A recent Court of Appeal decision in England declared that retention of photos taken of a man by the police long after it was determined that no crime had occurred by the person was a breach of privacy. Andrew Wood was photographed as he was leaving the annual general meeting of Reed Elsevier plc, which […]
Jacqueline Lipton is a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University. She is Co-Director for the Center of Law, Technology, and the Arts, and the Associate Director of the Frederick K Cox International Law Center. Professor Lipton is also an IP Osgoode Research Affiliate. As Facebook welcomes its 200 millionth active user, now is […]
In a recent opinion piece at wired.com, Bruce Schneier criticizes the “expectation of privacy” test that is used to interpret the fourth amendment of the United States. He notes that this test is dangerous, because “the whole ‘expectations’ test is circular -- what the government does affects what the government can do”. The American constitution […]
Richard Warman is an Ottawa-based lawyer active in human rights law and is well known for initiating complaints against white supremacists and neo-nazis for Canadian Human Rights Act violations in the realm of the Internet. One of Warman’s most recent targets is the controversial online forum, FreeDominion.ca. In the action, Warman claims damages for allegedly […]
Andrea Slane is the Executive Director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy (CILP) at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and is an IP Osgoode Research Affiliate. The practice of "sexting" - teens sending sexual, nude or semi-nude photos of themselves through text messaging programs on cell phones - is currently garnering […]
A settlement has been reached in the U.S. trademark/web linking dispute between law firm Jones Day and real estate information site BlockShopper.com. Jones Day had sought to prevent BlockShopper from linking to Jones Day’s site because they claimed BlockShopper improperly used Jones Day’s marks and gave the impression that Jones Day somehow approved or was […]
Earlier this month, Facebook experienced a backlash when it changed its privacy policy. The grassroots uprising can be seen on blogs such as The Consumerist, which dissected and criticized the new policies. Although Facebook had always reserved an “irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license” to use any content from its users, the new […]
Privacy rights are rights that attach to every individual. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects them by asserting that “everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and correspondence.” Despite this, we know that our privacy rights (like all our other rights), are not absolute […]
In response to the growing concerns of illicit use of personal information and corresponding adverse consequences such as identity theft, financial disclosures and private health information revelation, the Office of Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) released a document entitled “Guidelines for Processing Personal Data Across Borders” on January 27, 2009. This document provides guidelines explaining […]
For the past year and a half, one political figure has evoked much publicity around the world that very few celebrities or politicians have enjoyed during their whole life. This political figure is the newly elected U.S. president, Barack Obama. The Obama craze has resulted in, what Megan Boler calls, a ‘merchandising mayhem’. In the U.S., […]