Michael Geist

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Do We Still Need Foreign Ownership Restrictions in Canadian Broadcasting?

In recent weeks, a political consensus has begun to emerge on the benefits of removing restrictions on foreign ownership in the telecommunications sector. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that implementing such reforms faces at least one major political stumbling block that is only tangentially related – the spillover effect onto the broadcasting sector.

As Canadian telecom operators, broadcasters, and broadcast distributors become single entities – Rogers combined with City-TV, Quebecor’s ownership of Videotron, Sun Media, and Groupe TVA, Shaw having purchased Canwest Global, as well as Bell in the process of merging with CTVglobemedia – the biggest hurdle may well be fears about the cultural impact of opening up telecom companies to foreign buyers.

While the link between broadcasting and Canadian culture is obvious, the connection between Canadian broadcasting ownership and Canadian culture is tenuous at best.

March 10, 2011 — 59 comments — Columns

Burberry, Louis Vuitton Seek Millions in Damages For Counterfeiting Using Current Canadian Law

Burberry and Louis Vuitton have filed lawsuits against three Canadian companies seeking millions in damages for selling counterfeit handbags and other products. The lawsuit relies on current trademark and copyright law.

March 10, 2011 — 6 comments — News

NorthwesTel Demands Facebook Remove Criticism Logo

NorthwesTel has issued a takedown notice to Facebook over a logo used by an FB group criticizing the Canadian telecom company. The logo in question can be found here.

March 10, 2011 — 2 comments — News

Access to Medicines Reform Passes House of Commons

Legislation aimed at reforming access to medicines in Africa passed the House of Commons yesterday, despite the objections of major pharmaceutical companies and Industry Minister Tony Clement. The bill must still clear the Senate. I wrote about the issue in 2009.

March 10, 2011 — 3 comments — News

U.S. Government Funding For Open Education Materials a “Game Changer”

The technology community is fond of referring to announcements that fundamentally alter a sector or service as a “game changer”. Recent examples include the debut of the Apple iTunes store in 2003, which demonstrated how a digital music service that responds to consumer demands was possible, and Google’s Gmail, which upended web-based email in 2004 by offering 1 gigabyte of storage when competitors like Microsoft’s Hotmail were providing a paltry 2 megabytes.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) recently covered the U.S. government announcement of its own game changer, though it attracted far less attention than iTunes or Gmail. Led by the Departments of Labor and Education, it committed US$2 billion toward a new program to create free online teaching and course materials for post-secondary programs of two years or less.

March 9, 2011 — 24 comments — Columns