The Federal Court of Appeal released its decision today in several JRs in the tariff 22 case. The main holding in the decision is that a download of a music file from a online music service to a single user is a communication of the musical work to the public under the Copyright Act.
In making this ruling the Court reached the same conclusion as did a previous panel which decided the Tariff 24 Ringtones case, albeit for different reasons.
In giving reasons the Court also expressed the view that a a user of a peer to peer file sharing network can be liable under the communication to the public right.
A surprising suggestion in the case was that the Copyright Board is entitled to deference with respect to its interpretation of the Copyright Act. In a prior judicial review decision of a SOCAN Tariff 22 the Supreme Court ruled that the standard of review on questions of law under the act was correctness.
