Canada Prepares For Crackdown On BitTorrent Movie Pirates

New submitter dreamstateseven tips this Postmedia News report: "A forensic software company has collected files on a million Canadians who it says have downloaded pirated content. The company, which works for the motion picture and recording industries, says a recent court decision forcing Internet providers to release subscriber names and details is only the first step in a bid to crack down on illegal downloads. 'The door is closing. People should think twice about downloading content they know isn't proper,' said Barry Logan, managing director of Canipre, the Montreal-based forensic software company."

Comments

Re:Lucky for them bittorrent is uploading

[sexconker]

Just as in the US, in Canada there's no such thing as "illegal downloading." Guess it's lucky for the copyright cartels that the most popular way to download a movie is with bittorrent which, conveniently-enough, involves uploading (making available).

In general, though, I wish the media would stop parroting the general idea that it's illegal to download copyrighted materials. It's no more illegal than bringing home a bootleg CD bought on the streets of Karachi.

You telling your computer to fetch the data you have no license to and make a copy of it (in memory or on permanent storage) is a copyright violation.
Like it or not.

No, the CRIA won't sue.

[DavidClarkeHR]

So CRIA will start suing end users in the same way RIAA did in US, accomplishing probably the same results regarding piracy deterrence: none. Good idea...

It won't be quite the same process as in the USA. First of all, it'll likely have to go through small claims, because the burden of proof to get accepted into the superior court of justice is much, much higher. Second, the max in small claims in canada is generally around $25,000 - and you can generally only sue for money or the return of personal property, not the generally-intangible damages the RIAA sought in the USA.

No, the only people affected by this are the large-scale kim dotcom style companies that make millions off copyright infringement, and there are already a variety of laws in place that can be used to prosecute them.