The Internet is one of the most stunning innovations to benefit humanity since the inventions of the printing press in China and centuries later, by Gutenberg. While the first English laws of copyright were really concerned with controlling the distribution of seditious and heretical writings, today, the benefits of widespread distribution provided by the decentralized network is seen as enormously advantageous.

As more transactions shift to the cloud and mobile platforms, companies need to be aware of issues relating to data security, laws of evidence applicable to electronic transactions, privacy legislation, and varying multiple jurisdictional laws applicable to a business.

Canada’s 2012 Copyright Modernization Act (Canada) has similarities to and differences from the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (although both Canadian and American companies sometimes mistakenly believe the United States statute applies to Canada).

Services for our clients doing business online cover a broad range from setting up an online presence to ventures relating to distance education, selling software and hardware products, cloud delivery of software-as-a-service, virtual world development, ecommerce-related selling activities, web development agreements, clickwraps, and related online contracting, privacy matters, and terms of service.

For clients conveniently distributing software-as-a-service, the benefits afforded in terms of rolling out improvements for customers are obvious. Clients also need to be aware of managing risks relating to potential liabilities of being a service provider, increasing demands for enhanced security, and data encryption.

We also help clients protect their copyright and trademark assets where unauthorized reproduction or distribution infringements occur and are being sold online.