He's also got a point with the photocopier analogy.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wo...world-headlines
TORONTO -- A Canadian federal court ruled Wednesday against a motion that would have let the music industry begin suing individuals who share copyright music on the Internet.
Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled that the Canadian Recording Industry Association did not prove copyright infringement by 29 "music uploaders."
He said downloading a song or making files available in shared directories, as facilitated by the popular "peer-to-peer" Kazaa service, does not constitute copyright infringement under Canadian law.
"No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorized the reproduction of sound recordings," von Finckenstein wrote. "They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer users via a P2P service."
He compared the action to a photocopy machine in a library. "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 on a shared directory linked to a P2P service," he said.
The recording industry has argued that it, and likewise artists, have suffered billions of dollars in lost revenue as tens of millions of people have turned the Internet into a music-swapping bazaar.
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America has launched almost 2,000 lawsuits against file swappers since last year. The RIAA has settled some 400 cases, generally for a few thousand dollars each.
The Canadian ruling is similar to a U.S. court setback for the recording industry in its campaign of legal intimidation to discourage online file-swapping. In December, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the industry can't force Internet providers to identify file-swappers unless they first file a lawsuit.
Just as that made the process of identifying defendants more cumbersome, so does the Canadian judge's decision.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association took five Internet service providers, including Bell Canada, Rogers Cable and Shaw Communications, to Federal Court last month, trying to force the companies to hand over the names and addresses of 29 people who allegedly shared hundreds of songs with others last November and December.
The individuals are currently identifiable only through a numeric Internet address and user handles, and the association can't begin civil litigation the alleged offenders are identified.
The judge's denial of the recording industry's request means Internet providers won't have to divulge their client list.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association's lawyer said the group expected to appeal and said Canadian law needs to be altered to reflect technological change.
"In our view, the copyright law in Canada does not allow people to put hundreds or thousands of music files on the Internet for copying, transmission and distribution to millions of strangers," said attorney Richard Pfohl.
University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who specializes in Internet and e-commerce law, anticipates the decision will push the industry to increase its lobbying efforts for copyright reform.
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