Canada Rules That ISPs Don't Need To Pay Royalties For Subscriber Downloads
from the another-good-Canadian-decision dept
While some Canadian politicians seem a bit shady when it comes to understanding the intricacies intellectual property law, it appears Canadian judges are doing pretty well. First, they shot down lawsuits against file sharers by pointing out that the recording industry didn't actually have any evidence that files were uploaded or downloaded (just that they were "available"). Now, they've ruled that ISPs are not responsible for paying royalties when their subscribers download music. This was part of a money grab strategy by the entertainment industry who figured that they might as well just go after ISPs and see if they could get some cash out of them. The Canadian Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, found that ISPs are just "intermediaries," and should have no obligation to pay for what their subscribers are doing.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Cuts both ways
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Cuts both ways
Coming from the "other" side of this issue (as a music producer), I'm a bit saddened that nobody seems to feel they ought to pay for music anymore. Believe me, i'm just as guilty with my allofmp3.com subscription, so the irony's not lost on me. I'm honestly trying to figure out where the money's going to come from in the future, and I don't mean the one-degree transaction from me; i'm talking about the whole enchilada.
Any ideas, Techdirt? Mike, another "Ask Techdirt?"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
This tax is quite steep; over a dollar a tape, perhaps a bit lower for CDs.
This money is gathered by an organization and is supposed to be forwarded to "artists" to compensate them for their lost revenue.
It is a total scam, where struggling artists cannot even afford to buy the blanks anymore to send out demos.
By the way, the organization has yet to shill out one single penny to musicians.
Typical Canadian Corruption.
[ link to this | view in thread ]