Canada Still Safe Haven For Pirates In 2004
This time of year a lot of publications, media outlets and tech websites love to roll out what they think the biggest stories of the year were in the world of technology.
In Canada, the biggest story of the year had to be a Federal court ruling on March 31, when the highest ranking court in the Great White North deemed that Peer to Peer (P2P) file-sharing was in fact legal and that groups like the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CIRA), could not sue file swappers.
The ruling meant that users of P2P networks like Kazaa and Limewire could continue to download and distribute music and media files to their hearts content, and not fear being sued in court.
The court's main reason for ruling in favor of file swappers was because of the Canadian Copyright Act (CCA).
In the mid 1990's, record companies lobbied the Canadian government to levy an extra tax on the sale of blank CD's and DVD's in an effort to ensure that artists received some sort of compensation for their work.
The Canadian government agreed, and amended the CCA in 1997 to include the new levy, however there were also some other amendments made to the act at the time.
The main amendment was made in the area of fair use.
Essentially the CCA states that if you buy a CD or other media you do have the right to "back-up" the media to your computer and burn as many copies of the media as you want. You may also share the media with other users across a network as long as you or the individual who obtains a copy of the media do not profit from the transaction in any way.
"The Federal Court decision certainly wasn't good news," said CIRA President Graham Henderson at the time of the ruling.
And to further boost the government's position on fair use, in June the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that ISPs could not be held responsible for any customers who may violate international or domestic copyright laws, and could not be forced by groups like CIRA to reveal file swappers identities.
These ruling are in stark contrast to what is going on in the U.S. where at least 1,000 file swappers have been sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement.
In Canada, the biggest story of the year had to be a Federal court ruling on March 31, when the highest ranking court in the Great White North deemed that Peer to Peer (P2P) file-sharing was in fact legal and that groups like the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CIRA), could not sue file swappers.
The ruling meant that users of P2P networks like Kazaa and Limewire could continue to download and distribute music and media files to their hearts content, and not fear being sued in court.
The court's main reason for ruling in favor of file swappers was because of the Canadian Copyright Act (CCA).
In the mid 1990's, record companies lobbied the Canadian government to levy an extra tax on the sale of blank CD's and DVD's in an effort to ensure that artists received some sort of compensation for their work.
The Canadian government agreed, and amended the CCA in 1997 to include the new levy, however there were also some other amendments made to the act at the time.
The main amendment was made in the area of fair use.
Essentially the CCA states that if you buy a CD or other media you do have the right to "back-up" the media to your computer and burn as many copies of the media as you want. You may also share the media with other users across a network as long as you or the individual who obtains a copy of the media do not profit from the transaction in any way.
"The Federal Court decision certainly wasn't good news," said CIRA President Graham Henderson at the time of the ruling.
And to further boost the government's position on fair use, in June the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that ISPs could not be held responsible for any customers who may violate international or domestic copyright laws, and could not be forced by groups like CIRA to reveal file swappers identities.
These ruling are in stark contrast to what is going on in the U.S. where at least 1,000 file swappers have been sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement.
posted by James Mason at 11:27 PM
1 Comments:
In the words of David Bowie - "You shouldn't sue your customers".
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