Canadian ISP resists Big Music
Canadian ISPs don’t want to become “the music industry’s detectives,” says Joel Watson, a lawyer representing Telus Corp.
His remark came during the opening of the case in which Big Music is trying to gain an order forcing Canadian ISPs to name people alleged to have broken copyrights by sharing music online.
“This is not a case of a client being asked to walk to a filing cabinet and pull a specific document,” said Watson, quoted in a CanWest story here.
“The process is not as simple or as easy as the music industry suggests.”
With the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) as a front, the five major international record labels, are demanding that the Federal Court of Canada compel the ISPs to hand over the identities of customers.
Twenty-nine of the providers’ clients are, “pirates who have been openly and illegally distributing thousands of digital music files over public networks”, say CRIA president Brian Robertson and association lawyer Richard Pfohl.
In the firing line are Bell/Sympatico, Rogers Communications Inc, Shaw Communications Inc, TELUS Corporation and Videotron Telecom Ltd.
Yesterday, however, justice Konrad von Finckenstein adjourned the proceedings until March 12 because he wanted to know more about the motion’s ‘technical requirements,’ and how it would affect privacy legislation.
The CRIA’s American equivalent, the notorious RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), today announced it’s suing a further 531 people it claims have been sharing music owned and controlled by Big Music companies.
February 18th, 2004 at 3:37 pm
I should be able to go online and down load songs for about 25 cents each. Thats about $4 to $5 a cd. Leave file swapping alone and compete with it. These gangsters are out dated and operate at too high a price. privacey should not be invaded for profit.
February 19th, 2004 at 9:25 pm
Yeah, well ISP’s have more s*it to do that play cop for users than help them generate revenue. Plus they don’t have the infrastructure in place nor the incentive to track it down.
In addition the burden of proof is still there to prove that you
i) don’t own the private rights to the music
ii) are distributing it to someone who doesn’t own the private rights.
It’s funny how much time and money these organizations can waste instead of making the cost of CDs REASONABLE so clamping down is actually justified. It’s not like the big 3 are hurting.