It was just a year ago we kept hearing news of John McCain using famous songs for his campaign without the express written permission of the copyright holder. It seems like that practice is trickling down through the ranks of the GOP and now we have New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie as the latest culprit:
Chris Christie, the Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey in Tuesday’s knife-edge gubernatorial election, has been called out as a copyright thief. The 47-year-old lawyer, who was controversially appointed by George W. Bush as a U.S. Attorney in 2001 on Karl Rove’s recommendation after being a top Bush fund-raiser in the 2000 election, has created an election commercial that steals copyright-protected material from British comedy troupe Monty Python — without permission or credit.
As an interesting sidebar, Christie has been a practicing attorney for 22 years and still decided he was above the law. Monty Python isn’t backing down though:
Monty Python’s Terry Jones says that the troupe is strongly considering suing the Republican for his copyright infringement:
Hopefully the people of New Jersey will make an informed decision tomorrow when heading to the polls. I don’t think they want a thief sitting in the Governor’s mansion.