Jay Thomson, the assistant vice president of broadband policy for Telus, said the existing laws in Canada are also preventing his company from launching a new digital television recording service that would allow subscribers to tape their favourite shows for later viewing on a network server without having to use a VCR or Personal Video Recorder device.
"I'm certain that the vast majority of Canadians don't know that when they tape a program for later viewing using a PVR or even VCR that that is a copyright infringement in Canada, and they're potentially subject to a lawsuit for undertaking that activity," Thomson said. "It's not against copyright law in the U.S., it's not in Australia, it's not in Japan or the U.K., and it's been going on for decades here and shouldn't be a copyright infringement (here) either."
Mr. Thomson said Telus cannot launch this service until the government updates Canada's copyright laws.
"Instead of taping Boston Legal on their PVR that they paid $400 for and are trying to figure out how to use, they would be able to have a much more economical approach," he said. "The business case hasn't been worked out yet because the legal issues still have to be resolved but for example, maybe they'd pay a small monthly fee to rent space on the provider's server."
Public Stiky Notes
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