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Canadian TV to Adopt DRM-Free BitTorrents
An anonymous reader writes "Canada's public broadcast network, CBC, is to adopt DRM free BitTorrent distribution of one of its major primetime shows, Canada's Next Great Prime Minister. The effort has already been hailed by Canadian copyright guru Michael Geist, who expects the decision to add fuel to Canada's net neutrality debate. A CBC producer behind the show told CNET that the motivation for the move was that CBC 'wanted the show to be as accessible as possible to as many Canadians as possible, in the format that they want it in.' As for DRM, she said 'I think DRM is dead, even if a lot of broadcasters don't realize it.' She added that 'if it's bad for the consumers, its bad for the company.'"
An excellent point that I didn't even think of until you mentioned it. I totally agree; I'm on Bell where I am and it's awful; ALL of my P2P traffic is capped to 30KiB/s and it's quite painful when I should be able to access that content in a matter of minutes as opposed to a matter of hours.
Aikon-
Sadly, jPod has already been canceled.
I'm not sure how this would exactly correlate to the US, unless the videos were to include commercials or some other form of revenue. This story says that the program in on the CBC, which is Canada's version of PBS, so they don't have the same commercial interests. Its naive to think that US broadcasters would give away content no matter how "happy" it would make you feel.
We've been awesome for nearly a century and a half. People just didn't start noticing until now.
Keep in mind folks.
The good 'ole CBC is a publicly funded crown corp. So yeah, if they want to cut out a revenue stream...go for it...but we're paying for it in taxes.
It's a novel experiment, and I love the idea. But I'm not sure that this exact model would work for a Private US broadcaster or private Canadian Broadcaster.
Keep in mind. PBS has had documentary downloads available forever. PBS Frontline.
Try activating encryption in your bit torrent client. I'm certain you'll see a dramatic difference.
Niagara falls is not a good example becase nature itself is on Canada's side. The reason the Canadian side of the falls has grown into such a tourist attraction is the horseshoe falls, which are the most dramatic portion, is best visible from the Canadian side. You can hardly see anything from the New York side.
So, over time, more and more money went to the Canadian side developing the tourist area. Think about it, if you are a developer spending $100 million on a hotel, you want it to have the best possible view - so you put it on the Canadian side.
They don't need to inspect the packets to identify them as p2p. Encryption doesn't do a damn thing for me (Rogers) unless I tunnel it all through a VPN.
- Toby
...depending on where you live, like Teksavvy: 50-60% of the price, great non-outsourced tech support, no throttles, no hidden caps, no excess-bandwidth gouging, no b.s. Highest user-rated ISP in North America at dslreports' "Good Bad Ugly" A to A+ vs. C+ to B- for the twin Borgs.
There are better Canadian ISP's than the Borg and Beavers
Fortunately, as opposed to the US, you do not have to solely depend on large ISPs as Bell, Videotron or Rogers. Remember this story? There are dozens of independent ISPs, and while they often use Bell's networks, I have not seen any throttling on P2P as of yet. I routinely get speeds of close to 500KB/s.
I'm on Rogers, and it works for me. If there are sufficient seeders and peers, I regularly get up to 600 KB / sec on regular high-speed, up from 20 KB / sec without.
Make sure you're using a non-standard port. Also, don't force encryption, just enable it. That will net you encrypted traffic + whatever low level of throttled traffic your ISP allows.
CBC is Canada's public broadcaster, but it isn't the same as PBS. For one thing, they do run commercials in programming the same way the other commercial broadcasters do.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
In Canada, we often have the same problem when trying to view online content from American networks.
You'll have to schedule your downloads. Sympatico throttles during prime time ours only. It's a pain but at least it's not 100% of the time.
Get Shaw, they don't throttle. I'm a Shaw customer and I've had great luck with them.
And no, I'm not an astroturfer.
"The CBC's mandate, as provided in the Broadcasting Act (http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/mandate.shtml), requires it to make its programming 'available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means.'"
No healthcare bills ...and in Quebec the minimum drinking age (and rules of the road) are merely suggestions!
No DMCA
No "war on drugs"
No billtiontrillion dollar deficit
No gun-toting citizens
Food Jammers
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
They don't need to read the packets, because they can tell based on number of connections. A "normal" web connection to a website will probably only get you maybe 5-10 different IP destinations, depending on where and how many banner ads and images are on the site. They are also started and finished fairly quickly, so the total amount of traffic is not alot. All they need to do is look for a constant high amount of bandwidth from a single IP address to more than, say, 30 hosts, and they can be pretty sure that it is some sort of P2P traffic. All they do then is QoS that source IP, and you're throttled.
WTB [sig], PST!!!
If by "locked", you mean you need to pay an ETF to get out, you're not really stuck. They're required by law to offer wholesale service, assuming you're hooked up to an ADSL or ADSL2+ DSLAM.
You might still want to consider a $10/mth secondary login with TekSavvy (not advertised, but still available). 100GB of bandwidth per month. Not a huge amount, but it's still a lot better than what you're getting with Bell (and you can add another 100GB for another $10 per month).
Of course, you'd still have to pay your full Sympatico bill, as the TekSavvy login is just a PPPoE account. If your Sympatico subscription is PPPoE-based, you can get a secondary login and avoid the throttling and ultra-low caps.
I suggest you call in (1-877-779-1575) between 8AM and 2AM EST and discuss your options with TekSavvy. I'm sure they can work something out with you.
If you'd be so kind, because your situation is quite interesting, it'd be appreciated if you could post about your story in the official TekSavvy forums (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/teksavvy), as I'm sure many of us would be very interested in hearing the details of your issues with Bell.
You can get a TekSavvy login-only account for $10/month. Your line is still with Bell but they give you a PPPoE login to their network so you use their transit and avoid throttling. It's not advertised but if you phone in and ask you can get it.
I'm on Bell where I am and it's awful;
Bell/Sympatico internet access is awful almost everywhere. I have seen two reviews and Bell was the bottom-of-the-barrel both times (the Marketplace story was pretty entertaining if lacking in technical details).
If you can go with Shaw or Telus or Rogers you are going to be far better off. Even better than that, there are still a few independents out there that offer superior service and won't throttle your connection so badly (if at all). For example, even though it has to run over some of Telus' gear Radiant Communications offers DSL service that is superior to that Telus themselves provides.
I'm not a huge fan of most of the CBC's programming, but it is encouraging to see them act like a proper public broadcaster once in awhile, while at the same time doing something innovative in it market. Being that Bell has had its ties with the CTV network and Shaw has interests in many television network and production properties (through its association with Corus entertainment) I'd have thought they'd be more keen to expand programming on the internet. I guess, however, that would mean people wouldn't have to subscribe to their delivery services to view their content...an you know it's all about "vertical markets".
CBC is older than PBS by some 35 years. If anything PBS is America's answer to CBC, not the other way around.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
I believe that would be Canadian Idol, a fairly popular Canadian TV show.
"one of its major primetime shows, Canada's Next Great Prime Minister."
Not exactly.
This isn't as big a deal as it sounds. Canada's Next Great Prime Minister isn't even a series: it is a single-episode special with an audience of mainly university students that covers a contest for aspiring young leaders which used You Tube videos as its main vehicle.
So let's not over-hype this as proof why Canada is heaven and the United States is hell.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It's just a goddamned piece of paper!" -- George W. Bush
I was a software developer on the CBC programme ZeD, and we torrented (and streamed and broadcast) our " New new media" episode almost 3 years ago (April 1st, 2005 to be exact). And while the torrent file still exists, sadly the torrent server is no longer running. I believe we used Xvid as the codec too (or was it divx?), but I am certain there was no DRM on the file. Anyway, ZeD was web 2.0 in 2002 !
There is no province or territory in Canada that has a minimum wage close to $11. The highest minimum wage is in Nunavut ($8.37) where the cost of living is extraordinarily high. The typical minimum wage in Canada is about $8 (or less for what the province might consider inexperienced or student workers).
Ontario's minimum wage will be $8.75 at the end of this month, $9.50 as of March 31, 2009, and $10.25 as of March 31, 2010. Of course, NCIX is located in British Columbia, where the minimum wage is $8 like you said.