For the third time this campaign season, the PPP/C has been accused of intellectual theft.
A complaint of pilfering creative material was lobbed at the PPP/C on Thursday by youth activist Francis Michael Bailey. Bailey charged that the incumbent used footage from a time-lapse video he posted on his YouTube Channel in 2013 in its recently released ‘I Believe’ campaign ad.
In a Facebook post on the subject, Bailey showed the two videos in split screen, highlighting the approximately two seconds of identical content.
“I believe that before you downloaded my video and used it as part of your campaign footage you should have called to ask so I could have had the opportunity to decline,” Bailey wrote.
He noted that someone would have had to first download the video from his youtube channel and take the effort to crop out the watermark.
Bailey said that the situation was particularly insulting and shameful since after 23 years in power the ruling PPP/C has done little to institute intellectual property legislation.
Referring to his membership in the Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC), Bailey reminded that this group has repeatedly had to defend its existence as a non-partisan organisation against attacks from the ruling party.
“I actually appear in the footage you stole, which means both my content and I are now part of a partisan political campaign ad which makes me therefore appear partisan,” he added. This, he claimed, defames his character and subverted his creative output.
He called for the party to immediately remove his content from its video ad uploaded to YouTube and currently being broadcast to the nation, respond to the invoice he will personally deliver to Freedom House and issue a public apology for the misappropriation of his content as well as remove his content from any ads the party may have in production.
Bailey’s complaint comes on the heels of an accusation by the APNU+AFC coalition that the ruling party “shamelessly” copied its campaign slogan, ‘It is Time,’ in a campaign song released on March 18. The song, which is posted on the PPP/C campaign site, is sung by a singer with a distinct Trinidadian accent, who proclaims: “It is time to rally for we party and country/It is time to vote for the PPP/C.”
The use of the slogan, according to a coalition statement, shows that the PPP/C is bereft of ideas and lacks originality.
The statement also listed a series of actions which the coalition said further supports this view, including the copying of a presentation by US President Barack Obama in the first campaign infomercial, the “squatting” by President Donald Ramotar’s son Alexi Ramotar on APNU+AFC internet domain names and the copying of the Move Forward and Vote Like A Boss slogans used by two youth organisations in their social media efforts.
The Youths for David Granger organisation had previously called out the PPP/C for copying the US presidential presentation in a widely shared advertisement which interposed Obama’s video on the ad published by the PPP/C Campaign.
Stabroek News contacted PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee for comment on all of the accusations, but he said he was unable to comment as he was unaware of the issues. He was also unable to offer advice on who could comment.
The PPP/C campaign, he said, is managed by the Central Committee.
