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Copyright law in Canada

Canada's Copyright Act has been updated to formalize the Notice and Notice regime.

As part of the Federal government's work to modernize Canadian laws for the digital economy, Canada's Copyright Act formalizes a copyright infringement process called the Notice and Notice regime aimed at balancing the rights of content creators and consumers.

The Copyright Modernization Act helps protect the work of content creators online. Common Internet copyright infringements include unauthorized downloading or distribution of copyrighted content such as music, movies, and software.

The Notice and Notice regime allows copyright holders to send a notice of copyright infringement to the Internet Service Provider (ISP), and the ISP is required by law to notify their customer whose IP address has been identified as being the source or location of alleged copyright infringement.

The ISP is not required to disclose personal customer information to the copyright holder. Copyright holders taking legal action must apply for a court order if they want to obtain personal customer information from the ISP.

Copyright infringement notices and SaskTel's role

As an Internet Service Provider (ISP), we're legally required to forward any copyright infringement notices to our customers.

If you receive a notice, it means a copyright holder has alleged you (or someone accessing the Internet through your IP address) has unlawfully downloaded or distributed copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's permission.

When you receive a copyright infringement notice, it does not automatically mean SaskTel will take any action that will affect your Internet service. SaskTel's Internet Acceptable Use Policy that applies to your SaskTel Internet access provides that use of your service for activities in a manner that results in infringement of copyright is prohibited and may result in suspension of service.

We do not have further details about the copyright infringement notice.

Your privacy

At SaskTel, your privacy is a priority and we are dedicated to protecting your personal information.

The copyright holder only knows the information which they provide to SaskTel, including: the IP address and port location associated with the alleged infringement, the title of the copyrighted material, date and time the material was alleged to be accessed or improperly used, and the copyright holder contact information.

We determine customer information based on whom we identify as the SaskTel Internet account owner of the IP address with the alleged copyright infringement.

We do not provide personal information to the copyright holder; we only forward the copyright infringement notification on to you. We will not provide your personal information to any copyright holder, unless required to do so by court order.

Consequences of copyright violations

If you're in violation of the Copyright Act and we're required by court order to provide your personal information to the copyright holder, they may take legal action and seek damages of up to $5,000 per offence. It's very important that any illegal downloading or distributing of copyrighted materials is stopped immediately.

Please visit the links below for more information on Canadian copyright law.