Canada Turns Back Industry Push to Block Online ‘Piracy’ Sites

Canada’s top telecommunications regulatory agency on Tuesday turned down a push by a consortium of big communications and entertainment companies to block websites suspected of containing “pirated,” copyright-violating content. But the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission did not rule on whether or not the alleged piracy sites should or could be censored legally, only that the CTRC itself did not have the power to do so, according to a report by The Financial Post. The site-blocking proposal had been pushed by a group calling itself Fair Play Canada, an industry lobbying group that represents “every aspect of Canada’s film, TV, radio, sports entertainment, and music industries,” according to its website.Among those groups are Landmark Cinemas, Bell Canada, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the media conglomerate Quebecor and 20 others."The jobs of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who work in the creative sector are at risk as a result of increasing online piracy, from songwriters and set builders to makeup artists and local news reporters," Fair Play Canada said in a statement earlier this year, when it initiated the call to block pirated content. "Payments from legitimate streaming services, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibitors help support these artists and creators."The CTRC appeared to agree with the lobbying group—but chose to kick the issue to Canada’s parliament rather than make a ruling itself, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.“Copyright piracy causes harm to the Canadian broadcasting system and the economy,” the statement read. “The CRTC is of the view, however, that other avenues are more suitable to address this issue, which include the ongoing parliamentary review of the Copyright Act, as well as the expert panel review of the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act.”But consumer groups celebrated the CTRC decision, with the advocacy group OpenMedia calling the CTRC refusal “a big win for Canadians.”“Bell’s FairPlay proposal would have seen innocent content knocked off the Internet, without any court oversight or due process,” OpenMedia Executive Director Laura Tribe said in a statement. â€œToday the CRTC protected the open Internet, in an important victory.”Photo by Piratebay.org / Wikimedia Commons