War Declared!Thousands of Canadians have been issued notices of takedown from their ISP’s through American entertainment and software industries. Interestingly, the notices contain no legal weight according to Michael Geist, a leading Interweb law expert.
“It doesn’t have any significant legal weight in the sense that it doesn’t mean they’re facing a lawsuit immediately or even the claims of infringement have been proven,” said leading internet law expert Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa. But Geist said the “notice and notice” program has been successful in scaring people to stop downloading. “I think they’ve proven surprisingly effective and in fact indications are that when subscribers receive these, a significant proportion will take down the offending content if, in fact, it is infringing,” he said.
Additionally, no personal information is passed from the ISP to any of the organizations initiating the email. Should your American friends the RIAA, MPAA, BSA, ESA be treating Americans so harshly with drive-by lawsuits, while us Crazy Cannucks are shown such respect? I have a feeling they might like to change that…
“Canada’s copyright laws regarding uploading and downloading are unclear, and that does present a number of challenges in curbing internet piracy,” said Neil MacBride, a vice-president with the Business Software Alliance, a Washington D.C.-based industry association that fights software piracy.
From an average American, sorry Canadians.
Thanks Mike, but American copyright infringement notices are deleted from my email as fast as they could send them. From A “Not Scared” Canadian
I’m surprised ISP’s waste their time with this.
The United States has too many lawyers. They should encourage a more useful profession.
#4: ??
Like squid sexing? That would be more useful.
Those kinds of requests is sent from RIAA and the such, to, and actually acted upon, in Norway – believe it or not
I got one of those emails almost a year ago.. Wish i had kept it. I was thoroughly amused..
Never had another since installing Peer Guardian 2
To add a bit more substance to this topic..
In Canada, they have to actually press charges and get a court order for the ISP to reveal personal info related to an IP address.
(not easy)
And all they get then is who is paying the bill..
open wifi is rampant here as are homes with multiple pc’s running from a single ip..
courts here don’t like to move forward unless you have evidence of who the specific person to be charged is…
Crazy Eh?
Funny how a pirate site was shut down in the EU, because of this and about 2 years of debate…And Canada dont give a Wingding about it…
YEA!!
Recording Industry of America
Motion Picture Association of America
At least the BSA and ESA don’t have a jurisdiction problem in their name. This reminds me of the Pirate Bay take down notice where they pointed out that the DMCA doesn’t apply to Swedish.
But DMCA forced WTO down their throats…
The “of America” bit is misleading anyway, at least in the case of the RIAA. Let’s see – Sony/BMG primary drivers, as American as sushi and bratwurst.
It’s just easier to buy politicians in American, maybe. I know all I ever get from Sen. Diane Feinstein (Calif.) when I protest the latest idiocy is self-righteous posturing that probably comes right out of the briefcases of entertainment industry lawyers. Gotta protect the artists. Christ that b.s. gets tiresome.