Canadians wary of Grokster case fallout by Jack Kapica, Globe and Mail (Jun 28)
Considers the fallout in Canada of the decision in the US Supreme Court that found that file-swapping companies Grokster and StreamCast Networks can be sued for use of their P2P products for downloading copyrighted music and movies.
Quotes Ottawa copyright lawyer Howard Knopf
"The irony is that the U.S. decision is based upon the assumption that the impugned software was being extensively used by end users for infringing purposes," he said Tuesday. "In Canada, that's not the case because our levy scheme, put in place at the Canadian Recording Industry Association's insistence, makes downloading from the Internet legal, as long as it's for private use and done on an audio recording medium."
For background on the Grokster decision in the US Supreme Court there is this news analysis in BusinessWeek Online -- <b>A Supreme Slap at Grokster & Co. by Lorraine Woellert (Jun 28) "The high court's ruling against the file-sharing services makes it clear that piracy won't be tolerated. But the battle is hardly over."
Posted by Gwen at June 29, 2005 03:20 PM