Sharing music over Internet not illegal, Federal Court rules

[Viceroy]

This was really big news here in Canada.

Sharing music over Internet not illegal, Federal Court rules
Gillian Shaw
Vancouver Sun

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Canadian Internet music fans can breathe easy with Wednesday's Federal Court decision that will protect them from the prying eyes of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

In a move that marks a blow to the recording industry and online music sellers, computer users who freely share music online were delivered a reprieve from the industry's plan to file lawsuits against 29 John and Jane Does it alleges are high-volume music traders.

Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled Wednesday that the CRIA did not prove there was copyright infringement by the 29 so-called music uploaders. The ruling means Internet service providers won't have to hand over the users' names, a prospect that had already sent a chill through the music-sharing community.

It was more bad news for the recording industry that was already scrambling to denounce a study released on the eve of the court decision by researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The study found, contrary to industry claims, that online file-sharing isn't responsible for the decline in CD sales.

In what analysts termed a stunning decision, von Finckenstein ruled that file-sharing, the uploading and downloading of files over the Internet using shared directories like those on Kazaa, is not illegal under Canadian copyright law, reaffirming what the Copyright Board of Canada has already ruled.

The overriding issue saw the court rule there is no infringement of copyright in the file-sharing practice.

"No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorized the reproduction of sound recordings," Von Finckenstein wrote in his 28-page ruling.

"They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer users via a P2P [peer-to-peer] service."

Von Finckenstein compared the action to a photocopy machine in a library.

"I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy on a shared directory linked to a P2P service," wrote the judge, who was commissioner of competition at the Competition Bureau of Canada from 1997 until last summer when he was appointed to the Federal Court of Canada.

The CRIA vowed to fight the ruling which was cheered by technology and privacy advocates alike.

"It's not just a victory for file sharers, it is a victory for technology itself and for Internet users in Canada," said Howard Knopf, a lawyer with the Ottawa firm Macera and Jarzyna, representing the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Internet Clinic.

"It is a victory for anybody who does research, who is interested in innovation, education -- anything where file-sharing might play a role."

In Canada, the Canadian Recording Industry Association vowed to continue fighting what it calls the "widespread infringement of music copyright on the Internet."

CRIA general counsel Richard Pfohl said the association expects to appeal the decision.

The CIRA motions filed on Feb. 11, if granted would have required Bell/Sympatico, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communciations, Telus Corp. and Videotron Telecom to reveal the identities of subscribers it alleged were sharing music on a large scale.

Not surprisingly, the ruling pleased Sharman Networks, the company behind Kazaa.

"We welcome today's ruling as a win for peer-to-peer technology and its users," said Nikki Hemming, chief executive officer at Sharman Networks, the Australia-based company that owns Kazaa and operates kazaa.com.

"We hope that this decision marks a turning point away from litigation and towards cooperation between peer-to-peer providers and the entertainment industry."

The recording industry was seeking to tie IP (Internet protocol) addresses and names, a method that wouldn't guarantee making a correct identification of people who are heavy file-sharing users.

The ruling dealt with the issue of privacy and striking a balance between privacy and the right of copyright holders and also with the ISP's contention that they should be compensated for the cost of complying with the motion if it were to go through.

The ruling thrilled Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications, whose company had vowed to protect the privacy of its subscribers.

In the U.S. some Internet file sharers were forced to settle for thousands of dollars with the Recording Industry Association of America and Bissonnette said Wednesday's ruling protects Canadians from such actions.

"The CRIA thought they had a slam dunk," he said. "You can look at what's happened in the U.S. and the approach of the recording industry there, which is somewhat bullying."

[davehart]

Good news for file share fans.

The RIAA need to be told they cannot bully people to slide into the monopoly they want, or any similar music organisation for that matter.

[bounce]

The RIAA should take a page out of the CRIA's book... the RIAA are just a bunch of goddamn whiners, out to intimidate people who just simply love music and are fed up of paying outrageous prices for mediocre CDs.

I'm really sick of it all, myself. Congrats to Canada for standing up and pointing out how ridiculous people are being about this whole issue.

[Steven H]

Good reading there...

[QbIx]

It's about time the RIAA got a taste of what they deserve. People don't like bully boy tactics especially when your trying to win over the people who are illegally downloading muisc.

[((-&E-))]

its something there gonna have to get used to...

i dare say that atleast half the population of the world, will have either downloaded music or have a copyed CD in their house, or DVD....

[Mathew]

yea, its crazy, but thats a good decision in the right direction imo! nice read that aswell ...

[WhiteEagle]

that's straight... music sharing is illigal ( like some think) but after all we support it more than anybody else by making the authors of the song who they are today. some people just dont look at the big picture.

[Steven H]

the big picture is important... but it needs to be studied to be understood

[wonderbeen]

I'm moving to Canada

[Andy P]

Floridians don't stand a chance in Canada....you cannot survive our weather.

Anyway, what the article did not mention was the following. It is not saying file sharing is legal, the court said that the ISP's did not have to unmask the 30 people sued by the CDN RIAA because the law protected them. This is a long, long way from being done and this will end up in the Supreme Court of Canada to decide it because neither side will budge. The CDN RIAA is a weak little organization taking on the big boys. See most CDN ISP's are Cable companies who have cellphones and the cable and the tv (all bundled). So the CDN RIAA is taking on very big cdn companies with a lot of money, lot of resources and the will to fight. It is Telus (of BC), Shaw Corp of Calgary, Bell of Toronto, Rogers of Toronto and Videotron of Montreal vs. the CDN RIAA. The first 4 are in the top 20 biggest companies in our country. This is a shallow legal victory right now because if the court had ordered the other way, the companies would have appealed and gone to a higher court. This is will end up in the Supreme Court in a year or two.

[Viceroy]

[wonderbeen]

Lol, you're probably right about not surviving the cold there. But I did spend a few years in North Dakota. Brrrrrr It was really really cold there. I think I'll be able to adjust.