My regular Law Bytes column (free hyperlinked version, Toronto Star version homepage version) is the first of a two-part look at the recent Federal Court of Appeal decision involving CRIA's attempt to identify 29 alleged file sharers.
Columns
Canada’s Upcoming Copyright Clash
The Literary Review of Canada's June issue is about to hit the newsstands and it includes The Upcoming Copyright Clash, an essay I wrote on copyright reform in Canada.
The essay brings together several themes that I've written about in the past including the value of the Canadian public domain and the danger associated with potential copyright term extension. It argues for a positive vision of copyright reform incluing the creation of a national digital library and greater usage rights for content created by the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster.
Task Force Report a Roadmap for Canning Canadian-Based Spam
Lost amidst the high drama on Parliament Hill last week was the release of Stopping Spam, the National Task Force on Spam’s final report.
Given that I was a member of the Task Force I’m biased, but I sincerely think the report provides a valuable contribution to the fight against spam in Canada and it would be shame if it were to get lost in the shuffle.
Spam Task Force Delivers Report to Government
Canada’s national spam task force today delivered its report to Industry Minister David Emerson. I was a member of the task force and served as the co-chair of the law and regulatory working group.
The Wrong Analogy, More on the CRTC VoIP Decision
My regular Law Bytes column (freely available linked version, Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the CRTC’s VoIP decision. I begin by noting that when the Internet burst onto the public stage in the mid 1990s, legal scholars initially relied on analogies to identify an appropriate legal framework. Likening the Internet to the "Law of the Sea" or the "Law of Outer Space, their hope was that an existing body of law would provide a ready made solution to the Internet’s inevitable legal challenges. The approach failed, however, as the complexity of the Internet, as well as the genuinely novel issues it raised, rendered each successive proposal unsatisfactory.
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 231: Sara Bannerman on How Canadian Political Parties Maximize Voter Data Collection and Minimize Privacy Safeguards 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 230: Aengus Bridgman on the 2025 Federal Election, Social Media Platforms, and Misinformation 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 229: My Digital Access Day Keynote – Assessing the Canadian Digital Policy Record 
Queen’s University Trustees Reject Divestment Efforts Emphasizing the Importance of Institutional Neutrality 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 228: Kumanan Wilson on Why Canadian Health Data Requires Stronger Privacy Protection in the Trump Era
