OTTAWA - Programming on the Internet or on mobile devices has again escaped federal regulation.
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission ruled Thursday that it will not regulate new media broadcasts, upholding a decision from 1999.
In other words, no Canadian content rules for the web, no new funds for Canadian productions, and no need to license the companies that distribute these programs.
The commission said it simply sees no need to encourage Canadian creation on the Internet. It said new media broadcasting has still not produced a solid business model that would support government rules.
"While broadcasting in new media is growing in importance, we do not believe that regulatory intervention is necessary at this time," said commission chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.
"We found that the Internet and mobile services are acting in a complementary fashion to the traditional broadcasting system. Any intervention on our part would only get in the way of innovation."
The creative end of the broadcasting biz -- actors, directors and independent producers -- had pressed for regulations, arguing that without them Canadian content would be swamped on the Internet.
They lobbied for the creation of a new media fund, paid for with levies from the cable and telephone companies.
Heritage Minister James Moore acknowledged the concerns earlier this spring when he unveiled the new $134-million Canadian Media Fund, putting television and new media productions in the same envelope for the first time.
The regulator, though, did not see the need for another fund.
Ken Englehart, vice-president of regulatory affairs for Rogers Communications, said he was pleased with the ruling.
"The reason the Internet has been so powerful and changed so much of our lives is because it hasn't been regulated and hasn't been taxed, and it's been allowed to grow and develop in ways that users wanted it to grow," Englehart said.
"Government regulation and taxation would slow us down."
Although the commission is steering away from regulations, it is taking some related action.
It will ask the Federal Court of Appeals to rule on whether new media broadcasts fall under the Broadcasting Act.
And it will begin asking Internet broadcasters to provide regular information on their operations. How exactly that will happen will be the subject of another consultation.
There will be no re-examination of the new media issue for five years.
Commissioner Timothy Denton submitted a lengthy concurring opinion, saying the agency should abandon the whole issue of Internet regulation.
"The rights of Canadians to talk and communicate across the Internet are vastly too important to be subjected to a scheme of government licensing," wrote Fenton, a former lawyer for the Canadian Association of Internet Providers.
"If more Canadians were aware how close their communications have come to being regulated by this commission, not by our will, but because we administer an obsolete statute (the Broadcasting Act), they would be rightly concerned."
The regulators supported an idea floated by the National Film Board and others for a national digital strategy. With society more and more of dependent on digital devices and digital signals, the commission said the implications in areas such as copyright, privacy, taxation and spectrum management are so important they need to be part of a comprehensive government approach.
Producers and performers have already struggled with broadcasters over the subject of digital rights -- what happens when their work is retransmitted over the Internet.
