Is File-sharing Legal in Canada?
Under the Canadian Copyright Act, it is illegal to reproduce, authorize the reproduction of, distribute or “communicate to the public by telecommunication” a musical work in which copyright subsists, without the copyright holder’s permission. Copyright automatically subsists in original musical works for the life of the artist + 50 years. The Copyright Act contains a special exception for “private copying”: it permits the copying of music files “onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy”, but does not permit copying for the purpose of “distributing” or “communicating to the public by telecommunication” (s.80). It is generally accepted that downloading music for personal use is legal under this section. However, the record industry disputes this on the basis that a computer’s hard drive does not constitute an “audio recording medium”. According to the Federal Court, in a decision issued by Justice von Finckenstein on March 31, 2004, neither down
