Imagine downloading a video online that you might be embarrassed about if it became public, and then getting a letter demanding payment immediately for violating copyright.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse says it is not illegal, but that does not mean you have to pay up.
Masse thinks letters demanding thousands of dollars in payment should be illegal, at least on a first warning and he is lobbying the federal government to change the Notice and Notice regime to protect Canadians from what he says amounts to extortion.
"[It's] like the Canadian Revenue Agency [scam], where they will try to intimidate you into payment," explains Masse. "What I'm trying to do is to change the law through regulations, so a warning letter goes out first."
The problem is the current legislation has allowed a new industry of companies to pop up that scour the Internet looking for copyright violations and then demanding payment on behalf of the copyright owners. He is hoping a form letter warning downloaders they have violated copyright and asking them to remove materials online before legal action is pursued.
Masse says the issue has become a problem in the U.S. by clogging up the courts, but it also threatens innovation and creativity.
"It could be the way that a letter is patented or a word or a symbol, and it's considered too [much] like something else," he says.
Masse rose in the House of Commons last week to bring the issue to the attention of the federal government.
