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Quebec Plans To Require Website Blocking, Studies New Internet Access Tax

Posted by Soulskill on from the welcome-to-the-information-supertollroad,-eh dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Michael Geist reports that the Government of Quebec released its budget (PDF) yesterday featuring two Internet-related measures that are sure to attract attention and possible litigation. First, it is moving forward with plans to study a new tax on residential Internet services in order to provide support for the cultural sector. Second, the government says it will be introducing a new law requiring ISPs to block access to online gambling sites. The list of blocked sites will be developed by Loto-Quebec, a government agency. The government views this as a revenue enhancing measure because it wants to channel gamblers to its own Espacejeux, the government's own online gaming site.

2 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. "to provide support for the cultural sector" by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anytime you hear the word "culture" in Quebec, watch out. It has a much more ominous overtone there than in most of the rest of the world.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:"to provide support for the cultural sector" by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

      And remember, when you're a Quebecer and want to participate in a contest, you're excluded, just like Iranians and North Koreans. Banana Republic of Quebec.

      Quebec is an oddity because they have a ton of things that no one else does - they are ... special.

      So if you want to hold a contest Canada-wide, you follow basic legislation that applies federally (generally easy) and maybe have to make adjustments for each province (again, easy). But if you want to add QC, you suddenly are beholden to a TON more regulations. Most companies simply choose to avoid it because the benefit of adding QC is very small compared to the burden.

      It's also why in Canada you often run into things like "Not for sale in Quebec". Electronic toys are even more fascinating because you often have "Quebec edition" and "Not for Quebec edition" (usually marked as "Not for sale in Quebec").

      It's really an independent nation of its own - they just happen to use the Canadian dollar and passport.