Little action seen on new media exemption order as expiration date nears

The 1999 new media exemption order that has for five years foreborne the Internet from regulation by the CRTC is set to expire, but it looks increasingly unlikely that the commission will act to re-open the issue. The order, which classifies much of the content on the Internet as a form of broadcasting but places no regulation on it, was first handed down in May 1999, and confirmed in December 1999. Though it’s set to expire this year, nobody contacted by Canadian NEW MEDIA has heard of any initiative by the CRTC to begin a public process to evaluate its success thus far, and most do not expect anything other than a rubber-stamp extension. A CRTC spokesperson, asked whether any work is underway to issue a public notice that a process would be undertaken, would only say that exemption orders are governed by the commission’s 1996 policy that sets out a five-to-seven-year period for examining them. Public Notice 1996-59 states that: "The Commission agrees that it would be reasonable to conduct a periodic review of exemption orders. Accordingly, all new exemption orders will be reviewed. Such reviews will normally take place five years from the date of issuance of the order and will be subject to the Commission’s normal public process. "Further, in order to ensure consistency with the policies set out in this notice, the Commission intends to conduct reviews of all existing exemption orders. These reviews will normally take place between five and seven years from the date of issuance of the order." It is not immediately clear why, if the commission does not intend to review the new media exemption order now, it is following the policies set out for orders issued prior to 1996-59. While there appears to be little appetite for a review of the order on the part of broadcasters, there are isolated calls to revisit the issue. Steve Comeau, president of Collideascope Entertainment and one of this country’s most prolific new media producers, expresses frustration at trying to attract attention to the role regulation could play in bolstering the interactive content sector in Canada. "What AOL does online, what Microsoft does online, what all these people are doing online right now, the CRTC won’t even touch it because it’s not broadcasting. So, we have to get them to change all that crap before we even enter into a discussion of whether (the CRTC) would do anything with it." Comeau has been one of the most vocal of the new media producers in recent months to call for new regulation on the Internet, including instituting Canadian content (CanCon) rules and new funding mechanisms. "What I’m worried about, personally, is that when Microsoft and Sony start humping these all-in-one-entertainment machines into Canadian homes, is that they’ll be mainline hardwired to the American broadcast networks and all that kind of crap - and just circumnavigate the CRTC and make the Canadian satellite and cable industry somewhat irrelevant. I’m also interested in seeing the same sort of measures that are in place for television in place where applicable on the Internet to ensure a presence of Canadian-generated content and a benefit from the commerce generated from this stuff flowing back to Canadian new media producers in the same way this happens (in broadcasting)," he tells CNM. Comeau says he’s disappointed that the CRTC has thus far not become involved in setting up broadcast-like regulations for new media content. "I think that the successes in radio and television have a lot to do with the CRTC’s involvement," he says. Though some content producers are urging the CRTC to step back into the new media fray, others say the commission likely has too much on its plate to begin the process anew. The issue is a divisive one within the sector as it struggles with finding a viable business model. Michael Hennessy, acting president of the Canadian Cable Television Association, says he expects the order to be renewed through an administrative decision. He cites CRTC issues such as examining interactive television, high-definition television, and Voice over IP as distractions that would likely leave the commission with little bandwidth left over for an exhaustive re-examination of new media. But, he says, there are a number of Internet-related issues that are currently being dealt with in piecemeal fashion. "I would love at some point for somebody to engage in a debate about all the regulatory and legislative things that are happening to the Internet and what the implications of that may be for economic growth and innovation. I think if you look at things that are happening right now from ISP liability being looked at only from a cultural side, spam, lawful access, consumer protection regulations - everything is being done in a silo, and there are significant trade-offs that are being made that nobody is really considering…Unless we’re willing to re-think public policy in terms of economic versus social versus cultural trade-offs, we’re likely to make decisions that could be very damaging to Canada’s competitiveness, access in remote communities, regional development." Asked whether a new CRTC process on new media might be a way to wrap several loose ends up at once, Hennessy says the regulator’s mandate is likely too narrow. "I guess you have to sit back and say, is it the CRTC or is it even something broader? Maybe it is something the CRTC can do, but there are issues that kind of extend beyond their jurisdiction, like lawful access, privacy - they have some jurisdiction, but that’s changed a lot - so lawful access versus privacy, copyright issues, liability issues, the issue of spam. "There are certainly many things that they are suited to address, but I think that there needs to be a bigger framework than just whether or not content on the Internet can be described as broadcasting and therefore whether you should regulate it. I think that’s my only point, is that might be too narrow a way to look at the role of the Internet when it comes to commerce and culture."

Little action seen on new media exemption order as expiration date nears

Broadcast | April 16, 2004

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