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Michael Geist

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Rogers on the corner of Robson and Seymour by Jeffery Simpson https://flic.kr/p/hZGAN (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Long available in other countries, “unlimited” wireless plans arrived among the big three carriers in Canada yesterday with Rogers launching new unlimited options that offer 10 GB of data at full speed and unlimited additional data at a far slower speeds of 256Kbps. While some criticize the throttled overage speeds or the inferiority of the Canadian plans when compared to…
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Corus Quay by JasonParis https://flic.kr/p/9QoQgb (CC BY 2.0) Over the past few weeks, I’ve been posting several of the more notable submissions to the Broadcast and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel submissions that were previously not released to the public. These included Bell, Shaw, Cogeco, Quebecor, CWTA, and a Rogers submission that was released months after the submission deadline. The Access to Information office at Minister Navdeep Bains’ ISED has now completed the…
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Michael Geist:This is Law Bytes, a podcast with Michael Geist. CBC News:Signed sealed and now delivered to the House of Commons. Just last hour the Federal Government tabled a bill to implement the new NAFTA a deal that Canada the US and Mexico reached six months ago after 15 months of negotiations. Justin Trudeau:Canada the US and Mexico are at our most efficient most secure and most profitable. When we work together. And it’s about…
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My series on previously secret submissions to the Broadcast and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel (earlier posts on Bell, Shaw, and Cogeco) continues with the Rogers submission, also obtained under the Access to Information Act [the other submissions I obtained but won’t post on include the CWTA and Quebecor]. There are several notable aspects to the submission, but perhaps none more than Rogers calling for an expansion of the new tax…
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The long-awaited Canadian copyright review report features numerous good recommendations, many of which were rejections of industry lobbying: a rejection of new restrictions on fair dealing for education, rejection of Bell’s FairPlay site blocking initiative, and rejection of limits on safe harbours in response to the so-called “value gap.” Yet the most notable recommendation is the committee’s support for fair dealing for the digital age by expanding its scope and ensuring that it applies…
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In December 2017, the government launched its copyright review with a Parliamentary motion to send the review to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. After months of study and hundreds of witnesses and briefs, the committee released the authoritative review with 36 recommendations that include expanding fair dealing, a rejection of a site blocking system, and a rejection of proposals to exclude education from fair dealing where a licence is otherwise available. The…
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Michael Geist:This is Law Bytes, a podcast with Michael Geist. CBC News:The world’s largest tech firms were on the defensive today in Ottawa. Canada hosted a committee of politicians from nearly a dozen countries which got the chance to grill representatives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter about how they manage data, how they handle the spread of misinformation, and whether they’re a potential threat to democracy. The committee also heard from observers of the industry…
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Cogeco, the fourth largest cable operator in Canada (and number two in Ontario and Quebec), warns the broadcast and telecommunications legislative panel about the dangers of unregulated video services such as Netflix to national sovereignty in its previously secret submission. Obtained under the Access to Information Act (much like the previously discussed Bell and Shaw submissions), the Cogeco submission opposes new digital consumer protections and net neutrality rules but strongly supports increased regulation for…
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美墨加签署新版自贸协定 汽车关税措施即刻生效 by 禁书 网 https://flic.kr/p/2dgik2V (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) The Canadian government tabled Bill C-100 yesterday, the bill to implement the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement. I will have future post on the key provisions, which include new criminal provisions on trade secrets and tampering with rights management information. The bill also features several provisions related to copyright term but notably does not touch the current general copyright term of life of the author plus an additional…
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Yesterday’s post on the still-secret broadcast and telecommunications review submissions obtained under Access to Information focused on Bell, which proposed extensive new regulations for Netflix that would result in hundreds of millions in payments that could spark a trade battle with the United States. The major Canadian communications companies are not united on this issue, however.  While there are similarities on wireless (most oppose mandated MVNOs), the broadcast perspectives differ significantly. This post reveals…