James Delahunty
13 Dec 2014 11:33
Canadians who download and share musically illegally may end up getting notices from their Internet Service Providers due to a new law.
Up until now, Canadian ISPs had a choice of whether to notify a customer that had been identified by IP address for copyright infringement, but in January the system will change and become mandatory as the Copyright Modernization Act will take effect.
The ISP will not hand over personal details of the customer however, just act as an intermediary.
"So essentially a copyright holder will provide Sasktel with notification that an IP address has illegally downloaded some material...and then Sasktel is required to notify the customer with that IP address," said Michelle Englot, director of external communications at SaskTel.
Such communications are intended to deter users from continuing to infringe copyright and lead them to legal, licensed outlets instead.