The BC Liberals are refusing a direct request to immediately stop using copyrighted material from the television leaders’ debate in their political advertisements.
On Wednesday, a representative for the consortium that organized the television debate wrote a letter requesting the BC Liberals remove two videos they posted that use debate footage of New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix.
“The program was aired with a copyright at the end of the broadcast. The political parties involved agreed that no use of the copyrighted broadcast would be allowed for any political purposes,” wrote Les Staff, news director at CTV who was writing on behalf of the consortium,
“I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,” he continued.
“Please have this copyrighted material removed immediately.”
One of the videos in question shows the debate in its entirety, hosted on a YouTube site maintained by the BC Liberals.
Staff sent the notice to all political parties involved in the debate, all members of the consortium and the copyright enforcement department at YouTube.
In an interview Wednesday, BC Liberal Party spokesman Sam Oliphant said the party has no immediate intention of removing the videos.
“We believe we have a right to use it and we’re talking to our lawyers about that right now,” he said.
Contacted Wednesday, Staff said the Liberals had not yet provided an official response to his request.
“I have had a direct conversation with Sam Oliphant at the Liberal Party and informed him of the copyright infringement. I have advised the party that the videos contain copyrighted material and that the BC Liberal Party logo and name appear on the YouTube video headline,” he said in an email.
“I have demanded that the videos be removed immediately. The party has promised they will look into it.”
The YouTube video begins with a question that was posed to Dix during the televised leaders’ debate: “How can British Columbians be sure they can trust you to be honest and ethical now?”
“It was my responsibility, it was my mistake,” Dix responded during the debate. “I take responsibility and have ever since. I was 35 years old.” The words “35 years old” are then repeated several times in a loop.
The rest of the 90-second video features a number of Liberal candidates under the age of 35 rebuking Dix:
– “The age of adulthood in this province is 19. Look it up.”
– “Hey Adrian, you need to take responsibility.”
– “Take responsibility for creating a phony document and misleading a police investigation. You were 35 years old.”
– “Hey Adrian, just take responsibility.”
– “You don’t have to be 34 to know that.”
The Liberal candidates featured in the video are: Barbara Lu (Port Coquitlam), Gabby Kalaw (Vancouver-Kensington), Gurjit Dhillon (Vancouver-Kingsway), Nicholas Facey (North Island), Fatima Siddiqui (Vancouver-Hastings), and Sukhminder Singh Virk (Surrey-Newton).
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