Internet Related Court Cases

Documentation and discussion regarding various laws enacted against and by internet users.

See also:

Stalking

Stalking and harassment require that the perpetrator repeatedly communicate with the victim, even after the victim has asked the perp to stop. You'd be hard-pressed to argue this on a website where you can just walk away. See http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/c-46/41726.html#section-264. -- JonathanTang

There have been some stalking cases successfully brought to bear against internet users, but I believe all cases have involved email and instant messaging harassment. I do not believe that there are any cases where website content has been considered grounds for a stalking case.

Distributing copyrighted material (Kazaa)

Kazaa was sued but apparently won its case. The rationale of the decision: they were only connecting users' computers. So what the users were doing together was not their business.

Distributing copyrighted material (Users)

540 persons have been targeted recently by some association to be sued for distributing MP3 songs, copyrighted material. This is the recording industry's latest attempt at curbing the distribution on the net of MP3s that's tremendously hurting the music business.

Actually, there is no concrete evidence that the distribution of .mp3's has hurt the music business (I'm not saying it hasn't, I'm saying that is actually a difficult question and it hasn't been answered). I suspect that RIAA etc. action will have a (small) chilling effect on online trading of copyright but it is unclear if it will help their bottom line. All of this stuff is treating symptoms, not cause.

I agree with most of what you are saying. At the peak time (Sunday afternoon 3 pm EST) 5 million people are exchanging stuff on KAZAA! his is probably the biggest mass audience on internet ever. The idea is to stop people from giving not from taking! Of course if there is nothing to give there is nothing to take. Eventually they'll discourage quite a few people if they keep it up.

The cause? Well sure music is expensive. But it's no excuse! :-)