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Canadian Court Tries to Dampen Copyright Trolls In P2P Lawsuits

Posted by timothy on from the good-model-for-us-courts dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian federal court has released its much-anticipated decision in Voltage Pictures v. Does, a case involving demands that TekSavvy, a leading independent ISP, disclose the identities of roughly 2,000 subscribers alleged to have downloaded movies without authorization. Michael Geist notes that the court was sensitive to the copyright troll concern, noting that 'given the issues in play the answers require a delicate balancing of privacy rights versus the rights of copyright holders. This is especially so in the context of modern day technology and users of the Internet.' In order to strike the balance, the court required full court approval of the content of any demand letters and bold warnings that no court had found a recipient liable for any damages."

1 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Erm, what? by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Informative

    Summery:
    * Teksavvy must reveal identity of alleged infringers.

    * TSI gets all legal costs, admin costs & disbursements.
    ** TSI gets paid before Voltage sees even a single name. No money, no names.**

    * Any/all letters from Voltage MUST be approved by both the Court & CIPPIC, so as not to provide false information to defendants, and coerce them into settlements.
    * Letter will include a statement that 'no Court has yet found any recipient of the letter liable for infringement and that recipicies should [seek] legal assistance".
    * Every letter to an alleged infringer will get a copy of the judge's order.
    * Any subscriber can request a full copy of the order, for which the Plaintiff (Voltage) must pay for.

    * Voltage will only receive Name & Address attached to specific IP addresses of the alleged infringers, and nothing more.
    * There will be a special Judge assigned to this case, and will 'monitor, as necessary, the conduct of Voltage in its dealings with the alleged infringers."

    * If Voltage splits a subscriber out of the herd (so to say), the special judge will keep hold of the new case.

    * Voltage cannot make statements to the media, releasing defendant names or addresses.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...