I got some e-mail the other day from Andy Kaplan-Myrth, a law student at the University of Ottawa. Andy wrote to tell me that The Information Technology Law Society at his university and the University of Windsor's IP/IT society "have launched a project that aims to bring together from across Canada law students and practitioners interested in helping people who are targeted" by the record industry.

Just as the Recording Industry Association of America has sued individuals in the U.S. it believes are illegally trading music files, the Canadian Recording Industry Association has threatened to sue file traders in Canada. CRIA, if you ask its representatives, is a bit evasive on details. U.S. law, for example, is significantly different than Canadian law. There is no Canadian version of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Moreover, the Copyright Board of Canada has ruled that it is perfectly legal to make a single copy for personal use of a recording you own. In the U.S., any and all copying is illegal. So: We don't know what statutes CRIA will cite if and when it sues Canadian file traders.

CRIA is also very quiet when it comes to deciding when to file these lawsuits. But whenever it happens, some Canadian law students plan to stand up for the defendants through the the Canadian File-sharing Legal Information Network "CanFLI is meant to be a public advocacy project," Kaplan-Myrth says, ",collecting and making available information that can help ordinary people who are sued by CRIA. At this point, CanFLI is agnostic on questions of digital copyright reform and the likes. Rather, we want to make sure Canadians get due process, can find lawyers who want to take on these cases, and are informed about Canadian copyright law and Canadian procedure." An admirable mission that we hope makes it a little bit more of a fair fight when one of those most poweful industries in the world goes after its customers.