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Canadian Music Swappers Win Court Battle
Columbo writes "The CBC has an article today detailing a win for file sharers in Canadian courts. The ruling upheld the right of ISPs to withhold the names and addresses of people alleged to be trading copious amounts of music via P2P networks. The unanimous decision doesn't completely close the door for further action against the ISPs by the Canadian Recording Industry Association."
The court also said "The appeal will be dismissed without prejudice to the plaintiffs' right to commence a further application for disclosure of the identity of the `users' taking into account these reasons,''
:(
The CRIA was told, if they wanted too, to come back "with stronger, and more current, evidence".
It might be interesting to see how they come back and how the Canadian courts view their new case.
Lets hope privacy wins the day!
Now, back to watching my government possibly lose a confidence vote
Here's the text of the ruling.
This ruling may only be a temporary setback for the CRIA -- it talks about copyright holders "being robbed of the fruit of their efforts", and seems to give guidelines for better evidence collection practices for future litigation...
or maybe CAN's official's palms are not as well greased like there are here [US].
RIAA (and MPAA) need to get some criminal proof so they can use subpenoa's, otherwise, just pointing and saying 'gimmie' is not going to make the courts jump on their side.
P2P does not appear to be dying, as long as you lump bittorrent under that umbrella.
I'm suprised more people are not using services like http://fastmail.fm/ and http://www.shinyfeet.com/file sharing (well fastmail does not have sharing, but you can put small files into a public folder - shinyfeet is unlimited space/storage but no public, must be shinyfeetshinyfeet)
but I guess those services are too much like the old napster.
do you have shinyfeet?
Why canada? Why not start an ISP in a country with enough infrastructure to give you a good backbone, but so little law that the RIAA and it's equivelants cannot sue you? You provide a proxy for a nominal fee and downloaders and uploaders can proxy through you without fear of reprisal. You are the end of the line and not obligated to release any information about the next step.
I do security
I can't wait until the music and hollywood industries wake up and start to sell their products in the way that people want to buy them. I'm more than willing to pay for my music but I'm not going to pay for a whole album when all I want is one song. It's kind of like going back to the 50's when the music industry was single driven instead of album driven. Right now we're between the old and new models of business - I can't wait until the transition is over.
Shh.
"Privacy doesn't include the right to hide your crimes.Privacy doesn't include the right to hide your crimes."
Sharing my data privately is not a crime in any moral sense. Show me in your Bible or Koran where it says I can't copy ideas or information.
"You are NOT entitled to have a copy of that song you like so much. "
If someone is willing to share it with me, I absolutely have the right (as a human being) to accept a copy. Copyright is simply an abridgement of my right to use my own computer and my own data as I wish. "Copyright" is an anti-right, and it was never designed to enforce outmoded business models. (It was in fact designed to give book publishers monopolies in return for political favours.)
"If you obtain a copy of a song without providing compensation to the copyright holder, your are breaking law and stealing from the copyright holder."
Nowhere does the law say I cannot receive a copy of a song someone gives me. If any such law exists in any place, it is certainly not universal, and does not apply in the jurisdictions in which the vast majority of the world's population lives.
If I'm not taking anything away from a person (and depriving them of that thing), then I'm not stealing. It might sound cliche here on Slashdot, but it's true. People who equate copying with stealing are committing a profound intellectual error.
If you really think copying ideas and data (the very cornerstone of human culture for 6000 years) is wrong, then feel free to hold yourself to those ideals. But please get off your high horse and stop trying to take away my rights. Live and let live.
"(if you aren't stealing the song, you are stealing the "right" to make copies)"
That's ridiculous. The original creator still has every right to make copies. I'm taking nothing from him. If he can't sustain a profit in an industry where the marginal cost of production is zero, that's his problem. Am I legally obligated to buy food from Safeway instead of growing vegetables in my own garden? Am I obligated to buy clothes from Sears instead of accepting hand-me-downs? Am I obligated to buy books instead of reading them at the library or borrowing from a friend? Of course not; even though all these activities arguably "steal" from the producers by the twisted logic of a corporate shill.
So please stop with the fraudulent "copying = stealing" arguments. Those of us who have woken up to the realities of the digital age and the basic rights of humans will never buy it.
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." - Mark Twain
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Our killing ground is the inner urban blight area, our troops are adolescent crack heads who, for the price of an 8 ball, will pop a couple 'o caps in the back of anyone's head.
Take up winter sports(complaining about winter is the most popular). I'd rather pay the tax and get the healthcare and education system over keeping the money and watching civilization slip quickly out of view. If we could only peirce the corporate veil and remove coporate personhood all would be well.
Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
You people are definitely experiencing the wrong part of the country. West Coast: it's news if it snows in the winter; Victoria's even south of the 49th parallel, got rid of all their snow plows years ago, and is on an island, just south of a temperate rainforest.
You misunderstand the intent of this ruling; did you read the article?
The three-judge appellate court specifically reprimanded a lower court for commenting on the legality of file-sharing in Canada; the issue at hand is whether the recording companies have enough evidence to force ISP's to reveal their users real names, and NOT the legality of file-sharing. All the appellate court said was, "provide us with more evidence than you have now, and we'll reconsider your request." Read the part about the lawsuit being dismissed without prejudice.
This decisions is based entirely on privacy; why should an arbitrary corporation have access to my personal information based on unsubstantiated accusations? The court ruled correctly in requiring a threshold of evidence before forcing ISP's to reveal customer information. Of course you're correct in saying copyright violations are criminal, but that is not the issue here at all. An individual's right to privacy in business dealings (i.e., purchasing broadband) must be weighed against the amount of evidence presented by an accuser; the judges just said the recording industry didn't have enough.
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." - Mark Twain
This quote is interesting in this context. You left out his other famous quote from the same notebook:
"Whenever a copyright law is to be made or altered, then the idiots assemble."
Twain was a very vocal lobbyist and perhaps instrumental in getting the US to adopt international copyright protection. He was strongly in favour of perpetual copyright. (He was annoyed that publishers were ignoring American works in favour of English ones which were cheap, having no royalty costs) (since int'l copyrights weren't being respected by the publishers)
I say the quote is interesting in this context because Twain had been burned by Canadian 'pirate' publishers, who reprinted some of his early works without compensation. He wound up spending a few weeks in Montreal trying to meet a residency requirement so that he could claim a canadian copyright on the prince and the pauper.
Anyway -- the inclusion of a Twain quote detracts from your argument that copying is not stealing, specifically because I think Twain would disagree with you. In his view, copying *did* equate to stealing. He viewed even the existence of a limitation on copyright to be stealing. (see his address to Congress, for example. He argues that ideas are property). His intended meaning with that quote was that the existing copyright law wasn't strong enough to support his ownership rights as an author, not that having copyrights was nonsensical.
Hey, I actually saw the Queen yesterday. She stills draws a croud of loyal colonials even in this day and age.
Of course she also brought rain with her, but I imagine we can use it.
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
- Honesty is a tough thing.
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{Typos mine: source: ISBN 0-8144-7197-8}-
Playing by the rules means living with an occasional setback.Don't establish your ethics by whatever everyone else is doing; everyone else is often not doing what's honest or right.
Stay the course on doing what's honest and right even though the world has declining values.
Teach your children well, not as Mrs Vera Benchley did.
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Doing the right thing often means more work.Doing what's right and honest almost always brings a temporary setback.
Rewards for doing what's honest and right takes time to emerge.
Hang in there with what's honest and right even when you have to weather storms for doing so.
Sometimes those in charge don't see the ethical issue, and even if they do, change doesn't come easily.
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Being ethical sometimes means running behind in the race.Don't define ethical issues by using the "either/or" conundrum. There are other options.
Define issues by what's right and what's honest.
Make decisions putting your values first.
Find a way to do what needs to be done without sacrificing honesty or doing something wrong.
Remember that doing what's honest and right will bring more work--but doing what's honest and right also brings the fruits of the extra labor.
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Expect a little mockery for playing ethically.Let the sprinters pass you by; there's more to the race and more to winning.
Don't be enticed by short-term gains.
Sprinters falter; don't be discouraged as they pass you by.
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Being ethical means you have to speak up.Expect mockery for doing what's right and honest
Endure the mockery;this too shall pass.
Garner strength during the mockery from knowing the eventual outcome for the mockers;you will win the race.
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Sometimes the ethical route is opportunity knocking.When you see the issue (elephant), talk to your coworkers.
Don't let the elephant go so long that it causes damage.
The consequences of saying nothing are always greater than the consequences of speaking up.
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The ethical finish first eventually, and with peace of mind.See doing what's right and honest as an opportunity, not a burden.
Think through the consequences of right and wrong and explore the opportunities that doing what's right offers.
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Ethical indiscretions haunt the sprinters.Keep your eyes on your values and doing what's honest and right.
Don't be discouraged with the temporary setbacks and costs.
Finishing without baggage is the goal.
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Success comes from doing what's honest and right.Always tell the truth; that way you don't have to worry or remember.
When facing a moment of truth, disclose and move on.
Remember the freedom of not being haunted by a falsehood.
View ethics not as a deterrent but an opportunity for success.
Remember the race has a nonlinear path and you may lose some opportunities if you fail to see what's right and honest as a means for succeeding.
Actually, the difference is very subtle. I used to think that nobody I knew said "aboot", but when I was working as a customer service rep for a large american cellphone company, a number of my customers asked me where in Canada I was from, and I'd ask them how they knew, and it was always the "aboot" that gave it away. The difference is very subtle and hard to describe in text, but it's there. It's not so much that Canadians say "aboot", it's more that Americans pronounce it more like "abowt", while Canadians are more like "about".
So there.