Earlier, Rightscorp was accused of sending mislead demand letters through the Canadian notice-and-notice system. Now, it seems the Canadian government has stepped in and told companies like Rightscorp to stop sending misleading demand letters.
Among the claims in the demand letters we previously reported on were that Canadians could be on the hook for $150,000. The letters also said that Canadians could avoid such penalties if settlements are paid directly. Apparently, the Canadian government was not amused.
In a report in Global Post, the government is responding to the revelations. From the report:
TORONTO (Reuters) – Media companies must back off from threatening Canadians who illegally download movies, music and books with penalties that do not exist in Canadian law, the government said on Friday.
“These notices are misleading and companies cannot use them to demand money from Canadians,” said Jake Enright, a spokesman for Industry Minister James Moore.
Officials will be contacting Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and rights holders within days to put an end to the practice, he said.
Canadians will no doubt be relieved to hear that the government is apparently doing something about these letters that are surfacing. One will hope that this will have an impact on how these notices are written because this is the Canadian system, not the US system.
What will be interesting to see is how these notices evolve from here. These notices will not stop by any means, but it seems that the momentum on the case has shifted to making sure these notices are actually an accurate portrayal of Canadian law.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
