July 11, 2008

By By Robert Thompson, Toronto

The Quebec Superior Court has issued an injunction shutting down the controversial company Quebectorrent.com Inc., one of the most prominent file sharing services operating in the province.

The court ordered defendant Sebastien Brulotte to "cease operating the Quebectorrent Website and any other Website of a similar nature regarding the sharing of files and the release, upload, download, communication to the public by telecommunications or distribution of copies of any sound recording."

Quebectorrent.com reportedly had upwards of 50,000 regular users. The lawsuit was led by the Association qu?b?coise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video, an organization that represents the music industry in the province.

The organization had attempted to get an injunction shutting down the torrent site last year, but was unsuccessful.

While the Canadian music industry has vowed not to pursue individual file sharers in court, as has been the case in the U.S., it has been aggressively launching legal actions against the owners and operators of file sharing services such as Quebectorrent.com that saw Canada as a safe haven.

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