p2pnet.net News:- In the US, the entertainment industry has succeeded in pressuring Congress to the extent that a bill which equates file sharing with manslaughter only awaits president George W. Bush’s signature.

In Canada, Producing the identities of Internet users alleged of wrongdoing happens so regularly, says a lawyer for Videotron, that he’s bewildered as to why other ISPs are fighting a motion from the music industry to hand over the names of people who share large volumes of songs online.

So says the intro to a Canadian Press story on yesterday`s hearing in which the Big Four record labels attempted to convince three justices to overturn a previous Canadian court ruling to force Canadian ISPs to hand over the IP addresses of 29 customers.

The court is now considering the submissions.

In the meanwhile, Videotron has always been more than happy to oblige the corporate music cartel in its efforts to introduce its anti-p2p, anti-file sharing sue ‘em all campaign into Canada.

“We do it on a regular basis, CP quotes company lawyer Serge Sasseville as saying, referring to the disclosure of personal information hidden by IPO addresses.

“It’s irresponsible, and many believe to be a violation of privacy rights under a Canadian law called The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), to disclose peronal information of customers to third parties without a court order,” says Digital Copyright Canada’s Russell McOrmond.

“That court order will require that the party disclose evidence of wrongdoing, and the CRIA member in this case (BMG) didn’t provide that evidence.

“If it’s something that’s done on a regular basis, then they’d understand that evidence would be required to get past PIPEDA.”

Videotron’s eagerness to accommodate the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America) isn’t surprising owned, as it is, by Quebecor.

‘Well-stocked catalogue’
In late 2003, Quebecor’s Archambault Group, a Quebecor Media subsidiary and the largest Quebec-based distributor and retailer of recorded music, came out with a radio, tv and newspaper “awareness” project “similar to the RIAA campaign” against p2p file sharing.

Archambault president Natalie Larivière wanted “the worst offenders” to be “targeted on a regular basis, without advance warning.

She also thought it would be necessary to offer an alternative in the form of “a well-stocked catalogue” – supplied,of course, by the Big Four labels although “well-stocked” isn’t a term one can readily apply to the offerings of EMI, UMG, Sony BMG and Warner.

Videotron is the sole ISP not fighting the request to turn over the names, says CP. The other ISPs argue they are simply looking out for the interests of their customers. Some argued that an IP address doesn’t necessarily lead to the actual person doing the alleged uploading since it only reveals the account holder. Many people could be using the same computer, they say.

Dance to the music …
In the meanwhile, getting the identities of the 29 isn`t the point. It’s merely a tiny part of a huge and complex, international game plan.

The cartel, with its many alphabet soup enforcement organizations such as the CRIA, RIAA, IFPI, BPI, ARIA, JRIA, and so on, wants file sharing stopped. Dead.

It wants to control how, and by whom, music is distributed online.

Getting Canada`s copyright laws amended is a component and in this respect, Big Music is getting a lot of help from the current Canadian government whose heritage minister, Liza Frulla, is willing to dance to its tune.

She`s already said publicly that she wants to change Canada`s antiquated copyright laws.

If she does, she`ll be playing right into the hands of the entertainment industry which desperately wants to continue doing business as if it`s still in the physical 1990s instead of the digital 21st century.

However, it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that Paul Martin’s scandal-ridden Liberal party will be forced to hold another election in the near future.

So stay tuned.

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
George W. Bush’s signature – File sharing equals manslaughter, p2pnet, April 21, 2005
Canadian Press – Videotron ready to comply if ordered to identify those accused of song piracy, April 21, 2005
29 customers – Canada’s 29, p2pnet, April 21, 2005
dance to its tune – Frulla backs Big Music, p2pnet, April 5, 2005

This entry was posted on Friday, April 22nd, 2005 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 3928 times