Canadian mp3 tax collectors
p2p news / p2pnet: "Music-loving federal tax collectors in B.C. used government computer servers to store and share more than 800 pirated MP3 files, according to an internal investigation report, " says the Vancouver Sun, emphasising it obtained the document through the Access to Information Act.
The files were, "only uncovered during routine maintenance of the Canada Revenue Agency’s network," the story states. "The possession of MP3 files can potentially cause a storage burden on CRA’s networks as well as the possibility of breaking copyright infringement laws," says the CRA report, also saying, "a total of seven CRA employees in B.C. were found to have MP3 files on their computers".
According to a recent report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, "Canadians download more pirated music than the residents of any other country," states the Vancouver Sun categorically, probably referring to the the OECD Information Technology Outlook report for 2004.
However, the OECD study says nothing of the kind.
In fact, the US accounted for more half the total the world’s file-sharers, followed by Germany (10.2%), Canada (8.0%) and France (7.8%), reported the OECD, stating that governments around the world should develop new policies to balance the interests of suppliers, and consumers, providing protection for intellectual property rights, but making it easier to distribute music and other content online.
The OECD also said about a third of all Net users in OECD countries, France, the United States, the UK, Germany, and others, have downloaded files from p2p networks.
Meanwhile, five of the people cited by the CAR, "had only a handful of songs on the server, but one employee was storing 117 and another 733," says the story. But the 733 files were, "placed in a folder titled ‘music’ that was ’set up so that anyone logged on to CRA’s networks could gain access to these files’," the story says, still quoting the CAR document.
It’s interesting to see the files described as ‘pirated’ with the images that evokes
"We need to be clear that the use and sharing of mp3 files may have been authorized by the copyright holders, and that the existence of mp3 files or the use of peer-to-peer software doesn’t itself constitute or prove copyright infringement," says Digital Copyright Canada’s Russell McOrmond (top right).
"It’s this fact, not problems in Canadian Copyright law, that caused the major labels to loose their case in front of the federal court when trying to get the names of 29 people using peer-to-peer sharing tools."
In March, 2004, "We are confident that the court will require internet service providers to disclose the identities of alleged digital music infringers," said CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America) general counsel Richard Pfohl .
However, Justice Konrad von Finckenstein decided, "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."
McOrmond says the situation with the unauthorized downloading of music in Canada was complicated by the music and recording industry itself when it lobbied for, and obtained from past heritage minister Sheila Copps, the controversial Private Copying regime.
"It essentially said the making of private copies, regardless of source, was not an infringement," states McOrmond.
"The interpretation of the federal court and the copyright board has been that this makes the unauthorized downloading of music for personal use not an infringement. The unauthorized uploading or sharing of music is not covered by the regime, suggesting unauthorized sharing is just as illegal in Canada as it is in other countries."
Also See:
Vancouver Sun – Tax collectors caught with pirated MP3 files, January 9, 2006
digital music infringers – Keep on downloading! Cdn file sharers told, March 31, 2004
January 11th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Grow up, news reporters. Probably half the people in any office have music on their computers that they listen to while they work. I’d love to be outraged at the goverment money-wasters on the CCRA staff too, but this is too trivial to be worth anyone’s attention.