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Canadian Government Steps In To Stop Misleading Infringement Notices

Posted by Soulskill on from the drawing-the-wrong-kind-of-attention dept.

Dangerous_Minds writes: Recently, misleading notices were spotted being sent out by Rightscorp. Michael Geist posted the letter which, among other things, cites U.S. laws, says the Canadians could be on the hook for $150,000 (does not actually exist in the recent copyright reforms now in force), and that payments should be made directly to the company. Apparently, the Canadian government was not amused and has announced that they will be speaking with rightsholders and ISPs to address the concerns that were raised. The government says, "These notices are misleading and companies cannot use them to demand money from Canadians."

4 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. That was quick ... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That was quick. Usually it takes forever for the government to do anything. You can tell that a federal election is coming up, probably sooner (spring) rather than later (October). Maybe we should have elections EVERY year (like Italy)?

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:That was quick ... by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

      that they have done the right thing here.

      Done the right thing? Passed a law slavishly devoted to the copyright industry's wishes? So mindlessly copied the US version that it contained the same decade-known flaw, an absence of penalties for false-notices, fraudulent-notices, spamming robo-notices, allowing 3rd party companies to create whole business models around extorting fake "fines" out of people? How is any of that the "right thing"?

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  2. Wow! by umdesch4 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That letter includes the work address and phone number of the CEO of Rightscrap. Good times are ahead, I'm thinking.

  3. Re:How is it misleading? by willy_me · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Canada extradites Canadians to the US on a regular basis. Typically, these people have committed a crime in the US and are being sent back to receive their punishment - also in the US. Only stipulation is that they can not receive the death penalty because Canadians do not consider it humane. The same thing applies to Americans who commit crimes in Canada.

    The American and Canadian governments have an agreement in place to prevent criminals from jumping the boarder with hopes of avoiding punishment. This has not been used for cases of infringement. If they tried, it probably would not work.