Several weeks ago TorrentFreak published its Top 25 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2009. In a blog commenting on the rankings, I pointed out that out of the top 25, 7 of them are located or have connections to Canada and that of the top 10, 4 are located or have connections to Canada. I also pointed out that this meant that Canada, alone, is home to more than 25% of the world’s public English language unauthorized bitTorrent sites and 40% of the leading ones are in Canada.
Posts Tagged ‘file-sharing’
Toying with funny math to downplay Canada’s role as a piracy haven
December 28th, 2009Fung and Isohunt found liable for inducing worldwide copyright infringement
December 25th, 2009Earlier this week, a US district court granted summary judgement to MPAA members holding that Gary Fung and four websites operated by him, including Isohunt one of Canada’s largest bittorrent sites, contribute to massive worldwide copyright infringement.
Operators of bittorrent sites like isoHunt often claim they are nothing but content neutral search engines like Google. The Isohunt court disagreed holding, based on uncontested expert evidence, that approximately 95 percent of all files made accessible through Isohunt were infringing or highly likely to be infringing.
Copyright Reform for Canada: What Should We Do? My submission to the Copyright consultation
September 13th, 2009What Happens When Copyright Goes Digital
August 6th, 2009Barry Sookman and Stephen Stohn, National Post August 6, 2009
Earlier this month, the federal government launched a copyright consultation asking Canadians for input on copyright reform. Chief among its questions were what sorts of changes would best foster “innovation and creativity,” “competition and investment” and best “position Canada as a leader in the global, digital economy.”
These questions reveal fundamental insights about the objectives of copyright reform.
Reforming copyright law will stimulate investment in the creation and dissemination of movies, TV programs, books, music and software; help Canada to be a leader in the global digital market for cultural products; and enable Canadian actors, artists, performers, producers and publishers to be paid for their creative efforts and investments.
The Pirate Bay – Operators Fined for Aiding and Abetting Copyright Infringement
July 28th, 2009 In what is being heralded as a victory for copyright holders, a Swedish district court has found four operators of the file-sharing service The Pirate Bay guilty of aiding and abetting copyright infringement, fined them US$3.6 million, and sentenced each to a year in prison.
The defendants were involved in the operation of The Pirate Bay, reportedly one of the world’s largest bittorrent-tracking website. According to the court, users could upload and store torrent files on the Pirate Bay website as well as search the site’s database for torrent files to download. The service also had a tracker function, which allowed users to contact each other to share the recording or work to which the torrent file referred.
The judge found that The Pirate Bay’s server contained torrent files that related to copyright-protected works and that some of its site’s users used The Pirate Bay’s service to unlawfully share these materials. Therefore, the judge concluded that those users had breached the Swedish Copyright Act and were guilty of copyright infringement.
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