After Demonoid, Canadian Music Labels Take on BitTorrent Trackers
Written by enigmax on October 18, 2007After the CRIA forced Demonoid to block access to Canadian users, four recording labels have turned their attention to two other BitTorrent trackers hosted in Canada, issuing them with Cease and Desists. At least one intends to stand and fight.
There was quite a stir during the last month when we announced that Demonoid had been forced to temporarily close following legal pressures. The site returned but blocked Canadian users under orders of the CRIA. Now it appears that this was just the start of action against Canadian BitTorrent trackers.
Following a Canadian newspaper article which branded them ‘The Pirates of Quebec’, two BitTorrent trackers have been targeted by a collective of Canadian music labels.
The administrator of the 1 year old, 46,000 member ‘QuebecTorrent‘ has received Cease and Desist letters from 4 record labels and is being threatened with further action if they don’t comply.
The demands are:
a) Close the site www.quebectorrent.com and any other site of similar nature which you operate.
b) You must agree to never again directly or indirectly operate any other service which enables the sharing of music.
c) You must post a message clearly indicating the closure of the site and inform your users that sharing music via p2p networks is forbidden by Canadian copyright law unless permission is obtained and royalties paid.
In contrast to the situation at Demonoid who chose to block Canadian users rather than close or re-locate, it appears that QuebecTorrent (QT) don’t want to take this lying down and are hoping to fight this action.
Currently the members are being rallied with a view to obtaining donations - the administrator of QT told TorrentFreak that their lawyer is charging 250$ CAD/hour and although he is financing some of the fight, he simply cannot raise all of the funds.
He told us: “The fees so far are confirmed at 2000$ CAD. I am asking the users for 1500$ and I will pay the rest.”
He also outlines two scenarios - if QuebecTorrent loses in court, it will be very bad for P2P as a favorable legal precedent for the majors would result in an anti-p2p ‘crusade’.
Equally, victory could create a favorable legal precedent for P2P which would benefit the whole file-sharing community.
In summing up, the administrator says that he has a stark choice - either people donate to support the legal defense of the site or he will have no choice but to close it in the face of pressure from these labels.
Anyone wanting to help QuebecTorrent fight should consider donating.
Stay tuned, updates to follow
Previously: DomPlayer Rips Off aXXo BitTorrent Fans for $$$
Next: BitTorrent to be Pimped by Nobel Prize Winning Theory
69 Responses
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Stand up!
saggy. teh cria suxx baggz0rz. But seriously, this could just mean the death of peer-2-peer file sharing in Canada… I hope things don’t keep going this way, or next thing you know the Canadian gov’t will have to cut off all internet access, or at least go all censorship-crazy like China… I can see the C&D now…
From: CRIA
To: Everyone
Teh intertrron suxxorz, since you can put stuff on it. Some people might put our music on it, so here are our demands:
1) Kill teh inertweb. Make it die. Or at least make it go somewhere far away.
If our demands are not met we will cry and hire lots of really expensive lawyers to lay the smack down on some little people.
Sounds like Napster and WinMx all over again
Everytime these aHOLES want/try to shutdown a tracker, I just pirate more. They are really not helping the p2p community, but are making it worse. These aHOLES are doing more harm then good. Oh, btw the way, I still use torrenspy LOL
I can’t believe their demands…
as if closing the site isnt enough, the are making him do these as well?
b) You must agree to never again directly or indirectly operate any other service which enables the sharing of music.
c) You must post a message clearly indicating the closure of the site and inform your users that sharing music via p2p networks is forbidden by Canadian copyright law unless permission is obtained and royalties paid.
yes, stand up. Fuk is going to pay your legal fees…
After the Lokitorrent fiasco, I don’t think anyone will ever donate money for “legal fees” again. What did that guy run off with? $46K? Once bitten, twice shy.
You can’t say everyone is like LOKI. What he did was unforgivable. And cheated the entire bittorrent society. If he has stood up & fought none of this wouldn’t have happened.
To be fair, the admin is only asking for donations from his own users and he seems to be being fairly transparent about costs.
Ed Webber threw his donation net far and wide for Loki. This isn’t anywhere near the same scale.
If people feel good about giving $5, it soon mounts up to pay the legal bills. If it goes wrong, $5 isn’t so much.
I’ve been looking at the Canadian top albums, top singles, etc lists… Maybe if the CRIA started promoting actual *talent* then we might get some artists who can outsell Fergie and Justin Timberlake… Honestly, the only 2 Canadian albums in the top 20 (sales) this week were Kain and Diana Krall… Krall is an international darling, so I’m almost ashamed to call her Canadian. At least Kain rocks, though the only reason his album sales were so high is that Quebecois are rabidly… well.. Quebecois. Sure, his album is big on p2p sites, but he’s selling well too. Maybe the CRIA needs to start looking for more actual talented Canadian artists…
For Fack Sakes… When do they start going after users now?
When did the laws change in Canada with regards to piracy? Its good this guy is fighting it, for all I know the laws haven’t changed and their is a precedent he can use.
“According to the Federal Court, in a decision issued March 31, 2004, neither downloading a song for personal use nor merely making that file available to others to download from your computer (without some more active sharing activity) amounts to infringement under Canadian copyright law. The court ruled that “the mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution” or “authorization of the reproduction of sound recordings” under the Copyright Act. However, this decision has been appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, so the issue remains in legal limbo.”
I am from Quebec and I just donated 25$ and i am not even a member of this site. It is important to support any fight in your country against these big corp.
Like NetMaster I’ve just made a donation to support QuebecTorrent.com even if I’m not from this country! We have to support our community, whatever language and country…
thanks all for your support really appreciated :)
I’ve also made a donation of $50 even though I’m not a member of quebectorrent. After what happened with Demonoid I’m glad someone is willing to fight - hopefully they can set a precedent.
I am really disappointed in the loss of Demonoid in Canada. It was very useful to me for things not available on other sites, such as a lot of BBC audio programs. When I clicked on my Bookmark and got that message, it was a sad day.
I donate regularly to my favourite private tracker, because I appreciate all that I get from it. I want to do what I can to keep the scene running and not being destroyed by threats and lawsuits.
What the hell?! Music sharing is 100% LEGAL in Canada….. Why is this not making any sense?
“Music sharing is 100% LEGAL in Canada”
Is it but majors are trying to scare the little guys so…
As for Demonoid, IT IS still available for Canada.
Just use a proxy site, type in the url of Demonoid and voila!
Everyone email the retard who posted those articles…
tpeloqui@lapresse.ca
Tell him what an ass he is and explain to him why it’s bad journalism.
Uh yeah.. demonoid was slow enough as is, using a proxy would make it horrible… tracker owners should realize at one point that they need to become invite-only or simply closed registrations if they want to avoid those problems down the line… well, it can’t hurt.
Feel like helping out? Or just bitching at someone for your girlfriend cheating on you? Call the CRIA anti-piracy hotline at 1-800-668-8820 !
How much has TorrentFreak donated?
The fact of the matter is that there is precedent that p2p sites are LEGAL in Canada. If the CRIA comes after me and my tracker which is also hosted in Canada, I intend to represent myself. They can use scare tactics all they want, there is precedent / court orders / laws all confirming that p2p and file sharing is LEGAL in Canada. They are just trying to scare sites into shutting down, Demonoid just wimped out in my opinion. CRIA can BRING IT!
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