"It seems to be a very foolish piece of legislation," McMillan said. (KochMedia)Ĭopyright holders, such as video game developers and film studios, are hiring third-party companies like CANIPRE to collect settlement money for alleged illegal downloads. Metro 2033 is the apocalyptic first-person shooter video game McMillan is accused of illegally downloading. The law requires internet providers to forward copyright infringement notices to customers suspected of illegally downloading content like video games and movies. McMillan called Cogeco, her internet service provider, and discovered the emails were perfectly legal under the federal government's Notice and Notice regulations introduced last year under the Copyright Modernization Act. "They didn't tell me how much I owed, they only told me that if I didn't comply, I would be liable for a fine of up to $5,000 and I could pay immediately by entering my credit card number." McMillan has an adult grandson, but he doesn't have access to the computer. McMillan's IP address, the string of numbers that identifies each computer communicating over a network, was used to download the game. They were from a private company called Canadian Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement (CANIPRE) claiming she had illegally downloaded Metro 2033, a first-person shooter game where nuclear war survivors have to kill mutants. In May, she received two emails forwarded by her internet provider. "I found it quite shocking … I'm 86 years old, no one has access to my computer but me, why would I download a war game?" McMillan told Go Public. She is one of likely tens of thousands of Canadians who have received notices to pay up, whether they are guilty or not. Post-nuclear war, mutant-killing video games are not Christine McMillan's thing.īut the 86-year-old from Ontario has been warned she could have to pay up to $5,000 for illegally downloading a game she'd never heard of.
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