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CRTC to not regulate Internet
Grey Dragon writes "Apparently the Canadian CRTC has decided after a year of "In depth reviewing" that they will not regulate the internet.
Now there's freedom for you." This looks like a step in the right direction. Hopefully, more national goverments will see the light.
>The anti american sentiment in Canada created by McCarthy is still alive and well
>and as such don't expect Canada to EVER cave in to America's lead (for lack of a better
>word) with regards to ruining the internet through regulation.
That Canada strives not to be like the overly bureaucratic US is what keeps Canada on the straight and narrow. The US has lost its way since the fall of the Soviet Union. Without the Evil Empire as a yardstick of what not to do, the US is slowly becoming like the emeny it once despised. Look at scanner (the radio kind) laws for instance. It wasn't until 1994 that it actually became illegal to listen to certain (unscrambled) portions of the radio spectrum (the cell band). Later, cordless phone freqs were added. With this precedent I expect every radio vendor to jump up and demand their freq range be added to the law of banned radio spectrum to listen to. We all used to look down on the Soviets for their strict regulation of radio *receivers*. Now we're going down that same path. Why? Because the US has no real Nemesis that we're striving not to be like.
America needed the Soviet Union. It's what kept the US great.
The Canadian Armed Forces have canceled a project to boil the ocean in an attempt to bring enemy submarines to the surface that they might be more easily spotted by their (sole) reconisance plane.
Proud to be a Canadian, with an English sense of humour. Really, I'm glad about the decision, but just how they would attempt such a thing is beyond me.
Ken
...I would *never* have believed that the CRTC would ever make an intelligent decision regarding communications and broadcasting. My faith in my home country is restored. For once in my life, I'm glad I live north of the 49th.
If only our southern neighbors' governments would take a cue, we could have a nice, communications-friendly continent. I'm not sure what the situation is in Mexico, though... Anyone from there have any info on regulation?
If you think that people are singling you out to bully you around, you've got more problems than we can address here. What people are trying to do is keep sociopaths like yourself from running around 'defending yourself' all the time.
it's a homicide. And one that might have been prevented had the victim been able to defend himself.
BS. With two people with guns, we're more or less guaranteed to have at least one dead person, if not more.
Look at the old west when more citizens carried handguns.
Brilliant. Look at the old west where innocent people got lynched due to mob mentality. Look at the old west where there weren't as many specific laws in place as there are today. Look at the old west, where guns only shot 6 bullets before having to reload.
Everyone having guns will not make you feel more safe anymore than every country in the world having nuclear weapons would make you feel safe. If everyone was a rational person, guns would be unnecessary, but the reason most people want a gun is the reason they shouldn't be allowed to have one - because there's a lot of nuts with guns out there.
Handguns should be banned, there is no legitimate purpose for them other than to kill other humans - and idea that apparently doesn't bother you.
If you want to stop gun crime, stop the crime*, not the guns.
Well, valiant man with a gun, how do you propose we stop the crime? By educational programs reminding people that shooting others is wrong? By distributing more guns? The crime of murder with firearms would not exist if there were no firearms. If more people were man enough to give up their guns, we'd have a lot less to fear in this country.
-lx
I have to admit, the decision NOT to regulate the internet, is great news but I was looking forward to having a good laugh at my governments expense.
I was hoping for some sort of regulation, just to have our ideas of freedom of speech put under a microscope.
But Canada may be changing. That would be better than I could ever hope for. Maybe we can finally rid ourselves of this thinly veiled social/theological structure that has dominated Canada for far too long.
Subverse
PS.
I think that there is still the matter of a tax levy on ISP's to support "canadian content" whatever that is.
Freedom, Dissent and Hot Chicks
Unbelievable, this isn't a true victory though...
As I recall the main reason for the probe was that the small ISP's were taking it up the I/O port by the big Telcos, and Cablecos entering the market. The Telcos definately are not playing fair.
Still a big win IMHO. Now if I can get them to ease up on the TV regs I may even be able to watch the superbowl w/ U.S. commercials (the only time I can say I prefer U.S. tv)
Back to the grind....
Wow, I'm really impressed that our government, especially a regulatory arm that consists mostly of ex-monopoly Bell employees, chose to "do the right thing" and keep their hands off the Internet (for now). Seems to me that everytime I start slipping into the pit of political apathy, along comes a glimmer of hope. Now if only we could resolve this idiotic tariffing situation with the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts, we could really get some convergence happening...
-- People who think they know it all, really annoy those of us who do!
As I wrote back at my site on this story, this was bizarre stuff. Three guesses why the Canadian regulator said what it said, and the first two guesses don't count.
P.
http://www.groksoup.com
At the last superbowl there was a nationwide US poll on why people watched it. I think it was about 10 to 20 percent (I don't remember the exact figures, only that I was shocked) who watched it only for the commercials. Kinda sick or what? People actually submitting themselves to corporate brainwash and enjoying it. Hm.. haven't seen them though.. they send intervies with the players and stuff instead over here. Maybe they're really cool, but I doub it.
Good to hear. However, contrary to popular belief, crypto is not "free" in Canada. For one thing, we have a joint agreement with the U.S. which means American encryption technology may be exported to Canada as long as it remains under the same restrictions once it reaches Canada. (i.e. cannot re-export to the world what we import from the U.S.A.). And there are some other restrictions as well. Click the following links for some more information.
http://insight.mcma ster.ca/org/efc/pages/doc/crypto-export.html
http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/ECL.html
In addition, Canada recently signed on to the multi-national agreement (big word starting with W) which places further restrictions on our freedom with regards to cryptography. What we need is a poster child to challenge the constitutionality of these laws, as you have done in the States.
main reason for the probe was that the small ISP's were taking it up the I/O port by the big Telcos, and Cablecos entering the market. The Telcos definately are not playing fair.
Although part of the same probe, this was not the ruling made today. (The article mentioned that the jury is still out on that one.) This ruling was whether the CRTC should regulate the Internet the same way it regulates TV (ie. with cancon rules) - they were looking at whether they should institute a tax on the Internet to encourage Canadian Internet content. (Yes, I KNOW - totally dumb-ass question.)
Amazingly enough, the panel had a brief interlude with lucidity, and decided that taxing Internet use was a bad thing.
Control Canadian content on TV and Radio...
(Even people like Anne Murry and Rita McNeal have atributed their sucess to Canadian Content laws)
The CRTC is not going to regulate probably because there is NO WAY to ensure that X percent of web pages are Canadian.
We may be Canadian, but by looking at our television and radio programming you will see that Canadians LOVE American culture... so much infact that it's often hard to notice a difference in what we like to watch and listen to.
Can-con has more to do with economics than with anything else. If many stations had their way, I'd only be able to see "Friends" on all 78 channels here. More money leaving the country, more people leaving the country.
The problem is, can-con can often be some old cheap crap just to satisfy the regulations during the "beaver hour."
It's quite painful here (Newfoundland), where the only private TV station, a radio station, and a paper, are owned by one guy in Arizona. There just happens to be a major culture difference between the North American countries that people don't realise. While there are people in both countries that actually enjoy formulaic sit-coms (shudder) there are more in the States (this isn't a 'dis'). Fact is, it's the American corporations that love to push garbage down people's throats while trying to stay away from any controversy whatsoever that feeds this.
People from the South might think that having a government owned media network (CBC) would be a form of citizen control but it is in fact the converse. The government gets more razzing from their own CBC than they do from anyone else. This is possible due to the lack of traditional corporate ideas there. Ask Rick Mercer, he'll tell you.
You could also ask Michael Moore (Roger and Me) whose TV Nation show (excellent show) was dropped by two broadcasters (NBC and FOX) because it tried to put politicians and greedy corporations in their place. He had to bring the show up here (on Bravo) in order to do it (under a different name, but it's the same great idea, I enjoyed the way he displayed how Kenneth Starr could have saved a lot of taxpayers money by having actors dressed as puritans running around Washington asking politicians if they "fornicate.").
Do you think the National Film Board could have happened in the States. Interestingly, a NFB animated short recently became a series on Comedy Central (Bob and Margaret).
Ok. I've ranted enough.
They are still the only one in Canada offering DSL services and they offer it alledgedly under cost.
Alternatives??? Well there are cable modems too, but they too are a monopoly (1 company per market). Actually, Bell + Cable is a high speed access oligarchy. There doesn't seem to be any offerings from the LD providers (Sprint, AT&T
We do need some kind of regulation against ISP price fixing or predatory pricing -- but stay off the content!
That said, cryptography developed by Canadians would likely have a VERY strong case against export regulations in the courts... The Canadian Supreme Court typically taken a very broad view of expression. The range of what is deemed to be expression is significantly broader in Canada than in the U.S. Mind you, the Crown would likely raise a S. 1 issue if brought to trial...
I've always laughed my arse off at how much trouble Americans have accepting that the internet isn't their's to regulate in the first place... At least here in Canada the gov't has proven that at least one person somewhere has actually double clicked a netscape icon before... But really, if they had tried to regulate it and if for whatever reason my site didn't conform, what's to stop me from moving it to Hong Kong by FTP? I'd like to see Jean Chretien (or any US official next time some paranoid right wing parliamentarien needs extra votes) trying to explain to The People's Liberation Army of China how they are gonna have to go about protecting the minds of North America's kids...
Personnally I see no need to carry a human killing tool. I have no real desire to kill humans since I was spared the misery of the North American "educational" system. yes it is the man behind the gun that pulls the trigger (another insightful NRA self rationalization, on par with the household cold war of "I need a gun to protect myself from other people with guns") but the gun, being a tool for killing (where tool is defined as a thing which makes a task easier to perform) is in the end responsible for the deaths since even if I were to go ballistic It'd take me a hell of a long time to beat 13 (or so) people to death... My hands'd be sore too....
Americans should deal with the fact that their's is a country which isn't more than a bastion of conformity and paranoid over regulation when compared to the rest of the western world... From living in fear of being shot to caving in to paranoia and wanting to quash free speach that doesn't sit with american ideology... The US is not the champion of freedom it once was, but rather an over armed, over populated second rate nation who's citizens have difficulty finding their own country on a map. The anti american sentiment in Canada created by McCarthy is still alive and well and as such don't expect Canada to EVER cave in to America's lead (for lack of a better word) with regards to ruining the internet through regulation.