James Delahunty
19 Apr 2005 17:59
The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is set to appear before Federal Court of Appeal in Toronto hoping to overturn a ruling in April 2004 that shielded file sharers from legal attacks. It started in January 2004 when the CRIA tried to force ISPs to hand over personal information of file sharers. The ISPs decided to fight back and Federal Court Justice Konrad Von Finckenstein ruled that file sharing was akin to using a photocopier, citing the Canadian Copyright Act as support.
Graham Henderson, president of the CRIA says the recording industry faces millions of dollars in more lost sales if the appeal is unsuccessful. "It could cost millions and lead to more job losses if we aren't successful," Mr. Henderson said. "It would be awful." In many countries, the recording industry has launched a battle against file sharers by filing lawsuits against uploaders, which is exactly what the CRIA had planned.
Mr. Henderson claims that since the ruling in April 2004, more than 134 million songs have been downloaded in Canada illegally. Movie sales were flat in 2004 however but Henderson said that the industry's retail sales have dropped $465 million since they peaked in 1999. The recording industry will have a hard time overturning the ruling. "Their big challenge is that they have to convince the Court of Appeal that the decision was legally incorrect," Mark Hayes, an intellectual property lawyer with Ogilvy Renault said. "They need to get the court to confirm that Justice Von Finckenstein's musings on the law aren't binding."
If the CRIA fails to convince the Appeals Court to change the decision, it can fall back on the fact that the organisation spent months lobbying the federal government to make changes to the copyright act. It seems likely that the copyright act could be changed by the end of the year. The CRIA didn't really need to appeal the ruling but decided to because of the chance the minority Liberal government could be toppled, leaving copyright reform in limbo for months or even years.
Source:
Canada.com