Canadian Court Ruling Would Lift Restrictions on U.S. DBS
The rights of Canadian broadcasters are at stake as a result of a new ruling by a Quebec court that would allow Canadians to subscribe to U.S. satellite TV signals, said representatives of the Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft (CASST) in Canada. “We're urging the government to appeal it as quickly as possible,” said CASST Co-Chmn. and Canadian Cable Telecom Assn. (CCTA) Senior Vp Harris Boyd. A spokeswoman for the Satellite Bcstg. & Communications Assn. (SBCA) said the “satellite radio and [TV companies] are thrilled to possibly in the future offer their products to Canadian customers.”
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In a dramatic decision overturning the country’s satellite TV laws, provincial court of Quebec Judge Danielle Cote found 2 sections of Canada’s Radiocommunication Act violated the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms. The sections deal with grey-market satellite systems in Canada that decode U.S. program signals. The judge set a grace period of one year before the ruling would take effect.
The decision was handed down as a result of a court order sought by Quebec citizen Jacques D'Argy. D'Argy and his brother-in-law Richard Theriault were charged in Dec. 1998 with using DirecTV to receive U.S. signals. Judge Cote acquitted them in Sept. 2000, and an appeal by govt. lawyers was rejected in June 2001. The following year, the acquittals were overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeal, which sent the case back to Judge Cote. In 2002, the country’s Supreme Court amended the Radiocommunication Act to make selling technology that allows Canadians to access U.S. satellite signals a federal offense.
The reaction so far has been muted, as interested groups were still studying the 153-page ruling. “Lots of questions are raised in that judgment,” Canada’s Justice Dept. spokeswoman Francine Robichaud said. The Dept. “will take the time to analyze it in detail before deciding whether to appeal.”
But on a conference call, CASST Co-Chmn. Luc Perrault said the decision resulted in open skies and could signal the end of the Canadian broadcasting system: “I don’t think the judge dealt with copyright issues, and this is a very important issue. It’s not for nothing that the representatives of DirecTV who appeared said they can not sell their services in Canada because they don’t own the rights to sell the services.” Perrault, who’s also the vp-regulatory affairs at MeteoMedia/Weather Network, said the change would also make it “virtually impossible to compete” because the U.S. DBS players are up to 100 times larger than the companies in Canada.
An industry attorney in Canada was more positive about the news. “This will give the people the freedom to pay money and subscribe to the stations they want. It is the beginning of the end for the systems we now have,” said Alan Gold, a lawyer for gray-market satellite dealers in Ontario. Boyd said the year-long grace period allows the industry to maintain status quo for the moment, but “in the legal world, a year goes by quickly.” He said the govt. was likely to file an appeal within 2 weeks and that multiple rounds of appeals are likely.
Response to the decision from U.S. DBS operators was cautious. A DirecTV spokesman said it “will have no bearing on our ability to legally provide satellite TV service to Canadians, and in any case, we generally do not have the rights from programmers to distribute their content in Canada.” When asked whether acquiring the rights would change DirecTV’s position, the spokesman only said the company was focussed on its U.S. business. An EchoStar spokesman said the company was still reviewing the decision.
Samsung was positive about the news. “This would really open doors to a new market and it would probably help stop piracy,” said Frank Romeo, dir. of the digital set-top box group at Samsung, which builds satellite receivers for DirecTV: “I'm not sure what DirecTV’s approach will be, but if they start selling the service in Canada, that means more business for Samsung.”