basically all internet is provided by two companies: Bell, and Rogers Communication. Phone and Cable respectively.
Independent ISPs buy their service from one or the other.
The Independents complained to the CRTC that this was an unfair buisness practice by Bell, that they are slowing their users connection. Bell's argument is that its is a fair playing ground because they treat their own customers like crap, and if the
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Re:ya know what i'm talk aboot eh? (Score:5, Funny)
beavers
Bald, hairy, or trimmed?
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why bother regulating them? all Canadians use the internet for is to search for hockey scores, maple syrup, beavers, learning how to become a mountie, and learning how to best serve as America's hat.
Wow, you deserve a comedy award for that one.
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why bother regulating them? all Canadians use the internet for is to search for hockey scores, maple syrup, beavers, learning how to become a mountie, and learning how to best serve as America's hat.
No, they also use them to find the nearest donut place and when the curling match is on.
Re:ya know what i'm talk aboot eh? (Score:5, Informative)
Nearest Donut place. You're obviously not Canadian. It's "doughnut." Also, it's "Tim Horton's" and fuck the rest of the places. And I will defend curling as a wonderful pass-time. Not quite sure if it actually qualifies as a sport...
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If only Timmies was as good as it was a few years ago when they actually made their products instore, rather than in factories and shipped frozen.
Sigh.
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Nearest Donut place. You're obviously not Canadian. It's "doughnut." Also, it's "Tim Horton's" and fuck the rest of the places. And I will defend curling as a wonderful pass-time. Not quite sure if it actually qualifies as a sport...
I'm a dual citizen and ex-Army Sergeant in the CAF.
I spell things in 12 dialects of English, five dialects of French, 2 dialects of German, and sometimes throw in some Spanish and Latin for good measure.
It's an Olympic Sport.
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I know it's an Olympic Sport. My cousin was on Canada's team. But there's something in me that just can't bring myself to call people screaming "harder" at guys with brooms a sport.
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So you don't like the women's teams then ...
By the way, people in BC and Alberta don't say aboot.
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Being from Alberta, I knew that one too. It's the most annoying thing ever. Every person from the US I talk to wants to hear me say "aboot." It'd be like my asking someone from Texas to say the Minnesotan "Don'tcha know?" I pronounce it "ab-ow-t." Not "aboot."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand now I'm flashing back to the old "My name is Joe, and I am Canadian" commercial.
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And I will defend curling as a wonderful pass-time.
This is the second time I've seen someone use the non-word "passtime", so I'm going Spelling Nazi on your ass. "Passtime" or "pass-time" is not a word. The word you're looking for is "pastime."
Before you mod me off-topic, please note I am just as off-topic as the parent and just as informative. :D
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Ah, thanks. I knew it wasn't "passedtime," but never used it in a formal setting, so never bothered to look it up. I shall now update my internal dictionary.
Re:ya know what i'm talk aboot eh? (Score:4, Funny)
And I will defend curling as a wonderful pass-time.
This is the second time I've seen someone use the non-word "passtime", so I'm going Spelling Nazi on your ass. "Passtime" or "pass-time" is not a word. The word you're looking for is "pastime."
Past time someone passed time parsing 'pastime'.
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There are other places that sell doughnuts? I heard there was some Crispy Creme place that everyone was worried about, but they didn't last long.
Curling is much more of a sport when you throw rocks from both ends at the same time.
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Even better... out here, we call them "Timmy Ho's".
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Curling turns into a sport after the 7th beer
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And how to be lumberjacks.
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And how to be lumberjacks.
So? I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay with that.
[Enter plaid chorus...]
Re:ya know what i'm talk aboot eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
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That's ridiculous. Where would the US get its newscasters, comedians, and singer/songwriters from if not for Canada?
Heh, you've got the emphasis all wrong:
Who would Canada foist all its second-rate newscasters, comedians, and singer/songwriters on if not the US?
You're welcome. 8^)
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you forgot lacrosse scores, and Igloo building instructions.
Oh wait...you also left out "how to run a banking system that doesn't collapse under its own incompetence."
Re:ya know what i'm talk aboot eh? (Score:5, Funny)
...and learning how to best serve as America's hat.
I guess you weren't given the memo concerning our new motto:
Yaz.
Canada and Mexico should agree on regs (Score:5, Interesting)
I think Canada and Mexico should agree on the new regulations and then force the US to comply with them under NAFTA.
And restore copyright to the original 17 years with renewals until the literal person (not corporation) dies and no renewals after that.
Canada has twice the bandwidth at half the price we suckers in the USA pay for.
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Some of that has to do with the fact that we adopted the tech a generation earlier than Canada... and then we forgot^H^H^H^H^H^H ran away with the cash we were supposed to use to upgrade with.
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I think Canada and Mexico should agree on the new regulations and then force the US to comply with them under NAFTA.
So you want the **AA to lobby their Canadian and Mexican counterparts to pressure their respective governments into complying with their demands?
There's already a word for that: harmonization.
Get a shitty law passed overseas and then "harmonize" your laws with the foreign one.
I guess what I'm really saying is that there's no reason to believe that Canada or Mexico will behave in a way that aligns with y/our interests over those of the media industries.
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p>Canada has twice the bandwidth at half the price we suckers in the USA pay for.
I've spotted a crazyperson!... The USA is the land of the $50 (or less, i mean, cogent's $4) megabit/sec. Up here, I pay $142/megabit, without any bandwidth factored In. I spend nearly 2 grand a month on a 10 meg line, with 250gigs of transfer. I'm trying to make a small DC up in BC, and it's brutal, there's no way we can even dream of competing with US prices, not because of the dollar factor, but just because you guys get data for so rediculously cheep. And then there's cellphones! You guys can get unlim
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Anyway, I've got a new signature.
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Hey Ontario, Newfoundland called. They want their jokes back!
So hows that whole GM thing working out for you? EI eh? Lazy buggers! I hear no one has jobs there. Talk funny too! Well anyhoo, off to the oil to work smell ya later!
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Hold on, are you talking about consumer internet? Because that's what I assumed the GP was talking about, and I'm paying about $50+tax/month for 10 Mbps (1.2 MB/s) with 60 GB transfer.
You're right about cellphone and dataplan rates sucking ass though. Add to that a *3 year* contract, that was enough to make me pass on the latest and greatest smartphones.
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You guys can get unlimited phone/data lines, for less than a hundred a month, we get 4 gigs of data and 200 minutes for $85 a month. No unlimited anything.
Try Telus. The only cell carrier in Canada I found that has an unlimited data plan. It was about $40. Bell and Rogers can suck my left nut.
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NAFTA? (Score:2)
LOL HA! Like the US has always complied with NAFTA?
NAFTA is only accepted by the US when it is convenient to do so. They will do whatever they bloody well want.
Come to its senses? (Score:2)
Admittedly, I haven't been putting this issue under a microscope. But, I had the distinct impression that it wasn't the CRTC that was attempting regulation, but rather the politicians that were trying to push that through. History supports this as the CRTC has always been reasonable (with few exceptions) overall.
So, in reality, what this more than likely was, was a bunch of corps/etc and politicians trying to do something unreasonable. Then the CRTC went and looked into it (because they would have to) an
Is this a good or a bad thing? (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't we *want* regulation in order to ensure net neutrality?
Who are we rooting for right now?
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And because ISPs will retaliate by promising "unlimited" plans, and then cutting you off if it turns out to be unprofitable for them. Even if they can't shape the traffic, they can still throttle the bandwidth to their own users.
ISP: "It's a bit more expensive, but you get all the bandwidth in the world."
Customer: "Sweet, now to BitTorrent..."
ISP: "Whoops, we didn't think you'd use all that much. Goodbye!"
Customer: "Breach of contract!"
ISP: "Haha, sue us. See if you can afford a lawyer."