Consultation document on Bill C-48 proposes territorial restrictions on satellite TV distributors
Federal government officials are meeting with industry stakeholders on Friday, March 22 in Ottawa to discuss a consultation document on Bill C-48, which would amend the retransmission section of the Copyright Act. The consultation document, with the draft title Retransmission Conditions Regulations, sets out in six sections proposed regulations under which Internet retransmitters can operate. The document, obtained by CCR, proposes a new category of Internet retransmitter, which would be subject to retransmitting only within Canada. Under the proposal, Internet retransmitters would have stringent conditions on monitoring and quickly ending unauthorized reception of the signals outside of Canada. Section five of the consultation document proposes imposing a territorial restriction on direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV systems. The proposal calls for DTH satellite retransmitters to encrypt the retransmission, and to supply the means to receive the retransmission in intelligible form only for use in Canada.