FCC verdict in on music downloading case

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Canada court refuses to crack down on music swaps

Reuters, 03.31.04, 5:46 PM ET

 

By Randall Palmer

 

OTTAWA (Reuters) - People who swap songs on the Internet in Canada can remain anonymous after a Canadian court decision Wednesday.

 

The Federal Court of Canada rejected a request from the country's biggest music producers that it order Internet service providers to identify music swappers.

 

It was a setback for the music companies, which had targeted 29 large-volume song swappers in a test case to try to stem the downloading of music, which deprives them of revenue.

 

Federal Court Judge Konrad von Finckenstein, formerly Canada's competition commissioner, ruled that the music companies had failed to make a clear case of infringement and a case that public interest outweighed privacy concerns.

 

He noted that Canada's Copyright Act allows downloading of songs for personal use. And he pointed to a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on photocopying, which established that setting up facilities that allow copying does not amount to authorizing infringement.

 

"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 (peer-to-peer) service," he wrote.

 

"The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution."

 

The music companies involved included the Canadian units of giants Universal Music and EMI Music .

 

Most of the Internet service providers, including BCE Inc. , Telus Corp., Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. objected to the request to identify their clients.

 

Canada's music industry is the sixth largest in the world by sales.

 

The industry has been encouraged by signs that U.S. court action against pirates is slowing illegal downloading. The London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says the number of copyrighted music files hosted on networks has fallen about 20 percent in the past year due in part to industry anti-piracy actions.

 

The U.S. music industry has sued almost 2,000 alleged music swappers since September.

 

And it is threatening more suits as Web sites that offer free file-sharing abilities move their operations out of the reach of the U.S. legal system.

 

The Internet became an option as a tool for downloading free music when Napster was created in 1999 and files could be shared through various computers.

 

As Napster downloads went up, CD sales went down, prompting a lawsuit from the Recording Industry Association of America.

 

By the summer of 2000 Napster was ordered to stop distributing copyrighted recordings, a motion that was held up in U.S. district court.

 

Napster has since returned as a pay site, which competes with, among other sites, Apple computer's online iTunes Music store. Canada's own online music store, PureTracks, was launched last year.

 

Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service

 

Great news for those who download music on the Internet.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Oh, THAT FCC. I thought maybe you meant the dipshit U.S. FCC.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Oh, THAT FCC. I thought maybe you meant the dipshit U.S. FCC.

I would have put Federal Court of Canada, but it wouldn't fit.

[CanadianChris 0]

One more reason why it's great to be Canadian.

 

*waves Maple Leaf*

[Guest OctoberBlood]

That's cool. Hopefully, it's only a matter of time for us..

[MrRant 0]

Perhaps change it to FCC (Canada).

[NoCalMike 0]

I hope our FCC is watching.

[Highland 0]

Good news for us. The guy from nyc I talked to told me about this earlier and he's not too happy about it. Jealous. -g-

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Good news for us. The guy from nyc I talked to told me about this earlier and he's not too happy about it. Jealous. -g-

There's really nothing to be afraid of here, really. They're just nailing heads to the wall and leaving "THIS COULD BE YOU" signs behind.