OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada will on Friday let Rogers Communications (and other ISPs) know whether or not they can collect a fee to help track down alleged copyright infringers.
In May of 2017, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled Rogers is not allowed to recoup its costs from copyright owners who ask the ISP to help track down individuals suspected of stealing video content to which they don’t own the rights. (Click here for more background on Rogers’ reasons for the appeal.) The company was granted leave to appeal the decision to the SCC, which heard the case earlier this year.
While the Copyright Act and the Copyright Modernization Act protects copyright owners from having their wares digitally taken and shared without compensation, everyone knows this is a common occurrence and so movie studios and others try to work with ISPs to limit losses.
Legal procedures are in place to combat the problem – primarily the so-called “notice and notice” regime where ISPs, alerted to potential copyright infringers, send warnings to households whose IP addresses have been flagged as potential pirates that there has been potential illegal activity from their home, such as downloading movies that haven’t been paid for, and tell them to cease and desist.
However, Rogers has insisted all along it shouldn’t have to do this work for free and that the copyright owners must foot the bill for the search, at a rate of $100/hour.
Voltage Pictures (likely best known for its 2008 Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker), filed a suit against Rogers saying it should not be forced to pay such a fee. In the original case, the lower court sided with Rogers. In May 2017, the Federal Court sided with Voltage.
Once Voltage has the names of the infringers, it will proceed with a lawsuit or lawsuits to recoup losses. It is there where Voltage (and other copyright owners) can recoup any fees paid to Rogers for tracking down the target. Stateside, Voltage and others have done this repeatedly, often earning settlements from those who don’t want to fight it out in court.
The Supreme Court heard this case earlier this year and today said it would make its decision public on Friday.
