Allow ISPs to apply notice-forwarding costs to deter abuse: Telus

OTTAWA -- Fraudulent copyright infringement claims made through Canada’s notice-and-notice system can be dealt with by forcing the party making the claim to pay a fee to internet service providers (ISPs), Telus Corp. told a parliamentary committee studying the Copyright Act on Monday. The idea isn’t to recover costs in the forwarding of notices, which is a legal obligation on the part of ISPs, Telus said. Rather, it’s to impose some deterrent against illegitimate claims that make it through the system by imposing some kind of cost associated with the notice regime, which requires ISPs to forward copyright infringement warnings to subscribers. “While the government has announced an intention to take steps to address misuse by prohibiting settlement demands, this doesn’t address other forms of misuse such as fraudulent notices, or notices that include phishing links which pose a security risk for consumers,” Ann Mainville-Neeson, Telus’ vice-president of broadcasting policy and regulatory affairs, said in her opening statement to the industry committee. “Adding an economic cost to accessing the regime would go a long way towards minimizing its abuse,” she said, adding it would strike an appropriate balance between ISPs and rightsholders. The suggestion is in line with TekSavvy Solutions Inc.’s own proposal, made last week to the same committee, to allow ISPs to charge a fee for forwarding notices to “constrain the volumes of notices.” It comes after the country’s highest court ruled in mid-September that while ISPs shouldn’t be able to charge fees to rightsholders at the notice stage, at the disclosure stage -- when the rightsholder obtains a court order to get the personal information of those it already sent two notices to -- it can charge “reasonable” costs, it said. Mainville-Neeson noted during testimony that some of the notices that come through can be from those who are not the actual copyright holders, adding it’s difficult to determine whether that is the case. She said this is why the government must regulate what goes into the letters, acknowledging Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s goal of eliminating settlement demands in those notices as part of its intellectual property strategy. NDP MP Charlie Angus illustrated the point by saying he’d receiving notices alleging he pirated movies. “We want to ensure that there are new provisions that make sure we can at least weed out some of the more nefarious ones,” Mainville-Neeson said. “We are facing increasing costs and increasing number of notices to forward,” she said.

Allow ISPs to apply notice-forwarding costs to deter abuse: Telus

Brief | October 2, 2018

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Allow ISPs to apply notice-forwarding costs to deter abuse: Telus

Brief | October 2, 2018

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