CBC Broadcaster Plans to Release Program DRM-Free Using BitTorrent

Apparently the CBC is one step away from becoming the first major North American broadcaster to freely put out one of its programs without DRM restrictions. How? Well, with the help of BitTorrent. This Sunday, CBC will broadcast Canada Next Great Prime Minister. On Monday, it seems that a high-resolution version will be released through p2p networks without any DRM constraints. This comes as a double gain – on one hand it demonstrates that Canada's public broadcaster is ready to approach alternative ways of distribution, on the other hand it may prove very useful to the establishment of the net neutrality in Canada.

CBS seems eager to stay fair and make its programming "available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means" as its mandate demands. This new form of distribution via BitTorrent gives the CBC the possibility to fulfill its statutory mandate. However, having ISPs such as Rogers involved in non-transparent traffic shaping, may prevent millions of Canadians to fully access programming financed by tax dollars. There’s no doubt that if the CBC experiment is successful, more broadcasters will follow; as for the CRTC – they will no longer ignore to tackle the issue of net neutrality.