Privacy Laws: Canada Internet Regulation

There isn’t a particular law that is designed for Canadian citizens. However, there are certain laws that encircle the internet related issues. Such Canadian laws are Criminal Code, Copyright Act, and the Trademarks Act.

The Criminal Code

In the Criminal Code, there are numerous clauses for offenses that relate to the internet processing. The Section 163 makes it an offense to share or publish immoral material or child pornography.

Section 296-304 of Criminal Code restricts the display of libelous material. Libel is described as the intentionally published false information which is harmful for the reputation of another.

Section 430 criminalizes the distribution of computer virus. Also, the international interference into computer data is prohibited under this Section.

Section 319 restricts the motive of hatred.

Section 21 prohibits the distribution of information which promotes the counseling of an offense such as suicide assistance and bomb-making.

Section 184 declares it an offense to intentionally intercept electronic communication through the means of ‘any electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical or another device’.

With the reference of internet content, it is difficult to figure out who has ‘published’ or distributed the material on the internet.

You can get complete Criminal Code document here.

The Copyright Act

The Copyright Act revolves around the rights belonging to the copyright holders including the authority to prevent others from copying the complete or massive part of one’s work. Using someone’s copyright material or exploiting it without permission by uploading, downloading or arguably even by browsing is a copyright infringement.

This Act obliges punishment by civil and criminal remedies such as damages, seizures, injunction, delivery up and imprisonment.

The Copyright Act allows mere ability to use copyright material without permission if the information is used for study, research, criticism, review or newspaper summary with the acknowledgment of the source of the work and the author name.

Trademark Act

The Trademark Act focuses to allow the owners to protect their trademarks from infringement and confiscation.

The trademark issue also refers to the domain names on the internet. However, the organizations who do not set their trademarks as domain names or who do not register their domain names as trademarks have the risk of another company using their trademark as a domain name.

For instance, the former employee of an Internet Service Provider entered the same business and got a domain name same as his former employer’s corporate name. The court orders that the use of a domain name could not be passed because there is a mere possibility of confusion between the 2 names.

However, there isn’t any court in Canada which specially addresses the issue of the importance of trademark protection given to the internet domain names.