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The rules were a compromise between copyright owners, who want to be paid for their work, and Internet providers, which want to protect customers’ privacy, Fewer said. But trolling remains a “huge problem” in Canada, with some customers intimidated into paying thousands for an offense that he said should be more equivalent to a parking ticket. He expects the ruling could make it worse — and he’s not alone.

This is the Federal Court of Appeal throwing the floodgates wide open

One telecom executive said they were “shocked” by the ruling, adding it will be expensive for all providers. The industry also expects increased lobbying activity, as the judge left room for providers to convince the government to add fees.

For its part, Rogers said in a statement it is reviewing the decision. It has until August to seek leave to appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada. Meantime, it expects its workload will go up. (Rogers received nearly 75,000 court orders to provide customer information in 2015, according to its transparency report, but most were from law enforcement. It doesn’t disclose how many were related to alleged copyright infringement.)

“We expect the industry as a whole will see an increase in the number of subscriber look-up requests made by rightsholders,” it said.

For Voltage, however, the decision removes the “insurmountable economic barrier” of paying the fee for the 55,000 people it identifies as infringers, said Ken Clark, one of the lawyers representing the movie producer.

It pursued the lawsuit since the existing system doesn’t effectively deter piracy, Clark said, adding he’s sent out 15,000 notice and notices but received less than two dozen responses. A class action spreads out legal costs between pirated-movie watchers so the punishment is more proportional to the offense, he said.

It “shouldn’t be that difficult” for Internet providers to identify who downloads illegal content, Clark said.

“If that cost gets pushed to the consumer, I think that’s a fair trade,” he said.

Financial Post