Say NO to Government Website Blocking Powers!

The federal government’s disturbing attacks on the open Internet just won’t stop. This time it’s trying to give itself sweeping censorship powers to demand ISPs block websites, suspend our Internet, or even ban us permanently. All this, any time companies like Rogers, Disney or Bell claim we’ve improperly accessed copyrighted materials.¹

This wildly overreaching proposal treats us all like potential criminals. It is disproportionate, unjustified, and open to abuse. Canada already has some of the best copyright laws in the world – we can’t afford this massive step backwards for the open Internet.

This proposal is straight off of Bell’s wishlist – they’ve already proposed it four times before. But with your help we’ve defeated it each time², and we can do it again. The government needs a stark reminder that Canada won’t tolerate this. The consultation is only open for comments until May 31st — so speak up now and tell them to stop this censorship power grab!

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Droit d'auteaur

Government of Canada

As a concerned individual in Canada, I am emailing to submit my comment to the “Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries.”

I am strongly opposed to any measures that would block access to websites, or encourage penalizing or disconnecting Internet users on the grounds of copyright. These are disproportionate, unjustified measures highly open to abuse.

Research suggests copyright infringement is a small and shrinking problem in Canada; when rights holders provide access to their content at a fair price, the overwhelming majority of Canadians choose to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the expression and human rights consequences of this proposal are serious. If ‘safe harbour’ protections that protect intermediaries like libraries and ISPs from being sued by rights holders are reduced, and they are encouraged to make their own policies for addressing copyright infringement, the logical response for most service providers will be minimizing their risk by aggressively blocking content and disconnecting users. Not only will this lead to much lawful content and mixed use platforms being blocked; it also means that since many communities in Canada have only one viable ISP, the government is sentencing entire households in Canada to complete disconnection of an essential service for the crime of an alleged copyright violation on their Internet service - all outside of any proper judicial process.

Furthermore, the costs of a complex blocking system will be carried by Canadian intermediaries and ISPs, and passed on to us as users. Building and maintaining both a complex and labour intensive process for addressing appeals from both rights holders and users, and technical blocking infrastructure itself, will require heavy ongoing investment by intermediaries in Canada. We already pay some of the highest Internet access rates in the world, and many in Canada struggle to pay for needed service; we can’t afford to make that problem worse.

The proposals under consideration promise negligible benefits for people in Canada and considerable risks to our welfare and rights. Please drop this unneeded and dangerously broad proposal for revisions, and continue supporting Canada’s effective existing copyright legislation.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

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On April 14, the federal government launched a “Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries”. In their accompanying policy paper, the government suggests giving itself sweeping powers to create enforceable website block lists, shutting off access to any parts of the web accused by rights-holding media giants like Bell Media and Shaw’s Corus Entertainment of hosting content that infringes on their copyright.³

But that’s just the start of the censorship that could be coming our way — and chillingly, the government wouldn’t even be doing most of their own dirty work. According to the proposal, intermediaries like ISPs and libraries could lose many of the protections they currently enjoy from frivolous lawsuits from rights-holders, exposing them to considerable legal risk.

Solution? The government helpfully suggests intermediaries develop their own censorship policies to avoid being sued, suggesting they consider options like handing out suspensions to users, proactively blocking websites that are named in infringement notices, and even permanently banning users that rights-holders have complained about. The inevitable result? Thousands of people disconnected and websites blocked to avoid legal risk — all without a real court ever considering the merits of their case!

And let’s remind ourselves: all of this is to address an ‘urgent’ copyright infringement problem that doesn’t exist. Piracy has steadily declined in recent years around the world, including in Canada — not because of website blocking, but because of the growth of legitimate streaming services. The reality is that when rights holders give us a fair deal for the creative content we want on platforms that work, most of us prefer to pay for it.^4,5

That’s no justification for giving this kind of sweeping power over what we see online to the federal government and Big Telecom.

But if we swamp the website blocking consultation RIGHT NOW urging the government to drop this censorship scheme, we can stop it in its tracks. If you haven’t already, send your comment to the consultation: NO government website blocking powers!

Sources

Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries - Government of Canada
Huge win for Canadians as CRTC rejects Bell’s website blocking proposal - OpenMedia
See 1
Music Canada Data Confirms Huge Increase in Streaming Revenues and Sharp Decline of Music Listening from Pirated Sources - Michael Geist
The Decline of Online Piracy: How Markets - Not Enforcement - Drive Down Copyright Infringement - American University International Law Review

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