Internet Law

by Shaya Silber, Toronto Internet and Copyright Lawyer The role of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in facilitating copyright infringement has been a controversial topic since the beginnings of the world wide web.  The Canadian government is expected to amend the Copyright Act to address this issue. C-32 (the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act) contains provisions that are [...]

Toronto Internet Lawyer, Gil Zvulony was quoted extensively in the media regarding the case of hockey player Mike Zigomanis and the posting of nude photos claiming to be him on a US website by an anonymous poster. Some of the articles can be found here: Slam Sports NBC Sports Toronto Sun Global News A television interview on [...]

Toronto Internet Lawyer, Gil Zvulony recently appeared in several media sources to discuss the sharing of RIDE locations on Facebook or Twitter.  RIDE involves police spot checks where vehicles are stopped and drivers are checked for impairment.  Gil discussed how the law, as it currently stands, does not prohibit such activity. Gil Zvulony was a guest on the Mike [...]

by Toronto Internet Lawyer, Shaya Silber Dec, 20, 2011. Changes to Canadian spam law are expected in the near future. The changes are expected to come into force in early 2012. The new law, otherwise known as Bill C-28, is aimed at preventing the sending of unsolicited messages.  Bill C-28 is a significant revamp of [...]

Because the statement was made in an online forum, it was not considered derogatory since there was the opportunity, and even expectation to challenge or provide context to the statement.

People’s biggest hesitation with buying something online is a perceived lack of legality in the transaction. What most people don’t realize, is that there is legislation that address these concerns and makes online contracts legal enforceable.

Toronto Internet lawyer, Shaya Silber’s opinion was recently featured in a Toronto Star article about a new Facebook feature. The article “Facebook launches ‘chat’ service to prevent suicides” appeared in the Toronto Star on December 14, 2011.

by Shaya Silber, Toronto Internet Lawyer Businesses are always trying to find new ways to promote themselves and generate more revenue. One such way is running promotions such as raffles. However, before conducting a raffle, there are certain legal implications that should be taken into consideration. Criminal Code The Criminal Code of Canada contains provisions [...]

Browse Wrap Agreements: No Click Needed by Shaya Silber A recent decision from British Columbia’s Supreme Court has examined the issue of contract formation and enforceability of a website’s terms of use.  According to the decision, simply browsing a website constitutes acceptance of that website’s terms of use. The case was between Zoocasa, a real [...]

By Shaya Silber, Toronto Copyright Lawyer Copyright law does not protect ideas (patent law does protect ideas, but that’s another area of intellectual property law and has its own requirements). Copyright law protects the expression of ideas. The expression of the idea must be in a fixed form (i.e. it must have some permanency). For [...]

Toronto internet lawyer, Shaya Silber discusses some of the challenges that Daily Deal sites face.

Toronto internet lawyer Gil Zvulony recently discussed some of the legal requirements for businesses to make their websites accessible to the disabled. The article can be found on itbusiness.ca

Toronto Internet Lawyer Gil Zvulony recently discussed the legalities of the Cheaterville.com website and how the libel laws of Canada and the United States apply with Metro News.  Gil Zvulony was quoted as saying: My concern is that a lot of innocent people’s lives are going to be hurt by this website, and a lot [...]

Toronto Copyright Lawyers examine Facebook’s legal contracts with their users and its implications on Facebook’s use of user content.

by Gil Zvulony, Toronto Copyright Lawyer The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau has embarked on a slick public relations campaign to discourage piracy of movies on the internet. (See video below). I doubt this will change people’s behaviour, but it is an interesting attempt. The counter argument is that, in some cases, piracy may [...]

The use of cloud computing is growing. This article looks at the legal and privacy implications of cloud computing for businesses.

Toronto IT Lawyer Gil Zvulony legal opinion was recently quoted in two articles on the legal implication of using a financial aggregator site like, Mint.com.  You may read the articles here: http://www.moneysense.ca/2011/04/26/the-banks-take-a-bite-out-of-mint-com/ http://www.moneysense.ca/2011/04/19/hidden-danger-at-mint-com/

Toronto Copyright Lawyer discusses the Fair Dealing exceptions in Canadian Copyright Law and how they differ from Fair Use in US Copyright Law.

Toronto Copyright lawyer discusses the Research and Private Study Defence.

Most websites nowadays have Terms of Use agreements that bind visitors when they visit a site. Terms of Use are important both for a site’s visitor as well as its operator. It’s important for the visitor because the Terms let them know what they can and cannot do, and what they can expect. It essentially outlines the relationship of the parties. The Terms are important for the site’s operator, because just as any physical person or business can incur liability, a website can, too.

Gil Zvulony’s opinion was recently sought by Law Times regarding a British Columbia defamation and privacy case.

Bill C-32, also known as the Copyright Modernization Act, are proposed amendments to the Canada’s Copyright Act. Many consider these changes long overdue. The last time that the Copyright Act was amended was in 1997. Since that time, we have seen the advent of technological powerhouses such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube and Google among countless others. Just as these entities have reshaped the way we interact with technology and share information, regulatory guidelines that address these shifts are also essential. Bill C-32 attempts to address these technological trends and the new challenges that they present.

A Judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently ordered a former executive living in Ontario, to pay more than $200 million US dollars to aggrieved investors. The judgment is believed to be the highest ever awarded by a Canadian court. “To my knowledge, a judicial award of this magnitude is unprecedented in Canada”, said commercial litigator Gil Zvulony, the Toronto lawyer representing the investors. “The interest alone is almost $30,000 per day”.

Toronto Defamation Lawyer Gil Zvulony successfully defended a defamation case by convincing a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to throw out the case for being fundamentally defective. The plaintiffs had sought over 2 million dollars in damages for libel and slander, interference with economic relations and conspiracy to injure. Mr. Zvulony successfully attacked the Statement of Claim on technical reasons.

Toronto Defamation Lawyer, Gil Zvulony recently appeared on CTV News to discuss the growing problem of online defamation.

The concept of copyright protection is based on the notion that people who create creative works deserve protection for their expression, and need an incentive to keep creating. The theory is that creators create in order to get financial payback for creating, and also to be identified with the work in question. Authors typically want to control the use of their work and place conditions on the use of the work.

Toronto Internet Lawyer discusses how the law may require websites to be accessible to the disabled.

Publicity rights are rights that protect the commercial value of a person’s celebrity status. Publicity rights are sometimes referred to as personality rights, and the two terms are often used interchangeably.

Toronto internet lawyer Gil Zvulony examines the various rights in a photograph, including, copyrights, moral rights, publicity rights and privacy rights.

Most people who listen to urban styles of music, like rap, hip hop and dance, know that the beats they hear on a recording have been taken from somewhere else. The increasing affordability of recording technology in today’s commonplace home studio makes the use of other people’s music more and more widespread. Music sampling is roughly defined as lifting a piece of recorded music (a “sample”) from an existing recording and using it in a new recording. Often, a few bars containing a drum beat will be repeated in “looped” sequence to form the backbeat of the new recording. At other times, the sample may be of vocals, other instruments, or even a nanosecond of background noise. The sample may then be manipulated in different ways and combined with other sounds and sound effects to make a new creation. What is common to all of these incidents is the use of someone else’s recording to produce a new one.

Toronto Copyright Lawyer discusses who own copyright of works created at the workplace during the course of employment.

Copyright is a legal right granted by the Canadian Copyright Act which gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to do certain things with a copyright protected work, such as making copies of the work, or giving permission to others to make copies. The rights granted to a copyright holder by Section 3 of the Copyright Act are as follows:

Moral Rights (Sometimes called Author’s Rights) are rights granted exclusively to authors of works under the Copyright Act ( R.S., 1985, c. C-42 ). Moral Rights are distinguished from the copyrights that belong to copyright owners (who may or may not be the author of the work). Section 14.1 of the Copyright Act defines moral rights as follows:

Copyright in Canada is protected by the Copyright Act ( R.S., 1985, c. C-42 ). Section 3 of the Copyright Act grants the owner of the copyright the sole right to reproduce copyrighted works. A copyright owner can give permission to reproduce the work. Such permission is, in legal jargon, called a “copyright licence”.

The web log, or “blog,” an online diary where a person publishes his or her thoughts and opinions, is one of the most popular forms of expression on the internet. It has been estimated that one in seven people has a blog nowadays, and while many of those people are college students or bored celebrities, some bloggers have jobs. And for some of them, it is starting to seem like blogging might put them in danger of losing those jobs.

Below are links to various internet resources that I use on a regular basis. I find them indispensable to my internet law practice and thought I would share my favourites with the public. Of course, the links are provided for convenience only and I or the law firm do not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness or fitness for a particular purpose of the links and the information contained on any third party websites. If you have any suggestions for this page then feel free to contact me.

This discussion will not focus on royalties received from intellectual property, presumably these can be seized by garnishment. The discussion will focus on the seizure of the intellectual property itself.

Many websites have Terms of Use agreements that set out the terms and conditions for using the website. These agreements can be an effective tool in limiting a website owner’s potential liability.

When people link to websites, they often do not link to the homepage. Instead they link to the sub-page that contains the information they want to link to. This practice, of linking to a sub-page deep within a website, is called “deep linking.” What is not generally known is that there is some doubt as to the legality of deep linking, and some recent court decisions suggest that deep linking might be impermissible in some cases. This essay will discuss the existing law on deep linking and its implications for future developments.

Internet Defamation lawyer Gil Zvulony recently appeared on CTV to discuss the growing problem of defamation on internet sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. For a list of other media appearances by Gil Zvulony see Media Appearances.

Recently, the Ontario Court of Appeal re-affirmed the principle that a judgment from the United States is usually enforceable in Canada, with very few and very limited exceptions.

Case Comment: Old North State Brewing Co. v. Newlands Services Inc. One of the principal tenets of contract law is freedom of contract. It can be said with a fair degree of certainty that a court will have regard to the intentions of the parties when interpreting a valid contract. The circumstances where a court [...]

A well drafted agreement that accurately reflects the intentions of the parties can be the ounce of prevention that will save you the need and pain of going to court. Conversely, a poorly drafted agreement that is vague or silent on an important issue may end up being a nightmare that causes more harm than good.

A domain name dispute is just what it sounds like: a dispute over the rightful use of an internet domain name.

Someone might register a domain name that is similar to the name or trade-mark of an existing business. Sometimes this is done to fool people into thinking that the registrant is associated with that business. Other time it may be an example of cybersquatting, buying up a domain name for the purpose of selling it back to the person who has a legitimate business interest in the name.

If someone has registered a domain name for some illegitimate purpose against your business, you have certain rights and remedies available to you.

Defamation Lawyer Discusses the Definition of Defamation According to the law of Ontario, Canada

This article explores the notice requirements and the limitation period requirements of the Libel and Slander Act and whether they apply to defamation on the internet . It concludes with the recommendation that, whenever possible, the Act be complied with.

Can a judgment rendered in a corrupt foreign tribunal be enforced in Ontario? Where a litigant can raise enough evidence that the foreign tribunal was corrupt, and that the corruption influenced the outcome of the proceeding, the judgment will typically not be enforced. However, in order to make use of applicable defences at the recognition and enforcement stage, the litigant must raise evidence of actual corruption by the particular foreign tribunal during the foreign proceeding.

It is increasingly common for websites to include “Terms of Use” agreements. These agreements set out the terms and conditions to which the user must agree in exchange for using the site. A question that sometimes arises in the law is: how does one demonstrate that a user assented to the Terms of Use agreement?

Has someone accused you of being a scam, a rip off, or a fraud. Are Google results ruining your reputation? Is your business being ruined by a malicious consumer complaint or someone seeking on-line revenge?

Treble damages are a form of damages by which the amount of actual damages is calculated and then multiplied by three. This head of damages is created by statute and is intended to be punitive in nature. Treble-damages laws are common in many United States jurisdictions.

Toronto Lawyers discuss the law of enforcing judgments in Ontario that were granted from outside Ontario (i.e. in the U.S.A).

In the past, only famous people had libel and slander issues. Today, it is the common person who must deal with this issue. This article explores ten essential tips for dealing with defamation on the internet.

It looks like Google’s legal team dropped the ball on this one.

Did anyone really believe that LimeWire’s main purpose was not for sharing copyright material?

Defamation law in Canada already protects complaints to the Law Society that are false and damaging! Defamation law does not protect, nor should it protect, false and damaging complaints made in bad faith or with malice. Such an immunity would truly make a mockery of the complaints system.

This cannot be good politics. Suing the citizenry does nothing to advance democracy.

This is a text-book case of a defamation lawsuit actually amplifying the defamation.