Telecoms defend FairPlay to MPs, call for 5G net neutrality flexibility

OTTAWA — Representatives from Canada’s biggest telecoms argued that flexibility in Canada’s net neutrality framework will be necessary with the advent of 5G, as they answered questions about a proposal to block websites hosting pirated content from parliamentarians Tuesday. “We need to have a very flexible regime so that we can deal with all of these new technologies that are coming down the pipe,” said Pamela Dinsmore, Rogers Communications Inc.’s vice-president of regulatory for cable, during a morning appearance in front of the House ethics committee. She gave the example of how products like health applications and connected cars will need to be given priority over parking metres under 5G, and added that there will likely be a complaint saying that such prioritization is a violation of net neutrality. “The beauty in the existing regime is that it allows for the commission to look at situations on a case-by-case basis as technology evolves and determine whether or not it is ... in violation of the commission’s net neutrality principles,” she said. The telecoms were in front of the committee as part of an ongoing study of net neutrality, two weeks after a coalition called FairPlay filed a Part 1 application asking the CRTC put in place a system that would block websites hosting pirated content. Bell and Rogers are among its members, along with other broadcasters and groups representing content creators. The CRTC received more than 4,000 comments on the issue in the first two weeks of the proceeding, the deadline for which is March 1, and internet advocates have flagged the proposal as having net neutrality implications. In his opening statement, Robert Malcolmson, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at BCE Inc. cited Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains’ recent statements on net neutrality that referenced an open internet in accordance with Canadian laws. “In other words, our government believes that all legal content must be treated equally by internet service providers,” Malcolmson said. In a brief interview following the appearance, Dinsmore also said that the proposal doesn’t bring up any net neutrality issues, because net neutrality only applies to legal content. In response to a question about whether she was concerned about backlash to the group’s proposal, she told The Wire Report that the coalition was on the right side of the issue. “These are people who are blatantly, egregiously, obviously putting up copyrighted content on these websites and making it accessible, and it means that our creators are not getting paid and that is a major issue here in Canada as well as all around the world,” she said. “Other countries have stepped in to put in regimes similar to what we’re proposing to the CRTC and we think it’s time.” During the appearance, she said that the existing notice-and-notice system isn’t effective against new ways people access pirate content. “That process is working very well when we’re talking about people who download copyrighted content. What it doesn’t work for is streaming, and streaming has arisen as being the most-used way of consumers accessing pirated content since the Copyright Act was brought in five years ago,” she said. “Where does it stop? Do we block VPNs? Do we block torrents? At what point do we stop blocking particular content or services that are related to illegal activity a lot of the time?” committee vice chairman Nathaniel Erskine-Smith replied. He asked why telecoms can’t go to the courts now to obtain orders to have infringing websites taken down. Malcolmson responded that even if they did, “at the end of the day, anyone seeking to block access to illegal content would also have to go through the CRTC.” Erskine-Smith also wanted to know whether there has been an instance “where you’ve done the due diligence, you’ve proven with documentation that a certain site has made illegal material available, you’ve taken it to the CRTC and they’ve taken no action?” Malcolmson said that “that’s what this proposal is all about. Rather than coming to the CRTC on a one-off basis, we thought a holistic proposal from a broad-based group of stakeholders would give the CRTC the best opportunity to… consider it on a fulsome basis,” he said, adding that we “haven’t gone on a one-off basis.” Following the committee appearance, MP Brian Masse, who was filling in on the committee for Charlie Angus, said in an interview that the FairPlay proposal is a “really big decision.” He noted he was speaking on his own behalf as the NDP Innovation critic and not on behalf of the committee. “It can shape, not only consumer behaviour, but also to what's the law of the land going to be,” he said. During the appearance, the telecoms also addressed the question of whether net neutrality principles should be enshrined in law, as the Liberal government has indicated it might be interested in doing. Malcolmson said that putting in place “something more rigid than the current provisions in the could pose a risk to future innovation, or could quickly become outdated during the development of 5G and the Internet of Things. In our view, this is simply too big a risk to take.” The representatives were also asked about how the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) move to kill its 2015 net neutrality rules could affect Canada. Telus Corp. senior vice-president of federal government and regulatory affairs Ted Woodhead replied that “we don’t view this as some sort of existential threat.” Dinsmore said that Rogers doesn’t believe the rule changes will affect Canadians’ access to U.S. websites, but that “where it might have an impact is if Canadians are doing business in the U.S. or if Canadians are trying to retail their products and services into the U.S. and the for whatever reason decide to favour some content over another” — though she noted that the changes have yet to be approved by Congress or the U.S. president and are likely to be challenged in the courts. “We may find that applications that might otherwise would have been developed won’t be developed if that happens. We may find that app developers come to Canada because of our robust net neutrality regime. So these are all things that are within the realm of possibility.” — With reporting by by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and reporting and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Telecoms defend FairPlay to MPs, call for 5G net neutrality flexibility

Broadcast | February 13, 2018

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Telecoms defend FairPlay to MPs, call for 5G net neutrality flexibility

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