Is that a Net tax on the horizon?
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- The emergence of cultural funding as a hot-button political issue in the current election campaign appears to have taken virtually everyone by surprise.
The roughly $50 million in cuts may be tiny in terms of the overall federal budget, yet the significant impact on the cultural community has propelled the issue onto the national stage.
While leaders debate the merits of public funding for the arts, whoever forms the next government will quickly face a far bigger cultural funding issue that promises to make the current dispute seem like a short preview as compared to the forthcoming main attraction.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will hold hearings on new media regulation in early 2009 and barring a change of heart, the focal point will be the prospect of a mandated levy on Internet service providers to fund new media cultural production.
Opponents will deride the plan as a new tax, but that has not stopped cultural groups from lining up in support of such a scheme.
Earlier this year, several groups, including the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Directors Guild of Canada, and Writers Guild of Canada proposed a mandatory ISP contribution of 2.5 per cent of broadband revenue to help fund the creation of Canadian new media content.
In support, the groups released the results of a public opinion survey they said found that “69 per cent of Canadians believe that ISPs should be required to help fund the production of Canadian digital media content in the same way that cable and satellite TV providers are required to contribute a small percentage of their revenues to the production of Canadian television programs.”
More recently, the CRTC commissioned Eli Noam, a Columbia University finance professor, to conduct an independent study on the issue. Noam’s report, TV or Not TV, canvassed the regulatory options as the commission grapples with a broadcast environment that has shifted from one of scarcity to seemingly unlimited abundance.
Noam concluded that there should be regulatory harmonization between online and offline broadcast that could include public funding for the production of Canadian content. Noam’s preferred funding model is “a combination of public funds; an excise tax on ISPs and carriers that would be harmonized with the existing levy on cable and satellite TV providers; and the use of spectrum sales revenues into a special trust fund.”
The current discussion on cultural funding may take on greater urgency once the ISP levy takes centre stage. There is little doubt that such a levy — which Canadians would see each month on their ISP bill — would generate strong opposition from consumers. The various political parties may be battling to demonstrate their support for the cultural community today, yet an unpopular ISP levy would surely put those positions to the test.
The ISP levy proposal will also force regulators to show their cards on whether they believe that new Internet regulation is needed. The commission concluded in 1999 that the Broadcasting Act gave it the power to regulate “new media undertakings,” but that given the paucity of Internet video, such regulation was unnecessary.
Nearly 10 years later, streaming and real-time video have become a staple of Internet use with millions of Canadians turning to their computers rather than their televisions for video news and entertainment.
While the differences between the two mediums will be obvious to a generation that lives online, some regulators may be tempted to equate television and the Internet, arguing that a harmonized regulatory approach necessitates the imposition of Canadian content requirements and cultural funding programs.
Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]
Los Angeles Times – , September , 2008
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October 6th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
1st off unless its doen the way i proposed at fair copyright for canada
ITS A SCAM.
and unless you get real people looking after this WE AINT BUYIN into it.
I am not well and tired and have had enough of corporate canada and its bend over and take it form americans
SOFTWOOD LUMBER and the cdr levy are not getting artists cash.
unless it is mandated to get to artists SAY NO.
and remember that the current levy gets 60-70 mill/year
why on earth give JUST musicians 1000 million?
i say as in my counter proposal 50 cents = 90-100 mill
we can add 50 cents for tv and 50 cents for movies
and then have the people of canada vote via the internet each year for raising it.
Then artists have to really justify why they get all this cash
ALSO when you think this isnt much, multiply it by 8 for the USA =720-800million
and
UK = double
and so on
it comes to billions and billions
for a distribution model that has me pay for distribution and all the levy does is pay compensation to the “stakeholder”
October 6th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
oh
and ask anyone , ive asked 225 people if they would pay 5$ a month to go and download any where anytime the way they want
and all but one said no. then i tell of my idea that went into how the levy is collected and administered and then was about to get to how artists get paid and POOF my psiatica gives me the scare of a lifetime ( thought i was having a heart attack)
Any how i proposed it and if it were done the way , we could also be getting into internet vote technology and perhaps get inventive and make a system that actually works that americans might want to buy.
YES hackers might try and tamper but as time goes on the system could get more and more solid.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
If people are required to help support new media through their use of the internet, then that new media should be freely available to all internet users.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
if I pay for it, I’m gonna download it.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
introduce this money grabbing shit into the UK, AND I say goodbye internet forever.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
If done right it could be a boon for everyone:
1. Big 4 + Hollywood gets paid (paid Caesar his dues)
2. Canadian don’t get sued. (like the CD tax)
3. There has got to be a way to get some coins directly to the artist (Maybe Bell could use their DPI for the side of good and to keep track of download so Canadian artist gets paid directly?!)
4. If Canadian artist gets good at this web thing, maybe, just maybe the rest of the world would take notice.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I could be wrong, but this appears to me to be a subsidy to old media, the same old media that generally demonstrates their cluelessness about new media. I seriously doubt that new media pioneers, the ones that made the internet into what it now is, will see a penny from this ‘tax’. Looks like more corporate welfare for old media to me. I guess the government feels obligated to pay off the media sources that cooperate in self censoring stories embarrassing to the government. Same old, same old.
I wonder how much of this ‘tax’ will actually go to content creators. I mean the actual creators. Most creators that work for old media in the US create content as ‘work for hire’. Their employer owns the copyright. Does this work similarly in Canada?
October 6th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
@kchan DPI is useless and should never be advocated. and Fuck the big 4
@chronos The levy should be abolished. If it isn’t I want a cut.
@article michael geist
I’ll gladfully endorse artists abroad in any media. However an Isp tax will hit consumers and im sure as hell not paying more than what I already do for my throttled internet. Unless of course it gets any faster. Ill download what I want when I want and if I get the chance to support the artist through purchasing, donations or distribution than I will. I dont want more of my money in the hands of the organized crime syndicates known world wide RI** MP** BS* ES*
October 6th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I agree with Silly Ratfaced Git completely.
Everyone knows that if you give an RIAA member a penny; he’ll demand 10 more. Give him those; he’ll demand $20. Give him that; he’ll always demand more.
The ISP tax levy will go to the CRIA and other publishing firms.
1) The publishing firms will claim to need to keep tabs as to which band is more popular to divide the money among.
2) Once the publishing firms get the money, do you honestly believe they will give any to the content creators?
3) If regardless of quality of music created, a person receives money, then people with no musical skill will only play more often under the tax levy.
It may not be ‘work for hire’ in Canada, I don’t know, but the ‘work for hire’ tactics inside the United States will cause the RIAA to grab as much of the tax that they can get.
I don’t know what the current laws of Canada are, but I doubt the ‘tax’ will benefit musicians or fans at all. It sounds to me like the tax will be created, but the CRIA and RIAA will complain that they need more and keep attacking people.