Posted on 06/29/2011 11:34:22 AM PDT by MissesBush
Tom Petty has told US presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to stop using one of his songs as part of her campaign, insisting he did not give the rightwing politician permission. Within 24 hours of the televised launch of Bachmann's 2012 campaign, Petty's lawyers reportedly pounced on the press-conference soundtrack, which used the song American Girl as exit music.
"Petty isn't pleased," reported NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, while Rolling Stone confirmed the singer's lawyers had sent the Minnesota congresswoman a cease and desist order. It's not even the first bump of Bachmann's campaign: during her announcement speech, the Tea Party supporter confused the birthplace of actor John Wayne with that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Petty's problem appears to be with Bachmann's politics. In 2008, the singer allowed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to use American Girl for her unsuccessful presidential bid. But he was much less sympathetic in 2000, when Republican candidate George W Bush was discovered to be playing I Won't Back Down at his rallies. "This use has not been approved," Petty's representatives told the future president. "Any use made by you or your campaign creates, either intentionally or unintentionally, the impression that you and your campaign have been endorsed by Tom Petty, which is not true." Bush , er, backed down.
Politicians have got into lots of trouble using pop songs over the last few years. From Sarah Palin and Heart to Nicolas Sarkozy and MGMT, to David Cameron and Keane, politicians' rallying songs are proving a litigious nightmare. Perhaps they ought to look into using classical music.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
A quick and simple bit of legislation can fix all of this nonsense. A copyright is just a government gift anyway.
Seems like a lot of freepers need educating on copyright law. Using a song for a political campaign is NOT a public performance, it’s a commercial use. It’s not only a pertinent legal distinction, but one helluva financial distinction as well. Public performance rights are relatively cheap, but commercial use licenses have gone into the 7 figures.
Note that although it was settled in a pre-trial mediation, Charlie Crist’s campaign wound up paying big bucks to David Byrne for using his music without permission.
John McCain likewise wound up paying Jackson Brown big bucks.
Don Henley? Yep, you guess it, won big bucks from Chuck DeVore
However it shows Poor Judgement Good Political Leadership never puts Unless some adults takeover the You are absolutely correct.
on the part of whoever is running
the campaign.
a campaign in this sort of PR Trap.
leadership of this campaign
soon it will self-destruct.
The Pretenders? I recall him saying Chrissie Hynde gave him permission to use her song.
I believe he said that he bought the Rights to the music.
No! Using a song in a political campaign falls under the same use as using a song in an ad campaign. Artists typically reserve these rights for themselves, and aren’t sold to BMI, ASCAP etc. It can cost a fortune to secure the rights to a song for an ad campaign.
Good one. And with money that THEY EARNED!
He did, and according to Hynde the individual members of he Pretenders could all live off of what Rush pays alone.
I don’t know, I kinda like Bachmann and thought it was dam% funny.
Bachman's team played the song as she exited the stage at a press conference. The song was not used in any advertising, but was played over the speakers at a live event.
Still requires a master use license, not a performance license. Check out what Jobs has paid for songs for Apple unveilings, televised or not.
How does a campaign playing a song at a live event differ from, say, a high school basketball team playing a song at a live event or a professional basketball team doing the same?
lol. Good one. I’ll bet ya at this point Tom Petty wishes he was 43!
They might want to try getting permission first.
Nah, just my 3 Petty tunes.
I don’t care if your a lefty. But I do care if you act like a petulant little wuss.
You sound coherent to me on your recall! LOL!
BACHMAN TURNER OVERDRIVE! What a logical choice! “Takin’ care of business”, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”, ......
In the rare event that a professional basketball team would play an entire song, you can bet that the franchise paid dearly for it.
High school? Falls into the who cares category. No one is going to accrue the negative publicity to be had by going after a high school. If a high school team did use a song, I’d wager that it would fall under the typical square foot schedule that a parks and rec department would have to fill out (and pay) if it held a dance. I doubt that even the most savvy of lawyers could convince a judge that a master use license was required.
That makes sense. I didn't know it either. What section of Copyright Law, 17 USC, covers that subject?
Once you license your song to BMI or ASCAP, you get the benefit of the performance fees, but you lose the right to control who or under what circumstances someone else can use your song.
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