--- From: David Akin <dakin@private> To: "'declan@private'" <declan@private> Subject: Canadian Music rights holds want blanket annual royalty from ISPs Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 08:39:01 -0500 Hi Declan -- The hits just keep on comin' up here in the Great White North. The Supreme Court here will hear the case Wednesday DEC 3. Judgement usually follows about six months after oral arguments are presented. Music group aims to charge Internet users Canada's songwriters will ask the Supreme Court of Canada next week to force Internet service providers to pay them royalties for the millions of digital music files downloaded each year by Canadians. The case has broad ramifications for the Internet industry in Canada, legal experts say. "This is the big case for the Internet. This will set the position on how we are going to treat Internet service providers, whether they are going to be seen as people who are responsible in some way for content that goes through their services," said Mark Perry, a professor of law and a professor of computer science at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. If successful, the legal pleadings of the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) could open the door to other rights holders -- groups as diverse as software publishers or Hollywood movie distributors -- who could use SOCAN's precedent to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to collect royalties for their members . . . [Short version in Globe and Mail at: http://tinyurl.com/wvq0 [Full version plus link to TV version of same at CTV online: http://tinyurl.com/wvq6 [Slashdotters toss it around: http://tinyurl.com/wvqc] David Akin ----------------- CTV News The Globe and Mail ----------------- Office: 416.313.2503 Mobile: 416.528.3819 ----------------- Complete Contact Information at http://www.davidakin.com Blog: http://davidakin.blogware.com _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Dec 03 2003 - 08:46:28 PST