The Canadian copyright ruling comes in response to questions by consumer and other groups about Canadian law. The Canadian Copyright Board ruled it is—and has been—legal to download music files from P2P services in Canada.
In clarifying what is legal for Canadian online music fans, the Canadian Copyright Board ruled that downloading music files from peer-to-peer networks is acceptable. However, the board declared that uploading music files is illegal and also approved a levy on digital music players based on their storage capacity.
The government fees—charged to makers of digital devices—are paid to the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) and then distributed to Canadian music writers, producers and performers.
While the Recording Industry Association of America has claimed success from its legal campaign against consumers who are illegally sharing music online, the Canadian ruling illustrates the increased challenges of legitimizing P2P file trading on the global scale. [more @ www.technewsworld.com]