Speculation has run rampant that Stephen Harper’s majority Tory government would spell certain doom for Canada’s public broadcaster. In light of this fear, former (and presumably current) Heritage Minister James Moore has stepped in to assure Canadians that funding for the CBC will not be decreased.
Just in case you weren’t completely convinced that the Canadian government’s campaign to paralyze technological innovation and user rights with insanely restrictive copyright legislation wasn’t completely influenced by direct pressure from the United States, a new cable document released by Wikileaks should eliminate all doubt.
The Criterion Collection, a home video label known for releasing some of the finest cinematic works as well as several Michael Bay movies, will no longer be allowing Canadians to access their online streams by the end of the year. While many of their titles had been offered on Netflix, the company has announced this week that they are jumping ship to a different service. Care to guess which one?
Posted in Film, Home Video, News, Streaming
Tagged Criterion Collection, getting screwed over, Hulu, Netflix
The credibility of television news is about to take a huge nosedive in the next of what seems like a series of astounding blunders from the CRTC. The Commission will soon allow Canadian news media to intentionally broadcast what is currently considered false or misleading information. And the deadline to oppose is this Wednesday. (UPDATE: Deadline for one of the submissions has been extended. More after the jump.)
Posted in News, Policy, Social, Television
Tagged CBC, CRTC, CTV, Global, Sun News, the world is ending
Crosspost from OpenMedia.ca:
Federal Court has made uncanny timing with their latest decision relating to the government’s ability to reverse CRTC decisions. The Harper government’s ruling that allowed Globalive to establish WIND Mobile in the Canadian marketplace despite the CRTC’s objection has been struck down on the basis that the government had no justification in overruling the regulator. Given that Industry Minister Tony Clement announced on Wednesday the federal government’s intention to overrule the CRTC’s decision to impose usage-based billing on independent ISPs, concern over this development may be understandable.
Posted in News, Policy, Social, Telecommunications
Tagged mobile phones, OpenMedia.ca, Usage-based billing, wind mobile
Word is finally spreading that the usage-based billing being implemented by Canadian internet providers this month is a really, really, really bad thing. In response, a Toronto rally is being organized for Friday 4 February 2011 followed by a Saturday rally outside Parliament Hill to communicate the dissatisfaction of pretty much all Canadian society. (Information is available after the jump for those who don’t use Facebook.) While it is likely to be an impressive demonstration, we must remember that all of this public demand may yield nothing more than a slightly less outrageous, but all-too-similar, compromise.
Posted in Animation, Film, Music, Net Neutrality, News, Policy, Social, Streaming, Telecommunications, Television, Video Games
The legislative committee for Bill C-32, the not-quite-tyrannical-but-still-potentially-disastrous copyright bill, is giving Canadians until the last day of January to voice their opinions on the matter. And so they should, as despite numerous improvements over its predecessors, the new bill still carries the same fundamental problems as always. More importantly, it doesn’t leave any way for these issues to be re-evaluated, which even American copyright law has allowed.
Speculation has arisen that Public Mobile, the admirable yet sadly ineffectual Canadian mobile phone upstart, may not be far from seeking a partnership or merger in the face of intense treachery from incumbent cell companies. It is now more important than ever to remind cellphone users that the recent Chat-r brand is, in fact, the purest incarnation of evil.
Posted in News, Social, Telecommunications
Tagged chat-r, getting screwed over, mobilicity, public mobile, The Room, wind mobile
Crossposted from OpenMedia.ca:
While there has been considerable apprehension over Shaw’s demand for online streaming services to be regulated by the CRTC, Netflix is already two steps ahead in maintaining their competitive edge. The service has been accused of having an unfair advantage over conventional broadcasters thanks to the CRTC’s long-standing policy of not regulating Internet content. Rather than fight these accusations, Netflix has simply opted to do something that our conventional broadcasters would likely never do in an unregulated environment: willingly add a significant amount of Canadian content to their line-up.
UPDATE: Further research has indicated that I have made a critical error. CTV is not directly involved with Lake Shore, they were merely involved with interviewing the producers. A broadcaster has yet to step forward and provide full funding for the series, and as such the following rant is based largely around a hypothetical bogeyman.
Here is a wake-up call for those short-sighted enough to think that Sun TV News symbolized the modern devastation of Canadian television. A recently released “sizzle reel” has revealed that CTV’s long-rumoured knock-off of MTV’s obscenely over-exposed reality series, Jersey Shore, is not a joke.
