TORONTO — Asian Television Network International (ATN) appears to have high hopes the federal government’s Copyright Act review, launched April 14, will put an end to the piracy of television and movie content in Canada.
ATN, Canada’s largest South Asian broadcaster, has long blamed content piracy for its declining revenues (which we’ve reported on numerous times, including here, here, here and here).
Last Thursday, in a press release titled “Purging the Piracy Parasite – ATN Applauds Government Initiative”, the broadcaster says it is “encouraged” by the copyright legislation review and public consultation process announced jointly by Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault and Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
ATN “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,” reads ATN’s press release.
“We applaud this progressive initiative and sincerely thank both the Honorable Ministers and the Government of Canada for taking their leadership and initiative,” adds Shan Chandrasekar, president and CEO of ATN, in the press release.
Among other things the company says it also finds encouraging recently is the effort of Bell Media, Groupe TVA and Rogers Media to jointly engage in legal action to combat piracy — which resulted initially in the Federal Court’s site-blocking order in November 2019, which ordered ISPs to block GoldTV. (Since then, TekSavvy launched an appeal against the site-blocking order, which Bell, TVA and Rogers then opposed, and which TekSavvy continues to pursue.)
In concluding its press release (a wide-ranging missive that touched on the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and net neutrality), ATN writes: “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 forever.”
