Pirates beware: SaskTel users who are discovered downloading content illegally may be seeing a notice from the Internet service provider (ISP) in their inboxes this year.
Based on changes to the Copyright Act of Canada, SaskTel is legally required to forward notices of alleged copyright infringement. In Saskatchewan, Access Communications is also required to forward these notices.
“Basically, it’s to reduce the online piracy of materials that are copyrighted,” said Michelle Englot, director of external communications for SaskTel.
This is how it works: copyright holders find the IP addresses of those who are downloading illegal content. The holders forward the information to the ISP, who will forward the complaint to the downloader. No personal information is shared with the copyright holder, and the notice is not necessarily the start of a legal battle. Essentially, the ISP is a middleman to protect the privacy of the user. The only way private information would be shared is if the copyright holder files a legal complaint.
In the past, Sasktel received notices, but did not forward them on to the users.
The notice from SaskTel will include direction to remove any infringing property and it’s the customer’s responsibility to make sure their Internet account isn’t used to download any illegal content.
Sasktel estimates that they get approximately 100 notices a day from copyright holders, although they haven’t tracked it in the past (with the new legislation, they will be tracking the number of complaints).
“It was fairly high, the notifications we were getting from copyright holders,” Englot said.
Rogers data from 2011 says that 67 per cent of notice recipients do not infringe again, and 89 per cent stop infringing after a second notice.
