OTTAWA – On November 15, a federal court judge told internet service providers they have to start blocking unauthorized online services which provide access to programming content over the Internet to which they don’t own the rights, a violation of the Copyright Act.
Bell Media, Groupe TVA, and Rogers Media sought the decision to block various priacy sites which bore the “goldtv” moniker or similar urls.
On Monday, November 25, independent ISP TekSavvy filed an application to appeal with the Federal Court of Appeal to set aside that decision, saying the judge overstepped and the CRTC has to make the determination the court did before ISPs can act in this way.
“The Judge erred in law in finding that the remedy of ordering Third Party Respondent Internet service providers to block access to websites (the “site-blocking remedy”) was available at law, including in particular, that it was available under the Copyright Act,” reads the TekSavvy request for leave to appeal.
“The Judge erred in law in finding that section 36 of the Telecommunications Act… did not apply to the site-blocking Order of this Court, given that section 36 provides that Canadian carriers cannot control the content of telecommunications that they carry for the public without the approval of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.”
The judge also erred by importing factors from foreign jurisdictions into his decision and the November 15th decision also runs counter to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says the TekSavvy court application.
It’s not known yet when the court will hear TekSavvy’s application for leave to appeal.
