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ISP TekSavvy Ordered to Hand-over Subscriber Info

posted by LaminatorX on Friday February 21 2014, @10:45PM   
from the A-leashed-hyena-is-still-a-hyena dept.

dbot writes

"In the latest turn in an ongoing legal dispute, Canadian ISP TekSavvy has been ordered to hand over the IP addresses information of subscribers allegedly engaging in copyright infringement of Voltage Pictures works.

While it doesn't look like a great decision on the surface (an IP address does not uniquely identify an infringer), the court specifically said it wants to sign off on the wording of any contact notices issued by Voltage to prevent extortionary "Copyright Troll" messages. It will be interesting to see if this new decision scales."

• Re:Court did it right Re:Court did it right (Score: 4, Informative) by Appalbarry on Saturday February 22 2014, @12:41AM

  by Appalbarry (66) on Saturday February 22 2014, @12:41AM (#4631) Journal

  Don't know why the summary at top didn't say it, but what was really noteworthy was that the court specifically identified copyright trolls as a problem, and set out restrictions on their activities.

  In Canada, at least, your average copyright troll can no longer make enough profit to be successful
   

  "This [Voltage's position] would be an acceptable position but for the spectre raised of the 'copyright troll' as it applies to these cases and the mischief that is created by compelling the TekSavvy's of the world to reveal private information about their customers. There is also the very real spectre of flooding the Court with an enormous number of cases involving the subscribers many of whom have perfectly good defences to the alleged infringement. Finally, the damages against individual subscribers even on a generous consideration of the Copyright Act damage provisions may be miniscule compared to the cost, time and effort in pursuing a claim against the subscriber."

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• Re:Court did it right (Score: 4, Informative) by T0T4L_L43R on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:58AM

  by T0T4L_L43R (2169) on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:58AM (#4674)

  Don't know why the summary at top didn't say it

  Well it isn't in the summary, but it is in the link to Michael Geist's (pretty frikken excellent) article.

  We have our share of problems up here in The Great White North, but lawsuites for fun and profit are not amoung them - hell, even our sad litle neo-con government despises them.

  From TFA:

  >the case will be managed by a Case Management Judge
  >TekSavvy will only disclose subscriber name and address information
  >Voltage will pay all reasonable legal costs incurred by TekSavvy before the release of any information
  >the demand letter to subscribers will include a copy of the court order and clearly state in bold type that "no court has yet made a determination that such subscriber has infringed or is liable in any way for payment of damage".
  >the contents of the demand letter will be approved by the parties (including CIPPIC) and the Case Management Judge.
  >any further cases brought against subscribers will also be case managed
  >the information released by TekSavvy will remain confidential, will not be disclosed to other parties, and will not be used for other purposes. The information will not be disclosed to the general public or the media.

  Agree. They're doing it right.

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