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Dynamic blocking orders available in Canada: Rogers Media

Orders requiring ISPs to block websites that make available copyright infringing materials are commonly made in many countries around the world. The courts’ equitable jurisdiction to make such orders in Canada was recently approved by the Federal Court of Appeal in the Teksavvy Solutions Inc. v. Bell Media Inc. 2021 FCA 100 (GoldTV), (leave to appeal to the Supreme Court dismissed). In the recent ruling, Rogers Media Inc et al v John Doe 1 et al 2022 FC 775, the Federal Court issued a dynamic blocking order to require Canada’s leading ISPs to block access to streaming servers that provide unauthorized streams of NHL games in real time.…

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Copyright, AI and IOT: my submission to the consultation

Here is a copy of my submission to the copyright consultation on the implications of AI and IOT on copyright.

Thank you for providing an opportunity to provide input into the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IOT) copyright consultation.

The copyright consultation raises important issues. The government should be cautious before making any amendments to the Copyright Act given the complexity of the issues and the difficulty in assessing how the changes would work in practice.

Background

I am Senior counsel in the Technology Law Group of McCarthy Tetrault LLP.…

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Crestview panel on what the CPPA means for Canadians

I had the pleasure of participating today in a Crestview moderated panel that focused on what the CPPA means for Canadians. I was joined by Jackie Choquette, Interim Practice Lead, Government Relations, Crestview Strategy, Sarina Rehal, Vice President, Crestview Strategy, and Bill Abbott, Director Data Policy and Research, Data & Trust Office, TELUS.

You can view a recording of the Crestview moderated panel below:

If you just want to see the slides used at the Crestview moderated panel, they are below:…

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Communications and copyright: IIC Canada Conference

I had the pleasure of speaking today at the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications annual conference, held virtually. I spoke chiefly about the following cases and developments:

Bell Media Inc. v. GoldTV.Biz, 2019 FC 1432
Rogers Communications Inc. v. Voltage Pictures, LLC, 2018 SCC 38
Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Salna, 2019 FC 1047
ME2 Productions, Inc. v. Doe, 2019 FC 214
TVB Productions v Doe, Bell Canada, Order Aalto CMJ, March 3, 2020
Bell Canada v.

…

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CRTC’s troubling guidelines on CASL accessorial liability

If you thought CASL wasn’t draconian enough, think again. The CRTC’s interpretation of CASL in the new Guidelines on the Commission’s approach to section 9 of Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL) (Compliance and Enforcement Information Bulletin CRTC 2018-415) has tightened the noose on Canada’s already speech impairing anti-spam law. Under the Guidelines, intermediaries of all stripes including telecom providers, ISPs, hosting companies, payment processors, advertising brokers, electronic marketers, software and application developers and distributors can be liable for CASL violations of their users – whether these intermediaries even intend or know that their users are using their products or services to violate CASL.…

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Equustek v Google: my Fordham talk

Fordham Law School has the best annual intellectual property conferences. I had the privilege of speaking at its 25th Annual IP Conference yesterday on the Equustek v Google case. In this case the Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to decide if Canadian courts have the jurisdiction to make global de-indexing orders against search engines like Google, and if so, the factors to be considered in making such orders. My slides from the talk are shown below.

What made my talk such a treat, was the presence of Mr Justice Arnold in the audience.…

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Information location tool and fair dealing copyright defenses rejected: Trader v CarGurus

If you’ve ever shopped for a used car, you likely know the two popular services, autotrader.ca and CarGurus. In a decision released earlier this week in Trader v CarGurus, 2017 ONSC 1841, Trader (the owner and operator of autotrader.ca) was awarded statutory damages of $305,604 against CarCurus for infringements of its copyrights in photographs of vehicles. The decision written by Justice Conway of the Ontario Superior Court contains some important interpretations of the Copyright Act including in relation to the scope of the new making available right, the copyright defenses for information location tools and fair dealing, and the calculation of statutory damages.…

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CASL’s private right of action

Canada has the most onerous anti-spam/anti-malware law (CASL) in the world. In less than a year, July 1, 2017, it is going to become even worse. That’s when the private right of action (PRA) comes into force.

Since its inception, the anti-spam and anti-malware portions of the Act (ss.6-9) have been enforced by the CRTC. But when the PRA becomes law organizations big and small including charities, small businesses and even children marketing their first lemonade stands – and their officers, directors and agents – could become liable for millions of dollars in penalties.…

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Technological neutrality, technological neutrality, technological neutrality: CBC v SODRAQ

The Supreme Court released a landmark judgment yesterday in the closely watched case, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. SODRAC 2003 Inc., 2015 SCC 57. The 7-2 judgment of the Court was delivered by Rothstein J (with whom McLachlin C.J., Cromwell, Moldaver, Wagner, Gascon and Côté JJ agreed).

The judgment established the following principles.

Broadcast‑incidental copying engages the reproduction right. While balance between user and right‑holder interests and technological neutrality are important principles under Canadian copyright law, they are interpretive principles which do not trump, and cannot change, the express terms of the Act.…

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Privacy by Design certification framework launched by Ryerson and Deloitte

This morning, Ryerson University and Deloitte announced a new certification framework based on Privacy by Design principles. Privacy by Design is a set of principles that builds privacy into the design, operation and management of a given system, business process or design specification. It is based on 7 Foundational Principles developed by Dr Ann Cavoukian, Executive Director of Ryerson’s Privacy and Big Data Institute and the former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

Under the Privacy by Design framework, Ryerson will be responsible for certifying organizations that meet the necessary privacy criteria.…

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