The BBC has become embroiled in a copyright infringement dispute in relation to a UK documentary about American actor and comedian Bill Cosby.
According to reports, the BBC is facing a legal challenge led by US production company Carsey-Werner.
The California-based producer claims that the BBC unlawfully used footage and clips from its classic sitcom The Cosby Show in a British documentary entitled Bill Cosby – Fall of an American Icon, which was first broadcast in June this year.
The documentary, which examined a series of sexual assault allegations made against the former actor and their impact on his career, has been accused of infringing Carsey-Werner’s copyright in relation to “eight audiovisual clips and two musical cues,” news website Ars Technica UK reports.
The offending video clips are reportedly all between seven and 23 seconds long, aside from one clip which runs for approximately 51 seconds.
However, a spokesperson on behalf of Carsey-Werner insists that the “infringed works were either seen or heard… for a total of 234 seconds,” which the production company was keen to point out accounts for more than six per cent of the BBC documentary’s total 60-minute run-time.
It says that the BBC was informed via ‘electronic notice’ that the materials it had intended to use were not licensed and that permission had been neither sought nor granted.
In a claim filed on Friday 3 November at a US Court, it said: “Defendants wilfully, deliberately and knowingly infringed copyrights that they knew to be the property of Carsey-Werner.”
It added that the documentary “should not be re-broadcast, and that the infringing materials must be removed immediately from the iPlayer website.”
In response, a BBC spokesperson has said: “[Our documentary] was produced by Sugar Films for the BBC. The BBC has not broadcast the documentary, or made it available online, in the US.”
The dispute continues.