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Nymity, P2P & ISPs: The Implications of BMG (Canada) v Doe |
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This chapter, co-authored by Alex Cameron, provides an
exploration of the reasons why a Canadian Federal Court and the Federal Court
of Appeal both refused to compel five Internet service providers to disclose
the identities of twenty nine ISP subscribers alleged to have been
engaged in P2P file-sharing. We argue that there are important lessons to be
learned from the decision, particularly in the area of online privacy. Although
this case reinforces the right to online privacy, we suggest that the Court's
decision could have the ironic effect of encouraging more powerful
private-sector surveillance of our online activities, and that this might
result in a technological backlash by some in order to ensure that Internet
users have even more impenetrable anonymous places to roam. Consequently, we
encourage the Court to further develop its analysis of how, when, and why the
compelled disclosure of identity by third party intermediaries should be
ordered by including a broader-based public interest in privacy as an element
in the analysis.
A preprint of this chapter is available for download here 96.96 Kb © 2005.
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CITE AS
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| "Nymity, P2P & ISPs: The Implications of BMG (Canada) v Doe" in Privacy and Technologies of Identity: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation, ed K.J. Strandburg and D.S. Raicu (New York: Springer, 2005) |
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