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search engines

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Legality of search engines and AI systems under PIPEDA and CPPA: Google v Privacy Commissioner

Google search engines and privacy

The Federal Court of Appeal just released an important opinion in Google LLC v. Canada (Privacy Commissioner) 2023 FCA 200, holding that Google cannot rely on the journalistic exception in PIPEDA to operate legally in Canada. The decision is a frustrating one because it fails to resolve whether PIPEDA’s restrictions on Google and other search engines are consistent with the Charter and if not, how search engines and artificial intelligence systems can operate legally in Canada. These important questions are unlikely to be resolved soon under the OPC’s ill conceived reference process.…

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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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Making social networks remediate defamation enabled by their platforms: McKeogh v Facebook

A recent Irish case illustrates the difficulties an innocent person who is defamed on social media can face in trying to get the material removed, particularly where the Internet intermediaries who may have the ability to help refuse to cooperate. In McKeogh v Facebook Ireland Limited et al, Record No. 2012/254P, High Court Ireland, May 16 2013, the Irish High Court came up with a novel solution – require the Internet intermediaries, in this case Google and Facebook, to order their experts to meet with the defamed person’s expert to come up with a solution that can be incorporated into a mandatory injunction.…

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Search engines liability for defamation – Trkulja v Google

Is a search engine liable for publishing defamatory materials that are assembled for the first time in an automated manner by its programmed computers? In the recent Australian case Trkulja v Google Inc LLC & Anor (No 5) [2012] VSC 533 (12 November 2012), a jury found Google liable. The trial judge confirmed the jury’s ruling holding that search engines are publishers for the purposes of defamation law when their computers produce and put together search results in accordance with their intended operation.…

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Some observations on Bill C-11: The Copyright Modernization Act

Last Thursday the Government of Canada introduced into the House of Commons Bill C-11, an Act to Amend the Copyright Act. In a press release describing the Bill, Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Christian Paradis, stated that the Bill will ensure that Canada’s copyright laws “are modern, flexible, and in line with current international standards” and will “protect and help create jobs, promote innovation, and attract new investment to Canada.”

In the press conference announcing the Bill at the Ottawa office of software producer bitHeads Inc.,…

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UK Culture Secretary calls for boldness in dealing with online piracy

UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants action to protect and encourage investment in intellectual property. In a Speech  given to the Royal Television Society on September 14, 2011 he signaled that the UK was exploring all options available to do so. This includes making it more difficult for online sites that contribute to piracy to stay online and making search engines take reasonable steps to make it harder to access sites that a court has deemed contain unlawful content or promote unlawful distribution of content.…

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Barry Sookman
This site is about technology, copyright, and privacy Law