The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday that Canadian ISPs should not be subjected to broadcast regulations because they do not have control over the content they transmit. The decision means ISPs like Bell and Rogers, which owns Maclean’s, won’t have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and levies. It also means they’re exempt from Canadian content quotas. The case had been referred to the Supreme Court by the CRTC, which wanted to know if companies that provide access to programming via Internet should be considered broadcasters.A coalition formed by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, Canadian Media Production Association, the Directors Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of Canada, had argued that ISPs should be treated as broadcasters.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday that Canadian ISPs should not be subjected to broadcast regulations because they do not have control over the content they transmit. The decision means ISPs like Bell and Rogers, which owns Maclean’s, won’t have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and levies. It also means they’re exempt from Canadian content quotas. The case had been referred to the Supreme Court by the CRTC, which wanted to know if companies that provide access to programming via Internet should be considered broadcasters.A coalition formed by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, Canadian Media Production Association, the Directors Guild of Canada and the Writers Guild of Canada, had argued that ISPs should be treated as broadcasters.