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Political Attack TV Ads Potentially Breach Copyright Act
Recently, the Federal Conservative Party has placed television ads reproducing videotaped comments made by various Liberal Party leadership candidates at a recent leadership debate. Now, allegations have surfaced that the use of this footage may have violated copyright laws, according to the group of broadcasters that jointly filmed the debate.
While Canadian law does have a “fair dealing” exception to copyright infringement (notably more narrow than the US fair use exception), it does not appear that the Conservative Party’s broadcast falls within this exception, which allows use of copyrighted material for the purpose of criticism or review. It appears that the Conservative Party failed to source the content in accordance with the Copyright Act, which requires that the source and broadcaster of a “communication signal” be mentioned for the fair dealing exemption to apply. A viewing of one of the ads in question discloses that the necessary attribution is absent.
For an example of the ads complained of, visit:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/556069.html