As you all may have heard, the CRTC's recent call for comments in regards to the regulation of broadcast content in new media garnered quite a bit of feedback. Most of these applicants, be they individuals or companies, sang pretty much the same tune: the CRTC should continue to refrain from regulating content on the internet, with any incentives programs for developing online Canadian productions to be as unintrusive as possible.

That sounds all good and rational. On the other hand, comments left by cultural organizations such as SOCAN and ACTRA have demonstrated an extremely regressive view of the internet by insisting that commercial Canadian websites receive essentially the same treatment as television broadcaster (albeit with 51% Canadian Content, as proposed by SOCAN). ACTRA in particular has suggested that even user generated content should be subjected to license restrictions. The CBC and other organizations have also shown support for regulating websites for so-called 'broadcast' content. Imposing a tax on ISPs to pass along to consumers is another idea that has proven to be popular throughout these interventions.

The worst part is that net neutrality has become tangled up within this dreadful mire of an issue. Despite the fact that regulation of internet carriers and regulation of internet content are two very different concepts, they are being muddled together in a way that could allow cultural intervention to piggy-back off of support for net neutrality. While this may not be the actual intention per se, it was still likely a very bad decision for the CRTC to open this issue again. Especially given the amount of clout organizations like SOCAN and ACTRA hold.

by Bosstard:

YTV will be airing the hit magical girl series Pretty Cure in early 2009.

I don't know if I should be happy or sad about it. Hopefully it was not localized as you could guess in this article.

If I can have uncut DVD's I will be happy.

EDIT: I think this is fantastic news. Even if it does wind up being localized a little bit, it's a great program to be run for younger audiences in earlier hours. Almost brings things full circle with Sailor Moon's initial success. - Pep

It looks like Super Channel 2 will be making some controversial additions to its (probably brokered) Manga Entertainment-fueled anime block beginning Monday, December 8. According to their schedule:

November 24 at 9:00PM (EST) - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
December 1 at 9:00PM (EST) - Vampire Wars
December 1 at 10:00PM (EST) - Psychic Wars
December 8 at 9:00PM (EST) - Two episodes of Gurren Lagann
December 8 at 10:00PM (EST) - Now and Then, Here and Now
December 8 at 10:30PM (EST) - Descendants of Darkness

Does this mean Bandai Entertainment sold the Canadian rights to both Gurren Lagann (and in all likelihood Gundam 00) to Manga Entertainment? If so, we can safely place a considerable amount of blame on Bandai for the massive decline of anime on stations people actually get (ie: YTV).

Not only is Super Channel a premium station, but most subscribers aren't even allowed to pay for the service directly. Thanks to the inability for competition between premium stations, you'll need to pay for Super Channel on top of Movie Central or TMC. If you have digital cable through either Shaw or Rogers, Super Channel is offering a free preview of its HD channels throughout December. Anyone without HD is out of luck.

Thank you to doconnor for pointing out this travesty.

Yesterday the CRTC made its ruling on the CAIP's complaint about Bell throttling internet speeds allocated to smaller ISPs who lease bandwidth from them (ie: their competitors who would otherwise be able to offer services without such 'traffic shaping'). The CRTC found that Bell's practices were not in violation of the Telecommunications Act and they can dandy well just keep doing what they're doing, fueling nerdrage across the country.

It should be pointed out, however, that the CRTC isn't necessarily supporting internet throttling, as elaborated in this CBC interview. The CRTC has launched a public consultation on the future traffic management practices of internet service providers, with a deadline of February 17. If you care at all about the future of the internet in Canada and want to ensure that neutrality for the internet is either mandated, or that the possibility exists for competitors to offer undiscriminated networks, I implore you to comment. Deadline is February 16, 2009.

Also, while I'm going on about this, the deadline for comments on broadcasting in a new media environment is on December 5. The CRTC's decision on this issue could potentially lead to the implementation of Canadian Content quotas on the internet. That is a bad thing. So if you have anything to say on the issue, speak now.

Our usual investigative team discovered that YTV may be showing Bleach: Memories of Nobody this Saturday at 9pm. YTV's website is now indicating that this prediction is, indeed, correct! So, for at least this week, Bionix has the 10-11pm hour back.

A bit late notice I know, but YTV is seeking certain amendments to their license, including eliminating provisions in their license designating percentages for children and family programming, limits on the number of films that can be shown during the week, and reducing the number of non-North American programming from 35% to 15% (likely to make room for more primetime American programming).

If you wish to leave a comment with the CRTC, you can do so here. Deadline is November 5. Be sure to also send a copy directly to Corus, as designated on the public notice.

This is it, everyone. The CRTC has opened up public consultation on the possibility of changing their previous commitment of not jamming their pudgy fingers inside the tubes of the internet. A public hearing on this subject will be held on February 17, 2009.

Along with Bell's traffic shaping, this is going to be a key issue surrounding net neutrality in Canada. While it's unlikely the CRTC could successfully block content through websites like YouTube, broadcasting will potentially become much more restrictive in Canada if the internet is officially interpreted as a broadcast medium. Forget the fact that the idea of Canadian protectionism being applied to something where Canadian users and content producers are in absolutely no way disadvantaged against the rest of the world is just plain stupid; anyone should be able to predict that every Canadian broadcaster and ISP is going to jump on this as an opportunity to strip users of the right to view what they want, when they want on the internet. As such, it is more pertinent than ever that everyone concerned about the possible emergence of 'Internet CanCon' send a comment to the CRTC. The deadline is December 5, 2008. Don't hesitate - this is probably going to be our last chance.

And if the CRTC does cave in? Well, at least we can be thankful we don't live in Australia.

Unsurprisingly, the CRTC has delayed their findings surrounding Bell's implementation of using traffic shaping to control what kind of content their user traffic is able to access. With the announcement originally intended for the end of this month, the CRTC now won't reach their decision until next month.

Note that this case in itself will not determine the future of how the CRTC will administer how ISPs control the traffic of both their users as well as smaller providers who rent bandwidth from telecommuncation giants. However, if a decision is made against Bell, it will be a significant step forward for advocates of Net Neutrality in Canada.

by: Doconnor

Because Fox has baseball Global is showing the first Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score this Sunday at 8:00PM. It looks like they will be showing the movie version rather then the episode version that was on Comedy Central.

Not only does the Conservative Party intend to reintroduce even more, accountability-free copyright legislation if they are elected next week, they also had the audacity to promote it as part of their party platform.

My friends, if you like the internet or anything even remotely associated with it, vote strategically. Do I really need to say more?