Big Music’s Cdn file share case fails
p2pnet.net News:- Big Music’s attempt to use the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) to sue Canadian file sharers in the same way the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sues Americans who swap music online has failed.
It can’t move without first identifying 29 people it claims have swapped unauthorised music files and it can’t do that without a court order compelling the ISPs with whom the 29 have their Internet accounts to reveal names. Four of the five ISPs the CRIA is trying to cow just aren’t cooperating.
And now Justice Konrad von Finckenstein has ruled that putting music into a computer directory that may, or may, not be shared by someone else online doesn’t constitute copyright infringement under Canadian law.
He said “… it is obvious in my mind the plaintiffs have not:
- “Made out a prima facie case (their affidavit evidence is deficient, they have not: made a causal link between P2P pseudonyms and IP addresses and they have not made out a prima facie case of infringement),
- “Established that the ISPs are the only practical source for the identity of the P2P pseudonyms; and
- “Established that the public interest for disclosure outweighs the privacy concerns in light of the age of the data.”
Page 14 of the decision refers to Section 80(1) of the Canadian Copyright Act and reads in part:
“Subject to subsection (2), the act of reproducing all or any substantial part of (a) a musical work embodied in a sound recording, onto an audio recordsing medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the musical work, the performer’s performance or the sound recording.
“Thus, dowloading a song for personal use does not amount to infringement.
“No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorised the reproduction of sound recordings. They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer user(s) via a P2P service.”
March 31st, 2004 at 8:14 pm
God Bless Canada!
March 31st, 2004 at 9:45 pm
b/c we seem to embrace common sense much better than our American cousins
beautiful
March 31st, 2004 at 9:51 pm
Shaw was most vocal in its protests and I applaude them
while Videotron (Quebecorp) rolled over immediately without considering it’s customers rights or desires, I despise them
April 4th, 2004 at 11:16 pm
Videotron is owned by Archambault, who is Quebec’s largest distributor of music. It seems that Archambault just acquired media channels to push products, whereas other ISPs are actually in the business of offering communication services, not goods.
April 8th, 2004 at 1:44 pm
?? what about dl’n software or games is that illegal still?