Hearings on foreign ownership in telecommunications firms begin this week This week the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology begins hearing arguments on potentially changing the country’s rules governing foreign ownership in telecommunications service providers. On Tuesday, January 28, the following Industry Canada officials are scheduled to appear: Peter Harder, deputy minister; Michael Binder, assistant deputy minister; Larry Shaw, deputy director general; Allan MacGillivray, director; and Pierre-Yves Boivin, economist. On Wednesday, January 29, the following wireless industry representatives are slated to appear: Rogers Wireless Inc. – Francis Fox, president strategic relations; Dawn Hunt, VP government and inter-carrier relations; Microcell Telecommunications Inc. – André Tremblay, president and CEO; and Ericsson Canada Inc. – Lionel Hurtubise, chair.
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The Public Interest Advocacy Centre addresses the Department of Justice’s lawful access proposals (CNM, Sept. 6/02). An edited excerpt of its submission follows.
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Formerly of Delvinia Inc., Bill Sweetman has announced the formation of a new company, Kalixo, an independent professional services firm providing e-business consulting, e-marketing, and innovation support.
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Video game channel registers trademark in Canada G4 Media LLC, a Los Angeles-based cable channel devoted 100% to programming about video games, filed a Canadian trademark application for its name last month. The channel, owned by Comcast Corp., does not have any plans to move into the Canadian market, a spokesperson says. The trademark application is a routine filing given even a slim chance that the channel might have a footprint in Canada. The company has no plans either to seek status as a foreign exempt satellite service or a Category 2 digital specialty licence. In 2000, the CRTC granted a Category 2 licence to TVA Inc. for a proposed Game One channel, which has yet to launch, devoted also to video game-related programming.
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Aliant Telecom Inc. has filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for an experimental licence to continue its Internet retransmission service TV-on-my-PC, Canadian NEW MEDIA has learned (CNM Special Update, Jan. 20/03). The filing was made early this month, according to Bell Canada chief regulatory officer Sheridan Scott, and details will be confidential until the application is gazetted by the commission. Scott will say, however, that Aliant’s reported ability to control the geographic distribution of the service seems to put the application onside with the CRTC’s January 17 decision not to re-open the New Media Exemption Order to deal with Internet retransmission (Broadcasting Public Notice 2003-2; CNM Special Update, Jan. 17/03).
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A founder of a new Internet law clinic expected to be up and running around March says it’s too soon to say what sort of large profile cases the clinic might get involved with, but University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist notes that digital copyright law is still in its early stages, and the clinic will be looking to become involved at the highest levels of legislation and jurisprudence.
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Telefilm Canada is defending itself against suggestions the agency needs to do more to cut down on the number of unsuccessful applications to the Canada New Media Fund. Earl Hong Tai, western regional director and new media sector head for the federal cultural agency, says that while he recognizes the latest round of applications resulted in a high number of rejections, Telefilm is dealing with a highly fragmented industry in economic turmoil and fierce competition for funds.
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Sparks flew on the first day of the Copyright Board of Canada hearing into the blank media levy on January 21 when lawyer Howard Knopf, working on behalf of a coalition of Canadian retailers, raised the board’s ire as he sought to establish a solid case that the levy is a tax. Knopf’s afternoon cross-examination of Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) chair Claudette Fortin drew several sharp rebukes from board chair John Gomery as the litigator tried again and again to pursue lines of inquiry deemed inappropriate by opposing counsel and the board. But observers note that Knopf is working quickly to establish several facts in the proceeding on which the retailers will likely challenge at the Federal Court of Appeal.
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Industry observers are divided on the role a future decision in the little-known Earth Future Lottery case, to be argued before the Supreme Court of Canada March 11, will have on a potential leave to appeal the Tariff 22 decision. The Earth Future case appears to deal extensively with Internet jurisdictional issues, one of the sharpest arrows in the ISPs’ quiver in asking to have certain aspects of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Tariff 22 decision reversed (CNM, Oct. 30/02; Aug. 21/02). Though the weight of opinion holds that the cases are dissimilar, there appears to be a slim possibility that the court could lay down new principles in dealing with Internet jurisdiction, which would render an appeal on that basis by ISPs unnecessary.
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