Feds considering site-blocking proposal

The federal government has launched a consultation document to solicit feedback on whether or not it should allow internet service providers to unilaterally block certain websites from users in order to protect copyright holders. In a Wednesday release, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault linked the effort explicitly to his department's ongoing effort to update the Broadcast Act in a bill known as C-10. “Our Government is committed to meaningful platform governance, including the modernization of the Broadcasting Act, a new framework for online harms, news media remuneration and copyright reform," Guilbeault stated. "These efforts will contribute to a healthier online environment for Canadians, creators and media. In the area of copyright, we need a more up-to-date framework to ensure more accountability and better remuneration and transparency.” The notion of increased protection for copyright holders on the internet also got support in the release from Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who stated that for "Canada to have an innovative and flourishing digital economy, we must protect copyright online." "With this consultation, we aim to strike the balance between facilitating broad, lawful access to copyright-protected content, and safeguarding individual rights and freedoms in an open internet," Champagne stated. The issue of site-blocking has been a contentious one, as rights-holders in Canada -- including some of the countries largest vertically integrated telecom companies and broadcasters -- have pursued various efforts to achieve some level of site-blocking. In 2018, the CRTC rejected the request of a FairPlay coalition -- which included BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Corus Entertainment Inc., Quebecor Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada, among others -- to establish a site-blocking regime through the regulator. The CRTC said at the time that it didn't have jurisdiction under the Telecommunications Act. The rights holders then took their fight to the House of Commons Industry committee, asking MPs to empower courts to order intermediaries -- including ISPs -- to block infringing websites. The telecom companies and broadcasters gained a victory in November of 2019 when a Federal Court judge, for the first time in Canadian history, ordered a number of ISPs to block a "pirate IPTV" site known as GoldTV. TekSavvy Solutions Inc., the only ISP to substantively fight the effort, appealed the case. The case was heard in the Federal Court of Appeal last month. In that case, lawyers representing TekSavvy pointed to the lack of a legislative framework for site-blocking. Site-blocking, TekSavvy lawyer Colin Baxter told the court last month, "runs roughshod over the careful balance that parliament has crafted between copyright owners and copyright users.” “It bypasses straight by parliament’s unequivocal guidance in the Telecom Act that the CRTC is to be the keeper and guardian of the common carrier principle that governs telecom providers,” Baxter said. In addition to site-blocking, the government wrote in its consultation paper that it is also considering an update to "safe harbour" provisions in copyright law that protect intermediaries against liability for copyright infringement, compelling the remuneration of rights holders "through collective licensing of their copyright-protected content on certain platforms", and the increasing of transparency of the online use of copyrighted content. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Feds considering site-blocking proposal

Broadcast | April 14, 2021

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