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Canada's Bell Tried to Have VPNs Banned During NAFTA Negotiations
- loraa 8y agoSounds about right. Canada is looking bleek, the PM is destroying the economy and sticking free speech. As more and more provincial governments disagree with the federal government on numerous issues, it looks like he will not get another term. The Native people are suffering and even something basic like clean water is a failed promise from the government. However, can spend billions abroad on SJW incentives.
- grumpy-cowboy 8y agoLets ban Bell Canada. Here the list of Bell's subsidiaries to ban : - Bell Canada - Bell Media - Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (37.5%) - Bell Mobility - Bell Aliant - Virgin Mobile Canada - Bell Internet - Bell TV - Bell Fibe TV - Fibe - Bell MTS - Lucky Mobile - The Source (retailer) - CraveTV
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- philwelch 8y ago> Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (37.5%) MLSE owns every Toronto pro sports franchise except the Blue Jays. (The Blue Jays, it turns out, are owned by Bell's competitor, Rogers.) But if Bell Canada only owns 37.5% of it, logically we only need to boycott 37.5% of the MLSE teams. Starting from the educated guess that the Maple Leafs are almost half of MLSE's value, the next biggest chunk--probably the closest to 37.5%--would be the Raptors, with their Canadian Football and MLS teams taking up the remaining sliver of value. So, just boycott the Raptors and it'll work out.
- chocolatebunny 8y agoI'd rather boycott the leafs because I'm tired of losing.
- acct1771 8y agoAnd because Buffalo's a long way to drive to see a pro hockey game in person?
- clord 8y agoLooks like I manage to boycott them entirely without really trying.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoBell Media produces some of my favourite shows and I’ve really enjoyed CraveTV. Also, lifelong leafs fan. I think the only time Canadians boycotted pro hockey was when the NHL locked out the players and there were no games anyway! So that’s not for me. But I am all for improving the CRTC and even nationalizing parts of our telecom infrastructure.
- colmmacc 8y agoI wonder what percentage of the Canadian population can receive terrestrial TV and radio transmissions? I can pick up the Washington stations in Vancouver, BC and even as far north as Squamish in good conditions, and that's without a particularly good antenna. Many other Canadian cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Winnipeg, Quebec and Windsor, all seem pretty close to the border too. Of course it works the other way too, I can pick up Canadian radio in Bellingham or even Mount Vernon. How do country based TV rights work in /that/ context?
- vinay427 8y agoJust to add another anecdote, I really appreciated being able to listen to the CBC radio channels throughout the metro Detroit area, and CBC news is officially offered (and included in most packages) through the local cable provider there. I didn't realize people in many other parts of the country lacked access to CBC on TV until I moved elsewhere.
- grawprog 8y agoAccess to CBC in rural areas has actually gotten worse since the switch to digital only broadcasting a while back. My dad hasn't had cablr for years now he lost CBC shortly after that on the Sunshine Coast. Even after buying and then modifying and improving a couple digital antennas now.
- conservajerk 8y agoMy parents have the same issue in Northern BC. When I was growing up we had two channels. They now have no channels.
- Scoundreller 8y agoIt’s surprising that they’ve never leased space on a free-to-Air satellite service. Or just mandated free carriage when issuing distribution licenses.
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- guardiangod 8y agoI guess it's Bell Let's Talk In Open Day, all day every day.
- sys_64738 8y agoSo anybody on Bell Canada wouldn't be able to work remote and VPN into work? Would that apply to those working for Bell Canada, too? The absurdity of these companies is beyond belief.
- anonymousab 8y agoTheir target is specifically VPNs advertised or mostly used for bypassing regional restrictions and piracy. Of course there's a massive grey area of "what about VPNs that aren't advertising that purpose but are used in that way" that they would exploit in the most hamfisted and self-beneficial manner possible, but that's par for the course for most corporate lobbying initiatives.
- 14 8y agoMy guess is of course Bell would create their own VPN that would adhere to their own standards that you could use for a fee
- Belphemur 8y agoIt's not surprising, we're talking about the same company that want to remove net neutrality in Canada. Not only that, but they want to create a "website police" to block any website that they deem "dangerous". Of course they don't want people to use VPN...
- byron_fast 8y agoBeing allowed options other than Bell has been a huge boon to consumers and businesses in Ontario. Although we still overpay for everything and Bell probably still makes money on the underlying infrastructure, at least we don't have to deal with them directly.
- deogeo 8y ago> Bell argued that Canadians accessing content from a US service with a VPN “unjustly enriches the US service, which has not paid for the Canadian rights” Odd how 'free trade' doesn't apply to consumers. Are they not allowed to import digital goods?
- ac29 8y agoIts not a free trade issue, its a matter of contractual distribution agreements with geographical limitations. That's pretty common in many industries, not just those dealing in digital goods.
- deogeo 8y agoThe consumer never agreed to those contracts. He bought the goods in the US, and imported them into Canada, via a VPN. He could just as well have driven across the border, bought a DVD, and carried it back.
- SpaceManiac 8y agoDVDs have region locking. The United States and Canada happen to be in the same region, and there are bypasses, but technical controls against importing digital goods are already normalized, and I doubt this analogy will convince policymakers.
- dtech 8y agoThis is irrelevant. Replace DVD with an apple. The point is that free trade between countries means you should be able to buy in one country and use in the other country.
- int_19h 8y agoThe policymakers can be safely assumed to be hostile on this anyway (usually because they're bought by the lobbyists). The goal, therefore, is to throw them out and replace them with ones that are not, not to convince them. Convincing is for the voters to do that.
- gamesbrainiac 8y agoHow would you actually go about banning VPNs? This makes no sense. You can barely make a moral argument, and what is to prevent people from just tunneling into a server that is, say located in the Swiss alps?
- stevenicr 8y agoIs there any publication of similar things that were brought up during these negotiations? I started hosting some sites in Canada some time ago, and like what the privacy and similar policies are of this datacenter. I was about to deploy more sites to the same center when I saw an article about some of the initial negotiations. I realized that in an effort to appease one set of companies or another group of people with whatever agendas, we may see the Canada gov change restrictions in certain ways making privacy and other things less protected. So I started looking at other places and have yet to see anything about any final details on the agreements and attempted policy changes. If anyone knows of some good resources to get a grip on this please share.
- chmielewski 8y agoGood for them I’ve had so many problems with data ingress across that border on on our .ca