As we prep for our appearance at the CRTC tomorrow, I feel somewhat disconnected from the reality of choice facing me online and the "threat" to the distribution of content online because of vertical integration. PS yes I completely agree blocking access to content sucks.
Maybe its my age that leaves me ever astonished by the sheer magnitude and diversity of content online today. I can remember back in 1961 when CTV came to Ottawa and I got to watch all these cool TV shows for the first time. Whow two TV networks. It was magic. Black and white and no remote but magic. Choice is a relative thing I guess.
We got cable in 1966 and again a new world opened up. I remember being able to watch NBA for the first time. And as the 70s kicked in, FM alternative did too launching the background noise for the revolution.
Flash forward and choice is awesome on TV, sat radio, the web. Its good and awful, trite and compelling and often beyond my grasp. But its beyond cool and I get nervous when anyone wants to tell me what I can watch or listen too. Assuming its legal. But as I get bogged down in the whole net neutrality stuff happening at the CRTC. I find myself wanting to escape the maddness and rhetoric and put the new Wilco CD onto my ITouch. I want to just go back to surfing and absorbing the flow. (Ok so that's a bit of a stretch since I am blogging as I listen to the CRTC hearing).
Reality check here. The Internet is not falling apart under the sway of the vertically integrated. Maybe the studios still dominate the Brittany Spears content space but this is also the golden age of indie. We really dont have to but the studio stuff anymore.
So for sure lets make it clear if it is not already obvious public policy. An open Internet is de facto good. The Internet is about the free flow of information and messing with that free flow is de facto bad. The CRTC should be prepared to deter bad actors that limit choice. Just don't expect me to believe much of the rhetoric online . Let me start by calling into question the assumption that the ISPs are hurting the independent production industry in Canada. The industry presented this as fact yesterday without an iota of evidence. And let's all worry lot when this story becomes national news without any research.
Maybe I am getting old but freedom to publish bs, does not make the bs true. Man do we need some filters. Personal and self-supplied of course .
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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michael, where/when did "the industry" (and which 'industry'?) make the claim that ISPs are hurting the independent production industry in Canada?
ReplyDeleteI missed that. (agreeing that would be wrong assumption, unless they were referring to Bell Rogers prioritizing their video)
also would like to support the (your) observation that ACTRA is contradicting itself by demanding net neutrality at this hearing and asking for cancon prioritization at new media hearings
dislosure: i am (dissenting) ACTRA member.