Privacy Law Commons^™

The Canadian Public Domain: What, Where, And To What End?, Carys J. Craig

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In this article, I explore the important body of scholarship that has emerged over this time on the substance, nature, and role of the public domain. I offer some concrete definitions of the public domain in the copyright context, identify some ongoing sources of debate in the literature, and highlight some particularly significant voices in public domain discourse. In doing so, my aim is twofold: first, I mean to present a fairly comprehensive, but concise, review of this academic movement that has been directed towards substantiating and politicizing the concept of the public domain; and second, I hope to re-situate …

Fessing Up To Facebook: Recent Trends In The Use Of Social Network Websites For Civil Litigation, Pamela D. Pengelley

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

For professional “fact-gatherers” such as lawyers, insurance adjusters, claims handlers and private investigators, the vast wealth of information that people volunteer on Facebook can be a goldmine or a smoking gun, depending on your perspective. The personal information contained in a Facebook profile may be highly relevant to matters at issue in litigation; when dealing with claims, particularly in the personal injury context, the information contained on a Facebook page can make or break a case. It is, therefore, crucial that legal and insurance professionals stay informed of new developments in this emerging area of law. This article, written with …

Google Adwords And Canadian Trademark Law, Reed W. Taubner

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article aims to answer two questions: should business competitors be allowed to use each other’s goodwill in this way and, if so, can trademark law police the program without stifling competition? Part I examines the technical aspects of the AdWords program. Part II explores the underlying rationales of trademark law to start developing a normative position. Part III reviews the American jurisprudence and commentary to hone that normative position and to identify a compatible legal framework. Part IV compares that framework against Canadian law.

This article endorses the work of Misha Gregory Macaw who, unlike some trademark expansionists, argues …

Book Review: E-Discovery In Canada, Robert J. Currie

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

It is not hyperbolic to say that the proliferation of electronically stored information (ESI) is probably the most prominent change-harbinger and potential havoc-wreaker in civil litigation today — second only, perhaps, to the spiralling costs of litigation itself. Indeed, the practical and legal difficulties associated with the storage, gathering, preservation, disclosure and evidentiary use of ESI have the potential to act as a Trojan Horse, causing what would previously have been ordinary cases to implode under their weight. Increasing recognition of this is evident; electronic discovery (e-discovery) cases have begun to emerge in the reports, a successful co-operative effort by …

Downloading Personhood: A Hegelian Theory Of Copyright Law, Karla M. O'Regan

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article will examine these responses, identifying the competing interests at work in both traditional copyright schemes and contemporary Internet-based criticisms, and put forth a theory of copyright law capable of ad- dressing the needs of these rival interests in an advanced technological era.

Part I delineates some of the more prominent theories copyright scholars have offered in response to the “IP-IT crisis.” Part II attempts to identify the source of these problems by first examining conventional justifications for copyright and the competing interests inherently at work in its conception. Part III identifies three specific factors I argue are particularly …

People Can Be So Fake: A New Dimension To Privacy And Technology Scholarship, M. Ryan Calo

Articles

This article updates the traditional discussion of privacy and technology, focused since the days of Warren and Brandeis on the capacity of technology to manipulate information. It proposes a novel dimension to the impact of anthropomorphic or social design on privacy.

Technologies designed to imitate people-through voice, animation, and natural language-are increasingly commonplace, showing up in our cars, computers, phones, and homes. A rich literature in communications and psychology suggests that we are hardwired to react to such technology as though a person were actually present.

Social interfaces accordingly capture our attention, improve interactivity, and can free up our hands …

Peeping Hals: Making Sense Of Artificial Intelligence And Privacy, Ryan Calo

Articles

The field of artificial intelligence, broadly defined as the study and practice of designing intelligent agents, is at least six decades into its existence as a formal discipline. Sometimes called “computational” or “synthetic” intelligence, AI borrows from and informs a wide variety of subjects, including philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, statistics, economics, and law. Techniques of AI underpin all manner of industrial and consumer applications - from the complex neural nets used in data mining, down to the ‘fuzzy logic’ used by commercial washers and driers.

Insofar as “the issues of AI are directly related to [the] self-image of human beings”, …

How Much Surveillance Is Too Much? Some Thoughts On Surveillance, Democracy, And The Political Value Of Privacy, Benjamin J. Goold

All Faculty Publications

Over the past decade it has become increasingly common to speak of the emergence of a surveillance society. Surveillance is an almost inescapable part of 21st century life. There is a very real danger that individual privacy - as it is currently understood - may soon become a thing of the past. Some would argue privacy is already dead and we have no choice but to accept our newly transparent lives. For many, surveillance has become part of daily life during visit banks, stores, shopping malls, and many public streets and parks. Travel through airports subjects our bodies to physical …

Cloud Computing: Storm Warning For Privacy?, Nicole Ozer, Chris Conley

Faculty Scholarship

“Cloud computing” - the ability to create, store, and manipulate data through Web-based services - is growing in popularity. Cloud computing itself may not transform society; for most consumers, it is simply an appealing alternative tool for creating and storing the same records and documents that people have created for years. However, outdated laws and varying corporate practices mean that documents created and stored in the cloud may not have the same protections as the same documents stored in a filing cabinet or on a home computer. Can cloud computing services protect the privacy of their consumers? Do they? And …

Cctv And Human Rights, Benjamin J. Goold

All Faculty Publications

This chapter provides a brief overview of the human rights implications of closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance, and aims to help CCTV managers and operators develop public area surveillance policies and practices that are consistent with a commitment to the protection of individual rights and a respect for civil liberties.