[Ecommerce] Canada: File-sharing law to be tabled next week

[Manon Ress]

More at: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/home.php#406

File-sharing law to be tabled next week: CTV

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1118271756635_30/?hub=CTVNewsAt11

CTV.ca News Staff

The federal government will introduce new legislation aimed at
toughening up copyright laws in the digital world, CTV News has learned.
Still, industry stakeholders who say file sharing is stealing say the
laws are not stringent enough.

About seven million Canadians download music from the Internet and the
Canadian market for music downloads is estimated to be $100 million,
according to The Canadian Independent Record Production Association.

"Somebody once described it as the the celestial jukebox, because you
can find just about anything out there," Internet user Joey de Villa said.

Copyright holders have long been pushing for the federal government to
toughen up laws. While new legislation will be tabled next week,
industry stakeholders say the legal action is still not tough enough.

"Not only is it not as tough as we would like. It doesn't provide the
adequate legal framework that we would like," Graham Henderson, of the
Canadian Recording Industry Association told CTV News.

The new legislation will contain rules that will make it illegal to hack
or break into the digital locks often used to prevent the copying of
movies and software -- although it will remain perfectly legal in Canada
to copy a CD for personal use.

"The digital locks themselves can be used to take away rights that users
already have," University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist told CTV
News.

The legislation also sets up what is called a notice-and-notice regime
to handle complaints of copyright infringement.

Under this system, an Internet service provider will receive a notice
from a copyright holder complaining about violations from its provider's
customers. The ISP would then send a notice to that customer.

"If a father or mother gets a notice from their ISP that they might be
sued because of the activities of their teenaged son or daughter, you
could be pretty well assured that that activity is going to change,"
said Jay Thomson of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers.

This puts the onus on a rights holder to prove a violation has occurred.

But that's still not good enough for de Villa.

"I want to be policed by the police, rather than by the record
companies," he said.

This legislation likely won't become law until later this year and
experts say it may only be the first of several changes to the legal
environment on music downloading. They expect entertainment industry
heavyweights to continue pushing to banish Internet-based file sharing.

Last month, Canadian record labels were dealt another legal blow in
their quest to curtail online music sharing.

In a unanimous decision, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the
Canadian Recording Industry Association's appeal to oblige Internet
service providers to release the names and addresses of 29 people
alleged to be trading music with Net surfers.

As well, the judges refrained from making sweeping conclusions on
copyright laws -- specifically about whether downloading or uploading
music should be illegal.
--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
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