ISP Liability 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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The Significance of Anderson v. TikTok: A Test for Section 230 CDA

In the dying weeks of the summer, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals released a bombshell case holding that § 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) did not provide a safe harbor for the social media company TikTok when its algorithms recommended and promoted a video which allegedly led to a minor killing herself. The case, Anderson v. TikTok, Inc., 2024 WL 3948248 (3rd.Cir.Aug. 27, 2024), is significant. Other U.S. appeals courts have read the CDA much more broadly to immunize interactive service providers’ exercise of publisher and distributor traditional functions to protect them from all manner of claims related to content posted by a third party.…

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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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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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Google v Equustek: worldwide de-indexing order against Google upheld by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Canada released a landmark decision today ruling that Canadian common law courts have the jurisdiction to make global de-indexing orders against search engines like Google. In so, ordering, the Court in Google Inc. v. Equustek Solutions Inc., 2017 SCC 34 underlined the breadth of courts’ jurisdiction to make orders against search engines to stem illegal activities on the Internet including the sale of products manufactured using trade secrets misappropriated from innovative companies.

The decision arose from a lower court decision that ordered Google to block websites that were selling goods that violated the trade secrets of the plaintiffs.…

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Norwich orders: who pays under the notice and notice regime? Voltage v Doe

ISP are often ordered to disclose subscriber information to copyright holders seeking to vindicate their rights. Prior to the Copyright Modernization Act, ISPs were entitled to be paid reasonable compensation for compiling and disclosing the information. In an important ruling yesterday in Voltage Pictures, LLC v Joe Doe #1 2017 FCA 97, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the notice and notice regime established under the CMA changed the law. According to the Court, ISPs are now expected to retain and verify subscriber information without payment of any fees.…

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The year in review: developments in computer, internet and e-commerce law (2015-2016)

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 covered the period from June 2015 to June 2016. The developments included cases from Canada, the U.S. the U.K., and other Commonwealth countries.

The developments were organized into the broad topics of: Technology Contracting, Online Agreements, Privacy, Online/Intermediary Liability/Responsibility, Copyright, and Trade-marks and Domain names.

The cases referred to are listed below. My slides can be viewed after the case listing.…

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Google liability for defamation on Blogger.com: Tamiz v Google

Last week the UK Court of Appeal in Tamiz v Google Inc [2013] EWCA Civ 68 (14 February 2013) ruled that Google, as the host of the Blogger.com site, had potential liability for defamation by failing to take down or disable access to defamatory content once it receives notice that it is hosting such content.

The Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the UK High Court in Tamiz v Google Inc Google UK Ltd [2012] EWHC 449 (QB) (02 March 2012) which had dismissed a claim against Google for not taking down or removing access to allegedly defamatory statements posted on Blogger.com.…

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Change and the Copyright Modernization Act

Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, with a few exceptions, is now law with the publication of the Governor General Order in Council. The fourth attempt to amend the Copyright Act since 2005 succeeded where Bills C-60 (2005), C-61 (2008), and C-32 (2010) did not.

A lot has changed since 2005 when Bill C-60 was first introduced. That Bill would have made a limited, but important, set of amendments. Its summary reminds us that it would have amended the “Copyright Act to implement the provisions of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, to clarify the liability of network service providers, to facilitate technology-enhanced learning and interlibrary loans, and to update certain other provisions of the Act.” …

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