National recalls DVD

National has put out a press release announcing it has “taken steps to recall and replace copies of a DVD produced and distributed by National, titled ‘Ambitious For New Zealand’.”

The move comes after the Party received a letter from lawyers acting on behalf of record company EMI, who have raised concerns about a musical track used on the DVD.

“Obviously, National relied on the expertise of the production company that put together the video and its soundtrack.

“However, National is now taking steps to recall and replace the DVD.

“We’ll take all available steps to retrieve copies of the DVD which have already been distributed to electorates, and we have replaced it on our website and National’s You Tube channel.

A new version of the DVD will be available shortly.

I blogged my views about this on Saturday. It’s very messy and not a good look. I suppose the bright side is it happened this year not with say the election campaign itself, but it’s an own goal that will hurt. I think I can safely predict it won’t happen again!

It also a testament to the role the blogosphere can play. I suspect EMI would have got around sooner or later to noticing and complaining, but left wing blogs (primarily The Standard) acted quite legitimately in raising the issue, and the fact it has been recalled suggests there was substance to the complaint.

The video has received over 10,000 visits on You Tube before the controversy, so it is a pity that the 20 seconds of music has overshadowed what appears to have been a pretty successful video.  But that’s the nature of it.