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Why copyright trolls will have a hard time shaking down Canadians

Cory Doctorow at 5:24 pm Wed, Nov 28, 2012

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Michael Geist sez, "Over the past couple of days, there have been multiple reports about the return of file sharing lawsuits to Canada, with fears that thousands of Canadians could be targeted. While it is possible that many will receive demand letters, it is important to note that recent changes to Canadian copyright law limit liability in non-commercial cases to a maximum of $5,000 for all infringement claims. In fact, it is likely that a court would award far less - perhaps as little as $100 - if the case went to court as even the government's FAQ on the recent copyright reform bill provided assurances that Canadians "will not face disproportionate penalties for minor infringements of copyright by distinguishing between commercial and non-commercial infringement.""

Why Liability Is Limited: A Primer on New Copyright Damages as File Sharing Lawsuits Head To Canada

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE:  c-11 • canada • Copyfight • copyright trolls • corruption • law

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  • nixiebunny

    Can we get this in the land of the free, please? 

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=596381390 Gabe Snooks

      Yeah, True north, strong and free!

  • That_Anonymous_Coward

    Well that and one of the first troll targets was… a Hockey Arena…

    • http://mrsplooge.myopenid.com/ bob

      Sources are good:

      • That_Anonymous_Coward

         https://torrentfreak.com/nhls-montreal-canadiens-accused-of-pirating-the-hurt-locker-110928/

        pretty sure BoingBoing covered it as well, but the link escapes my GoogleFu atm.

        Icing on cake…
        http://boingboing.net/2012/01/04/canadian-parliament-a-notorio.html

        Forgive me not linking to it before, but I read tons of these stories and lawsuits trying to help people targeted by Copyright trolls.  My memory is chock full of these little balls of fail.

  • soylent_plaid

    Maximum of $5K eh?  Anyone want to hazard a guess as to how many hours of copyright attorney fees that buys you?

    Because as we all know, the whole “copyright lawsuit” industry is all about principle and not profit, amirite?

    • Florian Bösch

      It buys you about 10 hours of attorney work.

  • Kent Horvath

    Here in America, we have the best copyright laws money can buy…

  • TheMudshark

    That´s downright un-American.

  • http://profiles.google.com/spacewatcer Marios P.

    finally some sence!
    I hope it is contagious.