Likely that volume and breadth of relevant data was enormous

Ontario criminal | International Law

TREATIES

Likely that volume and breadth of relevant data was enormous

Attorney General of Canada applied for order pursuant to s. 15 of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act (Can.) sending mirror-imaged copies of 32 computer servers to authorities in U.S.. American prosecutors alleged that individuals and corporate accused were parties to offence of criminal infringement of copyright, conspiracy to infringe copyright, money laundering and racketeering in that corporate accused facilitated wrongful dissemination of copyright protected material such as movies and music. Websites in question purportedly had 50 million daily users and caused losses in area of half a billion dollars. Accused submitted that volume of data on servers was equivalent of that contained on 100 laptop computers, and that court should either refuse sending order or in alternative make order under s. 15(2) of Act compelling servers seized to “be brought before court in form of report from independent forensic examiner who could inform court as to nature of information contained on 32 servers”. Application for sending order adjourned without fixed return date, returnable on seven days’ notice for determination if counsel were unable to agree as to how scope of relevant material was to be defined. Given nature of allegations, it was likely that volume and breadth of data relevant to prosecution as whole was enormous; financial, web traffic and transactional information were all likely to be relevant. Crown indicated that if court ordered servers brought before court, counsel would consult as to whether some consensual means could be established for sorting irrelevant from potentially relevant data on servers.
United States of America v. Equinix Inc. (Jan. 9, 2013, Ont. S.C.J., Pardu J., File No. M-9-11/12) 104 W.C.B. (2d) 848.

Free newsletter

Our newsletter is FREE and keeps you up to date on all the developments in the Ontario legal community. Please enter your email address below to subscribe.

Recent articles & video

From ignored to a nation-to-nation relationship: Jason Madden’s 20 years advocating for Metis rights

Ontario Superior Court of Justice welcomes new judges Colin Stevenson and Gilead Kay

Ontario Superior Court upholds award of costs exceeding the damages in a personal injury case

Ontario Superior Court resolves estate dispute between siblings by passing over a sister as trustee

Erika Chamberlain steps down as dean of Western Law

Ont. CA orders new trial in pedestrian collision case due to unfair bad character evidence

Most Read Articles

Erika Chamberlain steps down as dean of Western Law

Ont. CA orders new trial in pedestrian collision case due to unfair bad character evidence

Ontario Superior Court of Justice welcomes new judges Colin Stevenson and Gilead Kay

From ignored to a nation-to-nation relationship: Jason Madden’s 20 years advocating for Metis rights