This article starts in a chilling way:

A Canadian internet service provider has been ordered to hand over the names and addresses of about 2,000 customers who allegedly downloaded movies online.

We’ve heard this sort of thing before. The pursuit of copyright protection can take on the nature of a patent troll using scare tactics to grab money from the guilty and innocent alike. But this case took an unexpected turn, thanks to case management judge Kevin Aalto.

A Federal Court decision released Thursday compels Ontario-based TekSavvy to identify the customers allegedly linked to downloads of films by the U.S. production company Voltage Pictures, which is behind the likes of The Hurt Locker, Dallas Buyers Club and Don Jon.

As a result, those TekSavvy customers could eventually receive a letter from Voltage threatening legal action. Under the federal Copyright Act, statutory damages for non-commercial infringement range between $100 and $5,000.

But while the court sided with Voltage’s efforts to go after copyright violators, it sought to protect against the company acting, “inappropriately in the enforcement of its rights to the detriment of innocent internet users.”

“On the facts of this case, there is some evidence that Voltage has been engaged in litigation which may have an improper purpose. However, the evidence is not sufficiently compelling for this court at this juncture in the proceeding to make any definitive determination of the motive of Voltage,” wrote judge Kevin Aalto.

Aalto ordered that before Voltage can send a letter to the alleged downloaders, it must return to court to get the wording of its communications cleared by a case management judge.

Much more work for the court, but this seems much more likely to limit the damage to innocent folks caught in the web. The cost of infringement would be much more equivalent to a speeding ticket than the overly expensive defense of a lawsuit.