Cross Posted at Blue Jersey.com
This morning we posted about how the Christie campaign was using watermarked video in his closing argument indicating a violation of copyright law. Blue Jersey reached out to Pond 5, where the Christie campaign took the footage from and received this response from co-founder and CEO Tom Bennett:
It does appear that the Christie campaign has used stock footage from Pond5 without licensing it, in violation of both our license agreement and copyright law. We have brought this to our legal counsel and will be determining a course of action soon.
They also provided a link to all of their clips that appear to have been used. You see for Chris Christie, laws appear to be for the rest of us to follow.
Update: The Christie campaign has done some damage control:
Late Update: The video has now been restored on Christie's YouTube page -- apparently in a rush, as it was done with watermarks and all. Bennett told us that at 3:43 p.m. ET, someone associated with the Christie campaign bought permissions for all the relevant videos. "So it looks like they're doing damage control," Bennett said.
I find it hilarious that even though they own the rights now, they still are running the ad with the watermarks. So is this their closing statement on the campaign or copyright infringement?