TorrentFreak

While most of the major entertainment industry companies wage war against BitTorrent sites, the Songwriters Association of Canada prefers to embrace file-sharing. Speaking with TorrentFreak, vice president Jean-Robert Bisaillon says that the Internet has revived the music business. Sharing music is part of people’s nature and the songwriters want to legalize file-sharing, while compensating the artists whose works are shared.

Earlier this month we reported that The Hurt Locker lawsuits hit Canada as well. Three Canadian ISPs have been ordered by a court to hand over the personal details of their subscribers to Voltage Pictures. However, unlike in the United States where tenst of thousands of downloaders were targeted, the Canadian case only covers 30 [...]

After targeting tens of thousands of U.S. Internet users alleged to have downloaded and shared the Oscar-winning movie The Hurt Locker, the movie’s makers have expanded their settlement business into new territory. Three Canadian ISPs have now been ordered by a court to hand over the personal details of their subscribers to Voltage Pictures.

A few months ago 21-year old Travis McCrea participated in the Canadian federal elections as candidate for the Pirate Party in Vancouver Centre. Aside from his political ambitions, McCrea also described himself as an entrepreneur. As with his political views, his business ventures are also focused on file-sharing related ideas, and most recently he started a torrent site to promote the distribution of movies.

The long running case concerning 30 years of commercial piracy by Canadian record companies is now officially at an end. For infringing copyright on a massive scale for decades, the judgment approved yesterday by the Ontario Superior Court means they have to pay just $50M to the artists in question. Back in January, we covered [...]

Previously Wikileaks cables already revealed that the U.S. Government was involved in Swedish anti-piracy efforts, and that the U.S. wrote much of Spain’s revamped copyright law. But there is more. Prof. Micheal Geist posted an excellent summary of the strong U.S. lobby for a Canadian DMCA, as revealed by leaked cables. He writes: “Wikileaks has [...]

Following pressure from the US Government, Canada is preparing to ram through a revamped copyright bill that will have disastrous consequences for consumers. Michael Geist, prof. E-commerce Law in Ottawa, previously described the bill as “the most anti-consumer copyright bill in Canadian history.” When the new bill passes it will open the door for widespread [...]