Canadian Filmmakers on Thursday expressed concerns over the intentional “slowing down” of several Internet Service Providers to stop congestion of internet traffic to its websites, saying that it might affect their distribution of videos and other programming on the web.
It was learned that most of the independent movie makers and even television productions have shifted to peer-to-peer online sites to distribute or sell their films.
Hundreds of filmmakers and producers are making more money online than in broadcast time at studios in Hollywood.
The employment of Internet traffic-management by the major ISPs in Canada has slowed down websites, including BitTorrent sites, which was commonly used by the industry to transfer large amount of data like movies.
A producer of Toronto-based Strada Films, Brad Fox, said that as the market for movies disappeared, such as those of the Canadian TV, the only avenue left for filmmakers to make money is through the Internet.
On Thursday, Fox discussed the issue with the executives of the Canadian media and Telecommunications Commission in a bid to rule out the traffic management system being implemented by the country’s largest ISPs, including the Bell Canada Inc.
BitTorrent works by cutting large files into smaller pieces before distributing them to different users using peer-to-peer file sharing technology. But BitTorrent has fast become synonymous with piracy due to the nature of files being shared in the website.
The technology gain popularity to users since it is easy, faster, and cheaper to use. Last year, hundreds of filmmakers and media organizations in Canada used the file-sharing sites to distribute most of its videos and other software.
One of the common users of the said technology is the CBC, a television network, and Activision Blizzard, a popular video game maker.
CBC used BitTorrent site to disseminate video coverage of Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister while Blizzard used it to send out files of the most popular game in its arsenal, World of Warcraft.