Judge: File sharing legal in Canada | CNET News.com
Canadian record labels had asked the court for authorization to identify 29 alleged file swappers in that country, in preparation for suing them for copyright infringement, much as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued more than 1500 people in America.

But the judge denied that request. In a far-ranging decision, the court further found that both downloading music and putting it in a shared folder available to other people online appeared to be legal in Canada.

The regulators cited a long-standing rule in Canada, in which most copying for personal use was allowed. To repay artists and record labels for revenue lost by this activity, the government imposes a fee on blank tapes, CDs and even hard disk-based MP3 players such as Apple Computer's iPod, and distributes that revenue to copyright holders.

Once again, Canada gets it right. I believe this fee is in place in the US also- I know it was on blank tapes way back in the days that I was in the business.

I think that eventually the RIAA will give up on these lawsuits and probably raise the fees on blank media and media players. It's the only logical thing to do. (thanks Pop for pointing this story out)