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This comment is in regards to the current "Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries".
I am very concerned about the prospect of having Internet websites being policed and outright blocked at the whim of ostensible copyright-holders, outside of the judicial or regulatory process. Due to the extremely weak enforcement of antitrust/competition law in Canada, we have perhaps the most concentrated media ownership in the world. No effort has been made to keep the content and distribution industries separate, such that we now live under a media oligopoly. The prospect of further extending the power of our overconcentrated monopolist corporate media stranglehold through outright blocking of rival content is galling. Moreover, the need for such measures is without justification: research indicates that copyright infringement is declining in Canada. Paid streaming and online content have increasingly become the norm.
Canadians already pay some of the highest Internet access rates in the world. The costs of administering the blocking of content and websites will ultimately be borne by the users, further reducing affordability.
The proposals under consideration promise negligible benefits for people in Canada and considerable risks to our welfare and rights. Canada's existing copyright legislation is already adequate to address infringement via the judicial and regulatory system, without handing the keys to our corporate media overlords.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Spiers