The Canadian Federal Court has thrown out the attempt by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA, which represents the manufacturers and wholesale distributors of compact discs) to violate the privacy rights of all Canadians. CRIA was attempting to force ISPs to disclose the identities of their customers without permission. This is a copy of the tactics used in the States, where civil suits were served against people who could not afford to defend them, mainly students, on average, the extortion has run about $3,000, no suits have gone to court.
CRIA's backup plan involves putting a mouse in a beer bottle.
Justice Konrad von Finckenstein said the Canadian Recording Industry Association hadn't shown copyright infringement by 29 people who had allowed their music files to be uploaded.
Making files available in online, shared directories is within the bounds of Canadian copyright law, von Finckenstein ruled.
"No evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorized the reproduction of sound recordings," von Finckenstein wrote in his 28-page ruling. "They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible by other computer users via a P2P service."
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