An Open Letter to the CRTC

Canadian Content laws need to change. There's a reason Canada is one of the top torrenting countries in the world, and it isn't because we're cheap and just don't want to pay. It's because these outdated content laws prevent us from having access to the things Canadians want to see.


The Canadian government is essentially forcing its citizens to look at illegal alternatives to see the programming they want to see. If you're going to allow American companies to harass your citizens for exploiting these alternatives, you need to change the content laws to reflect the wants to your citizens. It is absolutely clear that Canadians want a change to this system, evidenced by the mountain of harassing emails they're receiving.

The fact is, Canada produces MUCH less entertainment than the US. Punishing the citizens with these strict content laws do not help the Canadian entertainment industry. It only embitters the citizens. Especially since many Canadians do not even understand why their access to their favorite shows or movies is restricted.

These rules made sense in a time when television was all there was. But with Netflix and it's ilk things need to change.

If you agree things need to change, spread this message and make the Canadian government(The CRTC) realize that this is not acceptable. The entertainment industry around the world has come a long way since these content laws were passed. Forcing your people to become criminals in order to access this content is wrong and things need to change.

Especially in light of the fact that Nova Scotia has recently taken steps to effectively eliminate the entertainment industry in the province. It's unfair to force companies like Netflix to limit the content they're allowed to show us while at the same time limiting our own ability to create content.

I'm all for preserving the television and film arts in Canada, but not at the cost of criminalizing the citizens who crave content from outside of our borders. If you want these rules to continue to apply to broadcast television and productions that are made in Canada, that's fine. What isn't fine is allowing international corporations harass your citizens for finding ways to get the content they crave when we're more than willing to pay for the content that you simply won't allow us legal access to.