Articles by: Michael Geist

Privacy Commissioner on Secondary Marketing

The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner yesterday issued a noteworthy decision involving the ability of consumers to opt-out of secondary marketing that is included in monthly banking statements. Banks routinely pack the monthly statements with an assortment of marketing materials. When a customer asked to have the marketing materials […]

July 19, 2005 — Comments are Disabled — News

Harry Potter and the Right to Read

My latest Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, freely available hyperlinked version) brings together two Canadian copyright stories from last week that demonstrate the damage that can occur when copyright law goes awry. The first is well known: the very disturbing Harry Potter court order which barred Canadians from reading […]

July 17, 2005 — 8 comments — Columns

Harry Potter and the Right to Read

Appeared in the Toronto Star, July 18, 2005 as Harry Potter and the Amazing InjunctionAppeared in the Ottawa Citizen, July 21, 2005 as Harry Potter and the Right to Read Along with millions worldwide who scooped up the latest Harry Potter tome over the weekend, the 41 schools that make […]

July 17, 2005 — 1 comment — Columns Archive

CBC for the Internet Age

I am a fan of the CBC. I think the radio programming is excellent and I like much of what their website offers. With respect to radio, I also think they have done a good job of making content available to Canadians through multiple channels (though unfortunately largely in proprietary […]

July 17, 2005 — Comments are Disabled — News

Unlawful Reading

Of all the responses to the Harry Potter injunction, I think the most disappointing came from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. It surprisingly characterized the injunction as a “very, very small issue” and suggested that “civil libertarians were not tied up in knots about it.” It should be noted […]

July 16, 2005 — 5 comments — News