According to a report by the CBC, Bell Media, during recent NAFTA hearings in Ottawa, was pressing the federal government to force Internet providers to block Canadians’ access to sites that provide pirated content — things like television shows and movies, streamed online without the cost of a subscription, cable bill or theatre ticket.
The report says that Bell would like to see the establishment of an independent agency that “would create a blacklist of sites that allow people to download or stream pirated content like movies and TV shows.” In turn, Bell and other Internet providers would be required to take steps to prevent their customers from visiting and taking advantage of these sites.
In many respects, the request makes sense. These are sites that Canadians shouldn’t be accessing to begin with (and, in case you were wondering, Canadians visit sites like these 1.88 billion times per year, according to the report). First off, those sites often come with nefarious digital ugliness like viruses and malware that, potentially, could very well outweigh the benefits of free viewing content. Secondly, those sites are stealing their content from people who have paid to produce the content, and who require an income in order to continue to provide said content. If nobody paid for the content they watch, then it wouldn’t be long before the content’s no longer being made. As much as everybody enjoys free stuff, that whole model is simply unsustainable.
That said, Bell and other providers should explore why folks are turning to piracy sites instead of paying for content. While it’s hard to compete with ‘free’, we suspect that there are plenty of people who’d be willing to pony up a reasonable amount for good programming from a safe, reliable and legal source rather than someplace else. The streaming services Netflix or Apple Music prove that point.
While we’re sure it’s tempting for big media companies to try to swat these kinds of sites away from Canadians’ TVs and computers with a new government regulation — indeed, they’re illegal sites to begin with — we fear that will only serve to help squeeze more dollars out of consumers who are already looking for ways to get a cheaper deal. Further (and as some observers have noted), such a change could potentially infringe on the rights of Internet users, since the activities undertaken by this proposed agency wouldn’t be subject to judicial review, and the broad powers could extend beyond the piracy sites it’s intended to combat.
Hopefully, the industry will take other steps to take a bite out of piracy sites without adding another level of enforcement, and look for incentives to bring more customers back.