Canada readying for anti-piracy storm

We might have our own digital rights to worry about, but our northern cousins across the pond have troubles of their own too. The company behind The Hurt Locker, Voltage Pictures, is once again looking to make a dime by targeting fans of its products, as it prepares to take legal action against several thousand Canadians that downloaded its movies during September and October this year.

And the process has already begun, with the first filing in federal court taking place late last month. In it, Voltage requested the names of individuals that shared its movie Recoil – the one starring Danny Trejo and Steve Austin. On top of this, around 2,000 other IP addresses have been requested from ISP TekSavvy, though it has responded that a court order will be necessary before it hands over any information.

That won't take long however, as Voltage has enough time on its hands to get into court as early as 17th December, where it plans to push for an order that will see TekSavvy likely to comply.

As part of this big crack down on fans of its movies, Voltage will be looking for statutory damages, that take into consideration: “the profits from the Defendant's wrongful activities,” damages based on the, “interference with economic relations” and to top it all off, “aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages in the amount of $10,000.” Oh and costs too. How could Voltage hope to make any money off of this if it had to pay its own lawyers?

Seemingly out of good will, TekSavvy has been doing its best to keep any potentially affected customers in the loop. It has also made available information that may help in the event that they are contacted by Voltage. CEO at the ISP, Marc Gaudralty said he was confused by the tactics, saying (via TorrentFreak): “It seems contrary to the government’s intent with copyright reform, which was to discourage file sharing lawsuits against individuals, while still protecting copyright holders’ rights.”

He promised to keep customers informed and to remain on top of the situation.

KitGuru: I think I'll skip out on watching Hurt Locker,or Recoil or any other Voltage Pictures movie. Regardless of the piracy argument, I won't be giving any money to a company that takes legal action against movie fans.

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