Cable Giants Step Up Piracy Battle By Interrogating Montreal Software Developer (www.cbc.ca)

New submitter wierzpio writes: In more news about TVAddons, Canadian cable companies used a civil search warrant to visit the owner and developer of TVAddons, a library of hundreds of apps known as add-ons that allow people easy access to pirated movies, TV shows, and live TV. According to Adam Lackman, founder of TVAddons and defendant in the copyright lawsuit launched by the television giants, "The whole experience was horrifying. It felt like the kind of thing you would have expected to have happened in the Soviet Union." During the 16 hour-long visit, he was interrogated, denied the right not to answer the questions, and denied the right to consult his answers with his lawyer, who was present. His personal possessions were seized. Adam is fighting back (link to Indiegogo fundraising page) and already the judge declared the search warrant "null and void." "I am of the view that its true purpose was to destroy the livelihood of the defendant, deny him the financial resources to finance a defense to the claim made against him," the judge wrote. "The defendant has demonstrated that he has an arguable case that he is not violating the [Copyright] Act," the judge continued, adding that by the plaintiffs' own estimate, only about one per cent of Lackman's add-ons were allegedly used to pirate content. Lackman's belongings still haven't been returned, and he can't acess the TVAddons website or its social media accounts, which were also seized. "Bell, Rogers and Videotron has appealed the court decision and a Federal Court of Appeal judge has ruled that until the appeal can be hard, Lackman will get nothing back," reports cbc.ca.

Comments

Re:This is absolutely...

[JaredOfEuropa]

The victim was illegally interrogated and his assets seized in violation of what the law permits.

Shit happens sometimes... Law enforcement and prosecutors overstep their bounds, and are set straight by a judge. What really boggles the mind in this case is that the seized property wasn't returned pending the appeal, as the search warrant was rules "null and void". I would have at least expected a court of appeals to rule that his stuff is returned pending the appeal, unless the prosecutor can make a damn convincing argument that they need his stuff to make their case. And given the extent to which his rights were violated, the appeals court would probably do well to uphold the original verdict.

Rural communities

[rsilvergun]

Canada's far right has learned from the US how to leverage rural communities to get away with this stuff. The interests of city folk and rural folk often don't align. E.g. a rural person with a network connection measured in tens of kilobits probably doesn't care if some city guy gets in trouble for downloading movies. The effect is more pronounced in the US because our political system gives rural voters many, many times more voting power in an effort to be 'fair'.

I'd like to find some way to bridge that gap but I'm not sure anyone can. The lifestyles are too different.