I agree with the author of the article that the people drafting this legislation are out to lunch. Laws don't exist in a vacuum and the severity of a maximum sentence should be proportionate to both the crime and to maximum sentences for other crimes. Bad laws or those with out of proportion sentences are often simply not enforced.
In Canada we are still in a bit of a grey area as far as downloading music is concerned. Our Canadian version of RIAA has unsuccessfully sought in court to obtain the IP addresses from our biggest ISPs of those it alleged were illicitly downloading copyrighted material. The court refused, however, on the grounds that it was an unwarranted invasion of privacy and that Canadians already pay a levy on blank CD/DVDs that is distributed among the artists. The record industry had effectively sought to double dip by having us pay this levy, on the grounds that people buying blank CD/DVDs are using them to record downloaded music, and then attempting to sue them to regain "lost profits" for downloading music.
|