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Canadian ISPs Send Thousands of Copyright Notices
An anonymous reader writes "The CBC reports that Canadian Internet service providers are passing along
thousands of copyright infringement notifications to their customers. These notices are coming, not from Canada, but from US copyright lobby groups such as the Business Software Alliance under a system called notice and notice. Michael Geist comments that unlike the U.S. takedown approach, the Canadian system is proving effective while protecting privacy and free speech. Downloaders take the hint, and alter their behavior before they receive a more serious letter in the mail."
WTF I thought it was legal to download there...you just couldn't upload.
Canada could instead be more concerned about things that really affect people. Perhaps they could send troops to a place where terrorists have trained, election fraud has been widely believed to have happened, and attacks of mass destruction area fairly frequent. And while the mounties are in Florida, they may not be able to do much about the hurricanes, but they can enjoy some orange juice and sunshine!
Dudley Do-Right for President!
Come and get me RIAA! Sixty miles from town on highway, 25 miles via dirt road, 10 miles via dog sled, and 6 by snowshoe... fourth igloo on the left with the green satellite dish... oh, and windchill is -45 today, very balmy
Ignore them... or bill them?
Dear RIAA,
It has come to my attention that you have accused me of illegally downloading file xxx, in an electronic letter received by you on xx/xx/2007. As a Canadian citizen I pay tax on recordable media so that you may be compensated for any losses incurred by downloads. I take it that you currently wish to alter this agreement, since you no longer wish for me to download your media.
Therefore I enclose a bill for CDN $54 which is the amount of tax I have paid on the CD's I have purchased in these past 3 months. I can continue to bill you quarterly if you wish. I expect payment by certified cheque from a Canadian bank within 2 weeks of the date on this letter. Thank you!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
That's what belts are for.
Email? Woof, the wife won't see that one, relief... I don't even use the crappy email accounts of Crogers or Chimpatico. Perhaps they should include a suspected illegal activity rating/score on the monthly bill - the wife *would* notice *that*. They could base it on funny-port-use ratio or something. They could take the number of gigabytes uploaded/downloaded through ports they think are not used for "legitimate use", and translate it through a formula and provide a "whole-some" rating. 0 'd be 0% chance you're doing anything illegal. This is the person that only reads and writes email, visits ordinary websites like cnn and cbc. This person should downgrade to a basic account - no need for 5+ Mb/s speeds here. ISP will not want that... 10 'd be someone who visits porn sites. 20 'd be someone who runs the odd limewire. 50 'd be someone who runs bittorrent to do stuff, whatever stuff. 75 'd be someone who runs bittorrent 24/7 with an average of 25 KB/s (Rogers mames connection speeds, forget about 300+MB/s downloads, it aint happening no more). 100 'd be someone who looks like he's running a freenet node, and imminently faced the rcmp running down the front door on a sunday morning. We might as well move to China - it'd be a freeer nation over there...
Is that the Apu school of threats? "Hey! I have asked you nicely not to mangle my merchandise. You leave me no choice but to... ask you nicely again."
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
You can play Starcraft at work??? Where do you work, and how do I apply?
"unlike the U.S. takedown approach, the Canadian system is proving effective while protecting privacy and free speech. Downloaders take the hint, and alter their behavior before they receive a more serious letter in the mail."
:)
RIAA: Don't download that
Us: Ok, sorry
Man up fellow Canadians
"Some of the worst mistakes in my life have been haircuts." - Jim Morrison
I am Canadian. I received a notice from my ISP because my wife downloaded an MP3, something she rarely does because I subscribe to Napster.
We altered our behavior by not doing it again. Piracy is theft.