By David Farrell
CBC must stop destruction of its audio archives
The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation (CBMF) is fighting the CBC’s plan to destroy almost a million acetate transcriptions, audio and video tapes and other legacy master-recordings.
Radio-Canada intends to preserve its master recordings after making digital copies, but CBC has opted only to rely on digital copies.
The CBMF, which has been fighting to preserve this country’s radio and television legacy since 2001, requested a delay of the destruction to finalize plans for alternative custody and preservation of these unique, publicly-owned cultural assets.
CBC has apparently declined to alter its corporate timetable.
“It is truly disturbing,” said Kealy Wilkinson, CBMF’s Executive Director, “that at a time when Canada is finally committed to sustain and support indigenous cultures, it has become the first developed nation to systematically destroy master-recordings of its largest audiovisual heritage collection, our English-language radio and television artefacts.”
Canadian arts and cultural advocates, including ACTRA, and Actra Fraternal Benefits Society (AFBS) are calling on the CBC to stop the destruction of these valuable archives and work with the Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation and the Department of Canadian Heritage to permanently protect an irreplaceable record of Canada’s twentieth-century history.
The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation (CBMF) is a not-for-profit charitable foundation working in the public interest to preserve and provide public access to Canada’s history, culture and broadcasting heritage.
Media contact: Kealy Wilkinson, Executive Director, Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation, Email: cbmf0fmcr@gmail.com, Phone: 416-367-4772.
Voltage Pictures case before top court threatens internet privacy, lawyer says
The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing an appeal from Rogers Communications Thursday about whether it has the right to charge fees for providing personal information about its subscribers to a copyright holder.
The fees would pay for the 20 to 30 minutes Rogers says it takes to verify the identity of each of its subscribers accused of illegally downloading movies made by Voltage Pictures, the creator of the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker and Dallas Buyers Club. – Leslie MacKinnon, iPolitics
‘OK Google, find me a job'
The technology giant announced Thursday that it had rolled out new search capabilities for Canadian users, allowing job seekers to browse postings that can be filtered by commute distance, job title and time commitment within the Google search engine. – CTV News
Online streaming services face '30% made in Europe' law
Netflix, Amazon and other online streaming services will have to dedicate 30% of their output to TV shows and films made in Europe, which they must subsidise, under the terms of a new EU law agreed in Brussels on Thursday.
As well as the “Netflix quota”, the streaming services will have to fund European TV series and films, either by directly commissioning the content or contributing to national film funds – Jennifer Rankin, The Guardian
