This has always been a problem with bittorrent of course; ISPs using traffic shaping to throttle bittorrent traffic, even if the torrents involved link to legally distributable material. The ISPs simply have no way of knowing and so those who throttle bittorrent traffic do so indiscriminately under the excuse that the protocol is too heavy and hurting other users.

The problem takes on another dimension when said throttling policy limits the CBC directly in performing its mandate:

> …the programming provided by the Corporation should: [...] be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose

(emphasis mine)

Now what will happen? My hope is that CBC will take this further. The old argument of “only crooks use bittorrent” is — if it wasn’t earlier — now gone. Canadian ISPs and Bittorrent