TekSavvy customers concerned about privacy should show up at court hearing, ISP says

TekSavvy Solutions Inc. customers who are concerned about their privacy should show up at a court hearing Monday to defend themselves against Voltage Pictures LLC's motion to obtain subscriber information associated with file sharing, said Marc Gaudrault, CEO of small ISP TekSavvy. “Those who want to voice their concerns about their privacy should show up on Monday,” Gaudrault said in a brief phone interview with The Wire Report. “They should either get legal representation or come out themselves … Vis-à-vis us releasing their information, if they have concerns about that, they should voice it.” The Federal Court is scheduled to hear a motion by Voltage Pictures to obtain the account information for 2,215 IP addresses linked to unauthorized file sharing through Internet service provider (ISP) TekSavvy Solutions. A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 17 at the Federal Court in Toronto “or as soon thereafter as the motion can be heard,” according to a Voltage court filing. Once Voltage receives the names and account information for individual file sharers, it can proceed to file lawsuits against those individuals. Gaudrault expressed concern about TekSavvy customers not receiving notice about alleged copyright infringements before Voltage filed its motion. “What we've fought for is the ability to provide notice to people so they can come out and defend themselves, but should this come to pass and we're ordered to provide the information, they would obviously have every opportunity to defend themselves should they ever get into a court case subsequently,” he said. The legal strategy of suing individual file sharers for copyright infringement typically are not fought in court and involve settlements worth as much as a few thousand dollars each. Voltage said in a release on Dec. 11 that the legal action will target file sharers in Ontario though it is part of a larger campaign “to protect its interests in Canada and in the United States.” Canada's Copyright Act was amended this year through the passage of Bill C-11. The bill introduced a new provision for Internet service provider liability through the form of a “notice and notice” system, which is expected to come into force next year following a consultation on how to implement the system through regulations. Under the proposed notice-and-notice regime, rights holders contact an ISP if they see allegedly infringing material on its network. The ISP then notifies the relevant customer about the complaint and informs them that the rights holder may pursue legal action. In a TekSavvy blog post on Dec. 10, Gaudrault suggested that Canada's copyright regime should require that customers of ISPs receive these notices from copyright owners about alleged infringements before a rights holder can seek a court order for their account information. “It appears to us that a notice period is essential, especially in cases where large privacy disclosures may be involved. Without this notice, a customer could be the subject of a lawsuit and not even know about it. Surely this is in part why the government is seeking to enact such notice provisions in the policy,” Gaudrault wrote in the blog post. It's not yet clear whether such a requirement for notices would be within the scope of the government's consultation on the notice-and-notice regime, which is expected to be launched this month or early in the new year. “We are frankly puzzled by the approach that Voltage has taken. It seems contrary to the government’s intent with copyright reform, which was to discourage file sharing lawsuits against individuals, while still protecting copyright holders’ rights,” Gaudrault wrote in the blog post on Dec. 10. “The manner and the timing of this action also seems unusual given that the government recently created a roadmap for addressing file sharing and copyright infringement within its legislation. Its starting point is a notification system to subscribers to discourage infringement without immediate threats of lawsuits or disclosure of their personal information. That system is not yet finalized though. In light of these factors, Voltage’s actions seem odd to us,” he wrote. People familiar with the matter said Wednesday that TekSavvy will not fight Voltage's motion, in part due to jurisprudence. This year, Los Angeles-based Voltage Pictures won a court order to obtain the names and addresses associated with 30 IP addresses, and Burnaby, B.C. studio NGN Prima Productions Inc. received an order for the account information related to 50 IP addresses. TekSavvy says that due to technological limitations, it is not capable of identifying all of the accounts related to the 2,215 IP addresses. The company says it has identified information related to about 1,100 IP addresses. Michael Wickstrom, manager of royalties with Voltage Pictures, the rights owner of the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, told Vancouver radio station CKNW last month that the company will launch a broad legal campaign in Canada, the United States and United Kingdom in the next month or two to set an example and “get tough” with unauthorized movie file sharers. “We're very firm as far as going after illegal downloaders,” Wickstrom said, adding that movie file sharing is hurting studios' bottom lines. “We have bank loans to pay off,” he said. “We want to become more aggressive as far as going after the infringers. I believe there is another proceeding occurring soon with Voltage, as far as Canada . It's truly time to set an example once more.” Under the Copyright Act, as amended by Bill C-11 this year, a movie file sharer could be sued for “non-commercial” statutory damages ranging from $100 to $5,000 “with respect to all infringements involved in the proceedings.” Montreal copyright enforcement firm Canipre told The Wire Report last month that it has collected forensic digital evidence on one million unauthorized BitTorrent transmissions of movies in Canada. —With reporting by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca and editing by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca news@thewirereport.ca

TekSavvy customers concerned about privacy should show up at court hearing, ISP says

Broadcast | December 12, 2012

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TekSavvy customers concerned about privacy should show up at court hearing, ISP says

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