TORONTO – SOCAN appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada this week to represent the interests of Canadian music creators and publishers in three copyright cases related to the use of music on the Internet by corporations that include Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Telus, and Apple.
The organization said in a statement that its appearance comes in support of the decision made by the Copyright Board of Canada and confirmed by the Federal Court of Appeal to licence the use of music on-line in the form of downloads and musical previews, as well as the use of music in on-line games.
Composers,…
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OTTAWA – Government and regulatory bodies need to be mindful of the impact its policies, or a lack thereof, can have on small media and communications companies, said a panel of such CEOs at the International Institute of Communications Canada conference on Tuesday.
Cal Millar, president and CEO of Channel Zero, said his company (which owns CHCH, CJNT, Movieola and Silver Screen Classics) is ready to compete with over the top services, but is at a disadvantage because OTT video providers aren’t regulated. “We are in a world today where content is somewhat ubiquitous. And in that marketplace we’ve now…
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WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT relaxes foreign investment regulations for the telecom sector and sets out the rules for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction (there’s widespread hope Industry Minister Christian Paradis will say something about both next week), there aren’t many scenarios that present a rosy future for the newest Canadian wireless companies, according to research by Scotia Capital telecom analyst Jeff Fan.
Former Industry Minister Tony Clement said prior to the last election that when the 700 MHz auction rules are set out, the plan was to also address the limits we in Canada have on foreign investment in…
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TORONTO – With subscriber additions at Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity well below what many had hoped, is the model failing?
That’s what Canaccord Genuity telecom analyst Dvai Ghose asked on Monday in a research note to clients. Noting the departure of Mobilicity CEO Dave Dobbin is the second new entrant CEO to leave over the past six months, Ghose wrote what many have been saying for some time now: This isn’t how is was supposed to be.
“Independent new entrant subscriber growth has been weak — WIND only added 41k net subscribers in Q3/11, down from 45k…
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LAST YEAR AT THIS time, Kevin Crull was into week three of his transition from long-time telecom executive to the leader of the largest Canadian broadcasting company.
Now president of Bell Media, the company which owns the CTV and CTV2 conventional TV networks, 29 specialty channels including market leader TSN, 33 radio stations and the Sympatico.ca portal, Crull came over from Bell Canada’s telco side, having run Bell Residential Services for five years. For a decade prior to that he was a senior executive with AT&T and US West.
One of his final projects at Bell Canada was writing the business…
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TORONTO – Hollywood Suite has finalized a number of distribution agreements in advance of the Monday launch of its four new HD movie services.
According to the independent broadcaster’s newly launched website, Warner Films, MGM Channel, Hollywood Storm and Hollywood Festival will debut on EastLink and Telus; plus launch on SaskTel on November 30 and on MTS on December 8.
The channels have pledged to air over 450 different movie titles every month, all commercial-free, uncut and unedited. A selection of films will also be available on demand, on-line and on mobile.
www.hollywoodsuite.ca
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WHILE WE’VE YET TO hear back from the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Bell Canada or Telus – and Industry Canada hasn’t yet responded to our request for a better answer to our original question, Canada’s two largest cable companies have responded to our plea that our country come up with a plan to get broadband Internet access to low-income families.
As we reported, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission along with many cable companies and other contributors, have devised a program to offer broadband connectivity to low-income families for…
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TORONTO – While the overall number of IT security attacks are dropping, the rise of mobile computing and the growing sophistication of attacks are posing a new threat, according to the Telus and Rotman School of Management's fourth annual study on Canadian IT security.
The study, released Tuesday, surveyed more than 600 Canadian IT professionals across government, public and private sectors, providing insight on the Canadian security landscape, especially as it relates to emerging trends in breaches, threats and preparedness.
The top three breaches reported in 2011 include viruses and malware (46%), laptop or mobile hardware device theft (22%), and phishing/pharming (20%). …
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GATINEAU – Rather than picking one system over another, the CRTC has chosen to give the large Internet providers the choice in how they charge small competitors who use their networks. The commission has, however, rejected Bell’s bid to charge on an aggregated volume basis, instead opting for a capacity-based approach.
In its much-anticipated usage based billing decision, the Commission chose capacity as the proxy over an aggregated volume method. Bell Canada and Rogers Communications Inc. advocated for the latter approach.
Bell suggested during the hearing that a capacity-based approach would result in independent ISPs keeping traffic volumes high resulting in…
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READERS MIGHT HAVE sensed with my column Thursday that I am taking the issue of getting broadband to low-income families very seriously. I called the fact that we have nothing in Canada to help the poor get broadband in their homes embarrassing, especially when compared to the ambitious and comprehensive Connect 2 Compete program that was launched in the United States this week by the Federal Communications Commission, numerous cable companies and other firms.
Then, reporter Peter Nowak reports today that Canada is the ONLY country in the G8 with no assistance…
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