Fox News and Robin Carnahan have settled their suit over a campaign ad that the Missouri Democrat ran against Republican Roy Blunt last year.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Fox News and television host Chris Wallace are "attempting to use intellectual property and Missouri tort laws to stifle core political speech in the heat of this election season," a lawyer for the campaign of Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan said in a recent court filing.
The network filed suit against the campaign last month, alleging that a campaign ad (removed from YouTube, but described here) attacking Republican Roy Blunt as a Washington insider violated copyright laws. One copyright lawyer told TPMMuckraker that the network took a "dramatic step" in filing suit against the campaign, since such disputes between media companies and campaigns rarely make it to the courtroom.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Fox News' decision to sue a Democratic candidate over her campaign's use of footage first aired on the network in an ad is an apparent escalation of such fair use battles -- bringing disputes between media companies and campaigns from YouTube to the courtroom.
The suit the network filed against the campaign of Robin Carnahan, a Democrat challenging Rep. Roy Blunt (R) for a Senate seat in Missouri, appears to be the first time such a fair use fight between a media company and a political campaign has been taken to court. It is much more common for media companies to flag the videos to YouTube and assert their copyright.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Fox News wants to make this much perfectly clear to their viewers: their network didn't endorse a Democrat.
The network and anchor Christopher Wallace have sued Robin Carnahan, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Missouri, in federal court, alleging the politician used footage of Wallace's interview of Rep. Roy Blunt (R) in a campaign ad which made it look as though the network was endorsing her.
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