Hill Times Letter: Bill C-11 anti-competitive
Letter to the Hill Times Editor published March 9, 2012
While Netflix may not have the resources to write the software themselves, it is the federal government’s Bill C-11 which will disallow any third party from developing their own compatible application. The market share for RIM technology is higher in Canada than in other markets, meaning that it is far more likely to find a Canadian company or possibly even a hobbyist who wants to make the Netflix service work with the devices of their choosing.
Unfortunately, Bill C-11 disallows a Canadian RIM supporter to develop an application compatible with the Netflix platform since doing so—even for perfectly lawful purposes that benefits Netflix and RIM—would involve circumventing a so-called “technological protection measure.”
While these technological measures allege to reduce copyright infringement and improve revenues to copyright holders, this has never been proven. There is considerable evidence that suggests misunderstood and misapplied technological measures have induced copyright infringement and reduced revenues to copyright holders.
This anti-competitive tie between Netflix and a few chosen brands of viewing technology that is protected by Bill C-11 will either discourage RIM owners from signing up to Netflix, or will discourage Netflix customers from purchasing RIM hardware. Given the market share of RIM in Canada is already said to be “tenuous,” and Netflix is growing, it may be that an increasing amount of copyrighted content not being allowed by Bill C-11 to be accessed by RIM owners on their chosen devices will be a very large nail in RIM’s coffin.
Peter Braid, the Conservative MP for the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., riding where RIM has its headquarters, is a member of the House committee studying Bill C-11. I hope he realizes the damage he is doing to this important business in his riding as he continues his support for the anti-competitive impacts of technological measures in his government’s bill.
Russell McOrmond
Ottawa, Ont.