Thursday, April 01, 2004

no foolin'

no foolin'

In a move that is sure to rock the Internet, a Canadian Federal Court judge has ruled that filesharing over the Internet does not constitute copyright infringement.

And no, folks, this is no April Fool's Day joke.

Kudos to internet service providers like Shaw, Interbaun, Bell Canada, Telus Communications, Rogers Cable, and Videotron for fighting for their customers' right to privacy against the Canadian Recording Industry Association. In the article linked above, Peter Bissonnette, the president of Shaw, is quoted as saying: "We have obligations to protect the privacy of our customers. We've always taken that approach."

The judge likened filesharing to a photocopier in a library full of copyrighted material; fair use. Judge Finckenstein went on to say "No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorized the reproduction of sound recordings. They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer users via a P2P service."

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