Friday, May 29, 2009

C-SPAN: use of clip in political ad OK

The Conservative Party of Canada is running an ad that includes a 9-second clip from C-SPAN that depicts Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff. The Liberals tattled to C-SPAN. C-SPAN's reaction:

[General Counsel Bruce] Collins said the network never gave the Tories permission to use the clip, but doesn’t see any point in pursuing a claim.

“There's nothing legal to do with it, Collins said. “Given the way video is used throughout the world, with YouTube, it would be fruitless.”

Collins says he watched the ad and believes it falls within the fair-use provisions in copyright law because of the short length and subject matter.

“It's the highest form of speech -- political speech,” he said, adding there would be no economic loss to C-SPAN resulting from the ad.

Good for them.

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