Twitter Ordered to Hand Over User’s Private Information The nature of privacy rights in the digital age are being challenged once again after a judge in the United States ordered the social media site Twitter to surrender information that was allegedly obtained by hacking into police websites to the Boston district attorney. The decision came […]
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews recently generated a media frenzy when he introduced a controversial new bill that proposed to provide police departments with the ability to access personal information about Canadian Internet users without a warrant. While the proposed legislation is controversial in itself, Toews caused further controversy when he responded to criticisms by […]
Gay Marriage Blame Game In a very quick turn of events, the same sex marriage debate closed just about as quickly as it was reopened last week. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a legal argument stating that a lesbian couple who married in Canada in 2004 could not get the divorce they were seeking […]
On October 17, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada released its landmark decision in Crookes v Newton, [2011] 3 SCR 269 [Crookes], affirming 2009 BCCA 392 and 2008 BCSC 1424. At issue was whether creating an internet hyperlink to defamatory material constitutes "publication" of the material for the purposes of defamation law. The case challenged […]
The legal concept of property is fluid and dynamic. It evolves over time in relation to “changes in the purposes which society or the dominant classes in society expect the institution of property to serve” [CB Macpherson in Mary Jane Mossman & William F Flanagan, eds, Property Law Cases and Commentary (Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Publications) […]
On September 22, 2010, Toronto Police Constable Adam Josephs launched a lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court: Adam Josephs v. YouTube et. al (2010) CV-10-410890 (Ont. Sup. Ct.) (“Josephs v. YouTube”). In the suit, Constable Josephs sues video sharing website YouTube for $1.25 million. He seeks damages for defamation of his reputation and disclosure of […]
In a previous post on the US Supreme Court decision, Bilski et al v Kappos, No.08-964 545 F. 3d 943 [Bilski], I discussed how SCOTUS alluded to the possibility that “business methods” could be patented in the United States – a case that did not outline precisely what kinds of business methods entailed protection. Canadian courts, by […]
In September, I wrote my first post on this site on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the first appearance of the word “internet” in the Court’s jurisprudence. In that post, I offered some commentary and analysis on the Court’s engagement with the internet age thus far and how it has impacted its reasoning. […]