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The Copyright of Politics

By Howard Knopf

Hillary Clinton has desperately and wrongly (see Bill Patry) accused Obama of plagiarism.

Potentially much more ironic and seriously serious is the accusation that the Conservative Party of Canada and Minister Prentice - the presumed sponsor of the presumed new copyright bill - have infringed Warner/Chappell's copyright in a recent slick political attack ad video:

As the Harper government prepares to introduce tougher new copyright rules, the Conservative party is being accused of using the theme song from the reality TV show The Apprentice without permission of the record company that owns it.

See Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 22, 2008.

Canadian law also provides "moral rights" to the composer and lyricist, which result in their premission being required if their work is used "in assocation with a product, service, cause or institution."

Are the next US and Canadian elections going to be about political piracy?

That could be entertaining and good for copyright lawyers. Let us hope...

Let's hear it for Copyright Awareness.

HK

Full post as published by Excess Copyright on February 22, 2008 (boomark / email).