Your profile says Austria, but your posting history looks like you're a fellow Aussie and your dpreview username also seems to indicate you're Australian, so I'll assume you are, otherwise my post is probably irrelevant to you.
Even if your camera is past the manufacturer's limited warranty period, ie the warranty period the manufacturer states in the warranty paperwork, then by law (Trade Practices Act) the manufacturer still has to abide by statutory warranty obligations. It's not cut and dried, but essentially the company has to provide reasonable warranty coverage for the item in question. For a $20 watch, you wouldn't expect much cover, but for an expensive camera that hasn't been used much and that may not be far past its manufacturer's limited warranty expiry date, then you may have reasonable grounds to be having the manufacturer repair your camera at the manufacturer's expense. For more information, I'd suggest you contact the ACCC and/or your state consumer affairs body, eg for SA it's the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs (don't know what's equivalent in Tasmania if that's where you live). On the ACCC website, there's a link to a 'Warranties and refunds publication' from this page that may be useful to help provide a bit of an overview.
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/3863
BTW, for most items (cars excluded), manufacturer's limited warranties don't transfer in the used market to the next owner from the original owner. However, manufacturer's statutory warranties apply regardless of whether you're the original owner.
Of course, regardless of the law, companies will almost certainly still claim that they aren't liable beyond their limited warranty period as it's in their best interests to try to discourage the claimant from pursuing the claim and the company is then off the hook scott free.
Your investment in Canon pro lenses (and camera body) is probably worth enough that it really doesn't make sense to switch brands. If you had a similar failure with Nikon equipment under similar circumstances, Nikon may well say the same as Canon has already done. Don't give up hope just yet. There's no guarantee of success. However, there's no need to rant and rave and bash heads either. Just follow a logical approach, find out what your rights are from an authoritative source, be objective, ie don't be emotive/subjective, and take this one step at a time. You won't be able to convince Canon to look after you just because you're upset, but you may be able to get them to look after you if you can convince them (with the backing of the appropriate consumer authority) that they have a legal obligation to do so.
Good luck and please post to let us know whether you have any success.
I thought I would never say this, but as far as I am concerned,
Canon cameras are utter rubbish.
Recently, my out of warranty Canon EOS 10D developed a fault.
I had my local camera store send it away to Canon's service centre
in Sydney.
3 weeks later I received a call, with a quote of $AUS1260 (incl.
freight) to repair the faulty CMOS chip.
I explained to Canon service that the camera has had only 5 hours
use (approx. 2000 images) in total, but they weren't interested in
what I was saying.
I now have a $AUS3000 useless lump of alloy and plastic sitting on
my desk.
So the moral of the story is either,buy the extended warranty, or
go and buy anything but garbage Canon.
--
Cheers from JDU from Adelaide, South Australia
Formerly Minolta A1, then KM Dynax 7D; more recently Fuji F10 and Canon 20D
My galleries:
http://pbase.com/john_down_under
DPR Macro Challenges:
http://pbase.com/dprchallenges/macro_main
Canon DSLR Challenges:
http://pbase.com/cslr_challenge
KM galleries:
http://pbase.com/mtf_foto_studies 
