Canadian Court Maintains Right to Privacy

TufelKinder writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting a Canadian court's decision to '[uphold the] 2004 decision to maintain privacy rights of on-line music swappers.'"

Comments

Privacy

[Richie1984]

It's nice to see courts uphold a person's privacy, even if there is debate as to the morality of what they are doing. I do wonder how the MPAA/RIAA will react to this. Slashdot have already covered how America is trying to force the DRMA upon Canada and perhaps they will now step up their efforts? Or will this just further widen the gap between the American and Canadian governments, and cause more friction?

Excellent.

[Travelsonic]

Due Process and no-bullshit attitudes strike again. Way to go Canada!

In other news...

[wsapplegate]

... Another court has upheld the right for Slashdot editors to post dupes every two or three days, and not to be bothered with the "search" feature of their own Website</sarcasm>

Re:freedoms!

[FidelCatsro]

Am i right in thinking that Canadians pay a levy on blank CDs etc which is supposed to compensate Copyright holders for any infringment. If so then there is nothing to withhold .

Re:freedoms!

[Joe Random]

But seriously, do the laws in the US actually stop anyone from sharing music? At all?

Of course. There are always people who are so frightened by the thought that they may be on the receiving end of a lawsuit that they seriously curb, or stop altogether, their file sharing. That many ISPs seem willing to reveal their users' identities simply to get the *IAA off their back simply adds to the FUD.

And frankly, I don't see how the Canadian ruling will stop that. Based on what TFA said, it would seem that ISPs can be required to reveal their customers' identities, but only once the record industry presents a clear enough claim against them. They just aren't required to give out that information simply because the record industry says "gimme!" Note that they're not required to give out that information, but that doesn't mean that they won't give it out. Some ISPs may find it easier to just add a "no right to privacy" to their boilerplate, and then turn over any information asked for. I hope not, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Like, yeah, it's great to know that here in Canada we're able to do it LEGALLY

That's not what I got from the article:

If record labels show they have a clear claim against people infringing copyright, "they have a right to have the identity revealed for the purpose of bringing action. However, caution must be exercised by the courts in ordering such disclosure to make sure that privacy rights are invaded in the most minimal way."

Re:freedoms!

[FidelCatsro]

Yeah i see the notion was dropped from portable players

A blank media levy was introduced in Canada in 1997, by the addition of Part VII, "Private Copying", to the Canadian Copyright Act. The power to set rates and distribute the returns is vested in the Copyright Board of Canada. The Copyright Board has handed the task of distributing the funds to the Canadian Private Copying Collective, which is a private organisation. The Copyright Board has retained the task of setting the rate of the levy.
In Canada:
The levy applies to "blank audio recording media", such as CD-Rs.
The levy is paid by importers and manufacturers of such media sold within Canada (and typically passed on to the retailer, and passed on to the purchaser).
The levy is collected regardless of the purchaser's end use of the media.
Only copyright holders of sound recordings of musical works are entitled to a share of the proceeds. (Note that these copyright holders may be separate persons from the holders of the copyright in the musical works themselves; ie. the composer or performer. Holders of copyrights in sound recordings are those who record or authorise the recording of a song; often this is a recording label.)
The Canadian Private Copying Collective has devised a scheme by which the proceeds are to be allocated to registered sound recording copyright holders. AS of July 30th, 2004 none of the collected funds had yet been disbursed.
In conjunction with the levy, the Copyright Act allows individuals to make copies of sound recordings for their own private, non-commercial use. They may not distribute the copy.
On December 17th, 2004, a Canadian judge ruled that the blank media tax no longer applied to MP3 players such as Apple Computer's iPod. Before this, the rates were $2 for players with less than 1 GB of capacity, $15 for players up to 15 GB, and $25 for players 15 GB and over.

to quote the wikipedia articall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_media_tax

You know , i would really like music to be taxed ala the BBC ,Download all you want etc and pay for it in with a license fee which is completly opt-out .