CNM Editorial

The CRTC’s latest foray into making rules for new media is a head-scratcher from the get-go.The most obvious question when reading the commission’s analyses and determinations in Public Notice 2007-13 is: when did the CRTC get vested with the power to make copyright policy? But that’s exactly what it’s done by instating a qualifier that, in order to be eligible for inclusion under PN 2007-13, services must have prior consent of the broadcasters whose signal they’re retransmitting. The commission also puts an oar in the water on the matter of how such services are distributed by stipulating that they must be point-to-point streams rather than a multicast or multipoint signal. But aside from the thorny questions of retransmission rights or broadcaster consent, the very raison d’être for having yet another exemption order for repurposing old-media content for new-media networks is suspect. After all, the 1999 New Media Exemption Order, which provides a harbour for "broadcasting services delivered and accessed over the Internet" – although apparently not iCraveTV – is still very much in effect, despite the fact that its five-year sunset review period has long expired. And last April’s PN 2006-47 reaffirmed that position, with the commission saying that a review of the NMEO (again, long overdue) wasn’t warranted simply for the sake of mobile TV services, which still fell under the 1999 order.The latest notice only serves to befuddle existing providers of mobile video services, who thought they were already covered by the NMEO and PN 2007-13, and make more work for the commission down the road when DVB-H and/or DMB-based services make their Canadian debut. Then again, perhaps the latter is precisely the point.James LewisEditor

CNM Editorial

News | 02/21/2007 5:00 am EST

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