Canadian Heritage committee  Right now it's still what people term “the wild, wild west” with respect to the Internet. I'll give you an example: peer-to-peer technology, which is Napster. People talked a lot about Napster and how harmful it was to the industry, but those very companies that were fighting through litigation to stop Napster from existing are now using that very technology to help get their content out, so I think we're in an interesting period of time.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, I think--

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not sure if I totally understood your question. Could you say it again? I was going to respond, but I think before I do so, I want to make sure I understand your question, because it might take us in another direction.

Canadian Heritage committee  These opportunities are wonderful, but I think they should be the starting point of the discussion, because these are complex issues. As Trish mentioned in the beginning, no one is absolutely certain where all of this is going. Some of the things we are certain of, through consumer trends, are where people are turning to, and your children, as you say, are an example of that.

Canadian Heritage committee  There's no doubt there's a global fight on right now for doing just that. There are many books: Darknet by J.D. Lasica is a book I would suggest you read; it talks about how the large corporate interests are absolutely trying to lock down the Internet. That's why I think now would be a very interesting time to build that brand, especially a global brand, and we can do it.

Canadian Heritage committee  I just thought of an interesting thing. Having lived a chunk of my life in and certainly having shuttled back and forth to and from Los Angeles a great deal, I always felt it was remarkable that a little café I would always go to was usually populated at any given time about 50% by Canadians.

Canadian Heritage committee  Actually, these two people do produce content, and I can tell you there is quality in their content. The interesting dilemma is that in other parts of the world people recognize our films as being quality. Sometimes we have a harder time, as Canadians, accepting that. If you look at the track record, the reality is that our content, our film from TV, and specifically our films do very well.

Canadian Heritage committee  Some direct examples would be time-shifting. It's utilizing the technology to make it so that Canadians have better access to the Canadian content through the CBC. For example, there's lots of programming I'd like to watch, but I'm not able to because I'm not at home at that given time, or whatever.

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. Obviously there are the underlying economics of production. That's just the cold hard facts. You have to try to make a return on the cost to make a production. Traditionally what we call niche programing has struggled to recoup the money it takes to produce it. When you look at the music world, they have found that traditionally....

Canadian Heritage committee  My name is Thom Tapley and I'm the director of operations. My career spans one year less than Mercedes' through all facets of the industry. I think we might be able to provide the most assistance through a discussion on digital media. We've been seeped in that world for quite some time now.