Comments on: P2P Music Sharing Ruled Legal in Canada

By: Sincere

Sincere — Fri, 27 May 2005 15:53:37 +0000

Im actually working on this case, and the thing to understand is, that even having a music file on your computer’s hard drive is illegal. Even if you bought the CD and put the songs on the hard drive. The only legal copying of copyright material for personal use is if it is put on an “audio recording medium”, because the copyright laws are so outdated, a computer hard drive, because it can do much more than merely record music, does not fall under the “audio recording medium requirements”. Therefore it is illegal to even have the music files on your computer. This is not the case in the united states however because their copyright laws have been updated to account for computer technology.

By: UNANIMOUS

UNANIMOUS — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 23:24:14 +0000

Ok , in case you didn’t understand correctly , it is legal to download songs via P2P . However , ONCE you make a copy it is ILLEGAL . I know , it sounds a bit weird , but hey , how can THEY catch you with an illegal copy of music ? IT’s IMPOSSIBLE , unless one of your friends is secretly working with SEESUS ( CANADIAN FBI) or the FBI , and he snitches on you . After that you will have to pay a mere 20$ (the worth of the downloaded music) , or face charges !!

By: Kyle Haight

Kyle Haight — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 20:02:55 +0000

There is a debateable issue here, believe it or not. Copyright is violated when an illegal copy is made. The person putting the files in their shared directory has not technically made an illegal copy; the copyright violation arguably occurs when the file is downloaded, and the person who should be prosecuted is the downloader, not the person who made the files available. Prosecuting the person who made the files available could be viewed as penalizing them for an action that some other person *might* perform.

I think a more plausible line of attack would be along the lines of willful negligence, or the creation of an attractive hazard. The person sharing the files is deliberately creating a situation in which criminal activity (illegal downloading) is far more likely to occur than it would have otherwise.

A physical-world analogy might be the way that ownership of drug paraphenelia is legal, but using it is not. As in the file sharing instance, the distinction doesn’t really pass the laugh test but there’s an arguable legal basis for it anyhow.