[1] In 2009 however it was found that Canada had only the tenth greatest number of copyright infringements in the world according to a report by BayTSP, a U.S. anti-piracy company.
However, there remains some controversy as to whether certain things such as digital music players, or computer hard drives, constitute audio recording media.
However, this was struck down when the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that memory permanently embedded in digital music players could not be considered an audio recording medium.
The court also gave the opinion that a digital music player, as an entire unit or device, could not be considered an audio recording medium.
[7][8] For a brief period in 2004/2005, the sharing of copyrighted music files via peer-to-peer online systems was explicitly legal, due to a decision by the Federal Court, in BMG Canada Inc. v. John Doe.
[11] The appeals court dismissed the case, primarily due to lack of evidence linking the unnamed defendants to the alleged copyright infringement.
The appeals court specifically left open the possibility of future lawsuits, wherein the question of the legality of peer-to-peer sharing could be addressed.
The Copyright Board is not a court, and its opinion regarding the legality of downloading was publicly disputed by the Canadian Recording Industry Association.
[18] In 2004, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) was dealt a blow in its bid to take action against 29 internet users with extensive file sharing activities.
Because the ISPs were not required to reveal the identities of their clients, the CRIA could not go on to sue the file sharers in a manner mimicking the RIAA's legal proceedings in the U.S.A.
[19] In 2005, the controversial ruling of Justice Konrad von Finckenstein, making file uploading of sound recordings on peer-to-peer systems legal, was set aside by the Federal Court of Appeal.
Upon receiving such a notice, they must now retain the IP-account information on file for a period of 6 months or longer if the claimant were to pursue legal proceedings.
The official synopsis said that "Canada, practically the only government of a developed country not to have implemented international copyright treaties agreed over a decade ago, is a major source of the world's piracy problem.
[25][26] In 2024, in Canada some stores still offer some contemporary music on compact disks, but a shift towards videos such as feature films seems to be common.