Supreme Court strikes down copyright fees on music, video game downloads

The Supreme Court of Canada made a landmark decision to scrap fees for music download services in Canada.

But the Thursday morning ruling doesn't make all online content sharing entirely free of charge. The court allowed SOCAN, a royalty collecting organization, to charge fees for the streaming of music online.

The court also ruled that video game downloads can be done free of charge, overturning a lower court ruling that had allowed SOCAN to charge users for all of these activities.

After examining five different copyright cases, the country's top court also concluded that Canadian teachers do not infringe on the copyright laws when they photocopy materials for their students.

The Montreal Gazette reports that the decision will likely have major financial impact on Canadian educational institutions that end up paying millions to reproduce materials every year.