ILLEGAL DOWNLOAD LETTERS SERVED
Legal action ‘unlikely,’ says prof
Letters threatening potential legal action for those who allegedly illegally download copyrighted material are being sent to several people throughout Saskatoon.
Cale Passmore, a student, says he received a mailed letter from Bell Canada, his Internet service provider (ISP), notifying him of copyright infringement earlier this month. The letter includes a statement of the alleged piracy along with his name, home address, the title of the film, its legal owners and his IP address.
“It asked that I delete any saved data, discontinue downloading or streaming owned material, and that I was subject to fines,” said Passmore.
The notices are a legal obligation from the federal government’s Copyright Modernization Act, which came into force on Jan. 1. The act requires ISPs and website hosts to mail letters from copyright holders to customers associated with IP address used in connection with the alleged infringement of protected works.
While Passmore isn’t fazed about the potential fines, he is concerned about how his ISP is tracking his personal information.
“It made very clear that my Internet data was being monitored, stored, and associated with my identity,” said Passmore.
Hosts and ISPs must retain records of the notices for a minimum of six months in case a copyright owner decides to pursue legal action.
Chethan Lakshman, Vice President of External Affairs for Shaw Communications, an ISP that has similarly been delivering notices throughout Saskatoon, says that the company does not provide customer information to copyright holders unless compelled by order of a Canadian court.
“Ultimately I feel the letter and the act passed by the government serves the purpose of a threat and an excuse to access and record my personal information,” said Passmore.
Another Saskatoon man also received a letter earlier this week from Shaw. He took to Reddit to seek legal advice on what the letter means. He said he doesn’t illegally download content often, and despite the potential fines the letter is not a deterrent.
Under the Copyright Modernization Act the maximum liability that a copyright holder could seek is $5,000.
William Buschert, a philosophy professor with the University of Saskatchewan who specializes in technology, says the fine is unlikely to be enforced.
“For the sake of $5,000, it seems to me unlikely that many copyright holders are going to be pursuing legal action when the payoff is relatively low and the cost of doing so, in an individual case, is very high,” said Buschert.
Meanwhile some who download movies are using a well-known loophole, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, to avoid detection. A VPN is a subscription-based service that encapsulates and encrypts a user’s Internet data transmissions.
Passmore says he understands why the letters are being served, and says in the future he plans on using a VPN service to protect his personal information.
“My biggest concern remains severance of service, but I crumpled and binned the letter after coming to understand how little action could be taken against me, especially since I rarely torrent and stream in comparison to others,” said Passmore.
“I’m small fish, really.”