David Akin pointed me to this article in the Ottawa Citizen which describes CRTC initiatives aimed at getting the cablecos to pay into a fund that would support, "the creation of high-quality, high-cost, scripted Canadian broadcasting content in the new media."

In it, Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory [affairs?] for Rogers Corp. is quoted saying,

"We're a dumb pipe. We don't know what you're downloading ... so how can we be responsible for the content?"

Wasn't it just yesterday that the providers of end-user Internet connections were caught red-handed managing BitTorrent, VOIP, pro-choice family planning messages and anti-Bush lyrics? Wasn't it just the day before that they said Google & Co. wasn't gonna use their pipes for free?

Oh, I get it. They're OK with categorizing content when they stand to MAKE money, but dead set against it when they stand to PAY money. There are higher principles at stake than Internet freedom, I guess.

By David Isenberg, Principal Prosultant(sm), isen.com, LLC. Visit the blog maintained by David Isenberg here.

Related topics: Access Providers, Broadband, Net Neutrality, P2P, Policy & Regulation, Telecom, Web