From: David Yaffe <straightedge.dave@sk.sympatico.ca>
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 16:42:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: CanadaBanAna Censors US TV (and bans decryption)
Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.19970727023226.007ba260@mailhost.sk.sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



This is my sarcastic reply to the article.. has a couple of interesting
'facts' about canadian life.. Enjoy!

>   HOME Box Office, the U.S. cable network, just garnered 90 Emmy
>   nominations in recognition of quality programming. But HBO is still
>   banned in Canada. The network was not on the list of foreign services
>   approved Wednesday by Canada's dictator of cable and satellite
>   television content, the CRTC. Others banned by the CRTC include
>   Bloomberg Television and the U.S. versions of the Discovery Channel,
>   The Comedy Network, the Disney Channel and scores of other program
>   services deemed too subversive for Canadians to watch in their
>   original form -- unless, of course, the same programming passes
>   through the hands of a Canadian middleman or monopolist who will
>   culturally sanitize the programming by skimming off a fat profit.

Hey we don't even have a Canadian version of Sesame Street anymore.. The
government controlled TV station (that CBC) decided that the content of the
Canadian version of Sesame Street was still to American... (Like 5 year
olds know the difference!)
   
>   Once a Canadian has grabbed a piece of the action -- as a distributor,
>   broadcast licence holder, cable operator or satellite owner --
>   Canadians are allowed to view the U.S. content. This banana republic
>   setup has been in place for decades, and now it may be getting worse.
>   A judge has concluded in one of the satellite disputes that it may
>   even be illegal for a Canadian to pay for HBO and other networks as
>   they come in over the border on U.S. satellite systems.

Okay, so if I get a video feed of the internet is that illegal in Canada?
You bet!! Even PGP-fone is.. after all, telephones are designed for voice
communication, the internet is for data. All praise the High and Mighty CRTC. 

>   The oral judgment by Mr. Justice Frederick Gibson of Federal Court of
>   Canada in the case of ExpressVu versus Norsat and other companies was
>   issued last month, but the written version sets a number of bizarre
>   precedents that appear to deeply infringe on individual rights. By
>   ruling in favour of ExpressVu, the Canadian satellite company, Judge
>   Gibson has essentially come up with a judgment that is the equivalent
>   of making it illegal for a Canadian to subscribe to Fortune or
>   Cosmopolitan magazines or to buy a copy of Vanity Fair or Esquire on
>   the newsstand.
Shit! no more WIRED Magazine & No more comic books...

[Snip]

>   The purpose of the act's clauses on encryption is a technical one to
>   prevent fraud. Evidence presented by Andrew Roman, the lawyer for
>   Norsat, makes it clear that the intent of the government was to make
>   it illegal for people to use counterfeit decoders and other devices to
>   avoid payment. All the debates in Commons committee focus on the act
>   as an attempt to prevent theft of signals. No such theft occurs when
>   Canadians subscribe to and pay for a U.S. satellite service.

Yup.. but the government thinks we're all after free TV.. Even those of us
who don't even have "Basic cable", and have just the three free channels...
(All I need is my Simpson's :) 
   
>   What makes this judgment even more unusual is that it effectively
>   attempts to make it illegal for a Canadian to pay for a U.S. channel
>   on a U.S. satellite, when the identical U.S. channel is available on
>   Canadian cable or satellite. For example, WGN-TV in Chicago can be
>   picked up on Canadian cable, Canadian satellite or on U.S. satellite.
>   In each case, the subscriber pays for the service. But under this
>   judgment, it would be illegal to pay the U.S. satellite for WGN-TV.
>   Who does this serve -- other than giving Bell and the cable companies
>   more revenue.

Yup -- Canadians love to pay tax, that's why we pay so much of it.. ( well
over half of a Canadian citizen's income is taxes. If the average Canadian
were to devote 100% of their paychecks to their taxes for the year, they
would start seeing some income in the middle of July. For the first six
plus months of the year, they would be paying taxes. I believe that Simon
Fraser University does the calcuations each year..
   
>   Even stranger is that many of the networks carried by U.S. satellites
>   are already available in Canada over the air waves free, or on cable,
>   or on C-band, an alternative satellite service that has been available
>   in Canada for years. A Seinfeld episode can be picked up free over the
>   air from a U.S. television station, or on a U.S. station via cable, or
>   on a Canadian station on cable. But if the same Seinfeld episode were
>   bought by a Canadian from a U.S. satellite service, it's illegal.

   
>   Canada's specialty networks, meanwhile, are gearing up to flood the
>   country with copy-cat versions of the networks banned by the CRTC --
>   including The Globe and Mail, which is a partner in ROBTv, a business
>   channel that hopes to benefit from the fact that Bloomberg will be
>   banned in Canada. Other brilliantly innovative duplications of U.S.
>   networks are The Home and Garden Channel, History Television, The
>   Comedy Network, Discovery and Country. Is this unique Canadian
>   culture? One such Canadian offering, The Family Channel, has even
>   abandoned all pretext to being a Canadian original: it's changing its
>   name to recognize the source of most of its content: The Disney
>   Channel.

Don't forget Much Music.. I need my MTV oops muchmusic...

No, the problem is not canadian content, the problem is the percieved
canadian content. A lot of Canadians think that canadian culture is under
constant attack from the US. After all how many magazines are canadian? how
much of the music on the Radio is Cancon (canadian content)? How much of
the news we get from the newspaper is Canadian? Also, seeing that most of
the people in canada (except for the aboriginals) are of European Decent,
just like the US.. what does it matter anyway? What the CRTC fails to
realize is that canadian culture will do fine even if as Canadians we get
American satellite.....