p2pnet.net News:- If somebody robs your store, and drives away in a Chevrolet, you should be able to sue General Motors. This is the absurd ‘logic’ behind a case going to the Supreme Court …

That was how a 2003 Montreal Gazette editorial described an attempt by Canada’s SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) to tax Canadian ISPs by up to 10% of their income, “simply because some clients of those ISPs sometimes steal music by downloading”.

However, it’s not going to happen, Canada’s Supreme Court says in a unanimous decision.

ISPs are “intermediaries” who aren’t bound by Canadian copyright legislation, the court ruled.

Nor is this the first time SOCAN, the Canadian copyright collective for the public performance of musical works, administers the performing rights of composers, lyricists, songwriters and their publishers, has tried it on.

It has already asked the Copyright Board of Canada to impose a royalty on Canadian ISPs. But the board ruled ISPs should be granted an exemption because they are, like telephone companies, a carrier or transmitter of the music files.

SOCAN also wanted health care practitioners to cough up every time they played music for their patients.

“Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s also the lawful thing to do, to pick up a licence for what amounts to a mere few pennies a day,” said SOCAN ceo Andre LeBel.

“This was a money grab,” said Dr Jack Cotrell of the Canadian Dental Association.

This latest attempt was ridiculous but as the Washington Post points out here, it was “closely watched abroad because of the international implications for the computer and music industries,” going on:

“SOCAN’s effort contrasted with the legal route taken by the recording industry in the United States, where the usual tactic has been to sue individual file-sharing services and customers who download music. The Recording Industry Association of America has launched about 2,000 [almost 3,500, actually] lawsuits against file swappers since last year. The RIAA has settled hundreds of those cases, generally for a few thousand dollars each.

“The attempt to collect instead from service providers was significant because they provide an easier target for litigation than tracking down a myriad of individual Web sites and customers.”

The Big Five record labels want to use their CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) to sue Canadian file sharers in the same way the RIAA sues Americans. However, it can’t get started without first finding a way to identify people it claims have swapped unauthorised music files. But it can’t do that without a court order compelling Canadian ISPs to reveal client names - and its recent bid to force five Canadian ISPs to do exactly that, failed.

Justice Konrad von Finckenstein decided, “No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorised the reproduction of sound recordings. They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer user(s) via a P2P service.”

Go here for:

Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
v
Canadian Association of Internet Providers

Canadian Association of Internet Providers,
Canadian Cable Television Association,
Bell ExpressVu,
Telus Communications Inc,
Bell Canada, Aliant Inc
and

MTS Communications Inc. Appellants/Respondents on cross-appeal

v

Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada Respondent/Appellant on cross-appeal

and

Internet Commerce Coalition, European
Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association,
European Internet Service Providers’ Association,
Australian Internet Industry Association,
TelecomServices Association,
U.S. Internet Industry Association,

Canadian Recording Industry Association and

International Federation of Phonogram Industry Interveners

Indexed as: Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Canadian Association of Internet Providers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2004 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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