Finalists for the 7th annual Canadian New Media Awards (CNMA) were announced yesterday. Judges will be selecting from among the 42 finalists and announcing 14 winners at the awards gala on May 28th at the Carlu.
More information about the 2007 finalists can be found on: http://www.cnma.ca/index_e/07finalists.html.
Tickets to the gala can be purchased at the CNMA website.
Earlier this year, Jonathan Spencer from Thorsteinssons LLP sent in a post about a GST issue for Canadian websites. The issue is mostly resolved, Jonathan sends in the following update...
The federal budget released on March 19, 2007 contains important GST relief for Canadian-based websites. However, some questions remain around Internet access.
Canadian websites faced significant uncertainty because of a court decision which required websites to collect GST on charges to non-residents to access content. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had also taken the view that the rule designed to remove GST from intellectual property provided to non-residents should be read narrowly. Many websites have not collected GST on sales or charges to non-residents leaving them exposed to assessment for GST plus significant penalties and interest for the past four years.
In response to concerns raised by the industry, last night’s budget includes a proposal which removes GST from a broader class of intellectual property. The rule is retroactive to the beginning of GST which means that Canadian websites which have not collected GST to date can breathe easier.
However, there are some important restrictions. Canadian websites must be able to ensure that, where access rights are purchased by a non-resident individual, that individual is outside Canada at the time. This means that websites must be able to track the location of the individual user when they buy access, and must retain those records for four years in the event of audit. GST will also apply if the rights relate to property in Canada, or to a service which itself is subject to GST.
It is not entirely clear whether providing non-residents with access to the Internet is taxable. The CRA regards Internet access as a “telecommunication facility”. The budget proposals do not apply to certain “telecommunications facilities” but it is likely that the intent is to apply tax to certain mobile telephone services. The uncertainty needs to be clarified.
© Jonathan Spencer, Thorsteinssons LLP, Toronto
Interesting initiative happening today at the intersection of social media and music. From the Bum Rush the Charts blog...
"On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street. The track we've chosen is "Mine Again" by the band Black Lab.
If you believe in the power of new media, on March 22nd, 2007, take 99 cents and 2 minutes of your time to join the revolution and make iTunes "Mine Again".
Nice social aspect - every commission made on the sale of 'Mine Again" at itunes will be donated to college scholarships and Black Lab is donating 50% of their earnings to the fund as well.
More info at http://bumrushthecharts.blogspot.com
The Canadian New Media Awards is heading into its 7th year and once again recognizing excellence in the design, development, and implementation of new media projects.
Nominations will be accepted online at www.cnma.ca from 1 February through 2 March, 2007, with special discounts for nominations submitted prior to 16 February. (Plus save an extra $25 if you're an AIMS member!)
The Awards will be presented to winners at a Gala Awards Ceremony in Toronto on May 28, 2007.
Categories, criteria, and all the details are on the CNMA website. The CNMA blog will keep you up-to-date on what's happening over the next few months as we countdown towards the gala event.
AIMS member and volunteer Drew Young, Director of Creative Services for Evolusent sends in the following perspective on the Google/Youtube deal...
The online video landscape is moving at an incredible pace. Google and Apple are embracing this new medium, while others are still trying to find their place.
When people started downloading songs from the Internet, the music industry responded with a series of public service announcements to get trendsetters to evaluate their ethics. Apple stole the show by embracing the change and offering downloaders a friendlier alternative – the iTunes Store. As of February 2006, the iTunes Store has surpassed 1 billion downloads, boasting an average of 969,074 songs per day which represents more than 80% of the worldwide online digital music sales.
Today, advertising and marketing executives in broadcast and film are facing a similar challenge. Broadband video adoption is at an all time high with over 18 billion videos streamed online in 2005 (compared to 4 billion in the previous year). The question on most peoples mind is whether to embrace the Internet video as an emerging distribution channel or wait for the hype to pass like most overnight trends.
Google's recent acquisition of Youtube is the latest break in a series of market indicators that show an increasing commitment by industry leaders to online video.
Google purchased YouTube for 1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. The number of Google’s shares will be determined based on the average closing price 2 days prior to the completion of the acquisition. Yahoo’s previous attempt to purchase this consumer generated video property broke down in the negotiations.
Some question how Google plans to handle the impending lawsuits threatened by content owners that disapprove to having their copyrights violated. Some of YouTube’s content break copyright laws making Google a target for lawyers who have been waiting for a revenue model to appear.
Most agree that there is some uncertainty around the future of broadband television. But while the suits fight for their stake in this emerging landscape, consumers are far more concerned with how much longer they must wait for the gatekeepers to get with the times.
Not one to back down from a fight, new rumors suggest that Microsoft is attempting to buy licenses from Blinkx a service similar to YouTube, except for this interesting twist, video clips are uploaded to Blinkx and the system automatically transcribes the audio into search friendly text, allowing videos to be incredibly searchable.
Phase 1 of OneZone, the Toronto Hydro WiFi network was officially launched yesterday. The area of coverage for the current phase is Front Street to Queen and Spadina to Church.
OneZone is free to all users for 6 months and then subscription charges will apply. The rates will be $29/month, $10/day, $5/hour.
If you're in the downtown core and want to take the new network for a spin you'll need to connect to the One Zone_High Speed Internet and enter a cell phone number. Once you've been identified and validated you'll receive a username and password that will be text messaged to your cell phone.
Has anyone used the new network yet? How was the experience? (I'm a little too far north at the moment but will definitely try it out next time I'm within range.)
