Howard Knopf assesses the legal battle over the City of Toronto's use of the penny in an advertising campaign.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
October 9, 2007
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 250: Wikimedia’s Jan Gerlach on the Risks and Challenges with Digital Policy Reform
byMichael Geist

November 17, 2025
Michael Geist
November 10, 2025
Michael Geist
November 3, 2025
Michael Geist
October 27, 2025
Michael Geist
October 20, 2025
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
Reversing the Reversal?: Government Puts Privacy Invasive Lawful Access Back on the Agenda
Canadian Government Introduces New Stablecoin Act as Part of Budget Implementation Legislation
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 250: Wikimedia’s Jan Gerlach on the Risks and Challenges with Digital Policy Reform
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 249: The Debate Over Canada’s AI Strategy – My Consultation Submission and Appearance at the Canadian Heritage Committee
How the Liberal and Conservative Parties Have Quietly Colluded to Undermine the Privacy Rights of Canadians

Stupid
I\’m appalled that this sort of Americanized corporate copyright bullhockey has made its way into Canada, and from a crown corporation, no less.
There are three issues here:
1. How can you possibly copyright what is a proper noun used so frequently that it warrants being an improper one?
2. Crown corporations (basically, government) can own copyrights? Something is *seriously* wrong with that notion; it needs to be addressed and reformed.
3. Arguably, the government is using copyright as a cloak to suppress Torontonians\’ political freedom of speech. This is wrong on so many levels, from that government should *never* be able to assert copyright, to that they are lying about their true motives and that free speech is being oppressed (I hope I don\’t have to tell anyone what is wrong with that). I\’m disgusted that this is even able to occur in a democracy such as ours.