tim pawlenty – Techdirt (original) (raw)

from the copycats dept

Back in April, we noted that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had created a commercial that many people noted looked like a copy of a campaign ad for Tim Palwenty, just substituting Canadian scenery for American scenery. In that post, we also noted that Harper had apparently failed to properly license the hockey footage he used as a part of the commercial. Well, now it seems that Pawlenty is copying Harper… in choosing not to license hockey footage. Pickle Monger alerts us to the news that ABC Sports says it’s going to send Pawlenty a cease & desist for using footage from the famous “Miracle on Ice” 1980 Olympics match in which the underdog Americans beat the Soviets. ABC says that the footage was not licensed — especially the use of announcer Al Michaels — and that they were considering sending a cease & desist. Of course, I’d still argue that this kind of usage should count as fair use, but for the most part, uses like this are not seen as fair use.

Filed Under: commercials, copyright, miracle on ice, politics, tim pawlenty
Companies: abc, disney

Canadian PM Copies Campaign Commercial, Doesn't License Hockey Clips

While the latest attempt at putting forth new copyright laws in Canada didn’t survive, I always find it amusing when politicians pushing for stricter copyright laws get caught breaking copyright law. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was already being talked about after it came to light that he appeared to have done a pretty close copy of a campaign ad from US Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. You can see both ads below:

However, as Rob Hyndman alerts us, now some have discovered that Harper did not properly license the video clips he used of a hockey match between Canada and the Soviet Union in 1972.

Horst Ficel, a partner in the firm, says that Hockey Canada granted the players the rights to all the marketing of the series in the mid-1990s. Today, a committee with player representatives decides who can license the footage.

Ficel is busy fielding requests for permission to use the clips to mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the historic series.

But decidedly not among those requesting permission was the Conservative Party of Canada, Ficel said..

“It’s definitely not approved by me. It’s not approved by the committee.”

He says the committee is careful to avoid anything that might be considered political.

Now, personally, I think this should be “fair use,” but Canada (notoriously) has no fair use. It does have a more limited concept of “fair dealing,” but (and I’m certainly not an expert in Canadian copyright law), it’s not clear if political commercials are covered by Canada’s fair dealing provisions. The fair dealing provisions focus on “research, private study, criticism, review, or news reporting,” and I don’t see how political ads match any of those.

Filed Under: canada, commercial, stephen harper, tim pawlenty

Minnesota Governor Pushes Connected Nation Before Panel He Appointed Has Its Say

from the inside-track dept

We already pointed to the rather questionable situation in Florida where Connected Nation was “chosen” to run the broadband mapping project (and get a bunch of stimulus cash) over a competitor, despite issuing a bid that was more than twice as high, and without any local endorsements (and… oh yeah… one of the voters, the one who voted on CN by the highest margin just happened to have worked at one of the telcos that now backs CN). It looks like something fishy is going on in Minnesota too. According to Broadband reports, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Pawlenty has already signed a letter supporting Connected Nation for mapping broadband in Minnesota… totally pissing off a member of the state’s Ultra High Speed Task Force, who the governor (at the demands of the legislature) appointed to look into this very matter. But, why wait for them to investigate the details and choose wisely, when you can just select who you want. Again, Connected Nation has done an amazing job getting politicians to sing its praises, despite serious questions about how its mapping process works.

Filed Under: broadband, minnesota, tim pawlenty
Companies: connected nation