Movie Downloads in Canada: A Torrent of Copyright Cases

An increasing number of Canadians are being drawn into copyright infringement lawsuits brought by a pair of film studios, ME2 Productions and Voltage Pictures.  These lawsuits are new territory in Canada and so it can be difficult to find information on what options are available to Defendants in these lawsuits.

Individuals who are served with a Statement of Claim in one of these cases are each defendants in a lawsuit.  This means that they have 30 days to respond or the Plaintiff can pursue default judgment against them.  This is not a criminal case or a quasi-criminal case like a parking ticket.  The Defendant will never get a summons to appear in Court.  The Copyright Act sets out the statutory fine for each instance of copyright infringement at $100-$5,000, assuming that there is no commercial activity.  Note that an individual who is being sued for copyright infringement with respect to three movies would face maximum statutory damages of $15,000.  An individual who is being sued for downloading a single film can still be subject to $5,000 in statutory damages awarded against them, as well as the Plaintiff’s legal costs.

Another option is to defend the case.  The Plaintiff will have to persuade the Court that the Defendant has personally taken some action to infringe, or has authorized someone else to infringe.  Unfortunately, the costs of defending the action is likely to be much more than the maximum statutory damages, and only a portion of these costs will be recovered by a successful Defendant.

The final option for individuals who are being sued by one of these companies is to negotiate a settlement with them.  The benefit of this path is that the amount of damages to be paid is known, which avoids the uncertainty of waiting for a judge to determine the amount of damages to be paid.  It is also the fastest path, as settlement can likely be reached in a couple of months.  Many individuals are not willing to go through the stress, work and uncertainty of defending the case through the Court.

These cases are likely to multiply in Canada in the future, particularly if motion picture producers find copyright infringement to be a useful way to recoup losses from unprofitable films.