When AI becomes the enemy: how the "Caseway AI" artificial intelligence infuriated CanLII
Who would have thought that artificial intelligence, designed to make lawyers' lives easier, would become the center of a legal scandal?
The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), which provides free access to legal information, has accused Caseway AI, a legal tech startup, of data theft and copyright infringement.
The story of the day: Three million court documents, 120 gigabytes of data, and allegations of "malicious and systematic downloading." CanLII claims that Caseway has turned their years of work structuring and organizing legal information into a "fast-growing resale business."
What is Caseway AI?
Caseway AI is a startup positioning itself as an AI assistant for lawyers, offering access to millions of court decisions via a monthly subscription. The catch? CanLII alleges that much of this data was stolen directly from their website, bypassing all rules and terms of use.
Caseway’s founder, Alistair Vigier, seems delighted by the lawsuit. The case has brought significant attention to the platform, with its user base now exceeding 200.
Here, we see an excellent example of black PR in action.
"If we weren’t better than CanLII, they wouldn’t be suing us," says the founder confidently. He also warns: "If they don’t drop the lawsuit, we’ll build our own database and make CanLII irrelevant."
But who really owns the rights to this data?
The question is tricky. Court documents, as Caseway notes, are publicly available, but CanLII argues that copyright concerns not the content of the decisions themselves but the way they are organized, annotated, and structured.
Legal consultant Colin Lachance observed that the Canadian legal system does not provide a straightforward way to legally obtain bulk court decision data. Caseway has entered a gray zone: if such data isn’t available, how else can technological innovation develop?
At this point, CanLII is demanding the removal of the data, while Caseway denies all allegations. This battle promises to be not only legal but also an intellectual duel between the traditional legal system and the tech revolution.
The question is whether CanLII can maintain its monopoly on legal information or if Caseway, as a bold new player, will turn the game upside down.
Or, as the saying goes, whoever "copies" first, wins.
This story was first published on November 22, 2024, by a Canadian news agency.
Oleksandra Melnykova, Immigration and Refugee Consultant in Canada.
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