Canadian ISP to Name Music Swappers

Daemon writes "The Globe and Mail reports that Videotron, a Canadian ISP, will not be fighting the request to turn over the names of music swappers to the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). According to a lawyer for Videotron, producing the identities of Internet users alleged of wrongdoing happens so regularly that they believe that it is justifiable to hand over the names of people who share large volumes of songs on-line. The five Internet service providers named in the case -- Shaw Communications, Rogers Cable Communications, Bell Canada, Telus Communications and Videotron -- can't divulge the information without a court order because privacy legislation requires them to keep customer information sealed."

Comments

Pot meet kettle

[Intron]

Shaw Cable is the source of a lot of the spam that I see. I think people should just vote with their feet on this one.

Under canadian law they're shielded

[Anonymous Coward]

Canada is the one place in the world that you're actually shielded from being sued because you use file sharing software. So this is a scare tactic.

So...

[Brain_Recall]

I guess that "pirate tax" on all recordable media is redundant and can be removed now? It was there to "protect the artists," but now the lawyers on the hunt trying to "protect the artists."

Protect culture?

[Dimentox]

[..]"Piracy of music, piracy of TV, piracy of film -- it's all the same. It's piracy of intellectual property and cultural products," Mr. Sasseville said Thursday from his office in Montreal. "Nobody gets paid. Not only the big companies but also the creators. It's really important that we protect our culture."

IMHO that file shareing does not harm ones culture. The only thing it realy harms is big business. I am a musician myself and am under the camp that music should be free and people get paied for doing SHOWS.. The music itself should be promotional for the shows. And having almost signed a contract untill i read what i would get the musicians do not much per copy at all. They do make money on merchandizeing and doing shows.

Its a shame how deeply rooted the music industry is and what it can pull off. I just cant see how they are pulling the "culture" flag out of their pocket in this one. How does free music ruin culture? It only enhances culture due to the fact that more people are able to share in this cultural music. Atleast its just one ISP for now that is not protecting your privacy rights. But how long is it till others follow suit?

Re:Protect culture?

[HangingChad]

I just cant see how they are pulling the "culture" flag out of their pocket in this one.

Because it doesn't sound as good to stand up and say, "We're a bunch of greedy, pud yanking wankers trying to protect our racket and we want to sue these people because it beats working for a living."

So when you don't want to say that, then you say something about protecting culture. If you're MSFT stuffing product activation down the consumer's throat, you say you're doing it to protect honest users. Just like when you're giving your buddies in the banking and credit card business a giant wet kiss on the lips you say you're doing it to make credit more affordable. And when you're sticking your nose into the private business of millions of Americans, you just have to say you're doing it to protect them. Just like we're protecting democracy in Iraq, which sounds better than saying we used bad intelligence as an excuse to invade another country. Instant nobility.

And if you really get desperate, then drag children into it. You can justify almost any horror by claiming you're doing it to protect the little children.

Got the picture?