this blog has moved to a new address: daveberta.ca

Please update your RSS, bookmarks, and links to http://daveberta.ca.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

premier ed stelmach threatens to sue alberta blogger over edstelmach.ca.

Right before Christmas, I received a letter in the mail from Tyler Shandro, a lawyer from the Calgary-based law firm Walsh Wilkins Creighton LLP, representing Alberta Premier Edward Stelmach.

This letter was sent to me regarding my ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca, which I purchased for approximately $14.00 on April 4, 2007 (four months after Mr. Stelmach became Premier of Alberta). The letter accuses me of interfering with and misappropriating Ed Stelmach’s personality (I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it).

The letter also states that because there are advertisements placed on this blog, Premier Stelmach “is entitled to the amount he would reasonably have received in the market for the permission to use his name.” This makes me wonder how much the owners of a local Edmonton business paid to use Premier Stelmach’s personality last Halloween or how much Rick Mercer paid to use the domain name of another Alberta political personality.

For the majority of the time I have owned edstelmach.ca, I have had the domain name forward to this blog. A week before I received the letter from Premier Stelmach’s lawyer, I changed the forwarding to the wikipedia biography of another Alberta Premier (who also probably would have not thought to register his domain name).

The letter requests that I:

(a) make arrangements with my service provider by December 21, 2007, to ensure that the Website no longer forwards to the blog; and
(b) make arrangements to with my service provider and/or registrar to have the Website registered in their client's name.
(c) govern myself accordingly (I added this one).

If I chose not comply by their imposed deadline, the letter states that they “have been instructed by our client to commence litigation.

As someone who has never shied away from criticizing the 36-year old Progressive Conservative government, I have always faced harsh criticism from those who don’t appreciate the views espoused on this blog or agree with my political beliefs. I accept this reality.

Though I am still surprised that the +150 staffed Public Affairs Bureau failed to complete the simple task of registering a $14.00 domain name, I am even more surprised that Premier Ed Stelmach’s first reaction in this situation was to threaten to sue an 24-year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student. As a born and bred Albertan, I do not take well to threats from politicians. Therefore I will be seeking advice from legal counsel on how to proceed with this threat.

148 comments:

Idealistic Pragmatist said...

Wow. You go!

Also: "I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it" cracked me up. For what it's worth.

Anonymous said...

You may be a born and raised Albertan but the word on the street is that you now reside in Ontario...

Anonymous said...

What street was that, Misinformation Boulevard?

Anonymous said...

I guess that Dave looking guy I see around all the time is a mirage. Or maybe a robot!

I can't believe this Dave. And it's too early for me to really get into how ridiculous this is. Solidarity dude, that's crazy. Fight the power!

Anonymous said...

Why don't you talk to Craig Chandler? He threatens to sue everyone so I'm sure he's got lots of lawyers.

Robert McBean. said...

My first reaction, after the coffee went out my nose, was why the government is using tax dollars to defend ed stelmach's personal name. Sounds like another stockwell day type lawsuit.

someone tell me why i should fund this with my taxes? anyone...

Anonymous said...

Robert, I don't think the government has anything to do with this. The lawyer appears to be working for Ed Stelmach personally.

Anonymous said...

What an interesting letter. Despite its claim to the contrary, I don't think anyone would suggest that Premier Stelmach is associated with your blog. But here's the scary part: "our client's personality, image and name had been interfered with."

That should run chills through anyone who comments on politics. I too am curious whether this lawyer is working for Stelmach personally or has been hired by the government (note that they act as counsel for "Premier" Stelmach).

Catrin said...

They never registered www.edstelmach.ca? What *did* his staff register for him? www.steadyeddie.com? www.specialed.ca?

That's mind-boggling. And funny.

JimBobby said...

Whooee! In real life, I administer about 150 domains. I own about 60 of them myself. I've bought and sold both privately and through brokers and registrars. I follow the news on domain name disputes and lawsuits.

Sorry to say, you'd lose in court. If you were another individual with the real name of ed stelmach, you'd have a chance and probably even win.

The name for what you're doin' is cybersquatting. It's a formerly well-known method of extorting large prices for domain names registered to celebrities. Savvy investors would buy up names of budding stars and starlets (and unsavvy celebs) in the hopes that they'd eventually want the name.

There were a few high-profile ICANN judgments in favour of the celebrities and outside of political pranksmanship, the cybersquatting practice isn't used much anymore.

I'm no fan of Stelmach or the Cons but the fact is that there's plenty of legal precedent and it all goes against you. As a semi-starving student, I'd be careful about putting any money in a lawyer's pocket.

There is no legal obligation for you to transfer the name right now but a court would likely order you to do so. Note also that dotCA names go through an added level of bureaucracy - CIRA - and they are quite stickly about "misuse" of personal names as domain names.

Hold out a little and show Ed's IT team as the technically inept bullies they appear to be. Cave before it costs you cash. Make them pay the $14 before you transfer the domain.

JB

Anonymous said...

You might want to offer the domain to them for, say, $50,000.00 as compensation for your foresight.

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid that as it's a .ca name, you don't have much of a chance. They tend to prefer proper ownership.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised it also didn't make you leaving Alberta a requirement.

Saskboy said...

JB's probably right, show them for the fools and bullies they are, but don't let it cost you any money.

JB, can he ask for the value of what he paid for it, and transfer it to them?

Glen said...

Daveberta Vs. Goliath.

Anonymous said...

This has already made the Edmonton Journal's website, no big surprise there.

I've got to think that the Harry Strom link might actually get Dave into more trouble than just linking to the blog did. The second site smacks a bit more of intended character assassination than the first did.

Either way it is quite amusing. Ed Stelmach, PC leader vs Daveberta, unofficial leader of the Liberal Opposition.

Too bad this is the best thing Kevin Daft's team can come up with mere weeks before the election...

Anonymous said...

in light of an upcoming election I think you should contact a newspaper and/or TV station. I think it would make good news... people should know what kind of a guy Ed is that he is so worried about this as to threaten suing you.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you ask Craig Chandler what he thinks of this?

Anonymous said...

JimBobby is right. While the attitude and approach of the Premier's office(?) is offensive, there is no grey area here. If they take you to court, you'll lose and likely pay costs. This won't cost AB taxpayers a penny.

I'm a bit surprised that CIRA let you have it without first having to prove you were edstelmach. Maybe they weren't aware of the name of Alberta's premier.

A few years ago I did a website for fairly well-known Alberta political figure. We couldn't get the domain name (his name) until CIRA was assured that it was actually being registered on his behalf.

Anonymous said...

Just heard this story on QR77 in Calgary. Too funny! Even better is the redirect to the Strom Wikipedia page.

Unknown said...

Good luck Dave.

Seriously, what kind of inept political staffers does it take to NOT buy this domain name? If the PC's had any foresight they would have registered the name and...

Nevermind, the PC's seem to neglect foresight in all they do, so why should this have been different?

Anonymous said...

This business of "you should have bought the domain name" is b.s. as a defense. One shouldn't have to actively seek out every possible domain permutation to protect oneself from character assasination.

Had I the inclination, I could probably find a version of Dave Cournoyer or Daveberta and hook it up to NAMBLA, but that would not make it right.

Anonymous said...

It is shocking that Premier Ed was not savvy enough to register his own domain name. What the heck did he use for the election??

Interesting to note that his lawyer, a rather young associate, specilizes in family law according to his firm's website.

I'd like confirmation that Ole Steady is footing the bill for this personally. We have had bad experiences with Alberta politicians using lawyers on the Government's tab - remember the jet-ski sensation Stockwell Day?

I say you let this go to ligitation. Let the Plaintiff prove that he in fact had a personality for the taking.

BTW - doesn't Ed have bigger matters to deal with - say that debacle of a royalty program that has seen $3.0B in capital flight (so far) for 2008. Maybe the jet-ski sensation wasn't so bad afterall.

M. Brian Mulroney, PC, CC

Gauntlet said...

Typical of the Progressive Conservatives that they would argue you have to pay to criticize the Premier.

Anonymous said...

Actually, if I remember correctly, "edstelmach.ca" was registered as a domain name during the Alberta PC Leadership contest. Once the leadership contest was settled, and the wind-up of the campaign affairs was over, it was probably left to lapse.

So, Dave, were you just sitting around, hoping it would come available so you could snatch it for this purpose? I can't believe some of the comments made here are in favour of your actions. If it were anyone else, if some "unabashedly partisan" Stephen Harper supporter was to appropriate Stephane Dion's name and do something similar, you guys would be all over how cruel the Cons are. Hypocrites.

Anonymous said...

I'm a lawyer. I'm not going to give you legal advice because I don't practice in the area. I will counsel you, however, not to base your legal advice on this comments page. In particular, I suspect that there is a difference between (i) ICANN issues and your ability to retain the domain name registration, (ii) the revenue compensation claim, and (iii) the misappropriation of personality claim. Subject to actually reading the letter, those all sound like different things, and it sounds like some commenters' advice is based on the misconception that those three areas are all the same issue.

Anonymous said...

Again why don't we see what Craig Chandler has to say?

DJ Kelly said...

True, you may be in the wrong, Dave (sadly). But the Honest Ed thing to do would have been for Stelmach's lawyers to offer to purchase the domain name from you first.

I'm afraid jumping immediately into threatening to sue you will do more damage to Ed's reputation than the original domain redirect ever would have.

Unknown said...

keep your site, to hell with Mr.Stelmach's hissy fit because he and his staff were too stupid to register the site name first.

Anonymous said...

Ed Stelmach is surrounded by the B team of Albertan conservative politics.

If his team can't register a website, just wait until they try and run a political campaign.

If Jim or Ted had won the leadership you would not see this taking place.

I'm ready for a leadership review. Who's with me?

Anonymous said...

Craig Chandler for leader!

Anonymous said...

Well done!!!!

Slow Ed couldn't register his website, lol...

Wizard said...

One more reason to live in BC then Alberta. Atleast here I don't need to worry about getting sued by my own provincial government leaders. Personally man, don't give in to these dufus' I am sure there is some lawyer out there looking to make a name for himself. Keep the domain until you are given proper legal advice. Don't let these morons walk over you. Tell them to get rid of your student loan first, then you will give them the domain. :)

Unknown said...

Don't even bother with a lawyer. Print off the Geist article. Mail it to Tyler Shandro. Mention to him that Professor Geist is THE authority on these kinds of things in Canada. Wish him well and be polite, he is just paying the price for his appointment to a patronage plum.

Then, enjoy the rest of your day of publicity. Make sure you let your mom know as she'll want to record every single news broadcast tonight.

Then after a good night's sleep walk into Taft's office tomorrow morning and demand a raise. You are clearly a slick top-end spinmeister.

Anonymous said...

babar is onto something with the end of his comment. Slick spinmeister indeed. Receive the letter before Christmas, put it out well after New Years, to generate maximum public release.

But you may be too smart for your own good. Given that all of this occurred while you were in the pay of Kevin Taft, this may come back to bite him. Taft is already on thin ice, having thoroughly messed up his chance with the Alberta Royalty review. He spends all his time looking for the next scandal, instead of painting himself as a future Premier. This does him no good.

Anonymous said...

While your at it, send the letter to the PC Alberta Executive. Clearly the whole lot of them were involved in this one, who is listed as an exec member? None other than Tyler Shandro... I hope they are treating you well for this one!

Anonymous said...

Is Tyler Shandro responsible for getting Craig Chandler disqualified too?

Anonymous said...

Just goes to prove that we should put tuition higher to weed out those people like you who waste their time instead of studying. Great bit of exploitation, what are you studying to be a terrorist?

Anonymous said...

hahahahahaha terrorist! Now that is a great line - I wonder how many dogmatic tories it took that thing of that zinnnngggerrr!!! Wot Wot!

Since the terrorists we are worried about today, are out to destroy democracy...

well, good luck with the fight for democracy Dave!

Anonymous said...

Good for you - keep the domain and don't let them bully you into giving it up for free. Give it to them, eventually, but make them pay the fair market price - most domains now don't sell for much less than $1K - it's your fee for reserving it for them, and your cut for the traffic you have generated to the domain for them ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm awestruck at how effective blogging, the internet, and domains are in todays world! I wish I could tell my poly sci prof I got sued by the Premier!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave, I've been where you are... A couple of years back I registered bernardlord.com when he was premier here, and received legal threats (via the media and a premier's news conference).

I eventually replaced it with a page that said "404 Sense of Humor Not Found". I can't believe any major figure wouldn't own several iterations and mispellings of their domain names these days--let alone the obvious ones.

Anyway--I'll follow this story with great interest.

Cheers,
dan

Anonymous said...

Global warming be damned - Hell has just frozen over! I just read an Ezra Levant piece (see links a few posts above) that didn't make me gag; in fact (forgive me), I even agree with him.
Hang on to the domain - Eddie or his cronies may believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity but they are utterly and totally wrong in this case. Stelmach's team comes across as a group of small-minded bullies who wants you to roll-over for them but this is a game of chicken that you can win! They'll blink!
BTW, shouldn't they compensate you for the stress they've put you through?

George said...

I will have to blog about this later (too busy with New Hampshire and other stuff right now -- yes, there are things more important than Ed Stelmach!!!!).

Anyway, good job, Dave, you have exposed Stelmach for the clown he is!

Anonymous said...

Interesting to see that when a tory's on the wrong end of a transaction he's not interested in free market principles or paying the fair market price for a domain name.

Anonymous said...

You are a cyber squatter. You will lose the name, cira will take it from you...this is not complicated stuff.

Lawrence Krysak said...

Well, you might not win the legal battle but the Stelmach government will paint themselves as inept bullies in the process. Kudos!

Anonymous said...

Dave: What would you expect from a PC government. Only in this province would you find an ex football player, a tipsy journalist a now a farmer run this province. (or should I say try )Then again, with oil revenues and gambling monies(vlt/lottery) rolling in just proves to show almost anyone could do it.It's time for a change in the big house.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"Is Tyler Shandro responsible for getting Craig Chandler disqualified too?"

Yes he was the most vicious one of them all in the meeting he even lied about stuff in the room.

Anonymous said...

I would be happy to purchase the domain name from you and fight Ed Stelmach in yet another lawsuit.

I am dead serious!

Anonymous said...

Now it is abundantly clear that Steady-Eddie is not MASTER OF HIS DOMAINE!

Anonymous said...

Before we get all "big guy vs. the little guy" here, you have to recognize that Dave was the Liberal Party Communications Coordinator at the time, and I am sure that Stelmach's team couldn't have just asked nicely. And we don't know, maybe they did. Very seldom are lawyers dispatched to send a letter until a gentlemanly call is made first.

Forget that Dave is a university student. he is representing the Liberal party, his blog posts have been defamatory to the Premier and the PC's, so they would of course have to take a tough stand to get the domain back.

There will likely be an election called within a few weeks, and so it may be that the negotiations had to be "raised" a few notches, so Stelmach can get his domain in place. Imagine what the Liberals would have done with it during an election. I can imagine just as much low-brow behaviour from them as well.

Especially since it is common in Canada for the law to side with the Premier in these types of cases. Dave was cybersquatting on his name, while he was the communications manager for the Liberals. Pretty easy to imgagine a bad scenario if your Ed Stelmach.

Imagine what Kevin Taft would do if some right-wing blogger was using his name to attack him. Same thing I am afraid.

This stuff makes great media buzz, but no public figure that I know of would handle it any differently.

And another thing that I am very aware of. Political figures during campaigns are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of volunteers. Registering domains and many of them, is something that is done by such volunteers. It is very likely that Stelmach had no idea who had registered the domain on his behalf, and who of course should have renewed it. It could have easily been registerd by someone years ago, on another campaign.

The "150 plus staff" at the Public Affairs Bureau have absolutely no responsibility for private domains, as they are partisan, and Ed Stelmach would have had very few paid staff on his leadership campaign to watch over these smal details. Of course once an election is over, the volunteers dissapear into the night.

Someone screwed up, but that doesn't make it right for the Liberals to use the name to attack Stelmach. He has every right to take a stand for himself, and fight for his return.

Politics get's much harder when you look at all the facts......

Anonymous said...

One question, that I would love to see answered here.

Exactly what "high-road" intentions did you have when you clicked the purchase button to buy said domain?

You are a great blogger, and have done well to expose your politics. but you may have also exposed a bit of your character when you clicked that button.

Unless you can explain exactly how you planned to use it in fair and ethical politics.

Anonymous said...

Chris LaBossiere wrote: "Politics get's much harder when you look at all the facts......"

Oh? Well let's look at the assumptions and/or implications of your post, shall we?

1. That Dave is still employed by the Alberta Liberals.
2. That Dave is representing the Alberta Liberals, or was acting in his capacity as an employee of the Alberta Liberals when he registered the domain name.
3. That Mr. Stelmach "asked nicely" before sending a threatening letter.
4. That Dave's posts have defamed Mr. Stelmach. (I'd like to see an example of said defamation.)
5. That it is "common" for the law in Canada to be on the side of the public figure. (Again, please provide a citation.)
6. That Kevin Taft would do the same thing.

It would seem to me that you have replaced one set of unverifiable assumptions or implications with your own set. Concluding your post with a condescending appeal to consider the "facts" doesn't make the assertions in your post any more factual.

Anonymous said...

Dave

Well done. Did the Slowmach team not read the email informing them that their domain was due to expire? In fact, did they miss the 30 day notice as well?

What this situation "exposes" is just how ineffective eddie is at doing, well just about anything - except giving himself an "A"!

Here is an idea... instead of all you PCer's going after Dave, perhaps you should go after those around Eddie who failed to think, failed to ensure the name Ed Stelmach was registered.

Then again, in typical PC fashion, you think a few steps ahead and still years behind. After 36 years in office, PC Alberta is starting to fade...

Good luck in the next election Ed Getty!

:)

Anonymous said...

Actually, Dave's site has the disclaimer that "The opinions expressed on this blog represent my own and not those of my employer or any organization I may be affiliated with."

Whether or not he was part of the Liberal party at the time of buying the domain name is irrelevant.

Also, there is nothing defamatory about Stelmach from Dave's posts.

Anonymous said...

I should have been more concise.

Not registering or renewing the domain was a stupid mistake, by someone, certainly not the Premier.

Suing to get it back is exactly what he should be doing however. As would ANY party leader heading into an election.

The better question I should have asked myself before walking down this dark alley, was why I would offer my frank opinion, and debate with the Anonymous. Blogger should get rid of that option, it muddies the waters.

Anonymous said...

This all boils down to a conspiracy against Craig Chandler. It's all about Chandler.

Anonymous said...

Nice touch pointing "ED STELMACH'S" website to Harry Strom! I like your sense of humour. I share your belief that they will both share the same fate...

Anonymous said...

Fight it. Fight it. Fight it. For the love of all things holy, FIGHT. IT. It's a domain name. If he was so worried about someone using it to defame him (which you are not) then he should have registered it himself.

It's funny. I had a discussion with my friend as to why you did it. I said for shits and giggles, she said attention. Whatever, man. If you did it for attention, it's working!

Keep up the fight, my friend.

Anonymous said...

I was born and raised in Alberta and graduated from Political Science from U of A. What I always hated about Alberta politics is it was populated by a bunch of humourless assholes. And if you weren't a PC, then you were some type of retarded deviant. There's such a stupid mindless hegemony of opinion in Alberta. As you can probably tell, I no longer live there.

Anonymous said...

Hey man. FYI a 16 year old Albertan supports you too. I saw the story on an Edmonton TV news station and was pissed off when I heard why he is threatening to suing you. Even more so, he will probably use a million or two to resolve this issue, in his favor.

Maybe we should rally at his office. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey, more power to you for being an entrepeneur. I had to buy my web address from someone who registered it before I got my company up and running. $10.000 it hurt, but I learned. Don't back down from Ed. I am proud to say that I didn't vote for him. He's an idiot and was second choice for all of us who voted. Offer it to him for a price, use the media too.

Glen said...

The CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy can be found here:

http://www.cira.ca/official-doc/CDRP_Policy_2003-12-04_en_final.pdf

"3.1 Applicable Disputes. A Registrant must submit to a Proceeding if a Complainant asserts in a Complaint submitted in compliance with the Policy and the Resolution Rules that:

(b) the Registrant has no legitimate interest in the domain name as described in paragraph 3.6...

3.6 Legitimate Interests. The Registrant has a legitimate interest in a domain name if, and only if...

(d) the Registrant used the domain name in Canada in good faith associated with a non-commercial activity including, without limitation, criticism, review or news reporting."

I'd say this means that Dave has an interest in owning the domain.

I'm not saying this is the only view; I'm saying that it's debatable.

Anonymous said...

For those of you questioning Dave's ethics in purchasing the domain name... did you ever consider that it was just FUNNY that Stelmach and his staff didn't get their act together to purchase it themselves? I mean why did Rick Mercer buy jasonkenney.org?

This isn't an ethical reflection on Dave, he is simply making a statement that Ed and his team are incompetent.

Kirk Schmidt said...

Dave:

I think what you did here was bring up an interesting topic of discussion. Some people believe you had malicious intents, others believe this was similar to Mercer's JasonKenney.org and is used for satirical purposes...

but this whole incident brings up an important debate. To what end, and by what recourse, do politicians have rights to not be misrepresented.

I think it's pretty obvious that you're not Ed Stelmach. But what if someone had bought the domain and not made the difference so obvious. Would Ed have a recourse against such a situation? Even if there is legal recourse, it's unlikely to resolve itself within a 28 day writ period.

If anything, this served to bring much needed attention to how we're going to move forward in Canada with politicians and internet campaigning. How do we deal with the social networking sites (anyone sign up as Steady Eddie on Facebook yet?), email (remember the incident with Karl Rove in the States and the wrong email address?), and future situations that involve public figures. Is this merely a potential consequence of running, or do we need to draft legislation to prevent situations like that?

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
This all boils down to a conspiracy against Craig Chandler. It's all about Chandler"

Whoever you are you are an idiot! Have another drink.

Anonymous said...

Dave,

Let's hit Eddie where it will hurt and make sure that the PCs lose all of the three Edmonton seats they hold in the next provincial election.

Heck, why don't you run yourself?

I hear the Liberals are looking for a candidate in Fort Saskatchewan - Vegreville.

Anonymous said...

Be careful Dave - next you might get sued by Edstel Mach.

bigcitylib said...

If you decide to fight this thing, consider starting a tip jar to help defray costs. I'd pay a few bucks to see Ed Stelmach look stupid.

Anonymous said...

Good for you Dave. This just shows yet another miscalculation from our less than brilliant premier.
Keep the site. The publicity for the Tories and Cement Head Ed (as he is called here in Calgary) will just decrease if he tries to fight this and look like a bully just before an election.

Anonymous said...

The issue here is not so much the domain but forwarding it - there could be a serious and quick judgment against Daveberta.

Anonymous said...

This all is a conspiracy to tag Craig Chandler as being responsible for this domain name issue. I'm part of the provincial executive and we won't tolerate people like Craig doing this type of thing.

Anonymous said...

Keep the site!
Just another example of how out of touch the conservatives are!
I'm inspired by your story to join the liberals. The left and the ultra-right should unite and oust this lame government. Voters in Alberta are zombies.

Anonymous said...

While I think that you registering the domain name edstelmach.ca was a bad idea, I think what the premier is doing is even worse.

Ed Stelmach may have no personality, but he is not a moron. I'm sure he could have come up with a creative, witty, and good spirited response to this (as Klein would likely have done).

Insted, he took the low road by employing some snooty Calgary (why not Edmonton?) law firm to intimidate you.

I hope these guys get creamed in the next election (and I was a card carrying PC until last month).

Anonymous said...

Good Morning Dave. A couple of things:



1) Tell Stelmach's lawyers to get stuffed. This is a free enterprise issue and if he wants is url, then he has to pay.

2) Contact the Alberta Civil Liberties Union for a reference to a good pro-bono lawyer. There must be a number who would love to take on the premier. Or contact legal aid, but remember they are funded by the province.

3) Set up a fundraiser on your blog to assemble legal funds for your defence. I have a $100 to get you started. Just let me know when it is ready to go.

4) Have fun with this!

Anonymous said...

Keep the site and forward it to www.craigchandler.ca.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big fan of our Premier either - but regardless of the politics, you knew what you were doing when you registered his name, and you knew the damage to reputation you would be doing. I have to wonder if you weren't out to extort money from him yourself - this is the very approach organized crime rings use in parking and reselling domains back to the owners who would have used them in good faith. Shame on you, if you're going to be pointing fingers at others, you better make damn sure you keep your own reputation untarnished.

Anonymous said...

No fan of cybersquatting here either. An opportunist looking for some publicity. No fan of the PCs or the premier, but stuff like this makes me no fan of the opposition either. Funny, someone who blogs about politics delves into the world of politics and then plays politics to gain publicity. Who's worse, the premier or some punk-assed, play to personal gain, want to be passive - aggressive university student?
Sign it over, your 5 seconds of 'fame' are up.
Next!

Anonymous said...

If they had a leg to stand on, ummmm.. wouldn't they use the top firm in Calgary, and ummmm.... perhaps have a good lawyer on the case, let's say a Partner at a firm?

Stick it em Dave!

Anonymous said...

What does Craig B. Chandler think of this?

Anonymous said...

Hmm - apparently a lot of these people must not like Rick Mercer, either.

Anonymous said...

As previously said "Sign it over, your 5 seconds of 'fame' are up."

Funny, I been thinking that about bumbling Eddie for months now...

Anonymous said...

Great work on the Rutherford Show this morning, Dave.

Anonymous said...

Tyler Shandro is a member of the Progressive Conservative Executive Committee.

Regional Director
Calgary West/Centre
Tyler Shandro


http://www.albertapc.ab.ca/admin/contentx/default.cfm?PageId=4024

Mr. S. Clemens said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mr. S. Clemens said...

CBC ran a story where they may as well have linked directly to your blog. I suspect that all of the attention it has received in the past 2 days is greater than the total of the past 2.x years that you have had it up, and what is the "top story"? The exact story that was on the CBC website. Yeah, we just read that one.

You talk about Eddie missing an opportunity to register his domain name, and you're letting your golden opportunity pass you by just the same.

Anonymous said...

what if you registered a business called Edstel Mach and used that as a way to skirt the legalities of using someone else's name...

Anonymous said...

Change your name to Ed Stelmach, tell them to goto hell and keep on raging against the machine my brother!

Anonymous said...

"24 year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student"
Add...ethically and morally corrupt

kenchapman said...

What a great political prank Dave. In my days as a student prank we used to drape toilet paper in trees...so relatively unimaginative.

Cooler heads will prevail and a more grounded sense of what this is really all about - good humour and pure political prankstering will end the day.

In the meantime you are a very clever puppy - but you need to be punished so go to your room - but take your laptop with you please ;~}

Anonymous said...

Fran in Medicine Hat remarks: Boy, I can't believe Ed was so foolish as to threaten you with litigation (even if it was with a letter from a recent law school grad). A phone call would have been more appropriate - the bully persona (reminiscent of his Federal cousin Harper) will stick to him on this one. The legality of all of this is not something I've ever looked into, but as an old lady who often uses search engines I've run into numerous websites which are not what they would seem. How about a quick search for "Alberta Liberal" - you may come up with the following:
http://albertaliberalarchive.blogspot.com/ It's a politically motivated site - misleading, sure, against the rules of civil law? how can it be? I know, I know protection of an individuals good name is suppoe to be sacred - but really I can't believe Ed is this prickly about it all. I have heard that his efforts to "control the message" have even surpassed Ralph's - probably because of his own insecurities and the need to seek an electoral mandate looming. Good luck with this, I think Ed's threats have hurt him more than the obvious comparison with Strom which was made months ago by media and pundits alike.

organic intellectual said...

Just in case you haven't gotten enough useless advice that you've already considered, here's mine (sorry):

1) KEEP THE DOMAIN. I doubt they'll sue you. The cease and desist letter is an old lawyer's trick, and they particularly like using it on people they think are vulnerable and will cave in (like debt ridden university students). Even if they did sue (which they won't) there has got to be a dozen lawyers out there who would help you for free or for a very minimal fee, as well as various interest groups who would cover your legal costs - not to mention the sheer damage it would cause to Stelmach's reputation for suing a university student (which also is an incentive for them not to sue).

2) CHANGE UP THE edstelmach.ca SITE A BIT. You're just not using the domain very creatively (forwarding to Wikipedia - that's just boring). I say ditch the ads (so they can't accuse you of profiting with his name), and why not construct a site that is actually about Stelmach and his government's (socially inept) policies. By doing this you'd have a much better chance of arguing that you are using the domain name in line with CIRA's regulations... Just make sure you don't use the site to defame his personality, use it instead to engage us in an informed and factual dialogue about our Premier and his party. The TRUE FACTS speak for themselves: The Tories are just not good for this province, nor the country, nor our planet.

3) Try to look at the big picture here and be honest to yourself: This issue may have made the news this morning, but politically speaking it is totally irrelevant and has the effect of sidetracking our attention from this province's serious political and economic issues - such as the overwhelming problem of homelessness and unaffordable housing, the massive environmental damage being caused by irresponsible oil and gas exploitation and the overuse of coal power, the creeping privatization of our public sphere and the denigration of our democratic institutions (as noted in the example of the AEUB's spying on citizens & your case too I guess). It is my opinion that these latter issues (among others) are those that should be addressed and discussed on edstelmach.ca

Anonymous said...

Great idea for changing up the site! Seek out contributors, I'm sure you will find many!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with "No fan of cybersquatting here either...". You are in breech of the CIRA agreement that you electronically signed when you registered the URL. Cease and desist - making a false declaration in a legal document is wrong - or take out another student loan to finance your destined-to-lose legal team. You have had your 15 minutes of fame - stop wasting CBC's public funded air time - I would prefer to listen to some real news. Personally, as someone who works in the web field, I think cybersquatting crimes deserve jail time! It would not break my heart if you end up with a huge legal bill from this mess...

Anonymous said...

Dave didn't defame Ed's personality or image or name. If edstalmach.ca was linked to think site, would anyone really believe that what's written here is written by anyone related to Ed or his politics? On his blog, Dave describes himself as a 24-year-old student. Nobody in their right mind would think this blog has anything to do with Eddie, other than being a voice of protest against the Conservatives.

This site isn't defamatory. It doesn't take personal blows as Ed; it criticizes his actions as Premier. In a democracy, that's called political dissent.

Anonymous said...

Those of you that comment on the CIRA rules... have you actually owned a ".ca" domain, or are you one of those Tories that has no mind of your own, just repeat what others say?

Anonymous said...

I am very surprised that you got a letter in the mail, threatening to sue you. I mean... the Premier of Alberta has to head down to see a lawyer or give his lawyer a call and tell him to threaten a 24 year old student?

Nice job Ed. Glad to see you're the Premier of Alberta... Not. Get your head out of your ass.

While you may have to surrender the domain name in the end, I would go to all the media sources you can to pass this story around. Don't let politicians get away with anything like this.

Cupcake Man said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cupcake Man said...

Hello - is this the Web site for Ed's Telephone Machines? (EdsTelMach.ca?) I bought a phone from you guys and now it's busted. I was told this is where to fix it. Give me a refund or I'll sue!!

JimBobby said...

"Those of you that comment on the CIRA rules... have you actually owned a ".ca" domain, or are you one of those Tories that has no mind of your own, just repeat what others say?"

I think I was first to mention CIRA. As I also mentioned, I manage 150+ domains. Many are dotCA's. I personally own about 30 dotCa names.

I didn't mention that I ain't a Tory. I ain't. I'm a Green. Dave can take his chances but like anyone who knows anything about CIRA and ICANN will say, he can't win in court. Dave's already scored points in the court of public opinion and Stelmach's team looks like bumbling bullies. They're bumbling bullies with the law on their side, though.

JB

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see that the comments are (timewise) father apart. The minute of fame is fading already.
How long has it been? Was it worth $ 14.00?

About the "debt ridden U of A student" statement. You are a cybersquatter trying to make some money, okay. So tell me, how many other Domain Names were you able to squat on? The $ 14.00 you wasted here could have bought you a couple of beers.

Anonymous said...

Front page of the Calgary Herald! Sweet. Good on ya Dave. Stick it to 'em!

Anonymous said...

My name is Ed Stelmach too! I'm going to sue you and Premier Stelmach misappropriating my personality.

Ed G. Stelmach
Ontario

Anonymous said...

Dave, people are throwing around some seriously awful advice here. I hope you have the good sense not to listen to any of this, and instead get some independent legal advice from someone other than anonymous posters on the internets.

Anonymous said...

Lots of tough talk around here, tough talk without any idea about the legal precedents and legalities of domain name registrations.

You are a cyber squatter, you will lose the name...end of story...the precedents have been set in stone for years.

By refusing to give up the name, you are also opening yourself up to sever civil liability.

Sure, you'll be seen as tough by your blog readers, but you'll be broke and without the domain name, which will be taken from you by CIRA.

Anonymous said...

Ed Stelmach is a cybersquater to all other Ed Stelmach's out there!!!!

Anonymous said...

I take total offense to the anonymous post suggesting that a farmer shouldn't be premier.

Before there was oil, there were farmers in Alberta. A lot of important ideas came from farmers across the prairies, both political and social.

Keep on playing the political games they want you to play and try as hard as you can to continue to build barriers instead of bridges.

Anonymous said...

(About the farmers)... Hear, hear...

Anonymous said...

Obviously Mr. Ed does have a personality, and rather a thin skinned one at that.

Unknown said...

When they first started Google.com, they spelt it wrong. It was suppose to be Googol which is a large number. Now just because someone created a website that may spell someone else's name, does not give the person who's name it spelt rights to it. If Ed Stelmach wanted this web site he should have had it in the first place. It is pathetic for him to be sueing this guy about it.

Anonymous said...

Dave was working for the U of A Student's Union when bought the domain name, not the Liberal Party.

Anonymous said...

Dave, you are nothing but a pawn in a giant Liberal conspiracy to take down Ed Stelmach. Conspiracy! Conspiracy!

Anonymous said...

"Dave, you are nothing but a pawn in a giant Liberal conspiracy to take down Ed Stelmach. Conspiracy! Conspiracy!"

First, there's no conspiracy.

Second, it's called democracy.

Third, why is Ed Stelmach going around threatening to sue people anyway? Who is paying his legal bills? Undisclosed donors? Sound familiar?

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=2c092641-5f4f-4dad-a9d3-21d364691b4a&k=22355

Anonymous said...

Stelmach criticized for donation secrecy
$160,000 given anonymously

Joel Kom
Calgary Herald

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Premier Ed Stelmach came under fire Tuesday from political opponents and observers for refusing to disclose the source of more than $160,000 in anonymous leadership campaign contributions.

Figures released Tuesday by Stelmach's campaign team showed he raised more than $1.1 million in his successful bid for the Progressive Conservative party leadership last year.

About 15 per cent of that money came from 80 donors who asked their names be omitted from the contribution list, an omission allowed by the Tories because the party has no rules governing such disclosure. The average anonymous donation totalled about $2,000, compared with the approximately $1,350 average for the 593 publicly listed donations.

Bob Carwell, Stelmach's chief fundraiser, defended the decision to offer anonymity, saying Stelmach isn't one to be influenced by those writing cheques.

"Do you think someone who donated $15,000 to that campaign would have influence with that government?" Carwell said.

"I don't think so, that's not the type of people in the government."

Among the listed donors to Stelmach's campaign were Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital Corp., a top energy-sector investment bank; oilman J.C. Anderson; prominent Calgary lawyer and former CFL commissioner Doug Mitchell; financial analyst and philanthropist David Bissett; Jim Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications; and Stephen Snyder, CEO of energy giant TransAlta.

But it's the unidentified contributors in Stelmach's campaign that drew immediate flack from Democracy Watch, a public watchdog group that monitors political financing rules.

"Everyone in Alberta should assume the premier's in a conflict of interest until he proves he isn't when he discloses all his donors," said Duff Conacher, the group's head.

Tuesday's figures also showed Stelmach and his three key political backers raised more than $200,000 from two post-vote events that drew controversy for initially offering "exclusive" access for a minimum $5,000 donation.

Stelmach, Health Minister Dave Hancock, Finance Minister Lyle Oberg and former minister Mark Norris -- the latter three failed candidates who later backed Stelmach -- each managed to raise $51,000 from two $500-a-ticket private soirees held last month in Calgary and Edmonton.

The evenings were originally slated to include private sessions with Stelmach at a minimum price of $5,000, but Stelmach cancelled those amid widespread criticism he was offering political access to the highest bidder.

That criticism rose again Tuesday, though the anonymous donations were the target this time.

Leadership donations, unlike those to electoral races and political parties, are not required by law to be publicly listed. That left it up to the eight Tory candidates to decide how they would handle donations. Norris, for example, disclosed all his donors. Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton, on the other hand, won't be disclosing any.

Stelmach's team, aside from capping donations at $15,000, decided to offer its donors anonymity; if they declined, their names were listed in the figures released Tuesday. That plan was panned by political players and observers.

"I think it betrays Ed Stelmach's claims about openness and accountability," said Liberal leader Kevin Taft. "It's a failure of leadership. The public has the right to know who paid the bills for the premier to get his job."

"Full disclosure is the only thing that counts," said NDP leader Brian Mason. "The people that wish their campaign donations to remain secret are precisely the ones the public ought to know about."

Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said governments should legislate financing rules, adding "there should be nothing shameful about giving money to a politician -- as long as there's clear rules."

Taft and Mason vowed to raise the anonymous donations in the legislature, though they said they'll have little opportunity to introduce legislation.

Taft, for his part, disclosed the source of every donation of more than $500 to his 2004 leadership campaign, while Mason had a cap on individual donations on top of full disclosure for his 2004 run.

jkom@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007

thegusdad said...

I don't know CIRA rules (I'm Stateside) but parody political sites have been around a long time, e.g,

www.whitehouse.org

Using the domain for political criticism, whether Dave's a flack or not, doesn't sound like cybersquatting. Demanding big $$$ to return the domain does.

Anonymous said...

Again sell me the website.

I will pay your legal fees and I will simply post a message on the website that says:

Premier Stelmach I will gladly sell you this domain for $127,000.

Sincerely,
Craig B. Chandler
Democratically Elected Alberta Progressive Conservative in Calgary Egmont

Anonymous said...

This is a sincerely humourous story. It is only made even more humourous because it was Ed Stelmach's sending a lawyer after daveberta that made it a story. Unfortunately for Stelmach and the PCs, this is fairly embarrassing for them.

Good on Dave for being able to bring this up in the media and highlight what a badly initiated political manuver Stelmach and his PCs attempted to pull on him.

A 36 year old government was out spun by a 24 year old university student. How times are changing. Welcome to the 21st century.

I like Ed Stelmach, but he should seriously be reconsidering who he receives his legal and political advice from if this is how he handles situations like these.

Anonymous said...

Gross. I'm going to write some of our representatives and let them know how distasteful and undemocratic this sort of behaviour is.

Goodluck!!

-R

Anonymous said...

The time to find another Ed Stelmach to transfer the domain to is here!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone think we could successfully start a class action lawsuit against the Conservative Party of Alberta for the lost billions from energy royalties?

Darcey

Anonymous said...

Cybersquatter. This is as straight forward as it can get.

1) The domain name carries with it an implied trademark.

This has been well established and consistently upheld by domain registries and in the courts.

2) For those new to this type of conflict and are giving this kid the advice to stick to your guns....you are advising him to fight a fight he will lose and to expose himself financially in civil court.

3) People responding that this kid should demand xxx,xxx in payment for the name? Odd advice.

I think opinions are great, but there are so many blustery uninformed opinions on this comments board that it is ridiculous.

The kid will lose the name, and if he has deep pockets, he can spend a lot of money trying to keep the name that he will lose in the end.

The kid is a cybersquatter, he will lose the name...that is a guarantee.

If the kid has spoken to a copyright / trademark lawyer, he will receive the same advice...

It's fine to say that Dave will win, that the government will topple, that the name is rightfully Daves, that name doesn't carry an implied trademark...

But...the courts, appeal courts and the registries consistently rule against people like Dave....bluster all you want, the reality is that the kid WILL lose.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry Dave, you'll be able to keep the domain. There are already legal precedents. Don Boudria and David McGuinty, both found their domains registered by the Defend Marriage Coalition but could not get their domains back because according to an expert (Michael Geist - Carleton University's Canada Research Chair on Internet and E-Commerce Law) "CIRA's policy features protection for good faith criticism, even when there are some deceptive qualities." It's always satisfying to see a bully punched in the nose, you rock.

Anonymous said...

While I suppose this is technically cyber-squatting, and you'd be almost guaranteed to lose if they actually do decide to litigate, this seems like a really bad PR move on the part of the government.

It's not like you've setup a site at that domain that pretends to be the official site of Ed Stelmach or anything like that.

Perhaps a quiet offer to purchase the domain from you would have been better. Though, realistically, a cease & desist letter is the most appropriate legal action, even though it is a pretty shitty thing to do. (Well, the letter isn't all that shitty, but if they actually follow through and sue you, that'd be pretty shitty.)

Anonymous said...

"Cybersquatter. This is as straight forward as it can get."

No, anonymous, it isn't. The regulations against cybersquatting were meant to get at people sitting on domain names for profit. For instance, if Ed Stelmach approached Dave and said "hey, I think you took my domain - can I have it back?" and Dave said "sure, give me $10,000, mmmkay?" - this is straight-forward cybersquatting.

There's an exception carved out in the CIRA policies that allows for domains with deceptive/misleading properties when they are for the purpose of good faith criticism. Does Dave fit into this exception? I'd say that based on available precedent, there's a good chance - enough so that I would feel comfortable litigating his position. This is to say nothing of the tort allegations of appropriation of personality, which are even more tenuous.

So, anonymous, before you spew forth your condescending "any lawyer will tell you you're stupid" rant again, remember that there are plenty of lawyers out there - myself included - who think that there's a lot of merit to Dave's position. This, of course, is NOT to be taken as legal advice, etc etc.

Anonymous said...

The regulations against cybersquatting were meant to get at people sitting on domain names for profit.

******************

He had adds up, they made him money. Profit.

Bad faith.

Cybersquatter - Profit - bad faith = lose name.

Simple? yep. Case closed.

Anonymous said...

Are you aware of how these ads work? Have you ever set up Google Adsense?

In case you weren't aware, Google charges people either two ways - for number of displays, or clickthroughs. However, Google only gives money to sites where people click through from that site.

So, someone would have had to go to edstelmach.ca, been redirected, and clicked on an ad from there.

So how often did that happen? And can one reasonably expect that they clicked through on the ad because they thought they had gone to Stelmach's site rather than an alberta liberal... and Dave states right on the page who he is.

Frankly, it's the person who visited the site who makes the decision to click on the ad after they got there.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dave, Global news is reporting that your former employment for the Alberta Liberals is a '...new development...' I guess no one at Global has ever read your blog or any other media in the past couple days because they all mention that.

Keep up the good work Dave!

daveberta said...

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to why my former employment with the Alberta Liberals is a new development as well. I've never hid it, in fact I made it public on this blog in May 2007 (http://daveberta.blogspot.com/2007/05/in-spirit-of-accountability-and.html) and have had it posted on my sidebar since then. Not to mention that it was mentioned in probably every second news story since Tuesday.

(the anon commenter has seemed to post this comment on a couple posts, so I'm responding to each)

Anonymous said...

Ed Stelmach has no forsight, no personality and no votes(so far) He's a lame duck premier with no future if the conservatives run him they may as well pack their bags now. Mark my words, people I've talked to in recent days wnat him gone. He's past due, say godd-bye Ed.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with your politics but I support you 100% on this one.

Anonymous said...

I can think of A MILLION DIFFERENT WAYS that Eddie could have handled this that would have been A MILLION TIMES better!

The question is, was Eddie aware of this or was it his staff that sent out this letter? Lil' Tyler Shandro is on the PC Party Exec, so maybe the party did it without Stelmach's approval?

Who's running da show, man?

Who's steering the ship?

Anonymous said...

Michael Geist has offered his expert opinion.

Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor, said Cournoyer may be able to keep the name if it goes before the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).

"It can be very hard for an individual, even a premier, to be able to successfully win back a domain name under the .ca process," said Geist, who sat on the board for six years and helped draft the policy.

First, it is difficult for a politician to argue that their name is a trademark, Geist said. Second, under CIRA policy you can register a domain name for the purpose of criticism, like Cournoyer is doing with edstelmach.ca.

Geist added that Stelmach may have a better chance by launching a tort action, but that's expensive and lengthy and there's no guarantee of success.


http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=c149b4a2-28e5-44a5-89e6-0caafb4b5121

Anonymous said...

We're cheering for you here in Morinville, Dave! You are the toast of the town! Don't let them politicians push you around!

Chris

Anonymous said...

Fight this bully. The ICANN clearly states that a domain name cannot be copyrighted and unless your domain name is inflammatory or designed to impersonate another company (phishing) there is no law preventing such use. Of course, the ICANN is American but they are the world's governing body of domain names.

Good luck to you dude!

Anonymous said...

Dave

I like the one about calling Craig Chandler's lawyers He has a bone to pick with the Premier as well.

A former Ontarian now living in Alberta, calling myself an Albertan.

Anonymous said...

Good morning everyone, Just thought i would announce this. I am the person who created the fake facebook account.

True it may not have been smart. But it is my way of saying: You cant control whats online ED!!!!

Oh and he also sent a message to that account with a threat to sue.

Well have fun all!

kenchapman said...

Nice going anonymous... creating a fake Facebook account just to show us it can be done...as if we didn't know.

You are a clever puppy - but not a very courageous one...doing it anonymously is so chicken-shit.

Congratulations for your penchant for the obvious and your personal contribution to advancing free speech - hiding behind your curtain like the Wizard of Oz.

Anonymous said...

come now, dont act like that.
If i were to publish all my info on here, that would be such a breach of security for me i would be sued within minutes of my name being released. Hell i wont even take the interview with Global.

Stelmach is to lawsuit happy at this point. Especialy since he got pissed at www.edstelmach.tk being registered as well.

Like come on, he cant own them all. What kind of fucking Nazi is he anyways?

Anonymous said...

Ed Stelmach better enjoy this because it's his 15 minutes of fame!

Anonymous said...

Hilarious and outrageous at the same time.

The PR department should be fired.

Geez, I believe I read along time ago that individuals would purposely start their own company by buying up all types of domain names and turn around and sell it for a profit.

Ed Stelmach's PR department should have taken the diplomatic route of asking Dave Cournoyer if they could purchase that domain name.

Damn politicians!

Anonymous said...

Dave, you moron - get a life, get a job, and pay some taxes before you bitch about how bad things are. What a waste of peoples time and money. You probably will never pay back your student loans - you leech! You are just another useless pain in the ass who serves no purpose other than to stir the pot. No wonder people hate other people who have anything to do with politics.

Anonymous said...

obviously someone doesnt have a life, work work work, what a fucking moron. Stupid little bitch. IM betting a stupid cunt you like you couldn't even get infront of a camera let alone speak in front of large groups. SO before you start up again you moron, do you self a favor and re evaluate your life. Your obviously a dumb cunt who gets jealous easily, or just cant stand to see others in the spotlight who are just ordinary like you or I.
Stupid fucknut!

Anonymous said...

Davo - you rock man. Me and my army of Brian Mason's Socialist Revolution Rockband are behind you 100,000%!

SOCIALISM FOR ALBERTA!

VOTE FOR THE REAL ALBERTA SOCIALISTS!

VOTE ALBERTA NDP!

Anonymous said...

wow. what a moron. I can't believe Stelmach would try to sue you without even trying to call you before hand.

Who does that?

Anonymous said...

Has this been resolved, Dave? or are Stelmach and his goons still trying to intimidate you? I want to hear about this during the election!

It's time for a change. Time to kick these bums out.

Anonymous said...

Has this been resolved, Dave? or are Stelmach and his goons still trying to intimidate you? I want to hear about this during the election!

It's time for a change. Time to kick these bums out.

Anonymous said...

What's up, Dave?

From yesterday's Metro:

blogger to settle

An Edmonton blogger has offered to settle his ongoing legal dispute with Premier Ed Stelmach if the premier donated $1,000 to a local homeless shelter. Last month, Stelmach's lawyers threatened to sue Dave Cournoyer for his use of edstelmach.ca, claiming that the matter was the "misappropriation of his personality." Cournoyer, who is known online as daveberta, met with Stelmach's lawyer at a coffee shop yesterday and offered to hand over the domain name if the premier makes a $1,000 donation to the Herb Jamison Centre.

"The Premier indicated that he's willing to take this to court, and that would cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, but I figured that something good should come out of this," he said. The blogger used to work for the Alberta Liberals and bought the domain name for $14 last year, months after Stelmach won the Tory leadership race to become Premier. Stelmach's lawyer says he will discuss the offer with his client today and they hope to resolve the matter shortly.