Michael Geist is arguing against a proposal this week from Canadian telecom and media companies that would allow them to block websites. "The coalition's proposal raises serious legal concerns," he writes. "It envisions the creation of a new, not-for-profit organization that would be responsible for identifying sites to block... The courts would remarkably be left out of the process." And the telecoms have a history of overreach. For example, " hen Telus restricted access to a pro-union website in 2005, it simultaneously blocked access to an additional 766 websites hosted by the same computer server." I think it's very likely we would see the companies use this power to block competition (like streaming media or TVAddons) or to rub out criticism and dissent. Moreover, as one commenter said, "This problem could easily be solved by some kind of functional separation. If Bell wants to own the content then it can't manage the pipe. Their censorious urges would probably evaporate pretty quickly then." More: Globe and Mail, Financial Post, OpenMedia, Buzzfeed, Telecom Trends.
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