BNP in hot water over 'Millionaire' leaflet

Who Wants to Be Done for Copyright Theft?

Campaign literature by the BNP that used images from the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? fell foul of copyright rules.

A leaflet to promote BNP hopeful Alan Girvan in Dewsbury East was withdrawn after Carl Morphett of the anti-fascist group Kirklees Unity highlighted the breach. The leaflet featured Labour councillors Paul Kane and Eric Firth above the caption: ‘Q. How many years have you promised to clean up Dewsbury?'

2waytraffic, the company that owns the copyright on the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? images, wrote to Mr Girvan's agent, Coun David Exley, demanding that the leaflets were withdrawn.

Coun Exley said the leaflet was no longer being distributed by the time the complaint occurred.

He said: "The company telephoned me about it. There was no shouting and bawling. They said they weren't happy with the image being used to promote any political organisation - not just the BNP. I gave them notice that it had been withdrawn."

He said the agreement was formalised in writing - and that was the end of the matter. He said he was furious over comments from Carl Morphett "It makes my blood boil. Carl Morphett has nothing better to do than criticise other people's efforts," he added.

Mr Morphett said: "Mr Exley should know that as an agent for Mr Girvan he should have played by the rules."

Dewsbury Reporter

Thanks to our friends at Kirklees Unity for the heads-up

This is of course, far from the first time that the BNP has happily ignored copyright. A couple of years back, we reported the party's use of one of the children's characters, the Mr Men, dressed as a suicide bomber, on the party's so-called 'jokes' page. Chorion, the company that holds the copyright on the Mr Men, was much perturbed at any association with the far-right party and demanded the removal of the image. Similar breaches occurred with the Apple iPod ad images and the Books for Dummies series images. Anything goes at the BNP.

Just a few weeks ago, we reported the sale of Usborne children's books through the party's Excalibur merchandising site. Presumably the BNP hoped to achieve some spurious and undeserved respectability through their sale and a perceived link between Usborne and itself. Following complaints from ourselves and many of our supporters, Usborne forced the party to remove the books from the Excalibur website.

We need to keep a close watch on the BNP for anything of this nature. We already know that the party will ignore the law wherever it can and on the thinnest pretext, and we need to bring these constant breaches to the attention of a wider public. Keep your eyes skinned, folks.