Canadian DMCA In Action: Court Awards Massive Damages In Modchip Case (michaelgeist.ca)

New submitter google20000 shares a report from Michael Geist: The Federal Court of Canada has issued a massive damage award in the first major Canadian digital lock copyright ruling involving circumvention of technological protection measures. The ruling, which is the first to conduct an extensive examination of the anti-circumvention rules established in 2012, adopts expansive interpretations to the digital lock protections and narrow views of the exceptions. The case launched by Nintendo confirms that Canada has tough anti-piracy laws with one of the most aggressive digital lock laws in the world and will fuel calls to re-examine the effectiveness of the anti-circumvention exceptions in the 2017 copyright review. The case stems from a lawsuit launched by video game maker Nintendo against Go Cyber Shopping, a modchip seller that operated a retail store in Waterloo, Ontario and several online stores. Go Cyber Shopping offered a wide range of products that allow users to circumvent the digital lock controls on the Nintendo gaming console (such as the Wii) and play unauthorized games including "homebrew" games. Go Cyber Shopping argued that it provided other services but the court says that it did not tender any evidence in that regard. The court concluded that the modchip seller engaged in copyright infringement and circumvented technological protection measures. In fact, it went out of its way to emphasize the importance of TPM protection. It adopted a broad interpretation of a technological protection measure -- rejecting a UK case that used a narrower interpretation -- in favor of an approach that covers access controls that go beyond restrictions on copying.

Comments

Infringement of *actual* property rights

[mrchaotica]

What we have here is where Nintendo (and the dumbasses who signed this idiocy into law) are claiming that Nintendo's temporary monopoly on its idea is somehow so important that it usurps the owner of the computer's right to modify his own property. I dunno about how Canadians feel about it, but for those of us south of the 49th parallel, our justification of government was based in part on John Locke's principle of "life, liberty and property" (which got changed to "pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence, but it still counts!). The right to own property is inalienable, but this copyright run amok turns that principle on its head in some kind of bizarro-world feudal dystopia. That tyranny must not stand!