CIPPIC addresses court in CRIA case

Canadian music sharers may face hefty court costs and fines if the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and its team of lawyers have anything to do with it. CRIA is attempting to force Canadian Internet service providers, such as Rogers Cable Inc., Telus Corp. and Shaw Cablesystems, into releasing the personal information, names and addresses, of 29 subscribers so they can pursue legal action against them for downloading music using software such as Kazaa. On March 15, lawyers representing The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) addressed a Toronto court about the case, which was presided over by judge Konrad von Finckenstein via telecom from Ottawa. CIPPIC representatives were allowed to present arguments on four points: tests to be applied, due process, privacy issues, and copyright infringement. Lawyer Alex Cameron spoke on the first three points, spending most of his time on privacy issues. He argued that if the personal information of the 29 people whose IP addresses are known were released, it would infringe upon their freedom of expression because some of the information shared by these users is personal, including private documents and ideas that they would not have shared if anonymity wasn’t assured. "Not all sharing is music files," said Cameron. "This could bring out their (Internet) habits and everything they have shared." Howard Knopf, an Ottawa lawyer representing CIPPIC, also addressed the court. He argued that CRIA couldn’t prove that any of the users whose IP addresses are known were actually sharing any of the music files they had downloaded, and that simply having these files in their shared folder wasn’t proof of copyright infringement. "Putting stuff in (the shared folder) has been deemed legal as long as it isn’t for distribution," he said, adding that saving to a hard drive doesn’t necessarily prove distribution. He also said that there had been no implications of reproduction made by CRIA so the 29 users were clearly not guilty of copyright infringement. Knopf went on to say that even if the names of the Internet subscribers were released to CRIA, no one could prove that it was those particular individuals who had in fact downloaded the music files. If it were, for example, someone’s child, he said, "Merely providing software doesn’t make a parent liable." Judge von Finckenstein expects to make a ruling on whether or not to release the names and addresses of the Internet subscribers by the end of the week. If he grants this order, many more Canadians will likely have legal action taken against them for downloading music files. CRIA wants some of the $400 million, the amount it claims the free transfer of music files has cost the industry, back.

CIPPIC addresses court in CRIA case

News | 03/17/2004 5:00 am EST

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