OTTAWA – A group of environmentally-conscious youth pranked the federal government Wednesday by cloning the Environment Canada website and using it to release false information in a bid to shine the spotlight on climate change.
The hoax could result in legal action against the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, who used the cloned site to post false information about a climate change initiative. The information was also disseminated to thousands of Canadian journalists.
“There is a violation of copyright… and there are also trademark rights that have been violated,” says Randy Marusyk, an Ottawa-based property lawyer.
Marusyk said the consequences would depend on how far the government takes things. It could simply get an injunction to shut the site down or it could launch a lawsuit, but it would have the difficult task of proving damages.
Amara Possian of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and her co-conspirators have also opened themselves up to a criminal investigation for forgery, identity theft or mischief, says Bruce Engel, a criminal lawyer.
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Again, though any potential charges would have to take into account the context of the action, Engel said, and in this case a likely defence could it was an innocent prank.
“You don’t go to jail for something like that,” he said. “They would likely give these kids a little bit of a slap on the wrist.”
Mike Bonanno, one of the founders of Yes Men, a U.S.-based group of web prankers responsible for a similar hoax on the Canadian government, says he has never faced any legal consequences for his group’s actions. But Bonanno says the youth should welcome legal action because it gives them a platform for a public moral victory.
“These kids are pissed off for a reason,” he says. “Their futures are being stolen from them in the name of short term profit.”
Environment Canada has not yet announced how it will respond to the prank, only saying on Wednesday that its legal team was studying potential courses of action.
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