QuebecTorrent.com, a local torrent tracker, is entagled in a lawsuit started last month by the Canadian music industry. They received first a cease&desist order, but eventually won this first attempt and are still online. The case is just starting though, with ongoing developments.
Of course, record companies like Sony BMG, EMI, Universal Music Canada are describing themselves as victims, and the website’s owner and administrator as pirates who ripped off hard-working artists. On the other hand, QuebecTorrent’s owner, Sébastien Brulotte, changed the website’s “mission” for personal uses only, is calling his community’s members’ help, and is asking for help on various websites, notably digg. Furthermore, he was alarmed that the case would make a jurisprudential case and make thus all p2p websites like IsoHunt or TorrentBox in Canada illegal.
I have no knowledge of Québec&Canadian law about peer-to-peer sharing and fair use, but here is nonetheless a comment by a Canadian who owns a web hosting company:
I’m not sure what is going on in Quebec But I believe it is more to do with the law not understanding what a torrent site is and the plaintiff’s trying to say the site holds the media itself. That here in Canada is 100% illegal. Though hosting index files related to a site is not. Therefore any torrent site that does not (Seed or Upload from the server) can not be charged with committing a crime. There even was a ruling by the supreme court of Canada in regards to downloading mp3’s that it is the same thing as going to a library and photo coping a page out of a book which people have been doing for decades. I’m sad to hear other company’s are not willing to defend their clients rights in a matter that is 100% ill legit. I do hope Quebec Torrents holds their ground and their host step up and help them instead of bowing to pressure that is unjust.
Surprisingly, the case has little to no press in the local press. I stumbled upon an article at La Presse which describes QuebecTorrent administrators as criminals who are about to be busted by the GRC. Other media groups in the province, like Québecor, are known to work hand-in-hand with the music industry.
Comments
oniquet November 28, 2007
Un jour, nous aurons peut-être les moyens d’avoir plus d’impact et d’aborder ces sujets éludés par les médias.
Heri November 28, 2007
oniquet November 29, 2007
Nous n’avons pas encore la masse critique pour que chaque section soit bien garnie.
John Baker February 20, 2008
Heri February 21, 2008
i assume everyone reading montrealtechwatch is bilingual.
kambulow April 29, 2008
What started as a simple phone call by me in January 2007 to Bell tech help line to determine why my internet services were so slow and sluggish. became a major farce on the part of Bell Sympatico. I was lied for months as to the real reasons Bell they rather had offered their poor internet services to me and to many others in my city for years now too.. and then Bell lied to me some more, breached their contractual obligations many times too, allowed me even to be slandered, absued on the Bell customer forums now too.. and why? so clearly greedy Bell can continue stay in business to make more money.. and who really cares now about the customer’s good welfare in reaity? Not Bell, not the CRTC, not the federal government, not our Prime Minister Stephen Harper, not the the fderal Minister of Consumer Affairs, Jim Prentice.. not any provincial consumer affairs Minister, but only the citizems, the news media, and the NDP party care about the citizens good welfare really it seems. Not acceptable for sure too!
I too would now rightfully like to see the provisions that made DPI (deep packet inspection) by ISPs to be made illegal not just by the CRTC but also by the federal government now too, including many of the bad acts of Bell, the Big Brother’s false invasion of our home, personal privacy. Since we can readily know that the reasons given for the internet downloading inspections, capping are unjustifiable, what are the actual reasons now for these online now inspections too?
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/