Effort afoot to sue Canadians for illegal downloads

MONTREAL — Massive lawsuits targeting people who illegally download copyrighted content are common in the U. S., where people have been stuck with hefty fines and out-of--

court settlements. Now there’s an attempt to bring that to Canada.

At the centre of the effort is Canipre, the only anti- piracy enforcement firm that provides forensic services to copyright holders in Canada.

The Montreal- based firm has been monitoring Canadian users’ downloading of pirated content for several

months. It has now gathered more than one million different evidence files, according to its managing director Barry Logan.

One of its clients is now before Federal Court in Toronto, requesting customer information for more than 1,000 IP addresses — a user’s unique Internet signature — collected by Canipre.

That client is the American studio Voltage Pictures, maker of hundreds of films including the Academy Award- winning Hurt Locker.

On the other side of the case is Teksavvy, an Ontario- based Internet provider. The IP addresses flagged by Canipre link back to its users.

The case is set to resume next month.

Canadians don’t risk such severe damages, because of a bill passed last year that modified the federal Copyright Act. Bill C- 11 imposed a limit of $ 5,000 on damages awarded for noncommercial copyright infringement, which applies to the average consumer who downloads films.