Lifting the internet veil in Canada's P2P copyright infringement actions

摘要

With the debate over so-called 'patent trolls' raging, a different type of 'troll' was discussed in a recent decision from the Federal Court of Canada: 'copyrighttrolls'. The discussion arose in the relatively novel situation in Canada where a party seeks to have an internet service provider (ISP) disclose the identity of subscribers assigned specified internet protocol (IP) addresses that have allegedly infringed the copyright holder's rights. The Federal Court leaned on UK and US jurisprudence in crafting an order that will be followed by many, if not all, parties seeking similar orders in the future.