I came across an article via Darren Barefoot recently, pointing to a “group of artists” suggesting that the Internet should be subject to the same kind of Canadian content rules as broadcast media. For those of you from other countries who might be unfamilliar with the concept of CanCon, it is essentially a law that states that a certain percentage of what is broadcast must be created in Canada or by Canadians. For a country struggling to maintain its own identity when located right next door to the US, it makes a lot of sense because it prevents our own broadcasters from simply filling the stations with US content, and never giving our artists and, by extention, our culture, a chance.

Of course, the reason it works is because broadcast media are corporately controlled, and the artists themselves have no say in it. Thus, government steps in. The idea, however, that the Internet could or should be subject to the same kinds of regulation is absolutely ludicrous. ACTRA (the Canadian version of SAG), is the only group mentioned in this article, and its spokesperson, Richard Hardacre, also says that artists should get paid every time Canadian content is beamed into someone’s house.

There’s no question – it would be wonderful if there was more Canadian content on the web. So, Canadian artists, you want more presence on the web? Do it. Act and sing your hearts out and put it online. There’s no barrier to entry here, other than being able to figure out how to use YouTube.

The irony, of course, is that Canadian artists CAN’T promote themselves on the web, because of precisely the organization that wants the government to mandate more CanCon. As it stands, members of ACTRA cannot use the web either for self-promotion or as a vehicle for showcasing their own work unless they are paid for it. In fact, I had lunch with a friend in Toronto today who is a very successful working actor, and I asked her why she wasn’t doing comedy shorts online to promote herself, and her answer was that she’d looked into it, really wants to, but the union will not allow it.

This is simply a case of a labour union made up of bitter, failed actors trying to exercise their bureaucratic voice (against the will of the artists it represents, from my experience) to attempt to milk more money out of the government that they simply do not deserve. This sense of entitlement to public funds drives me absolutely crazy, especially when faced with a world-wide medium with zero creative limitations, and the inherent ability to monetize it. But instead of working to make the web a viable channel for Canadian artists to be showcased around the world and to earn money for their work, they demand the government to give them the Web on their terms.

It simply doesn’t work that way. Prevent your members from using the web for self-promotion, and you lose the opportunity to show Canadian culture to the world, because everyone will just go elsewhere. You want to charge per-view royalties for Canadian actors to appear online?  It’s simply not worth the risk to content producers. Agencies and entertainment companies will get (frankly, usually better) actors from the U.S. whose union doesn’t have its head up its own ass, and once again, it’s your members who lose out.

And don’t get me wrong, I come from a background of theatre, and I am 100% in favour of the arts being funded by the government, and for artists to be properly compensated for their work – it’s an absolute necessity for a country to have a thriving culture. As it stands, actors doing web-only work are well compensated for their efforts. But putting on a play, producing a television show – these things take money. Taping a comedy short and uploading it to YouTube does not, and attempting to force Canadians to consume Canadian culture online is a recipe for a disasterous failure for Canadian culture.

ACTRA and the other mysterious groups of artists claim to want to give Canadian artists a voice, but the internet has already given the artists a voice. Make no mistake, this lobbying effort has nothing at all to do with artists and everything to do with out-of-touch bureaucratic organizations trying to dig their greedy paws into something they see as making money, without regard for the artists it claims to represent.