Cloud computing and PST

Cloud computing services not subject to PST says BC court: Hootsuite Inc. v British Columbia (Finance)Cloud computing services not subject to PST says BC court: Hootsuite Inc. v British Columbia (Finance)

March 20, 2023March 20, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Are cloud computing services subject to provincial sales tax? According to a recent decision of the BC Supreme Court in Hootsuite Inc. v British Columbia (Finance), 2023 BCSC 358 the cloud computing services AWS Support, EC2 and S3, and AWS direct connect are not subject to provincial sales tax under the  Provincial Sales Tax Act, S.B.C. 2012, c. 35 [PSTA]. In short, these services are not taxable as, depending on the service, they are not the purchase of software programs, they constitute the purchase of on-demand infrastructure (IaaS), the service does not contain a software program, the software program is not used in BC, the service is not used in BC, or the service is otherwise exempt under incidental exemptions in the PSTA.…

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Trade secret lawyer

Trade secrets: a webinar for NGen and other Canadian superclustersTrade secrets: a webinar for NGen and other Canadian superclusters

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

I had the pleasure earlier today to participate in a webinar on the protection of trade secrets. The webinar was provided to some of Canada’s leading superclusters and their partners such as NGen, Protein Industries Canada, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, and the Digital Technology Supercluster.

The slides from my talk can be accessed at the link below.…

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Bitcoin developer fiduciary duty

Fiduciary duties of Bitcoin Developers: Tulip Trading v Bitcoin AssociationFiduciary duties of Bitcoin Developers: Tulip Trading v Bitcoin Association

February 20, 2023February 20, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Do the developers of Bitcoin code owe fiduciary duties to an owner of that cryptocurrency to help the owner retrieve lost or inaccessible bitcoin after the owner’s private key has been hacked? They might ruled the U.K. Court of Appeal in Tulip Trading Limited v Bitcoin Association For BSV & Ors [2023] EWCA Civ 83 (03 February 2023), a decision that overturned a lower court judge who ruled there was no basis to obtain such relief.

While the decision of the Court of Appeal provides Tulip, the owner who allegedly lost $4 billion in bitcoin, with a potential remedy, what is surprising is that Tulip relied principally on direct causes of action against the developers, being fiduciary duty and a duty of care in tort.…

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Bitcoin developer fiduciary duty

Bitcoin file format not protected by copyright: Wright v BTC CoreBitcoin file format not protected by copyright: Wright v BTC Core

February 13, 2023February 13, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Technologies associated with blockchains have raised many novel issues of law. One of the issues is whether copyright is capable of subsisting in file formats used in the Bitcoin System. This issue was raised in the recent U.K. case, Wright & Ors v BTC Core & Ors [2023] EWHC 222 (Ch) (07 February 2023). In what can only be described as a technical question of copyright law, Justice Mellor concluded that copyright did not exist in the file format because the fixation requirement for copyright subsistence was not met.…

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Search engine liability

Search engine liability for defamation: Duffy v Google(2)Search engine liability for defamation: Duffy v Google(2)

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Dr Janice Duffy has been pursuing Google for redress for many years in her quest to hold Google accountable for its refusal to proactively de-index defamatory material posted on the notorious site RipoffReport.com. In a recent decision, DUFFY v GOOGLE LLC [2023] SASC 13 (3 February 2023), she finally prevailed in her defamation claim against Google. In ruling for her, an Australian court confirmed that search engines can be liable for defamation when they fail to de-index snippets that are defamatory, or when snippets entice or encourage searchers to access links that are defamatory.…

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AIDA - Regulation of AI systems in Canada

AIDA’s regulation of AI in Canada: questions, criticisms and recommendationsAIDA’s regulation of AI in Canada: questions, criticisms and recommendations

January 30, 2023January 30, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

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AI Ethics and the Law

AI Ethics and the Law, a Webinar for the Digital SuperclusterAI Ethics and the Law, a Webinar for the Digital Supercluster

January 26, 2023January 26, 2023 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

I had the pleasure earlier today to participate in a Webinar with Carole Piovesan on the important topic of AI Ethics and the Law. It was a presentation for the Digital Supercluster and was attended by the ecosystem of individuals and organisations associated with that supercluster as well as other superclusters such as the Scale AI supercluster.

A copy of our respective slides are shown below.

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Digital Charter Implementation Act and CPPA

CPPA: problems and criticisms – automated decision makingCPPA: problems and criticisms – automated decision making

December 18, 2022December 18, 2022 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Canada is planning to revamp its comprehensive privacy law by repealing the existing comprehensive privacy law, PIPEDA, and by enacting Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act (“DCIA”) to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act (PIDTA), and Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA). Bill C-27 replaced Bill C-11 (the former drafts of the CPPA and PIDTA). While the DCIA attempts to rectify some of the criticisms with Bill C-11, many of the problems remain and problems have emerged in the new Bill.…

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Digital Charter Implementation Act and CPPA

CPPA: problems and criticisms – anonymization and pseudonymization of personal informationCPPA: problems and criticisms – anonymization and pseudonymization of personal information

December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Canada is planning to revamp its comprehensive privacy law by repealing the existing comprehensive privacy law, PIPEDA, and by enacting Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act (“DCIA”) to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act (PIDTA), and Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA). Bill C-27 replaced Bill C-11 (the former drafts of the CPPA and PIDTA). While the DCIA attempts to rectify some of the criticisms with Bill C-11, many of the problems remain and problems have emerged in the new Bill.…

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Digital Charter Implementation Act and CPPA

CPPA: problems and criticisms – service provider obligationsCPPA: problems and criticisms – service provider obligations

November 13, 2022November 13, 2022 Barry SookmanBarry Sookman 0 Comments

Canada is planning to revamp its comprehensive privacy law by repealing the existing comprehensive privacy law, PIPEDA, and by enacting Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act (“DCIA”) to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act (PIDTA), and Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA). Bill C-27 replaced Bill C-11 (the former drafts of the CPPA and PIDTA). While the DCIA attempts to rectify some of the criticisms with Bill C-11, many of the problems remain and problems have emerged in the new Bill.…

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