Time for new rules for new media, SOCAN tells CRTC in submission

In Broadcasting Public Notice 2006-48, the CRTC called for comments on a new exemption order for mobile television services. In his submission, excerpted below, Paul Spurgeon, general counsel and VP of legal services at the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) takes the commission to task for allowing the five-year review period for the 1999 New Media Exemption Order to come and go, and asks the commission to revisit its 1999 assertion that four-fifths of Internet content is alphanumeric. Rather than conduct a comprehensive review of the 1999 New Media Exemption Order, the commission proposes to expand the scope of its exemptions with an ad hoc order that is based on assumptions regarding the "near future." As Paragraph 45 of Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2006-47 states: Therefore, the commission concludes that, given the current technical challenges associated with the wireless technology noted above, the mobile television broadcasting services are unlikely in the near future to become substitutes for conventional broadcasting services or impede the ability of traditional broadcasters to fulfill their obligations under the Act... Given that the commission’s assumptions are based on a "near future" scenario, SOCAN submits that its proposed expanded exemption order must be subject to review within two years… Almost eight years ago, SOCAN made two submissions – dated September 30 and November 2, 1998 respectively – to the CRTC regarding its initial new media review (Broadcasting Public Notice 1998-82 and Telecom Public Notice 98-20). In those submissions, SOCAN asked the commission to ensure that so-called new media be subject to similar content regulations as are applicable to existing (regulated) services. Instead of regulating new media, the commission issued its New Media Exemption Order in 1999, which with the passage of time is outdated and in need of review. Paragraph 4 of the New Media Exemption Order referred to "the commission’s policy of reviewing exemption orders within five years of their issuance." On May 17, 1999, the commission announced that it would not regulate new media services in Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 1999-84 and Telecom Public Notice CRTC 99-14, Report on New Media. One of the key elements of this decision included the finding that 80% of what was then transmitted over the Internet is predominantly alphanumeric text. Although the five-year review deadline occurred over six years ago, and there have been significant audio and video technological developments since 1999, the commission has still not announced the long overdue review of the New Media Exemption Order... SOCAN hereby requests that the commission announces its five year review of the 1999 New Media Exemption Order so that it may be reviewed before the Order reaches its seventh anniversary in December, 2006. SOCAN also hereby requests that the commission confirm that a key finding in its 1999 new media decision remains true in 2006 – i.e., that 80% of what is transmitted over the Internet is predominantly alphanumeric text.

Time for new rules for new media, SOCAN tells CRTC in submission

News | 05/15/2006 4:00 am EDT

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