Crisis or opportunity for cyberlawyer?

I said I was too busy to blog but something interesting has come up and I’m on lunch break. Well, Michael Geist is being sued for defamation. Geist explains that he’s being sued “for maintaining a blogroll that links to a site that links to a site that contains some allegedly defamatory third party comments.” I empathize but at the same time it’s hard not to laugh. There’s a lot of amusing little pieces to this.

First, Dr. Geist finds out through the blogosphere that he’s being sued before he’s served papers. How’d he do that? Does he have a Google blogsearch alert for “michael geist lawsuit”? Just good luck on his feedreader?

Second, this is his chance to help shape the law that he’s going to write about. Is he annoyed or grinning right now? I want a webcast of the papers being served! In any case I expect he’ll have a positive impact on cyberlaw convention.

Third, he’s being sued in BC. I expect he’ll be facing a UBC lawyer. The UBC cyberlaw textbook was written by Michael Geist. I picture a young lawyer shaking when he realizes he’s going after the man who wrote the book he learned from. Granted, the lawyer might not have gone to UBC and he might have gone before Dr. Geist’s 2003 book was in use, but I still love the mental picture.

I don’t know if this’ll ever go to court but if it does: Michael, good luck!