Cinema Guzzo, a Montreal-based theatre chain, has been ordered to pay $10,000 in damages arising from the search of a patron's bag that violated their privacy rights. The lawsuit over the "abusive search" was first filed in July 2007. While this case has nothing to do with copyright, how long will it be before the case is cited by U.S. copyright lobby groups as further evidence that Canada is hostile to their interests.
Cinema Guzzo Faces $10K Damage Award for Invasive Search
June 1, 2009
Share this post
2 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 241: Scott Benzie on How Government Policy Eroded Big Tech Support for Canadian Culture
byMichael Geist

July 21, 2025
Michael Geist
June 30, 2025
Michael Geist
June 23, 2025
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 241: Scott Benzie on How Government Policy Has Eroded Big Tech Support for Canadian Culture
What Is the Canadian Government Doing With Its Incoherent Approach to TikTok?
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 240: Dean Beeby on Why Canada’s Language Laws May Stop Government From Posting Access to Information Records Online
Risky Business: The Legal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory Age Verification Technologies
Another Canadian Digital Policy Own Goal: Corporate TikTok Ban Leads to Millions in Lost Cultural Group Support
Too bad it wasn’t $100,000.
Too bad is was in Quebec and therefore won’t likely to be a precedent in the ROC.
Too bad that people are dumb enough to subject themselves to such degrading searches – after all, this is not international airline travel. Nobody is forced to attend first run Hollywood movies.
Too bad that the Competition Bureau is DOA.
Too bad that there is not a boycott of cinemas such as this one.
Be fair. That patron might have been smuggling a bag of candy that someone gifted or some less concerned vendor provided at a fraction of Cinema Guzzo’s price. If you complain about that, next you will complain that Microsoft or some other company cannot search my computer and change setting like my browser’s homepage or file associations. How can Adobe cope if people keep removing Acrobat’s file rights and changing to the tiny perfect pdf reader from Foxit.
http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/