Rick Anderson, a long-time CIRA director, appears this week on TVO's Search Engine to respond to recent criticisms of the dot-ca domain authority. Host Jesse Brown asked Anderson to address my recent column focused on CIRA's disappointing performance in the realm of its social mandate. Anderson responded: "Doing things beyond […]
Archive for October, 2009
Clement Says No Legal Block To Using Apple iTunes Gift Cards For Apps
In recent months there have been several reports on consumer frustrations with Applei iTunes gift cards, which in Canada cannot be used for applications or games. Apple's response has been that there are legal reasons for the restrictions. I've never been able to figure out what those might be and […]
Privacy Commissioner Releases Annual PIPEDA Report
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada released her annual report on private sector privacy yesterday. While the media focused on the recommendations on youth privacy, it was interesting to see data showing increasing numbers of reported data breaches. Reported incidents moved from 23 in 2006, to 48 in 2007, to 65 […]
Lobbyist Pressure Focused on Watering Down Anti-Spam Bill
The introduction last spring of Bill C-27 – the Electronic Commerce Protection Act – represented the culmination of years of effort to address concerns that Canada is rapidly emerging as a spam haven. Industry Minister Tony Clement’s anti-spam bill has steadily made its way through the legislative process, with the Standing Committee on Industry likely to conduct its final "clause by clause" review over the next two weeks.
Although support for anti-spam legislation would seemingly be uncontroversial, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that various business groups have mounted a spirited attack against the bill, claiming requirements to obtain to user consent before sending commercial email will create new barriers to doing business online. The Conservative MPs on the committee have remained supportive of the bill, yet Liberal MPs have expressed growing concern about some of the bill’s provisions.
A close examination reveals that the bill sets reasonable limits for online marketing consistent with laws found in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In fact, there are four major caveats to the consent requirement.
Canadian Anti-Spam Deal Far From a Done Deal
Appeared in the Toronto Star on October 5, 2009 as Canadian Anti-Spam Bill Far From a Done Deal The introduction last spring of Bill C-27 – the Electronic Commerce Protection Act – represented the culmination of years of effort to address concerns that Canada is rapidly emerging as a spam […]