I’ve been wanting to write about this for a little while, but I needed to make sure all my ducks were in a row about this…so belatedly:
Konrad von Finkenstein has been named as the Chair of the Canadian Radio and television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Von Finkenstein previously was a federal judge where he recently decided that merely placing files in a shared directory on a computer is not illegal.
“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 user(s) via a P2P service.”
This quote was made in light of a request by the “big five” record labels (Universal, Warner Music, EMI, Sony Music, and BMG) for the CIRA (Canadian Recording Industry Assoc.) to force five canadian ISPs to hand over the names of 29 people the lables claim were
“each illegally distributing hundreds if not thousands of music copyright files to millions of strangers”.
In addition to the above, Von Fickenstein also decided the record labels had not:
- “Made out a prima facie case (their affidavit evidence is deficient, they have not: made a causal link between P2P pseudonyms and IP addresses and they have not made out a prima facie case of infringement),
- “Established that the ISPs are the only practical source for the identity of the P2P pseudonyms; and
- “Established that the public interest for disclosure outweighs the privacy concerns in light of the age of the data.”
So there you have it, it looks as if the new CRTC chair believes in net neutrality. Unlike our southern neighbors whose FCC believes that neutrality might do more harm than good, but really, come on. What the FCC is saying here, is that they will not enforce neutrality, so in effect, if certain ISPs wanted to charge more for different “services” over the internet, then so be it.
It looks as if the CRTC is turning out to be quite a bit more open in its understanding of data networks, but of course the story still is being told. We’ll see how Konrad does in his new role….
lots more info at:
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