A Canadian copyright enforcement group has collected data on one million people who allegedly participated in illegal file-sharing, potentially exposing those people to U.S.-style lawsuits from copyright holders.

According to a report at Postmedia news, Canadian Intellectual Property Enforcement (Canipre), which works for the movie and music industries, collected the IP addresses of one million Canadian computers over the past five months it says were involved in copyright-infringing file-sharing.

Previous efforts at suing Canadian file-sharers have met with mixed results for copyright holders, but a ruling by a federal court in Montreal last week has opened the door to mass file-sharing lawsuits in Canada, said Canipre managing director Barry Logan, as quoted by Torrentfreak.

PHOTOS: TOP COUNTRIES FOR ILLEGAL MUSIC SHARING - WHERE CANADA RANKS

The lawsuit pitted a Vancouver-based film company, NGN Prima Productions, against four small Internet service providers whose customers allegedly downloaded NGN’s film “Recoil.” A judge last week ordered the ISPs to hand over data on 50 customers alleged to have downloaded the film.

“The door is closing. People should think twice about downloading content they know isn’t proper,” Logan told Postmedia news.

Logan hinted that copyright holders in Canada would follow the same path as they do in the U.S. -- sending warnings to alleged file-sharers, asking them to pay a settlement before taking them to court. Critics of the practice call this “copyright trolling.”

Trolling has been tried before in Canada. Last year, Voltage Pictures launched legal action against Canadian file-sharers of its movie "The Hurt Locker." Court records show that the company abandoned its lawsuit. It remains unclear why.

A recent study found Canadians are fourth in the world for illegal downloads of music, behind only the U.S., Britain and Italy. On a per capita basis, though, it’s likely Canadians download more than any of those countries.

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  • 15. France - 66.8%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 14. United States - 68.2%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 13. United Kingdom - 69.5%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 12. Belgium - 70.0%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 11. Luxembourg - 70.3%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 10. Switzerland - 70.8%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 9. Canada - 72.2%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 8. Germany - 75.2%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 7. Finland - 75.8%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 6. Netherlands - 79.5%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 5. Denmark - 80.1%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 3. Sweden - 82.6% (tie)

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 3. Norway - 82.6% (tie)

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 2. Iceland - 87%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 1. Korea - 97.5%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

TOP COUNTRIES FOR ILLEGAL MUSIC SHARING - WHERE CANADA RANKS

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  • #9 - France

    BitTorrent downloads: 8.39 million Most downloaded artist: Sexion d'Assaut Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #8 - India

    BitTorrent downloads: 8.96 million Most downloaded artist: Billy Van Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #7 - Spain

    BitTorrent downloads: 10.3 million Most downloaded artist: Pablo Alboran Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #6 - Australia

    BitTorrent downloads: 19.23 million Most downloaded artist: Hilltop Hoods Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #5 - Brazil

    BitTorrent downloads: 19.72 million Most downloaded artist: Billy Van Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #4 - Canada

    BitTorrent downloads: 23.95 million Most downloaded artist: Kanye West Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #3 - Italy

    BitTorrent downloads: 33.15 million Most downloaded artist: Laura Pausini Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #2 - The United Kingdom

    BitTorrent downloads: 43.26 million Most downloaded artist: Ed Sheeran Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #1 - The United States

    BitTorrent downloads: 96.68 million Most downloaded artist: Drake Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>