COVID-19 and electronic contracting

March 24th, 2020 by Barry Sookman No comments »

For years, organizations have moved their businesses digital. To consummate transactions and to otherwise engage in contractual activities, organizations have increasingly relied on electronic means of contracting using everything from webwraps and clickwraps (and hybrid variations of these forms of agreements) and electronic documents executed using electronic signatures.

With the outbreak of COVID-19 there are increasing pressures to use electronic methods to effect legal activities including to enter into agreements traditionally done using paper and for other things such as signing and commissioning affidavits for use in courts.

This is a preview of COVID-19 and electronic contracting. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in E-commerce

OPC consultation on artificial intelligence: my submission to the consultation

March 16th, 2020 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Here is my submission to the OPC consultation.

______________________________________________

Thank you for the opportunity to provide input into the OPC’s consultation on artificial intelligence (AI) as it relates specifically to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

By way of introduction, I am a senior technology lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault. As part of my privacy practice, I regularly advise clients on privacy issues. I also teach privacy at Osgoode Hall Law School as part of an intellectual property law course. I have also written extensively about privacy issues including a major chapter in my eight volume book on Computer, Internet, and ecommerce Law. As such, I respectfully submit I am well positioned to provide both theoretical and practical input into the consultation. This is a personal submission and is not made on behalf of any client.

This is a preview of OPC consultation on artificial intelligence: my submission to the consultation. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in artificial inteliigence, Privacy

Tags:

2020 Holiday reading: Blockchain, AI and the Four Digital Titans

January 6th, 2020 by Barry Sookman 1 comment »

Happy new year everyone. I hope you all had a good vacation with some spare reading time. Over the holidays, I had the pleasure to listen to four audiobooks. It is pretty clear that the next decade is going to be another exciting ride for us tech and IP lawyers.

The first audiobook was Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code, written by Primavera De Filippi and Aaron Wright. A lot has been written about blockchain. In this book, the authors not only look at developments, past, present and future, but also provide an ambitious, scholarly, and fact rich analysis of the legal challenges associated with blockchain. The book also has a good description of the technical developments that make blockchain possible such as evolution of P2P networks and public key cryptography.

This is a preview of 2020 Holiday reading: Blockchain, AI and the Four Digital Titans. Read full post.

1 comment »

Posted in AI, Blockchain, smart contracts

Tags:

Privacy Law Reform: the OPC 2018-2019 Annual Report

December 12th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada just published the 2018-2019 Annual Report to Parliament on the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Unlike other reports, this report’s focus was on privacy law reform. In fact, it was so titled as Privacy Law Reform – A Pathway to Respecting Rights and Restoring Trust in Government and the Digital Economy.

The Annual Report is a must read for everyone concerned about privacy including members of the general public and organizations whose privacy practices and compliance burdens would be significantly affected if some or all of the proposals were accepted and enacted into law.

This is a preview of Privacy Law Reform: the OPC 2018-2019 Annual Report. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in Privacy

Tags:

Site blocking orders come to Canada: GoldTV.biz

November 18th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

In an important decision released Friday, the Federal Court of Canada issued the first Canadian site blocking order against sites that predominantly facilitate copyright infringement. The order made by Justice Gleeson, in a carefully reasoned decision in Bell Media Inc. et al v GOLDTV.BIZ 2019 FC 1432, ordered certain ISPs in Canada to block access to pirate subscription streaming sites (GoldTV.biz and GoldTV.ca) that were infringing the copyrights of the plaintiffs Bell Media Inc., Groupe TVA Inc, and Rogers media Inc.

This is a preview of Site blocking orders come to Canada: GoldTV.biz. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in blocking orders, Copyright

Tags:

Hard lessons in dataset licensing to create commercial products: 77m v Ordnance Survey

November 11th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

If you are interested in database licensing, the intrigue of how complex geo-spatial based services are developed, electronic mapping and polygons, the legality of scraping, how online terms governing databases are construed, and database rights, then the recent UK decision in 77m Ltd v Ordnance Survey Ltd [2019] EWHC 3007 (Ch) (08 November 2019) is for you.

The dispute in the case was between a start-up company 77m and Ordnance Survey (OS), the national mapping agency of Great Britain. 77m created a dataset called Matrix consisting of an up-to-date, detailed and accurate list of the geospatial coordinates of all the residential and non-residential addresses in Great Britain containing 28 million records.

This is a preview of Hard lessons in dataset licensing to create commercial products: 77m v Ordnance Survey. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in communication to the public, Copyright, data protection, database licensing, implied licenses, making available right, website scraping

Tags:

When copyright in a work transfers to the Crown: Keatley v Teranet

September 26th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

When does copyright transfer to the Crown under the Copyright Act? The Supreme Court clarified this in a landmark ruling released earlier today in Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc., 2019 SCC 43, authoritatively interpreting Section 12 of the Act.

The Court did so in delivering two sets of reasons, the majority written by Justice Abella  (Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Martin JJ. concurring) and by Justices Côté and Brown JJ. (Wagner C.J. concurring). All seven Judges agreed that the decision of the Court of Appeal (2017 ONCA 748) which sided with Teranet should be affirmed. In the result, the Court unanimously agreed that when surveyors register or deposit plans of survey in a public registry system (including land titles) and those plans are made available to the public by the Ontario Government or its service provider Teranet, the copyright in the surveys passes to the Crown.

This is a preview of When copyright in a work transfers to the Crown: Keatley v Teranet. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in Copyright

Tags:

OPC drops transborder transfer of data consultation

September 24th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Earlier this year the Privacy Commissioner launched and then relaunched a consultation that caused shockwaves among privacy lawyers, the tech community, and just about every organization that has third parties process data for them. The OPC sought to change its longstanding interpretation of Canada’s privacy law, PIPEDA, to require the consent of individuals to transfer personal information to a third party for processing.

The OPC received numerous submissions opposing the change including from the CLHIA, Centre for Information Policy Leadership, PMAC, and Canadian Chamber of Commerce. I also wrote a personal submission opposing it and explaining why such a change could not be justified under the wording of PIPEDA or as a matter of policy.

This is a preview of OPC drops transborder transfer of data consultation. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in Privacy

Tags:

OPC consultation on trans-border data flows: my submission to the consultation

August 6th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

Dear M. Therrien:

Thank you for the opportunity to provide input into the consultation on whether consent is or should be required for transborder data flows for processing.

Introduction

By way of introduction, I am a senior technology lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault. I have significant experience in outsourcings of all types, both domestic and trans-national. I have been involved in some of Canada largest and most complex outsourcing transactions. In this connection, and as part of my privacy practice, I regularly advise clients on privacy issues associated with transfers and disclosures of personal information. I also teach privacy at Osgoode Hall Law School as part of an intellectual property law course. I also have written extensively about privacy issues including a major chapter in my eight volume book on Computer, Internet, and ecommerce Law. As such, I respectfully submit I am well positioned to provide both theoretical and practical input into the consultation.

This is a preview of OPC consultation on trans-border data flows: my submission to the consultation. Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in Privacy

Developments in computer, Internet and e-commerce law: the year in review (2018-2019)

June 14th, 2019 by Barry Sookman No comments »

I gave my annual presentation yesterday to the Toronto computer Lawyers’ Group on “The year in review in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law”. It covers the period from June 2018 to June 2019. The developments include cases from Canada, the U.S. the U.K., EU, Australia, South Africa, India and other countries.

The developments are organized into the broad topics of:

  • Privacy / Big Data / AI
  • Employee / HR
  • E-commerce / Online Agreements
  • Online Remedies / Governance / Jurisdiction
  • Copyright

The cases and other documents referred to are below.

Privacy / Big Data / AI

This is a preview of Developments in computer, Internet and e-commerce law: the year in review (2018-2019). Read full post.

No comments »

Posted in assignments, blocking orders, click wrap agreement, Copyright, copyright reform, E-commerce, implied licenses, infringment, intellectual property, Internet defamation, internet jurisdiction, jurisdiction, making available right, Outsourcing, Piracy, Presentations, Privacy, spam