Copyright holders argued that Canada’s “notice-and-notice” system was not strong enough to stop piracy. But after a few months when the law took effect, some filmmakers are changing their minds about the new law. They are urging the U.S. to adopt the Canadian system instead of the six strikes scheme.
Since copyrighted holders started sending letters out to alleged copyright infringers under the new law, piracy of copyrighted material in Canada has dropped according to data from CEG TEK International. Here’s a breakdown of the impact among internet subscribers:
- Bell’s internet network – dropped 69.9%
- Telus’ network – dropped 54%
- Shaw’s network – dropped 52.1%
- Rogers Cable – dropped 14.9%
- TekSavvy – dropped 38.3%
Kyle Reed, CEG TEK chief operating officer, said “In Canada we are able to leverage the Copyright Modernization Act to compel ISPs to forward our notices. In under 13 weeks, CEG TEK has effected massive changes in the Canadian market on behalf of our clients.”
The Internet Security Task Force (ISTF) says that the U.S. system failed to reduce piracy rates. The system gives six notices but does not take more serious actions like mandatory education course. And in the past two years, U.S. piracy rates have grown 160 percent.
The group said “The ISTF strongly recommends that a better solution be implemented instead — based on the Copyright Modernization Act enacted in Canada in January 2015”.
Canada’s notice-and-notice system has proven to be effective, and it’s probably due to the settlement demands included in the demand letters which the law caps $5,000 as the maximum amount a copyright holder can sue for non-commercial infringement. In a way, these notices became instruments to educate the internet users and eventually reduce online infringement.