Tory Attack Ad's, Against the Law??

This was sent to me from a friends blackberry a few minutes ago........


Joan Bryden
Canadian press
OTTAWA

Conservative attack ads fired at Liberal Leader Stephane Dion mayend up sideswiping the ruling party after questions were raised aboutpossible breach of copyright laws.The television ads, which began airing Monday, use footage from last fall'sLiberal leadership debates to deliver the message that the new Grit leaderis weak, indecisive and an environmental failure.But that footage belongs to a consortium of TV networks which pooled theirresources to provide live coverage of the debates. The Cable Public AffairsChannel provided the pool camera for each debate.The networks are now looking into how the Conservatives obtained the debatefootage for their ads.CPAC anchor Peter Van Dusen said Monday that any outside use of debate videowould have to be approved by all pool members. Moreover, he said such videois traditionally never authorized for use by political parties.Van Dusen said he is not aware of any request by the Tory party to buy oruse any portion of the debate videos."It would come through me and I certainly don't remember ever getting arequest," he said, adding that he "would've said no" if he had received arequest.Conservative spokesman Ryan Sparrow refused to say how the party obtainedthe clips. But he stressed that the ads were approved by the TelevisionBureau of Canada before going to air.However TVB president Jim Patterson said his agency - a voluntaryadvertisement-vetting service, created by private broadcasters - has nothingto do with ensuring that ads don't violate copyright laws."We don't rule on copyright. That is not our job," Patterson said.Indeed, Patterson said the TVB always gets advertisers to sign a generalletter of indemnity, specifying that the bureau can not be held liable ifany legal issues arise from an ad. The Conservative party signed such aletter.Given the reliance on debate footage in the ads, Patterson said the TVB hasdrafted a more specific letter of indemnity that it will require the Toriesto sign for any ads in future. The new letter specifies that the TVB cannotbe held liable for any copyright infringements.Without knowing how the Tories came by the debate footage, copyright lawexpert Michael Geist said it's difficult to judge whether there may havebeen an infringement.It's possible one of the networks sold the video to the Conservatives; thenetworks are checking to find out if their marketing or archival units mighthave done so.Alternatively, a party member could conceivably have recorded the debates ona camcorder from a seat in the audience.But if the party simply taped the debates from television, Geist said theads could fall into a grey zone in Canadian copyright law."They might try to argue that they would qualify for some sort of exceptionunder the Copyright Act," said Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor.The most likely exception, he added, would be the "fair dealing exceptionfor criticism."Geist said the use of such video clips in political ads would be entirelyproper in the United States, which applies a broad "fair use doctrine" toits copyright laws. The fact that the Tory ads raise questions herehighlights the shortcomings of Canadian law, he added."Frankly, it should be beyond doubt that they should be able to use shortclips of these kinds of public political events that should fall under afair use doctrine. I think it's unfortunate that under Canadian copyrightlaw there is some level of uncertainty."