TORONTO, April 29, 2021 /CNW/ - ASIAN TELEVISION
NETWORK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED (ATN) (TSXV: SAT) is happy to
welcome what may well turn out to be the moment of the beginning of
the end of distribution of pirated television and movie content by
organized crime in Canada and also
of its corresponding underground cash economy and activities
related to that.
We are encouraged in this by the very recent joint announcement
of The Honorable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage
and The Honorable François-Philippe
Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
which relates to a review of existing copyrights and related
legislation and public consultations process followed by an
overhaul of the same as deemed necessary. Law is always in the
process of catching up with technology and especially so as relates
to the internet.
'We applaud this progressive initiative and sincerely thank both
the Honorable Ministers and the Government of Canada for taking their leadership and
initiative,' said Dr. Shan
Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN.
We are also encouraged by the fact that the Canada US Mexico
Agreement CUSMA came into force in July
2020. As a signatory Canada
has to have its laws amended or revamped such piracy and
infringement of IP rights and to that end, amongst other things, as
per US Trade Representative, by:
- Granting of Ex officio authority to law enforcement
officials to stop suspected counterfeit or pirated goods at every
phase of entering, exiting, and transiting through the territory of
any Party.
- Express recognition that IP enforcement procedures must be
available for the digital environment for trademark and copyright
or related rights infringement.
- Meaningful criminal procedures and penalties for unauthorized
camcording of movies, which is a significant source of pirated
movies online.
- Civil and criminal penalties for satellite and cable signal
theft and criminal penalties for eradication of watermarks.
We are encouraged by the fact that in the very recent past a
similar initiative on Counterfeiting, which impacted the fashion
and couturier industry much the same way IP piracy has impacted
media and cultural industry, led to the signing of the signing of
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement by Canada in October 2011
and following that, in the process of meeting the obligations set
thereunder, Canada enacted an entire Statute aptly named 'Combating
Counterfeit Products Act' which was given Royal Accent on 9
December 2014.
And we are encouraged by the fact that we do have the courts and
their unlimited inherent jurisdiction and that in our
jurisprudential system the concept of 'For every wrong there is a
remedy' is well and alive.
And, last but not the least, ATN takes great pride in the fact
that some of the industry leaders, namely, Bell Media Inc., Groupe
TVA Inc. and Rogers Media Inc., have taken a joint initiative and
are engaged in a litigation process in aid of combating piracy.
ATN supports net neutrality and does so fully and unequivocally
not only from a sense of civic responsibility but also, being a
small stake holder, out of pure self-interest. What is Net
Neutrality? A discerning Net Neutrality or a blind one? An
egalitarian ideal or a battle cry of a cult movement?
A blind Net Neutrality which does not distinguish between legal
and illegal is prone to be abused and indeed is abused by organized
crime at one level as it is abused by demagogues in the process of
dismantling democratic institutions and governments.
Net neutrality is not a new concept of this age. It is at the
very basis of our system of democracy. Equal treatment under the
law is guaranteed under our Bill of Rights and that is neutrality
at its core. Our ancestors handled it in the form of 'carriage
neutrality' more than a century ago and they did so without any
fret or sweat by keeping things very simple. The same 'carriage
neutrality' endures under the current Canada Transportation Act and
it is still immune against any abuse on account of its sheer
simplicity. But they did not allow that carriage neutrality to
permit, or worse still, to mandate carriage of stolen goods or
toxic goods.
If the key provision currently in place relating to the issue of
net neutrality was as clear as what was the case in US under the
Obama Bright Line Rules (since revoked under Trump) piracy may have
been kept under leash if not totally abolished. Those Rules
were:
- "A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet
access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not
block lawful content, applications, services, or
non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network
management. (emphasis added)
- A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet
access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not
impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of
Internet content, application, or service, or use of a
non-harmful device, subject to reasonable network
management. (emphasis added)
- A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet
access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not
engage in paid prioritization."
Another example is Canada Post. It is required to and does
operate on a 'mail neutrality' mode. The fact that it has powers to
intercept, open and deal with issues related to the content if
those are toxic or illegal, does not take away from the fact that
it does so in fulfilling that ideal of neutrality.
Canada needs a strong and
healthy cultural industry which grows to its full potential and for
that is only possible if the parasite of piracy is purged out of
the system for ever.
About ATN-Asian Television Network International
Limited
ATN serves Canada's diverse cultural communities with
over 50 specialty television channels. The Company offers its
flagship ATN-HD general interest service along with 7 other general
interest channels, 3 sports Channels, 7 news Channels, 5 Bollywood
movie channels and a variety of channels that include music,
lifestyle, and several regional language channels that includes
Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati & Marathi. ATN has been
a pioneer in the Production of Multicultural Television Programming
in Canada. ATN has programming
alliances with leading international broadcasters like Sony
Entertainment Television, Viacom, India
Cast, Zee Network, Doordarshan, Times Television, B4U, NDTV,
Republic TV, ABP News Network, Jaya TV, ARY, FOOD FOOD Network and
many more. ATN is also a pioneer broadcaster of Cricket in
Canada and has exclusive broadcast
rights for various International Cricket Boards. ATN has its own
State Of The Art Production facilities. ATN's content is also
available on Amazon Prime in USA & UK and also operates a
24X7 South Asian Radio Service on Sirius XM Radio across
The United States and Canada. ATN channels are available on various
Cable, Satellite and licensed Platforms across Canada like Shaw Cable, Bell TV, Rogers Cable,
Bell Fibe TV, TELUS Optic TV, Shaw Direct, Cogeco Cable, Videotron,
V-Media and Others.
For more information please visit www.asiantelevision.com
We rely on safe harbour provision.
SOURCE Asian Television Network International Limited