Canadian legal information database sues company behind AI chatbot

The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) has taken the makers of an AI chatbot to court over what it says is a violation of its terms of service, due to the chatbot scraping CanLII's database in bulk.

CanLII is funded by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and was created in 2001, according to its website. It provides access to case decisions from across the country, legislation, and even law books and commentary.

In its lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, it claims that Caseway AI infringed on its copyrighted work and its terms of use by "the bulk and systematic download and scraping" of around 3.5 million records.

Launched earlier this fall, Caseway is a chatbot that its makers say aims to "improve access to justice for non lawyers and to make practicing law more efficient by providing enhanced legal research tools."

The CanLII lawsuit is just the latest in a series of actions from organizations and artists claiming that AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which provide information in a question-and-answer format, violate copyrights by downloading information en masse.

CanLII argues that it conducts work on the publicly-accessible court records to make them more readable, including by adding hyperlinks and correcting errors.

Its lawsuit claims that this constitutes protected copyrighted work, and that Caseway did not comply with a cease-and-desist letter sent last month over the bulk downloading, which violated the website's terms of use.

"The Defendants' breach of the Terms of Use was undertaken by the Defendants so that the Defendants, and each of them, could profit from the CanLII Works, which have been developed at significant cost and expense to CanLII," the lawsuit reads.

CanLII is seeking injunctions restraining Caseway from using any of the material it scraped.

It is also seeking punitive and exemplary damages for "loss, damage, expense and irreparable harm" it allegedly suffered due to the bulk downloading. None of the claims have been tested in court.

Company argues court cases are public

While Caseway has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit in court, it sent a written response to questions when reached by CBC News.

The company argues that its mission is to improve access to legal information, which aligns with CanLII's own stated purpose.

"We would welcome a collaboration with CanLII, and are surprised that, as a not-for-profit organization, CanLII has instead opted to take such an aggressive and competitive posture toward Caseway," reads a statement from Alistair Vigier, one of the company's co-founders.

Vigier said the information CanLII provides is public and accessible elsewhere, and the chatbot did not use any enhancements the database may have made.

He added that CanLII has not incurred any damages due to the bulk downloading, and its functionality remains intact.

"In short, CanLII's services continue as before, with no demonstrable harm or financial detriment resulting from Caseway's independent data sourcing methods," the statement reads.

"People like Elon Musk often get sued because they are change agents. I see myself as a change agent in the legal industry, which is naturally litigious," Vigier added.