Is Canada still a File-Sharing Haven?

[MadMax]

Hello all,

I was wondering what is the current legislation about File-sharing (music, movies, games, etc.) here in Canada, using a peer-to-peer network. The last *official* news i've heard was when a canadian court had officially ruled that "file-sharing isn't illegal", that was back in 2004. And that made us one of the very very few countries whose legislations wasn't shaken by the MPAA and RIAA attacks.

Does anyone know any new infos? Do you think the conservative party have any plans about the issue?

Thanks for your replies!

 

[MadMax]

Any news? comments?

Thanks!

 

[Finder]

I remembering Reading something about this a few months ago pretty much saying that types of file sharing may still be ilegal in Canada, because of copyright infrigments still. Movies music and so on. But I'd love a more indepth update on this as well.

 

[Em]

I don't have official documentation on this, but as far as I know, it is still completely ILLEGAL to upload copyrighted intellectual property, but it is legal to download it, even software.

HOWEVER, in the case of software, if it is 'hacked, cracked, or you are sharing a serial key', then it IS illegal. In the case of movies, it is the same as making a VHS copy and giving it to a friend, yes it is "illegal" to make copies, but unless you do it on a large scale, no one is going to care too much. The court fees are too high to be viable.

Now, if you have a HD full of music and videos that you are sharing with the world, then you might have something to be concerned about. The large-scale uploaders are the ones who are being prosecuted, and rightly so (in my opinion). I freely admit that I download music and movies. I also buy more music now than I ever did before. And the artists I buy are about 95% "emerging" artists who I would NEVER have heard of if it wasn't for peer to peer sharing networks.

And being that my wife is the lead singer in an independent rock band (somewhat akin to Evanescence), I am keenly aware of the impact of p2p sharing. For emerging artists, there is nothing more effective than p2p sharing with respect to market exposure. 20 years ago, being heard in Sweden would have been nigh on impossible without serious capital outlay. Now, its as easy as putting a CD ISO file on a bittorrent sharing network. p2p sharing has been 100% positive for my wife's band.

Note: Link has been deleted. I've also deleted it from your profile. This is not a free ad site. Please see link below for advertising info. Spamming is considered a bannable offence. Thanks, Cosmo
http://www.canadiancontent.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13547

 

[Em]

Oh and one tiny word on pirated software: why? There are SO many FREE (usually open-source) alternatives out there that no one should be paying for or illegally downloading software. If you are curious about THIS sort of thing, check out 'sourceforge' and check out some of the software. It's all done by university students etc. And if you want to try Linux instead of using Windows (since Linux is free instead of illegally downloading Windows), there are dozens of distributions of Linux! For example, Ubuntu and Mandriva.

 

[MadMax]

It's not really a question whether sharing copyrighted materiel is legal or not, but rather if it is still not illegal. And That's a huge difference from a juridical point of view, and as far as i know, Canada is the only western country where downloading/sharing is still considered not illegal, but until when?

 

[Andem]

It's not really a question whether sharing copyrighted materiel is legal or not, but rather if it is still not illegal. And That's a huge difference from a juridical point of view, and as far as i know, Canada is the only western country where downloading/sharing is still considered not illegal, but until when?

The actual act of sharing, or uploading, is still considered illegal. Downloading, AFAIK, is still legal as I have not heard any news indicating otherwise.

 

[Em]

It's not really a question whether sharing copyrighted materiel is legal or not, but rather if it is still not illegal. And That's a huge difference from a juridical point of view, and as far as i know, Canada is the only western country where downloading/sharing is still considered not illegal, but until when?

Hmm ... perhaps I am confused then. I mean, I am not a lawyer, so forgive me, but what IS the difference between "Legal" and "Not Illegal"? I thought that if something was "not illegal", then it is "legal". me = confused.

As far as "western" countries, are you including all European countries as Western? If so, then you might want to look up Sweden's laws. I suspect other countries as well, but I am aware as a downloader that Sweden is the country of origin for much of the material I review. For example, there is a website called thepiratebay (a bittorrent tracker) that deals with immense volumes of both copyrighted and GPU licensed material. I'd post a link, but I am paranoid about this whole "advertising/posting/spamming" thing going on. Seems admin figured my signature was somehow spam when I had a link. Peculiar. Me = Confused about that too.

But anyhow, I believe there might be other European countries with a similar policy with regard to p2p and intellectual property (perhaps Denmark, Norway, Iceland).

From what I can tell, in these countries (at least Sweden) it is "not illegal" to download copyrighted material; and more importantly it is "not illegal" to post links for where to appropriate said material -- perhaps as long as you are not hosting (or uploading) the file yourself.

 

[MadMax]

Hmm ... perhaps I am confused then. I mean, I am not a lawyer, so forgive me, but what IS the difference between "Legal" and "Not Illegal"? I thought that if something was "not illegal", then it is "legal". me = confused.

Theoritically, to make something illegal, there has to be a law that clearly states it is. In the case of downloading music, there still aren't any canadian law clearly stating it's illegal. Therefore, downloading is still a legal act, until proven otherwise.
In sweden, until summer 2005, it was still legal to download for personal use, but in July 2005, the parliament passed a law making it illegal, making Canada one of the few (if not the only) western country with no laws against downloading.

The actual act of sharing, or uploading, is still considered illegal. Downloading, AFAIK, is still legal as I have not heard any news indicating otherwise.

It's funny how juridical terms are really messed up (which is good!). The act of downloading means that someone has uploaded the file you're getting, therefore, a *still* legal act derives from an illegal one. 8)