Ed Stelmach vs. edstelmach.ca
Ed Stelmach, the Alberta Tories' Harry Strom, is angry that a local Liberal, David Cournoyer beat him to the punch to register the domain name www.edstelmach.ca.
Here's a copy of Stelmach's legal demand letter.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that Cournoyer didn't register the domain until April of 2007. Stelmach has been in politics for decades, and premier since 2006 (though he hasn't yet been affirmed in that position by anything as messy as an election). But don't be too hard on the old man. These Inter-Nets can be confusing!
The second thing is Stelmach's first response: go litigious. Let's see how that works out in the blogosphere. Until Stelmach's demand letter, very few people would have known about any of this -- Stelmach has the .com, .net and .org sites for his name, as well as all of the provincial Tory and government websites. His approach -- lawyers -- has brought a flurry of media coverage painting Cournoyer as a David to Stelmach's lazy, low-tech and bullying Goliath.
The third thing is that Stelmach is going to lose. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority -- the administratrive body that oversees .ca sites -- is very tough on commercial cybersquatters who have no legitimate reason to register a URL, and who clearly want to sell it for a quick buck.
But that's not Cournoyer. He clearly falls under CIRA's policy 3.6(d), which allows cybersquatting if:
"the Registrant used the domain name in Canada in good faith in association with a non-commercial activity including, without limitation, criticism, review or news reporting."
Cournoyer isn't trying to make a buck by selling the URL back to Stelmach. He's not trying to pass himself off as Stelmach. He's commenting on Stelmach in a blog.
Stelmach has looked foolish twice already -- first by not registering his own domain name, then by threatening a little blogger with a lawsuit. His third humiliation will be the most spectacular: losing his case, having to pay Cournoyer's legal costs, and having yet another round of media coverage.
Oh well. Better Stelmach keep busy with this, than with his other work -- raising taxes, paying off big unions, and building monorails.
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