But when a conservative group, the Committee for Justice, sought to use the same clip in an anti-filibuster ad, Columbia Pictures, which owns the movie, denied permission, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The licensing department at Columbia Pictures, now a division of Sony, gave the liberal group permission to air the clip in January in the belief that People for the American Way was a nonpartisan group intending to use the clip for a public service announcement.

More recently Sony received the request from the Committee for Justice and another request from the liberal Center for American Progress.

"When the two groups came to us, it was clear they wanted to license the material for use in a highly charged, partisan debate," said Sony spokeswoman Susan Tick.

"We said no because Sony Pictures Entertainment has a long-standing policy of not getting involved in these sorts of debates."

But Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, argued that even if the previous permission was misguided, Sony should allow his group access in the interest of fairness.

"Whether it was intentional or not, now the image of Mr. Smith has been captured by the left in a misleading way," he said. Sony has asked People for the American Way to stop using the footage.

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