Supreme Court to reopen debate on whether ISPs are broadcasters

TORONTO – It will be up to Canada’s Supreme Court to decide on whether Internet service providers (ISPs) are just pipes or actually broadcasters.On Thursday the Court granted a coalition of Canadian union and guilds leave to appeal a lower court decision issued last July that deemed ISPs “content-neutral,” and therefore not subject to CRTC-regulated Canadian content exhibition or contribution requirements like broadcasters. During that proceeding, the major ISPs, (many of which are also cable companies), insisted that because ISPs do not select, originate or package programming, they cannot be considered broadcasters. A coalition of content producers and cultural groups...