File Sharing Music Downloading Legal In Canada?

Question by Northen Goose: File Sharing Music Downloading Legal In Canada?
I have searched the Internet from corner to corner and I can’t find an answer.

In 2004 the Supreme Court of canada had ruled it was legal to download music and also share it. The judge said “The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution. Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying.”

Ottawa’s Geist said this appeared to make uploading itself legal as well, since a peer-to-peer user–like a library–would be entitled to assume that the person on the other side of the connection was acting legally, since downloading was also legal in Canada. ”

Also I am paying an additional tax on every blank cd and DVD purchased, which tells me that I have bought that piece of music I am planning to download.

Best answer:

Answer by Al M
A distinction needs to be made betweeen downloading music from a site where the copyright owner, or artist, or musician has given permission to an audience to do so, and downloading music that has been pirated without paying for it.

There is also the issue of buying a legal copy of something and having it stored on the medium of choice, backed up, in case of future problems with the medium of choice. Making computer backups is legal in most nations. The illegality comes when the entertainment is shared with more than the normal household, and for money … such as inviting a bunch of people to watch copyrighted mivies, or listen to copyrighted music, and charging money to do the show at your home or esewhere.

In most nations, piracy is illegal, where the criminality is for the person who makes the duplication, not the person who buys it, which is civil law. In the USA, it is both civil and criminal law violation to be receiving the piracy.

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