{"id":266036,"date":"2018-03-09T20:20:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T01:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/why-canadians-oppose-blacklisting-pirate-websites\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:01:12","slug":"why-canadians-oppose-blacklisting-pirate-websites","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/03\/why-canadians-oppose-blacklisting-pirate-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Canadians oppose blacklisting \u201cpirate\u201d websites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadians value their access to an open Internet \u2013 that view is on full display at a proceeding currently underway at the federal telecom and broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). At the end of January, the CRTC published a formal request by a coalition of telecom and media industry players calling itself FairPlay Canada<\/a> to set up a private nonprofit corporation to be called the Internet Piracy Review Agency (IPRA). The stated objective and mandate of the IPRA, if adopted, will be to identify and block websites and other Internet resources \u201cthat are blatantly, overwhelmingly, or structurally engaged in piracy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the three days after the CRTC asked for public comment, nearly 4,000 individuals submitted their views about the proposal. As of writing, 7,762 Canadians have submitted their views. Why did a proposal aimed at curbing online piracy generate such a strong response? What are Canadians concerned about? We analyzed the first 4,000 public response to this industry proposal to better understand why the general public is so against it.<\/p>\n

Canadians for an open Internet<\/strong><\/p>\n

While we don\u2019t want to speculate on the economic and strategic motivations of FairPlay, we think it is critical for policy-makers to appreciate the concerns of Canadians about the proposed extrajudicial blocking regime. Otherwise, we fear that the voice of a narrow coalition of industry interests, in the name of preventing piracy, will suppress legitimate concerns about the unintended consequences of adopting FairPlay\u2019s proposal. To this end, we have analyzed the content of those nearly 4,000 formal submissions to the CRTC. We used quantitative content analysis techniques that allowed us to map statistically significant concepts emphasized by respondents in the text of their submissions, and to examine the relationship among these concepts. We present the results of the analysis with a visual depiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Moving from left to right in the diagram, concerns about \u201cpiracy\u201d (in the beige bubble) that purportedly motivate FairPlay\u2019s proposal are closely associated with \u201cindustry\u201d \u201closing\u201d \u201csubscribers\u201d due to \u201cstreaming.\u201d The key \u201cissue\u201d people have with the proposal appears to be its potential to have a negative impact on access to \u201clegal\u201d \u201cmedia\u201d \u201cpeople\u201d want to \u201cuse\u201d (at the intersection of the beige and red bubbles).<\/p>\n

At the top of the visual depiction, Canadians appear to be reminding policy-makers that they are not pirates and that they already \u201cpay\u201d for digital music and video content from legitimate sources such as \u201ciTunes\u201d and \u201cNetflix.\u201d In the middle of the diagram, a few concepts capture the rational fear of the potential for the proposed regime aimed at protecting \u201ccopyright\u201d to actually \u201cprevent\u201d \u201cinnovation\u201d by restricting access to \u201clegitimate\u201d material. In the concept clusters on the upper right side, respondents emphasize the \u201cvalue\u201d they place on their \u201caccess\u201d to the \u201cInternet,\u201d and why they believe the proposal represents a threat to their desire to live in a \u201cfree\u201d and \u201copen\u201d \u201csociety.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to their CRTC submissions, Canadians believe that the proposal is a \u201cbad\u201d \u201cidea\u201d because it enables \u201ccorporations\u201d and the \u201cgovernment\u201d to restrict \u201cfreedom\u201d of \u201cspeech\u201d and \u201cflow\u201d of \u201cinformation\u201d among \u201ccitizens.\u201d The fear of setting a bad \u201cprecedent\u201d is closely associated with the potential for \u201ccensorship\u201d in the future. Overall, it is easy to see that Canadians tend to view the proposed blocking regime not just in terms of its benefits for fighting \u201cpiracy\u201d; they also perceive that setting up a national blocking regime may be a threat to their economic interests as \u201cconsumers\u201d of \u201clegitimate\u201d \u201cmedia\u201d and of their political \u201crights\u201d as \u201ccitizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

While industry interests in the FairPlay coalition care about financial losses from alleged piracy (by less than 7 percent of households<\/a> according to data submitted by FairPlay to the CRTC), the general public appears to have a more sophisticated long-term view of the problem that takes into account the risk that the proposed national blocking mechanism may have the unintended consequence of restricting access to lawful material.<\/p>\n

Internet governance as a matter of access to information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media coverage of FairPlay Canada has been quick to frame the issue as one of network neutrality<\/a>, but our analysis of Canadians\u2019 contributions shows that many oppose the proposed blocking regime because of its potential to end up limiting their access to lawful information from the global Internet.<\/p>\n

The future of Internet policy will largely be about limits of control. Various technologies are already being used to restrict unlawful access to copyrighted material, without blocking legal content as can happen with blacklists. Emerging data and algorithmic network control systems promise to stop certain crimes, including piracy, before they happen by identifying pirate-like behaviour. The CRTC decision will impact Canadians\u2019 access to the Internet by influencing choices by the telecommunications industry about which technologies they deploy to limit access to unlawful content.<\/p>\n

Judging by their CRTC submissions, Canadians clearly understand the potential of FairPlay\u2019s proposal to restrict their access to legitimate information and to prevent innovation. Lawful material may get caught up in IPRA\u2019s blacklist, and it remains to be seen whether the industry and policy-makers recognize the risk of false-positive errors. Furthermore, it is not evident whether FairPlay\u2019s blocking proposal would actually be effective in curbing piracy because tools to evade IPRA\u2019s blocking regime are easy to access. These include virtual private networks (VPNs) that have legitimate privacy and critical security-enhancing applications<\/a>, which makes it difficult to restrict their use. As motivated pirates bypass IPRA\u2019s blockade, to achieve its objectives the organization will have strong economic incentives to extend the scope of its blacklist, increasing the likelihood of false positive errors without any compensating benefit in terms of reduced piracy rates.<\/p>\n

If policy-makers want to adopt a policy that is in the \u201cpublic interest,\u201d they should carefully weigh the risks that might result from creating an extrajudicial body that has the authority to control Canadians\u2019 access to the open Internet. Canada\u2019s CleanFeed program already blocks access to websites known to be trading in child pornography. The lack of public concern over CleanFeed suggests that Canadians are willing to accept some regulatory restrictions on the Internet. Should the same type of mechanisms be used to address copyright infringement? What is the threshold to warrant adoption of blocking mechanisms? Canadians seem to have given the CRTC clear answers to these questions.<\/p>\n

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.\u00a0<\/em>The authors would like to thank Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Mezei for collecting the data used in this analysis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0Shutterstock\/ By Pasko Maksim<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it.\u00a0<\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ?\u00a0<\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadians value their access to an open Internet \u2013 that view is on full display at a proceeding currently underway at the federal telecom and broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). At the end of January, the CRTC published a formal request by a coalition of telecom and media industry players calling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":239576,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-08-30T06:56:16Z","apple_news_api_id":"eb681911-b488-4393-8d4c-c819c3761a66","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-08-30T06:56:16Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A62gZEbSIQ5ONTMgZw3YaZg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9385,9372,9383],"tags":[8915],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4337],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7136],"class_list":["post-266036","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medias-et-culture","category-recent-stories-fr","category-sciences-et-technologies","tag-acces-a-linformation","irpp-category-science-et-technologie","irpp-tag-medias-et-culture"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Canadians oppose blacklisting \u201cpirate\u201d websites<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2018\/03\/why-canadians-oppose-blacklisting-pirate-websites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Canadians oppose blacklisting \u201cpirate\u201d websites\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Canadians value their access to an open Internet \u2013 that view is on full display at a proceeding currently underway at the federal telecom and broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). 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