Michael Geist at UBC: “E-Publishing and the Law”

Yesterday evening I attended a lecture at UBC’s St. John’s College by Michael Geist, hosted by the Canadian Journalism Federation, on “E-publishing and the Law”. Dr. Geist spoke about what he referred to as the “new normal” – for knowledge, creativity, and public participation – that is being shaped by the internet and related technologies, and how the law and public policy needs to reflect that.

His talk covered a lot of issues: copyright reform, intermediary liablity, net neutrality, access to information, and more. I did take a bunch of notes and planned to try to summarize the talk here. Then this morning I discovered the whole thing had been liveblogged by one of the attendees. There is also a video posted on Dr. Geist’s own blog of a similar talk he gave at Osgoode Hall a few days earlier. So rather than waste time reading what I have to say about it, I strongly encourage you to go and read the liveblog and watch the video for yourself. A whole lot to think about.