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Canadian Supreme Court To Define ISP Role

Posted by Hemos on from the the-battle-royale dept.

Ubergrendle writes "The CBC is reporting that the Canadian Supreme Court is hearing a case regarding copyright royalties and the responsibilities of ISPs both here and abroad. From the article: 'The people who represent Canadian artists say everyone who has a hand in transmitting recorded music is liable. "Creative people should be compensated for the use and exploitation of their music," said Paul Spurgeon, general counsel for the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. "We're obviously in a struggle right now trying to figure out the best techniques to ensure that they are compensated appropriately.'" This follows on the heels of the Canadian music industry asking that this case be heard. Given the trade relations, this case should have consequences far outside of Canada proper.

9 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. How broad? by rebeka+thomas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The people who represent Canadian artists say everyone who has a hand in transmitting recorded music is liable.

    That's the person who copies it, whoever writes the software that copies it (whether p2p, ftp, samba, http), the person who pays for net access, the person who owns the phoneline or cable connection, the ISP, the ISPs between ISPs, the receiving ISP, and all those people again on the receiving end.

    Wonder if they truly think about this. the RIAA and their equivalents worldwide can't all be so insanely silly and see that their distribution methods are so outdated that fewer and fewer people are using them. Could they?

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    1. Re:How broad? by musikit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      although i see what your saying what i believe they are "trying" to do is define a set of rules that canadian ISPs have to follow in order to be an ISP. I.E. every open socket's communication must be tracable from start to finish. that's to say that if you live in canada and you use your webbrowser to surf goatse then they will have enough log information to say to the US/canadian gov "Yup John Die at 123 Street did request that page at 1:13 am on JAn 1st 2004"

      IANAIA (ISP Admin) but is it possible to open an ISP is the US/canada with tracability? i.e. keep no logs at all? so if the govs were ever to come and ask for logs you would just give them a 0 byte length file names traffic.log? i donno. but i'd pay an extra $20 a month for an ISP that did do that.

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    2. Re:How broad? by Mr_Silver · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Wonder if they truly think about this. the RIAA and their equivalents worldwide can't all be so insanely silly and see that their distribution methods are so outdated that fewer and fewer people are using them. Could they?

      Of course they're not silly and yes they know their distribution method is outdated.

      But it's easier to try and kill off the alternatives than it is to change what has been your business model for the last 50+ years.

      To be honest, even if the price of songs was brought down to a sensible level and if you could bundle and you didn't have DRM - you would still see mass piracy. It happened back in the days when ZX Spectrum games were less than two pounds (3 dollars) and it will continue.

      You can't beat free. Even if people waste 2 hours getting something for free, they won't consider that time expended to be worth anything - rather than they saved x pounds/dollars.

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  2. in canada? by selfabuse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now, I'm not 100% sure on this (and I didn't RTFA), but someone posted in a different article a while back (and got modded up) that due to the tax on blank CDRs, people in Canada could download music legally, so isn't this kind of a moot point?

  3. What's next, sue GM? by Gryphon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Following SOCAN's logic, I guess we should sue General Motors the next time somebody uses a Chevy to rob a bank.

  4. So... by hookedup · · Score: 5, Interesting


    We're obviously in a struggle right now trying to figure out the best techniques to ensure that they are compensated appropriately.'"

    As a Canadian, I already pay a copyright levy on cdrs, am I supposed to pay more to my isp now? Judging by the line above..I'd have to say it isnt completely out of the question.

  5. Just like SCO by countach · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They remind me of SCO. Try and blame everybody and sue everybody, and see what sticks. Just no integrity left in the business community it seems.

  6. Criminals who use the phone by Ian+0x57 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So if two ppl plan a crime using a phone is the phone company partly to blame?? Of cource not.

  7. similar to gun manufacturer problems in the US by sbuckhopper · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Occationally in the US there is a court case where the family of someone who's been murdered tries to sue the gun company. They never win. The major problem with this concept that the Canadian music industry is trying to pull a fast one is that if the enabling technology is legal then there is no justification to sue them for doing their job.

    So, for example, in the US it is legal to make and sell guns. The gun manufacturing companies, although are creating a dangerous tool, are not breaking any laws. If someone buys that gun and shoots someone else, they are violating the law, but there is no reason why the gun manufacturer should be held liable.

    If there is any logic in the Canadian supreme court, they will see that the ISP is just the enabling technology. The ISP is doing nothing illegal. They should not be held accountable. Yeah I know that this cannot be used as a precident in a Canadian court, but I think its more of a logical argument, not a setting of a precident.

    I also wonder how they think that they're going to collect from foreign ISPs.

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