Music Downloading

TORONTO (CP) - Peer-to-peer users were put on notice Monday after the Liberal government introduced a bill calling for stricter copyright legislation to crack down on music sharing.

Bill C-60 would amend the Copyright Act, bringing it up to speed with today's technologies, namely Internet activities like file-sharing and burning unlimited copies of CDs and movies.

The biggest change comes through a "make available" clause which would make it illegal to upload songs into online shared directories, as is the case when using Kazaa or BitTorrent, unless you are the rights holder of the material.

The amendments would also create anti-tampering laws to prevent people from cracking copyright protection seals on CDs. They do not prevent people from making copies for personal use.

The bill, said Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, sends "the message to everybody out there that it's not free because it's on the Internet."

"The objective was to modernize the Copyright Act in order to be able to clarify the rights of the authors and to include the control over . . . making available their material on the Internet," she said in Ottawa.

If passed, the bill would exempt Internet Service Providers, such as Rogers and Telus, from copyright liability. The ISPs would instead have to implement a new warning system, called "notice and notice," something they currently do on an informal basis.

Customers would receive a notice letter from their ISP that a rights holder is alleging the sharing of copyright-protected information. It would ask the individual to remove the material from the shared directory or face a lawsuit.

The introduction of the legislation before summer recess came as music to the ears of copyright holders who've been lobbying government for years saying they've lost millions to illegal downloading of music, movies and software.

"We're flooded with relief," said Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the organization which represents music labels.

The Toronto-based group has been working hard to stop music pirates, having launched an unsuccessful Federal Court case last year to force ISPs to reveal the identities of customers who made large volumes of songs available online.

"It's now pretty obvious . . . the Canadian government intends this activity, uploading, to be illegal. There's now no issue about that."

But at least one Internet rights group criticized the legislation saying it goes too far.

"This bill is a massive, massive giveaway to rights holders," said David Fewer, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and counsel for the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

"These are rights that belong to users currently, to researchers and to consumers."

The legislation will have to pass through several stages before it becomes law. That wouldn't happen until much later in the year or perhaps next spring.