Uploading Is Not Infringement

In Canada, a court ruled that making files available on a file sharing network is not proof of copyright infringement. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports: Court quashes music industry bid for IDs

Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled Wednesday that the Canadian Recording Industry Association did not prove there was copyright infringement by 29 so-called music uploaders.

He said that downloading a song or making files available in shared directories, like those on Kazaa, does not constitute copyright infringement under the current Canadian law.

It will be interesting to see if this ruling has any effect on pending cases here in the US.

Update (3:52pm): Via FurdLog, the opinion: BMG Canada Inc. v. Doe, 2004 FC 288.

The court finds that the plaintiffs (Canada record labels) failed to establish a prima facie case of copyright infringement for three reasons:

1. The affadavits from MediaSentry (a p2p tracking firm employed by the plaintiffs) are hearsay and fail to meet the best evidence rule. The proffered evidence fails to establish that the files being offered are actually infringing files of the plaintiffs.
2. The plaintiffs failed to provide clear and comprehensive evidence of how the usernames of the Kazaa or iMesh users are connected with the IP addresses identified by MediaSentry.
3. Finally, "no evidence was presented that the alleged infringers either distributed or authorized the reproduction of sound recordings. They merely placed personal copies into their shared directories which were accessible to other computer users via a P2P service." Downloading songs for personal use is not infringement.

The court goes on to evaluate the practical and privacy concerns in revealing the identity the user of a dynamically-assigned IP address.