Articles by: Michael Geist

Guerbuez Thanks Lobby Groups for Spam Law Pressure

Adam Guerbuez, who faced an $873 million spam judgement for sending millions of messages to Facebook users, publicly thanks lobby groups for delaying Canadian anti-spam legislation and promises to make political contributions to those listening to his perspective.

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November 30, 2011 2 comments News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 41: Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia

The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia is a provincial association of book publishing companies representing 50 BC owned and controlled publishers. Its members are based throughout the province and they publish in all genres: scholarly, Aboriginal, literary, general trade, children’s, educational and reference. Its 2009 national copyright consultation submission included the following on digital locks:

copyright law should prohibit the circumvention of TPMs to a degree that would satisfy the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright treaties, but that would also provide for fair dealing, retail competition, security research, the protection of personal information and accessibility for the disabled.

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November 30, 2011 Comments are Disabled News

Digital Economy Strategy has Become the Federal Government’s “Penske File”

Later today, Industry Minister Christian Paradis will deliver a speech that will provide an update on the government’s digital economy strategy. The speech is likely to point to the recently launched Digital Technology Adoption Pilot Program, talk about moving forward with copyright and privacy legislation, describe work on spectrum, and indicate that a decision has still not been made on the removal of foreign investment restrictions. In other words, basically repackage several earlier speeches on the same issue.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the lack of movement on the digital economy strategy, arguing that it has emerged as the government’s “Penske File”- the source of considerable discussion and much “work” but thus far few tangible results (for non-Seinfeld watchers, the Penske file has become synonymous for a non-existent work project).

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November 29, 2011 10 comments Columns

Observations on Anti-spam Law’s Regulatory Process

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s blog features a post I wrote on the anti-spam regulatory process.

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November 29, 2011 1 comment News

La Presse Confirms Hurt Locker Demand Letters

La Presse has confirmed an earlier report that the lawyers for the Hurt Locker have sent demand letters to dozens of Quebec-residents alleged to have downloaded the film.

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November 29, 2011 9 comments News