If the CRTC Attempts to Regulate the Internet, Press the Delete Key
Contact:
Dr. William Stanbury, Professor of Regulation & Competition Policy
University of British Columbia, Telephone: (604) 822-8525Release Date: 03 December 1998
VANCOUVER, BC>>> The CRTC should allow the Internet to continue to flourish unimpeded and unregulated by taxation regimes and needless, unenforceable Canadian content (CanCon) regulations, says Dr. William Stanbury, author of Overweening Ambition: Assessing the CRTC’s Plans to Regulate the Internet,a Fraser Institute study to be released this Thursday.
On July 31, 1998, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) launched a public proceeding under both the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act to examine what its policy should be towards ‘new media.’ The result is a public ‘Call for Comments’ on whether the CRTC should further regulate the Internet, and if so, how should it be regulated.
Dr. Stanbury argues that because the Net is the biggest threat to conventional broadcasting and because it appears to be the next major communications medium, the CRTC feels compelled to try to impose an unnecessary regulatory and taxation structure on it. He comments, "I suggest that the Net is also psychologically upsetting to the CRTC for it is the antithesis of the Ottawa regulator’s mentality: a world made orderly by the wise hand of government regulation."
It appears that the CRTC has jurisdiction over the Net because the Net is essentially a means of communication which makes extensive use of telecommunications infrastructure. Regulating the hardware of the Net is the first step towards regulating the content, argues Stanbury. The CRTC might impose a tax on the gross revenues of internet service providers (ISPs) to finance subsidies for CanCon on the Net.
Present CanCon regulations concerning radio and TV broadcasting both impose economic burdens on Canadians, and constrain their rights to freedom of expression, as protected by the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At present the Net is one of the best antidotes to the adverse effects of these regulations.
The strongest reason why the CRTC should not attempt to impose content regulations on the Net (even if they could be enforceable) is the fact that there is no evidence that such regulations applied to radio and TV have achieved the stated goals in the Broadcasting Act—namely the enhancement of national identity and cultural sovereignty.
States Stanbury, "It would appear that by repeating the hype concerning the Net, the CRTC is helping to justify its efforts to introduce CanCon requirements. The proposition seems to be, ‘because the Net is so very important, we have to regulate it in the name of national identity and cultural sovereignty.’ "
The CRTC misses the point: imposing CanCon quotas on various types of material received by citizens over the Net would be a surefire way to drive Net-related activities out of Canada—all that would be necessary for a Canadian supplier of digital material to evade the mandated quotas would to be locate its server outside the country.
The Net focuses more than any other medium on the skills and imagination of the individual. Presumably the CRTC does not wish to suggest that individual Canadians lack the skills, imagination and energy to compete effectively on the supply of many types of content on the Internet.
"To continue to exploit the possibilities of the new media, Canadians need to act quickly, be flexible, compete vigorously, imagine widely (far beyond Canada) and take risks. CRTC regulation and subsidies are antithetical to these attributes," concludes Stanbury.
Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy organization based in Vancouver.
For further information:
Suzanne Walters, Director of Communications,
The Fraser Institute, (604) 714-4582,
Email suzannew@fraserinstitute.ca
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