Cyber-squatting. Cyber-bullying. Identity theft. Relatively new words in our vocabularies. An Alberta political science student blogger is getting first hand experience on the media attention these terms can bring. He has been documenting the process on his blog. 

Alberta premier Ed Stelmach is not happy an Alberta former Liberal Communications Coordinator bought the domain name edstelmach.ca. The domain name redirected back to the student’s personal blog, and then a wiki page about a former Alberta premier. 

In December 2007 he received a letter from the premier’s law firm saying he had misappropriated the name, that it was bought in bad faith and his ownership of the domain name might harm the Premier’s image. The firm noted “Ad’s by Google”. (the blogger has not profited from the domain name) The law firm requested:

Ottawa law professor Michael Geist thinks Premier Stelmach may not have a legal case.

But according to Geist, a prominent writer and Carleton University’s Canada Research Chair on Internet and E-Commerce Law, Canada clearly defends critics who use the domain names of people they’re criticizing - and Daveberta is definitely a critic of Stelmach’s government.

“We’ve seen other cases at the federal level: Don Boudria, David McGuinty, both found their domains registered by the Defend Marriage Coalition, an opponent of same-sex marriage, when they were in favour of it. And I know they were very frustrated with those registrations.

“There’s a dispute-resolutions policy run by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the organization that administers the .ca registration in Canada. I have some doubt, though, that a Stelmach case would win. There’s questions as to whether or not Stelmach enjoys trademark rights on his name and further, there’s some doubt as to whether he could prove the registrant doesn’t have legitimate interest in the domain name,” said Geist. “CIRA’s policy features protection for good faith criticism, even when there are some deceptive qualities.”

The deceptive quality in Daveberta’s case is that the page is not standalone, and automatically loads his other blog page under a separate domain name. “The current registrant could mount the argument that he is using the name for good faith criticism even if someone is deceived when they go to it.”

Bloggers being bloggers….at least one domain name using Cournoyer’s name showed up. :^) 

However this plays out, bloggers are suggesting a charitable donation be made by Stelmech, and Cournoyer  give The Alberta Conservative Party or Mr. Stelmech the .ca domain URL without prejudice.

A letter from David Hicks, director of marketing and communications, Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), Ottawa.