web wrap agreement Archives

Technology Law: A Comprehensive Annual Review 2024-2025

Sookman it year in review talk presentation

Computer and IT Law: The Year in Review 2024–2025 – Toronto Computer Lawyers Group Presentation

On June 19, 2025, I had the pleasure of presenting my annual “Computer and IT Law: The Year in Review” to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group. This year’s talk covered legal developments across a wide range of topics including artificial intelligence, copyright, social media, privacy, cybersecurity, blockchain, online contracting and eCommerce.

As in past years, I prepared a comprehensive written paper to accompany the presentation.…

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Understanding subscription licenses, fair dealing and legal protection for TPMs in Canada: A critical commentary of the Blacklock’s Reporter Parks Canada decision

The Federal Court issued another troubling copyright decision involving Blacklock’s Reporter (BR) in the recent case, 1395804 Ontario Ltd, operating as Blacklock’s Reporter v AG Canada, 2024 FC 829. In reasons that are very difficult to follow and untangle, Justice Roy of the Federal Court held that Parks Canada did not infringe copyright or breach the Copyright Act’s legal protection of technological protection measures by circulating copies of articles and passwords to locked articles published by BR.

The Blacklock’s Reporter decision is riddled with mistakes.…

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Year(s) in review – IT, Internet, AI, IP, Privacy & Blockchain

I had the pleasure of presenting the annual Year in Review of IT/Internet law to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group on June 6, 2024. It was great to see a packed-in person event of IT lawyers after COVID. This year the presentation featured over 75 cases from many countries including Canada, the U.S., U.K., China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia

My presentation can be accessed at this link. The video recording of the presentation is accessible below. I blogged about some of the cases discussed and you can read all about them via links in the presentation.

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Top legal developments in e-commerce, privacy and intellectual property

Despite COVID-19, 2020 was an eventful year, chock full of impactful legal developments in e-commerce, technology, privacy, anti-spam, and intellectual property law. Here is a summary of my picks for the top legal developments.

e-commerce

Standard form online agreements and unconscionability

Online and in-App agreements are typically presented to users as “standard form”, “take it or leave it”, “boiler plate” forms. Most common are some variation of a “click-wrap”, “sign-in wrap”, or “browsewrap” agreement. They are used pervasively on websites and on Apps, among other locations.…

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Developments in computer, Internet and e-commerce law: the year in review (2017-2018)

I gave my annual presentation today to the Toronto computer Lawyers’ Group on “The year in review in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law”. It covers the period from June 2017 to June 2018. The developments include cases from Canada, the U.S. the U.K., Singapore, Australia, and other countries.

The developments are organized into the broad topics of:

Jurisdiction/Online Remedies/Conflicts of Laws
Hyperlinks/Search Results/Computer Generated Content
e-Commerce & Online Agreements
Technology Contracting
Privacy
Copyright
CASL.

The cases referred to are listed below.…

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Strangest copyright cases of 2012

If you’re on holidays and looking for some copyright law hilarity, take 15 minutes to read Meads v. Meads, 2012 ABQB 571. This case from Alberta examines the practice of Organized Commercial Pseudolegal Commercial Argument litigants (“OCPA” litigants). These persons employ a collection of techniques and arguments promoted and sold by ‘gurus’ to disrupt court operations and to attempt to frustrate the legal rights of governments, corporations, and individuals.

One of the techniques involves a scheme pursuant to which the litigant purports to claim copyright and trade-mark rights in his or her name and a unilateral notice that foists obligations on anyone that uses the name (including to communicate with the person).…

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CRTC Issues CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Law) Guidelines, background and commentary

Last week the CRTC released its first two “information bulletins” intended to help businesses in interpreting CASL and the CRTC’s regulations under CASL. While certain of the Commission’s interpretations are helpful, some are troublesome as they would impose new requirements not contemplated either by the statute or the CRTC’s own regulations. They would necessitate costly compliance, which would particularly affect small and medium-sized businesses and mobile digital commerce.

Under the Commission’s interpretation of its regulations and the related provisions of CASL, among other things:

Users should be given the opportunity to unsubscribe from all messages from the sender, not merely CEMs.

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Are “browse wrap” agreements enforceable after the Century 21 v Rogers Communications case?

Last fall, the BC Supreme Court canvassed in great detail whether “web wrap” also known as “browse wrap” agreements are potentially enforceable. Earlier today, I gave a talk at the Law Society of Upper Canada that summarized the conclusions and reasoning of the court in the Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership v. Rogers Communications Inc., 2011 BCSC 1196 case. My slides from the talk are shown below. They also summarize numerous other cases that examine the enforceability of click wrap and web wrap agreements.…

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Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2011-2012)

Here are the slides used in my presentation to the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group earlier today, The Year in Review: Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2011-2012). It covers significant developements since my talk last spring, Developments in Computer, Internet and E-Commerce Law (2010-2011).

The slides include a summary of the following cases:

Kraft Real Estate Investments, LLC v Homeway.com, Inc. 2012 WL 220271 (D.S.Car. Jan 24, 2012)

Swift v. Zynga Game Network, Inc., 805 F.Supp.2d…

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Website terms, copyright used to shut down real estate data scraping in Century 21 v Rogers

You can always tell when you are about to read a good case by its opening paragraph. The decision of the BC Supreme Court in Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership v. Rogers Communications Inc., 2011 BCSC 1196 doesn’t disappoint. It begins as follows:

The ability of the law to adapt is part of its strength. Technological innovation tests that resilience. This case considers that ability as claims for breach of contract, trespass to chattels and copyright infringement meet the Internet.

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