Want free file sharing? Move to Canada


An interesting article from Tech Central Station describes an interesting interpretation of Canadian copyright law that may well make it completely legal to copy CDs that you don't own and to swap music via the Internet.

At issue is the 1998 revision of the Canadian Copyright Act which, according to the Copyright Board of Canada's FAQ on the subject, allows copying of music for the personal use of the copier. They charge over C$0.77 in Canada for blank audio CD media in order to compensate artists, but you can purchase data CD-Rs which are only taxed at C$0.052.

An interesting point of the article is that many of the so-called supernodes could move to Canada and possibly be immune from prosecution.