OpenMedia.ca Sounds Alarm on Privacy Rights as court case could see Canadians’ private information handed to U.S. firm

U.S.-style copyright trolling could clog Canadian courts if law not made clearer

OpenMedia.ca believes that we need more specific direction from Parliament to prohibit Canadians’ private information from being passed onto Big Media’s lawyers, especially when those citizens have not been shown to be guilty of infringement. The group holds that companies should not be able to gain access to citizens’ private data simply by accusing them of wrongdoing.

OpenMedia.ca is also calling for stiff financial penalties for firms who abuse Canadian copyright law by using it for copyright trolling and mass lawsuits. Otherwise Canada runs the risk of having our legal system clogged up by these lawsuits.

"We should be creating copyright for citizens, creators and innovators; not copyright for lawyers and big media companies looking to make an easy buck," says OpenMedia.ca Executive Director Steve Anderson.

"This case is a deeply worrying indication of what's to come if the government passes Bill C-12, which as it stands, would make it even easier for punitive companies to obtain the private customer information of Canadians.”

“Canadians deserve stronger, not weaker, privacy legislation. We need a firm pro-privacy commitment from this government, both to protect Canadians in guilty by accusation cases like this and to prevent government-designated authorities from invading citizens’ privacy. Over 147,000 stood up against the government’s online spying Bill C-30 and won. I’m not sure what else the government needs in order to start pulling the right way on privacy.”

Canadians can take action to safeguard our privacy and our digital economy by sending a message to their MP at http://openmedia.ca/stand

About OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca is a network of people and organizations working to safeguard the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy.

Through campaigns such as StopTheMeter.ca and StopSpying.ca, OpenMedia.ca has engaged over half-a-million Canadians, and has influenced public policy and federal law.

About the StopSpying.ca campaign

The StopSpying.ca campaign is the multi-faceted grassroots effort that successfully stopped online spying bill C-30. The campaign was hosted by OpenMedia.ca with support from the StopSpying.ca Coalition, which holds that this type of legislation enables warrantless surveillance that is invasive, excessive, and costly.

Nearly 150,000 people have signed the StopSpying.ca petition or sent a message to their MP at http://openmedia.ca/stand, and tens of thousands have joined the conversation through the Twitter hashtag #TellVicEverything.

Contact

David Christopher
Communications Coordinator, OpenMedia.ca
1-778-232-1858
[email protected]

More Information

• Overzealous copyright lawyers target Canadians (blog post by Steve Anderson, December 2012)
• Update on Voltage’s “Guilty by Association” crusade (blog post by Steve Anderson, January 2013)
• Independent ISP stands up against copyright trolls seeking private info of Canadians (blog post by Steve Anderson, February 2013)