The entry into force of the first group of provisions of
Canada's anti-spam act1 (CASL) on July 1, 2014, (the
Spam Provisions) generated considerable attention. Now that
businesses have (hopefully) determined and deployed their
compliance strategy for the Spam Provisions, another set of
articles from CASL is about to come into force on January 15, 2015.
These provisions will prohibit the installation of computer
programs on another person's computer absent express
consent.
The government's communications regarding the new set of
provisions rightly focus on the fact that its immediate objective
is to fight malware and viruses and, as such, most businesses would
not feel immediately preoccupied (or at least concerned) by the new
provisions. However, the drafting of the provisions is very broad
and could apply to numerous "legitimate" businesses. This
is not unlike the Spam Provisions, which had a much broader reach
than would be expected under the common conception of
