Music labels in the U.S., led by the Recording Industry Association of America have filed more than 28,000 lawsuits against individual file sharers. Only one suit has made it to trial, that of Jammie Thomas, a single Minnesota mother who was ordered to pay $222,000 by a federal jury last October on 24 counts of copyright infringement.
TV viewers would also be affected by the new legislation, which would make it legal to record shows, something which is currently illegal. Canadians would not be allowed to keep the recordings forever in digital stockpiles, nor would they be allowed to record certain programs flagged with digital locks by broadcasters.
Although digital locks — sometimes called copy control or digital rights management (DRM) technology — are slowly fading away from the music business with the rise of the universal MP3 format, they are very much a staple of the movie industry where it remains illegal to copy a movie from a DVD.
But one big question remaining is who will police the new digital frontier.
The new legislation calls on Internet service providers (ISPs) to discourage copyright infringement, but these companies will not be held liable for the actions of their users.
In some countries — such as the U.S. and Australia — ISPs have been directed to track subscribers who swap files illegally and to block access to certain sites and programs which facilitate file sharing.
Under the new Canadian legislation, ISPs would be obliged to inform subscribers when a complaint has been launched against the consumer by the owner of a copyright; however, they would also be obliged to keep track of that user's contact information for six months in the event that the data became necessary for legal proceedings.
Those provisions will have serious privacy implications for service providers, said Rocky Gaudrault, chief executive officer of TekSavvy Solutions Inc., an independent ISP based in Chatham, Ont. "Where is the line drawn between the Privacy Act versus this new copyright bill?" he said.
Typically, ISPs release the personal contact information of their subscribers only for police requests, usually in cases involving identity theft or child pornography. Having to track users' data based on requests from industry groups presents a sticky situation, he said.
"We are not an arm of the law or an agency of the state and they're talking about situations that may become very bad overall," he said. "We're there just as an on ramp to the Internet, and to go and police the Internet, that's not our job."
A spokeswoman for Bell Canada said the company was pleased to hear that ISPs will not be held accountable for the actions of their users and that the process for passing along notices from copyright holders to Internet users believed to be swapping illegal files would be formalized.
If the proposed legislation is passed, it could have effects on other copyright measures currently in place. While Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists said the new legislation is largely positive, he worries it could lead to the end of the private copying regime which imposes a levy on blank tapes and CDs sold in Canada.
"We're concerned if there is any effort here by the government to permit format shifting or this form of copying without ensuring that performers and makers receive compensation as they have up until now through the private copying regime."
Mr. Prentice said the government will be launching public consultations regarding the private copying regime in the fall. Mr. Waddell said ACTRA would not only oppose scrapping the regime, but would like to see it extended to include levies on iPods and other digital devices.
The federal government announced its intention to update the Copyright Act in its 2007 Speech from the Throne, and promised a number of organizations in the recording and media industries that the legislation would be tabled before the House of Commons breaks for the summer.
However, with Parliament set to break soon, some sources expect the legislation to be left to die by the minority Conservative government, which is likely to face harsh criticism from opposition parties, making the bill difficult to pass.
