The Register: File sharers not guilty of copyright infringement - Canadian judge

A judge ruled that proffering copyright protected works on Internet file sharing systems does not constitute a copyright infringement. Bending over backwards so as to not see the potential damage done to copyright holders, the narrow and legalistic decision noted that placing files in a directory accessible to the public was different than distributing them actively. But the judge, Konrad von Finckenstein, is Canadian, so the decision may have more meaning as a harbinger of decisions to come on the issue outside of the U.S.

The decision is sure to spin a few legal cycles over at the recording industry ranch, and perhaps indicate that judges in other countries may be less likely to see an interest in protecting U.S. intellectual property against their own citizens. If a continuing trend, it should become very quickly apparent, as the major recording industry trade group has started suing music downloaders in several foreign countries.