Here is something that will be in tomorrow's local papers. A fellow by the name of David Cournoyer registered the domain name "edstelmach.ca", then arranged to have that web address redirect to his blog http://davealberta.blogspot.com. Mr Cournoyer was subsequently greeted with a letter from the Premier's lawyer demanding cease and desist (and further that he register the address in Ed Stelmach's name) failing which legal action would be taken. The allegation put forward by Mr. Stelmach's lawyer is that this constitutes an actionable tort of misappropriation of personality. Misappropriation of personality involves taking someone's likeness for commerical gain. Imitating someone's voice or personal appearance is one thing but is using someone's name as a domain name truly taking someone's likeness? I think this is a bit of a stretch. Unlike domain name registration of trade-marks where there is a strong nexus between name and source of goods and services (and for which there is a dispute resolution procedure to turf cybersquatters), there is no such nexus between a name and the corresponding person's likeness.