CRIA target says he won’t settle in the event of a lawsuit; confident that case is weak

One of the individuals whose identity is being sought by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) says he’s unlikely to try to settle a future copyright infringement suit, and believes the music labels have too shaky a case to successfully prosecute. The 24-year-old Calgary man says the Internet service account information being sought by CRIA is tied to his family’s home computer, and that initial legal advice he has received is that it will be "practically impossible" to prove that any one person made the music files on that computer available through Kazaa. CRIA currently has motions before the Federal Court of Canada to compel five Internet service providers (ISPs) to divulge subscriber information for 29 Internet accounts that are accused of being used to offer copyright-protected music (CNM, Feb. 20/04). The individual, who spoke with Canadian NEW MEDIA only on condition of complete anonymity, concedes that he had somewhere between two and three thousand files available for sharing, though he has not used the Kazaa file-sharing network for almost two months. Most of those music tracks, he says, were from indie bands and emerging electronic artists, and the few big-label songs he had were downloaded for fun. "Most of those were kind of a joke, funny things to listen to - it was more in the name of irony," he says. The man’s family has been contacted by its ISP, and he says that it was forwarded the court documentation and advised the family to seek legal representation. The family has had an initial conversation with a patent lawyer, but the person says he is also interested in contacting some of the lawyers listed on the www.canfli.org site who are offering their services to defend targets of CRIA’s actions. While he says he won’t be able to afford a potential settlement fee - many have suggested the amount could be around $2,000 to $3,000 - he’s not worried, yet, that he might be successfully prosecuted. He doesn’t believe that CRIA will be able to prove that he or another family member specifically used the software. "The suit, I think, is a lost cause…I think that’s going to be practically impossible to prove that." Asked if he is interested in settling, he says, "no, definitely not." The individual is also unrepentant about using file-sharing networks to trade music. "I think it’s the only thing that’s maintained my interest in music," he says. "I buy more music because of my file-sharing." He argues that file-sharing is responsible for keeping music fresh in the face of bubble gum pop, and says many of the tracks he had on his computer simply wouldn’t be available to him at the retail level. "It’s short-sighted to think that (labels) are being ripped off by file-sharing." He adds that legal music download sites don’t yet cater to fans of indie music. The choice is currently too limited on services such as Puretracks.com for those online stores to be of much interest to him, he says. He hopes his family’s ISP won’t give up his household’s subscriber identification, and says such action would be "unsuitable" in the face of privacy concerns. He had heard earlier rumours that the music industry would be bringing enforcement measures against file-sharers, he says, but hadn’t thought that they might target him. It remains to be seen if the man’s confidence in his case is well placed. A debate in both legal and technology circles has raged over the past two weeks about whether or not an individual who pays for an Internet access service can be held responsible for the actions of others who might access the Internet using it. CRIA officials have said publicly they believe that is the case, while others have painted the opposite picture. Further, there are concerns being floated that the methods used by CRIA to obtain lists of songs being made available might violate privacy rules. There is also no consensus on how to successfully prosecute an individual for file-sharing given the difficult nature of proving an individual had his or her hands on the keyboard at the time. All of these considerations are likely weighing heavily on the mind of Federal Court of Canada judge Konrad von Finckenstein. A second CRIA target, a 21-year-old Coquitlam student attending school in Victoria, has told Canadian NEW MEDIA that she’s been advised to make no comment regarding the case. In other news involving the CRIA case, both the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and Electronic Frontier Canada have been granted leave to intervene in the case.

CRIA target says he won’t settle in the event of a lawsuit; confident that case is weak

News | 03/03/2004 5:00 am EST

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