Http://www.paulmartintime.ca/

maplesyrup · December 23, 2003

This website is so effective that Paul Martin is threatening to sue the webmaster if is not closed down by December 24. Do you get the impression there are two laws for freedom of expression in our society, one for the rich and powerful, and the other for the average Canadian?

Check it out at:

http://www.paulmartintime.ca/

This information came from the following webpage:

http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/Conte...ol=968350116467

Greg · December 23, 2003

This doesn't surprise me - in fact, I'm surprised it took this long to happen. In my opinion, rule number one when producing a campaign website is to minimize your critics ability to use your domain name against you. So in this case, the Martin campaign should have registered all the different domain name combinations that include his name. For example,

paulmartintime.com

paulmartintime.net

paulmartintime.org

paulmartintime.info

or even,

paulmartinsucks.com (which appears to be owned by Paul martin supporters?)

There a many many many more variations that could be registered and used. A classic example of a overlooked domain was gwbush.com, during the last Presidential campaign. Georgewbush.com was the official website of Presidential candidate George W Bush. Gwbush.com was the parody site of a raving anti-bush activist/profiteer. The site become a huge thorn in the side of the George W Bush and the Republican party during the campaign. After repeated attempts were made to shut the site down, Bush's people realized that attempting to fight this out in court did nothing by increase the overall exposure of the site and the person behind it.

I doubt this will be the last time we see this type of action in Canada.

Lost in Manitoba · December 23, 2003

Freedom of Speach, or libel and defamation of character. Though not a fan of over-regulation of something like the internet, which is a dream of ultimate freedom of expression, it bugs me that you can use some-one else's name to get hits and make money or an audience.

I am a big fan of MMA, being boxing, judo, and tae kwon do for years, and watch pretty much every PPView that comes on. Recently, after a match, I checked the web to see if the fighter had a site. Lo and behold, some ass had registered the 'guys name' .com and was commenting on how many hits the site got after the dude fought, and was offering to sell the site to businesses (most likely porn). Another one I remember was something like when msnbc came together and a guy had registered the name as .ca or the like. Anyway, this other site was hard core porn, obviously bad for business for the real msnbc, and they ended up buying the domain name for some big bucks. I had tried a site for VISA that was the same, it was big chicks doing nasty things to themselves. Anyway, how can anyone rationalize this as being fair? In the real world would a store like McDonalds not devour in court an attempt at making a MacDonalds? So how fair would it be of me to make a web site mapleleafweb.ca that was actually an NDP supporter site? Hey.........

maplesyrup · December 24, 2003

Gotta love the home page caption beside a smilin' Paul Martin's picture which states:

'Hey kids! I'm suing PaulMartinTime.ca on Christmas Day!'

Their deadline is today, Christmas Eve, at 5 PM, and if it is not shut down, or changed by then, legal action has been threatened against its owners/creaters.

This is a huge issue which involves, among other things, concentration of media ownership, and freedom of speech, in Canada, and trying to close it down could really backfire on Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Liberals.

Greg makes an excellent point in his 9:32 AM, Dec 23, 2003 post when he states:

Quote

A classic example of a overlooked domain was gwbush.com, during the last Presidential campaign. Georgewbush.com was the official website of Presidential candidate George W Bush. Gwbush.com was the parody site of a raving anti-bush activist/profiteer. The site become a huge thorn in the side of the George W Bush and the Republican party during the campaign. After repeated attempts were made to shut the site down, Bush's people realized that attempting to fight this out in court did nothing by increase the overall exposure of the site and the person behind it.

Unquote

I agree. By threatening legal action, the mainstream media, and a lot more Canadians, are now getting intersted and involved. Sometimes it is better just to ignore things.

Hmm, I wonder what our Canadian constitution, laws, or charter say about freedom of expression or free speech.

The creators of this website

www.paulmartintime.ca

are from the Maritimes and were just interviewed on TV.

These young men have already received 8,000 hits on their website, including many from the international community. They are not backing down, saying it is a free speech isuue.

www.paulmartintime.ca is obviously having an inpact, and the internet is definitley changing the dynamics of power and control in our society.

The Canadian establishment is concerned, and no wonder, as they no longer are able to completely control what we read, listen, and watch, for our news sources any more.

Don't get me wrong. Canada has many excellent journalists, many of whom labour under difficult working conditions, but nothin' like some healthy competition, eh?

Have we lost our sense of humour in Canadian politics?

Is it now politicaly incorrect to poke fun at our politicians?

Over to you Prime Minister.

Yesterday's edition of the Toronto Star had an article about it entitled:

' Liberals threaten suit over Web site'

To view the article go to:

http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/Conte...d=1072134611705

Spunky fellows.

Slavik44 · December 24, 2003

anyone think that paulMartin is ruining himself, by suing.

Seriously, how many here knew about the site until it was posted here, and how did it get posted here by soemone who saw a news paper article. All Paul is doing is bringing attention to the site...and by doing so...he is ruining himself. Say he does get it closed down, don't yout hink that the Alliance and the NDP will have a hay day using this in there campaigns is he not just giving the opposition the ability to beat him in an election.