Virgin Media tycoon Richard Branson stars in an advert seen in the UK alongside the 10th Doctor, David Tennant. The question remains, is it an unfair and unauthorized usage of the Doctor Who brand?
In the TV spot seen below, the words Doctor Who, TARDIS, Time Lord, or anything else specifically copyrighted by the BBC are not used. On the other hand, there is obviously a time machine in use and David Tennant is scrolling past his films and TV series, Doctor Who among them. Does all this constitute a spoof and therefore “fair use”? Under US copyright law it would, but in the UK it may be a different matter.
According to The Mirror:
BBC Worldwide said it has asked Virgin to “suspend the advert.”
A BBC source said: “Virgin did not run this advert past us and if they had, it probably would have been turned down.”
But Virgin insists that the commercial is about Sir Richard’s love of exploration.
A spokeswoman said: “Our new campaign explores some of the benefits of Virgin Media TiVo, including the ability to search for your favourite actor and discover TV programmes, films and YouTube content available live, on demand and as catch-up TV.”
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