Industry Calls on CRTC for Anti-piracy Action

It’s a tricky business, this putting-genies-back-in-bottles thing.

That’s essentially what the federal broadcast regulator has been asked to do by a coalition of media companies, production organizations and content creators who have declared it’s time for Canada to address the immensely challenging issue of online piracy.

The newly formed coalition, named FairPlay Canada, has called on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to establish an independent agency to "identify websites blatantly engaged in content theft" and then require internet service providers (ISPs) to block their subscribers from accessing such illegal content.

FairPlay Canada is comprised of more than 25 organizations, including major broadcast undertakings such as Bell Media, Rogers Communications, Québecor Media and the CBC, union interests and professional organizations including the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Directors Guild of Canada and Unifor, and independent entities, such as the Movie Theatre Association of Canada, Cineplex Inc. and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

What they’re after is fairly simple — protection of their intellectual property, content ownership and fairly negotiated regional (Canadian) distribution rights, and the associated revenue streams. Achieving their goal, however, is very complicated; the CRTC, which for years has struggled with the issue of how — if at all — it should regulate online services and content, will have a difficult time creating a framework to deal with FairPlay’s request. It will have an even harder job enforcing whatever rules the desired independent agency might seek to apply.

At issue, in large part, is the fact internet piracy is so deeply entrenched in the digital-age mindset that there exists an entire generation — as well as millions of content consumers of slightly more advanced years who have developed a taste for plundering the cyber-realm — that has grown up with the assumption that everything online, from music to movies to news and beyond, should be free.

Most of these pirated-content consumers would never shoplift from a bookstore and would be horrified if someone stole their bicycle, wallet or digital identity, but few think twice about downloading the latest copyright-protected song or movie or newspaper article at no cost from one of the many shady providers that illegally distribute content.

That’s wrong. Simply put, online content is property. Its creators and owners have the right to be compensated for its use.

It’s a hard message to deliver, however, and a near-impossible rule to enforce because the internet transcends borders. Cyber-pirates are engaged in a never-ending game of digital Whack-a-Mole that sees every regulatory shut-down followed just as quickly by a similarly illegal startup under another web identity.

What further complicates FairPlay Canada’s crusade is the fact some of its aggrieved content owners — most notably, industry giants Bell, Rogers and Québecor — are also ISPs. Opponents of FairPlay’s application say the proposed clampdown represents a threat to net neutrality, the much-discussed principle that advocates for the free flow of content across the internet. ISPs with content-ownership interests, critics argue, could favour their own material over that owned by others.

FairPlay insists leaving enforcement to an independent CRTC-approved agency would allay the net-neutrality concern.

The broadcast regulator must now decide whether the coalition’s application is a request for rights protection or a demand for online censorship.

Given the CRTC’s track record in the dealing with the digital realm, one shouldn’t expect much in the way of a bold decision.