CanLII files lawsuit against B.C. company for alleged copyright breach: Caseway argues that it accesses and uses publicly available information for its platform

The operators of CanLII, a website that publishes court and regulatory decisions across Canada, are suing a North Vancouver businessman for allegedly scraping its database to create a legal research tool using artificial intelligence software. CanLII claims that the businessman took over 120 gigabyt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business in Vancouver 2024-11 (1828), p.18
Main Author: Wood, Graeme
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial intelligence
Copyright
Federal court decisions
Litigation
Software
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The operators of CanLII, a website that publishes court and regulatory decisions across Canada, are suing a North Vancouver businessman for allegedly scraping its database to create a legal research tool using artificial intelligence software. CanLII claims that the businessman took over 120 gigabytes of data without permission or compensation. CanLII is a non-profit group that uploads court and regulatory decisions to its website as a public service. The claim states that CanLII expends significant time and resources to enhance the data, which is subject to the Copyright Act. The businessman and his companies launched an AI-driven chatbot for legal research, which CanLII alleges uses the CanLII works. CanLII has demanded the removal of the data and is seeking punitive damages. The businessman denies using any data owned by CanLII and argues that the information accessed is publicly available.
ISSN:0849-5017