Bell Canada's FairPlay website blocking proposal is one of the most dangerous suggestions we've heard yet. This would inevitably censor legitimate content and speech online and violate net neutrality protections, all without court oversight. It would set a dangerous precedent for other censorship proposals in the future.
Experts have pointed out the expensive and problematic technical aspects of implementing these censorship interventions. Additionally, nearly 100,000 OpenMedia supporters spoke out against Bell Canada's FairPlay website blocking proposal when it was tabled both during NAFTA and before the CRTC.
These are the words of our community member Ryan:
Arbitrarily allowing website blocking and website takedowns will result in a severe reduction of civil rights and political freedoms, as companies and organizations can decide to remove websites that they don't like, regardless if any terms were violated....We have a strong legal system, where the accused is deemed innocent until proven guilty. Let the courts handle the matters, since they are subject to public scrutiny and inquiry by law.
Additional dangerous proposals making their way to Canada in light of the EU's proposed copyright directive are the link tax and mandatory content filtering algorithms. The link tax would copyright the snippets of text that usually accompany links, often used as previews to help Internet users find content online. Requiring aggregators to pay for content just to be able to promote it actually harms content creators by reducing the discoverability of their content, but it also entrenches the largest content aggregators, such as Facebook and Google, by making the cost for new entrants even higher. This proposal has already been implemented and proven a failure in both Germany and Spain.
Content filtering requirements would turn online platforms into the copyright police. Forcing online platforms to implement mechanisms to identify and block materials believed to infringe copyright before being posted, similar to YouTube's multi-million dollar content ID system, won't come cheap. As we know, it will still result in false positives and inevitably result in the takedown of legitimate content.
We have outlined a number of concerning proposals on the table, but we believe some simple amendments can be made to the system to help restore balance. At the very least, the government should maintain the current fair dealing list, including education, parody and satire. Additionally, explicitly adding transformative use would be greatly beneficial. Ideally, Canada will adopt broader fair use provisions, similar to those in the U.S. We also urge the government to eliminate Crown copyright.
As OpenMedia has previously stated, Canada's notice and notice system is a fair regime for addressing alleged copyright infringements. However, the government should provide content guidelines for notices that prevent threats or demands for settlements.
OpenMedia has been advocating on copyright issues over the past six years. Our community's lengthy efforts include five years of campaigning against the secretive trans-Pacific partnership and its dangerous IP chapter; “Our Digital Future: A Crowdsourced Agenda for Free Expression”, a positive vision for sharing and creativity online, sourced from over 40,000 people; over 50,000 people urging Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs to stand up for citizens' digital rights in NAFTA; and over 2,500 submissions to this committee's consultation via OpenMedia's online tool at letstalkcopyright.ca.
Before coming here today, we asked our community what we should say to you. We hope their voices are well represented.
In conclusion, we ask the committee to address the needs of the people these rules affect the most: everyday people who depend on a balanced copyright regime for their daily activities.
Thank you. We look forward to your questions.