"Email warnings deter Canadians from illegal file sharing"

CBC News

Apparently, Canada has solved the uncontrollable illegal downloading issue plaguing the media and software industries. According to their "notice and notice program", simply informing users they are downloading copyrighted material and asking them to remove it works...well, in Canada anyway. The program claims to have distributed "tens of thousands of e-mails" urging felons to "take immediate action to stop this infringing activity", to which they kindly oblige based on the fact that "no one has been prosecuted for copyright violation as a result of the notices".

Not only do I believe this system couldn't possibly be affective in Canada, but also maintain it would be a waste of time and money to try anywhere else. To start, the nature of the 'notice' is not something I feel that Americans, in particular, would be responsive to. The system we have now, which has been far from successful based on the fact that people continue to download copyrighted media, basically notifies offenders that they have downloaded copyrighted material and that action will be taken if it is not removed. If this hasn't worked, why would saying, 'please take down the video because it's not yours to post', be any more affective?

The article also mentions how people feel the program "really respects privacy and free speech" of users by notifying them and asking them to remove material rather than sharing their information with corporations who threaten to prosecute. Clearly these people are big supporters of rights and privacy, only after they steal from media and software companies.

Moreover, I think it's safe to say that most of the people using copyrighted material know its protected, or they wouldn't have had to use illegal software to over right the copyright protections to get the file in the first place. It's common sense that if you did not produce it, you don't own it and, therefore, can't use it without paying for it in some way (unless it was made by some average Joe who didn't copyright his stuff or a corporation specifying it's free, which is generally not the case). This in mind, the idea of informing people that they have downloaded something illegally is a mood point; they are already aware that they have broken the law.

All that aside, even if the 'notice and notice' program works, it's unlikely that it will be effective for long. It is only a matter of time before these emails are no longer threatening, and Canada will have to come up with a new way to politely appeal to the good nature of people stealing copyrighted material.