Below is our Month in Review for March, highlighting posts on our snIP/ITs blog. You can follow the links to any of these specific posts, or you can visit the blog at www.canadiantechlawblog.com.

Hyperlinks Not a Copyright Infringement, According to the Court of Justice of the European Union
By Roland Hung and Rachel Ries on March 31st, 2014

Overview In Svensson v. Retriever Sverige AB, the Court of Justice of the European Union recently ruled that hyperlinks to freely available Internet content do not amount to a copyright infringement. The Svensson case involves a dispute between journalists and a media search service company. Svensson, Sjögren, Sahlman and Gadd wrote ...

Ontario Superior Court Revisits and Broadens Jones v. Tsige
By Roland Hung and Rachel Ries on March 18th, 2014

In the recent case, Hopkins v. Kay, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently declined to strike a claim for the tort of intrusion upon seclusion. In doing so, the court appears to have broadened the scope of the tort of intrusion upon seclusion as set out in Jones v. Tsige. Companies should be aware ...

CASL Applies To You Even If You Aren’t In Canada
By Barry Sookman and Puneet Soni on March 11th, 2014

CASL is the toughest law of its kind in the world and Canadian organizations are awakening to many major challenges they will face when trying to comply with this legislation. However, non-Canadian organizations should not overlook the Act’s extra-territorial application and its effect on their respective operations. CASL's requirements far exceed those in other countries ...

Service Performance Remedies In Outsourcing Agreements: Lessons To Learn From State of Indiana v. IBM
By David Crane on March 11th, 2014

For a customer of outsourcing services, it is crucial that the outsourcing services agreement include well-drafted, clear and specific remedies to address vendor service performance failures that will have a material impact on the customer. A good example of what can happen when a service agreement is deficient in this area are the recent decisions ...

McCarthy Tétrault files brief in U.S. Supreme Court
By McCarthy Tétrault LLP on March 5th, 2014

On March 3, McCarthy Tétrault partner Steven Mason filed an Amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in the high profile Aereo case in support of the broadcasters and studio appellants who are challenging Aereo's business model of re-transmitting TV broadcasts over the Internet without paying retransmission royalties. The brief argues that the international, bi-lateral and ...

Legal Implications of Accepting Bitcoin as Payment
By Rahim Esmail, Emily MacKinnon and Terry Gao on March 3rd, 2014

The number of Canadian businesses accepting virtual currencies as a form of payment is growing. Bitcoin is emerging as the most popular of these new currencies – none of which are subject to a central authority. Governments, including Canada's federal government, are starting to take note, expressing opinions on the applicability of domestic laws and ...