Hacker News Reader

Comment by miguelrochefort | Hacker News Reader

Now that rightsholders aren't allowed to settle a deal through ISPs, maybe they will go to court and ask copyright infringers to pay the full penalty.

This could actually be worse for copyright infringers...

View on HN

Except that in Canada, they can’t take the “infringer” to court without unmasking the IP, which they can only do via a legal battle in court with the ISP.

The math doesn’t make that economical unless you’re going after an astonishingly large infringer.

I don't think it requires going to court. This discovery is known as a "Norwich order", and while there's a burden of evidence to prove that the order is justified, it's not a "battle" and the ISP wouldn't be trying to argue against it.

There was actually a very recent SCC case [1] between Rogers and a copyright enforcer, where Rogers was appealing a federal court decision that Rogers itself had to bear the cost of fulfilling these orders. If that stood, it would give copyright enforcers carte blanche to pursue copyright suits against minor violators.

[1] Commentary here: http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/750214/Media+Entertainment+La...

I don't know about your ISP, but I'm pretty sure my ISP would battle the hell out of anything concerning my privacy.

Link in Swedish: https://www.bahnhof.se/press/press-releases/2016/02/24/bahnh...

Yes, but Bahnhof is very much an exception in the world of ISPs. I'm not at all sure I would be able to rely on my ISP, Telenor Norway, to the same degree.

Maximum non-commercial penalty for copyright infringement in Canada is $5000 (about $3700 USD today).

I don't think taking people to court has a great cost-benefit ratio.

Is that per infraction?

If you're using BitTorrent with multiple people downloading from you, that could turn into serious money quickly.

Total.

This is for civil actions, the police can still go after large infringers. But no one wants the circus that the US has with people who cannot afford to defend themselves flooding the court system over copyright infringement.

Actual legal process? The horror.

So you’re saying that you prefer extrajudicial copyright proceedings? Seems like an awful idea to me.

I prefer a world where agents can negotiate deals rather than a world where they can't.

That’s not a negotiation, that’s a shakedown.

Agents CAN DEFINITELY still negotiate a deal...so long they know who they're actually negotiating with.

This bill makes sure they target the right people and use due process to actually go after infringers, not pull some sort of scam to throw bait and see who bites.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com