Law Times

May 4, 2009

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PAGE 6 COMMENT Law Times Group Publisher ....... Karen Lorimer Editorial Director ....... Gail J. Cohen Editor ........... Gretchen Drummie Associate Editor ......... Robert Todd Staff Writer ............. Glenn Kauth Copy Editor ............. Neal Adams CaseLaw Editor ...... Jennifer Wright Art Director .......... Alicia Adamson Production Co-ordinator .. Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist ............. Derek Welford Advertising Sales .... Kimberlee Pascoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathy Liotta Sales Co-ordinator ......... Sandy Shutt No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times Inc. disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. ©Law Times Inc. 2009 All rights reserved. May 4, 2009 • Law TiMes Law Times Inc. 240 Edward Street, Aurora, ON • L4G 3S9 Tel: 905-841-6481 • Fax: 905-727-0017 www.lawtimesnews.com President: Stuart J. Morrison Law Times is published 40 times a year by Law Times Inc. 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9 • 905-841-6481. lawtimes@clbmedia.ca Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 $141.75 per year in Canada (GST incl., GST Reg. #R121351134) and US$266.25 for foreign addresses. Single copies are $3.55 Circulation inquiries, postal returns and address changes should include a copy of the mailing label(s) and should be sent to Law Times Inc. 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9. Return postage guaranteed. Contact Kristen Schulz-Lacey at: kschulz-lacey@clbmedia.ca or Tel: 905-713-4355 • Toll free: 1-888-743-3551 or Fax: 905-841-4357. CIRCULATIONS & SUBSCRIPTIONS Advertising inquiries and materials should be directed to Sales, Law Times, 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9 or call Karen Lorimer at 905-713-4339 klorimer@clb- media.ca, Kimberlee Pascoe at 905-713-4342 kpascoe@clbmedia.ca, or Kathy Liotta at 905- 713- 4340 kliotta@clbmedia.ca or Sandy Shutt at 905-713-4337 sshutt@clbmedia.ca ADVERTISING Law Times is printed on newsprint containing 25-30 per cent post-consumer recycled materials. Please recycle this newspaper. "N Editorial Obiter Take a bow 'Mr. Civil Liberties' we all hold so dear in this country — and often take for granted — remain a world standard for our way of life." That's Edward Greenspan speak- ing about Alan Borovoy who retires as general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on June 30, and was feted last week for his 41 years at the helm of the CCLA. "He has given so much to this coun- o other individual has con- tributed more to ensuring that the civil liberties that try that we wanted to honour his im- portant achievements and to see him off in style," said Greenspan. That they did. No less than Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie; former York University president Harry Arthurs; Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Rob- ert Sharpe; CCLA chairman John Mc- Camus; and incoming CCLA general counsel Nathalie Des Rosiers rained tributes on Borovoy at his gala dinner. He's earned it. According to a press release, the groups to demonstrate in the streets." Borovoy joined in 1968 after having CCLA was formed in 1964 by a group of mostly Toronto citizens who were "alarmed about a proposal by the Ontario government to drastically in- crease police powers. Since then, the CCLA has spoken out forcefully on hundreds of issues, from film censor- ship to the rights of welfare recipi- ents, from forced religious teaching in the schools to the rights of political worked with other human rights and civil liberties organizations and "from the moment he came on the scene, Alan has been at the forefront in the battle to expand and ensure that civil liberties for all Canadians remain secure." Now he's chosen to step away, and while admitting to Law Times he was overwhelmed by all of the honours, Borovoy gracefully added, "It's given me the feeling that something in our program has caught on with people, and that's a very nice feeling to walk away with; that we may have been making more of a difference than I could have realized." M in the office to work on docu- ments and exchange e-mails with co-workers and clients. However, instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars on commercial programs at home, or if we need to communicate or do some light work while away on vacation and needing access from the hotel's business centre or a local Internet café, browser-based alternatives like Google Docs and Google Mail may look attractive. Over the years, web brows- ost of us use pro- grams like Microsoft Office and Outlook ers like Internet Explorer have become very sophisticated and can be used by programmers to create web-based applications that can mimic the look and feel of traditional word process- ing or e-mail programs that pre- viously needed to be installed on the local computer. They also support SSL encryption to prevent information from being intercepted as it travels back and forth across the Internet. However, unlike locally in- stalled versions, these web-based alternatives rely on a technology known as "cloud computing" where the data is stored on re- mote servers. This can present an advantage — saving users from having to transport docu- ments back and forth between computers. However, having confidential or sensitive infor- mation stored on someone else's remote system somewhere "in the cloud" is not always a com- forting thought. So how safe is this practice? Well, there hasn't been a flood of stories in the media about big data breaches or improper use of such information. But it doesn't hurt to read the contract and see what your rights and obligations might be. In the case of Google, the Reading the fine print Bits and Bytes By Alan Gahtan starting point is the Google terms of service. These can be accessed from a link found at the bottom of most pages on the Google site. Certain prod- ucts and services made avail- able by Google may have addi- tional terms, but the TOS are the common terms that apply at a minimum. Section 4 of the TOS allows Google to change the form and nature of the services from time to time without notice. They also allow Google to stop (per- manently or temporarily) pro- viding the services, either to a specific user or to all users gener- ally, again without notice. Users are also warned that if Google disables access to their account, they may be prevented from accessing content contained in their account (so don't forget to create and store backups from time to time of any important information). Users are required to agree that they will be solely respon- sible for any breach of their obligations under the TOS, for all activities that may occur in their account (which presum- ably also includes those that may occur if their account is hacked) and for any content www.lawtimesnews.com should learn by Borovoy's example. Listen to Sharpe: "In a way it's been an ideal le- gal career devoted to public service. He didn't go into law to make money; he went into law because he believes in his principles and he was prepared to dedi- cate his whole life to those principles." So, as the old cliché says, "all good things must come to an end." Des Rosiers will step in on July 1 and she sounds like a great replacement. After all, she was smart enough to say this: "No one replaces Alan Borovoy, and I'm not going to try." While he's handing over the reins others Go to www.lawtimesnews.com for an audio version. — Gretchen Drummie with proprietary rights and states that, other than the li- cence set forth in s.11, Google does not obtain any right, title, or interest under the TOS in or to any content that users may submit, post, transmit, or display on or through the services, including any intel- lectual property rights which subsist in such content. Section 11 re-emphasizes that the user retains copyright and any other rights they may already hold in such content. However, Google is granted a perpetual, irrevo- cable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to repro- duce, adapt, modify, translate, that they may create, transmit, or display, and for any conse- quences (including any loss or damages which Google may suffer). Google disclaims any liability to users for any and all types of damages that it may cause. Users, unfortunately, are not provided with any limita- tion on their liability or an ex- clusion of liability for any con- sequential or indirect damages they may cause. Section 9.4 of the TOS deals publish, publicly perform, pub- licly display, and distribute any such content. The purpose is stated to be for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute, and promote the ser- vices. Seems a little broad if you ask me. Shouldn't those rights be limited to those required to provide the service to the spe- cific user, and that's it? And what about confidenti- ality? Pursuant to s. 9.1, users need to agree that the services may contain information which is designated as confidential by Google and that they will not disclose such information without Google's prior writ- ten consent. But what about the user's confidential informa- tion? Google does have a pri- vacy policy that governs how it handles a user's personal in- formation. What about other confidential information that does not constitute personal information? Hmmm. Some- thing is still missing. LT Alan Gahtan is a Toronto-based technology lawyer. His web site is www.gahtan.com/alan.

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