Appeared in the Toronto Star on March 5, 2007 as Piracy in Canada Noise Getting Tiresome Based on recent media coverage, people unfamiliar with Canada could be forgiven for assuming that all Canadians sport pirate eye-patches while searching for counterfeit treasure. The "Canada as a piracy haven" meme has been […]
Articles by: Michael Geist
Should the Vancouver Olympic Organizers Own “Winter”?
With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games scheduled for Vancouver, the Canadian Olympic Committee has set the goal of "owning the podium." Today the Olympic Committee took the first step toward another form of ownership – language. Industry Minister Maxime Bernier introduced Bill C-47, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, legislation that provides the Vancouver Olympic organizers with remarkable power over the language and symbols associated with the Olympics. The legislation is supposedly intended to deal with ambush marketing, which are attempts by businesses to associate themselves with the Olympics without becoming official sponsors. Similar legislation has been introduced in other countries that have hosted the Olympics, though there are questions about the effectiveness of the approach.
While it is understandable that the Olympic organizers want to maximize the marketing potential of the games, the bill raises several concerns.
Crogs
Crogs, or carefully-researched weblogs, is just one of things you learn about in this terrific article in the Columbia Journalism Review on the race in U.S. newsrooms to adapt to the Internet. It would be great to see something on the Canadian scene as my sense is that the changes […]
The State of the TV and Film Industry in Canada
The CFTPA and Canadian Heritage have released their annual report [PDF] on the state of the industry. The report contains detailed analysis of film and tv production in Canada without (refreshingly) a single complaint about copyright. Interestingly, rather than discussing camcording, the report identifies a different problem with the Canadian […]
Privacy Commissioner Promotes Anti-Spam Law
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart launched fraud awareness month yesterday by encouraging the government to introduce anti-spam legislation.
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