p2pnet - rss feed: Labels appeal Cdn file share ruling
p2pnet.net News:- The Big Five record labels have appealed a Canadian federal court ruling that crushed their attempt to force four of five Canadian ISPs to reveal the identities of 29 people the labels say shared music files online without the labels’ permission.
In March the recording companies, none with a Canadian base, instructed their CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) to obtain an order which would have compelled Shaw, Telus, Bell Sympatico, Rogers Communications and Videotron to hand over information on their clients.
The latter four companies said they’d refuse to comply. Quebec’s Videotron was ready to hand the names over.
However, to the surprise and embarrassment of the labels and the CRIA, Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled that putting music into a computer directory that might be shared remotely by someone else doesn’t constitute copyright infringement under Canadian law.
“No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorised the reproduction of sound recordings,” he decided. “They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer user(s) via a P2P service.”
He also said the labels had not: “Made out a prima facie case (their affidavit evidence is deficient, they have not: made a causal link between P2P pseudonyms and IP addresses and they have not made out a prima facie case of infringement); Established that the ISPs are the only practical source for the identity of the P2P pseudonyms;” or “Established that the public interest for disclosure outweighs the privacy concerns in light of the age of the data.”
In their appeal document, lodged through CRIA, the Big Five labels argue the “judge made serious and reviewable errors of law, made overriding and palpable errors in his assessment of the factual record before him, and, in the end, purported to exercise his discretion on improper and irrelevant bases, and in a manner of excess of his jurisdiction,” says a Canadian Press story here.
During this year’s music industry Juno Awards advertising fest, staged after the court ruling, the labels were delighted to hear Canadian prime minister Paul Martin explain how the music industry is a part of Canada’s sovereignty, while federal heritage minister Helene Scherrer promised to remedy the situation the music industry finds itself in.
April 15th, 2004 at 1:08 pm
They expect to win on appeal with the evidence they presented the first time around? Give me a break. There was no evidence!
-No proof that files shared were copyrighted works. In the words of president of Media Sentry “we weren’t hired to download and listen to songs”;
-They didn’t present certificates of copyright to the court;
-the ISP’s admitted that ability to link IP to subscriber was an impossibilty;
-They disn’t prove that the users on kazaa were knowingly distributing files.
etc etc etc etc
Wish they would crawl under a rock out of sheer embarassment and wait til the Heritage Minister (aka ms. social worker who like sports) tries to screw up our copyright law in a knee jerk reaction to big business screwing up royally in court. Why must we pay for the screw up by two low rent “boutique” lawyers who specialize in trademark law?