ABC Sports Threatens To Hit Tim Pawlenty With Copyright Infringement Claim Over Miracle On Ice Footage

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