Federal Court of Canada rules filesharing legal

[Peachy]

Well,today a Canadian Federal judge denied a request by the Canadian Recording Music Industry Association to have ISPs hand over the names of 29 file swappers. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968793972154The court has reaffirmed the decision of the Canadian Copyright Board made on December 1, 2003 that stated that sharing music using the Internet does not constitute copyright infringement....wait for the fireworks!

[Peachy]

Some more commentary: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968793972154

Justice Konrad von Finckenstein, in a 23-page decision that legal experts called "remarkable" and "stunning," denied the court order, arguing that the association provided no evidence to suggest the accused were actively distributing copyrighted songs or authorizing others to download music."I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy (of a song) on a shared directory linked to a P2P (music sharing) service," wrote von Finckenstein, former head of the federal Competition Bureau.Kazaa and Morpheus are two examples of P2P or "peer-to-peer" services.

"I think I know what country I'll go to college in now," wrote one observer on the slashdot.org forum.

[havnblast]

yea this is really something - I am only 17 miles from Canada too, just need to move a bit further north. Another things is that Canada doesn't have as long as a copyright protection on music like the USA does. I think it is 50 years or something for Canada and like a 100 years here in the USA. So songs from the 1950s are no longer copyrighted in Canada, like they are here.