Speak Forcefully

Canadian Court rejects appeal on tune swap suit

The Canadian Federal Appeals Court’s refusal Thursday to order the disclosure of the identities of 29 suspected music file swappers over the Internet was one lost battle in the Canadian Recording Industry Association’s (CRIA) war against illegal music file sharing.

Upholding a previous decision by Federal Court Justice Konrad von Finckenstein, the Appeals Court dismissed CRIA’s motion, citing “hearsay” evidence.

“Much of the crucial evidence submitted by the plaintiffs was hearsay and no grounds are provided for accepting the hearsay evidence,” Justice Edgar Sexton said in his decision.

Last year CRIA launched a lawsuit against 29 unnamed individuals who allegedly shared music files over Kazaa’s peer-to-peer network. The individuals were identified only through pseudonyms they used while swapping files.

posted by majqa @ 12:00 PM