Band Calls 1st Amendment A 'Buzzword' In (Plagiarized) C&D To Mitt Romney Over (Licensed) Use Of Song
from the campaign-supernova dept
It's election season, people. You know what that means. It means irritating and/or hysterically innaccurate advertisements. It's the time of year when roughly ninety percent of your social media "friends" become "fully vetted political pundits" to the point where you want to "throw them out of a five story window if only you could reach through your computer and get to them." And, because any creator you might believe in apparently understands that we need a little comic relief at times like this, it's that special time when politicians use tunes at campaign events, resulting in angry musicians (because they're also "fully vetted political pundits" to the point where you want to...well, you get the picture).The list for this kind of nonsense runs long. There was that time when Heart insisted McCain stop introducing Sarah "Barracuda" Palin with their well-known song. Then there was a magical moment where former-Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh sued Republican Congressional candidate Joe Walsh (...seriously) over the use of one of his songs. Tom Petty went after Michelle Bachman. Survivor's Frankie Sullivan went after Newt Gingrich. Even Hollwood Ronald Reagan got into it with The Boss by hillariously using Born In The U.S.A. as some kind of pro-America rallying cry (when the song's message is the exact opposite).
Which brings us to Mitt Romney, who apparently played Sliversun Pickups' song Panic Switch at a campaign rally (again, hilarious) only to find a cease and desist letter in his mailbox.
The rock band Silversun Pickups this week served Romney's campaign with a cease-and-desist order after it says Romney's campaign used its song "Panic Switch" at an event earlier this month.Interestingly, as with many of the aforementioned examples, Romney may well have done nothing of the sort. Most of these campaigns have a blanket license to use such music and, while the cease and desist letter reportedly also included a mention of Trademark law, they're likely covered on both ends. The blanket license takes care of copyright, and the fact that I'm fairly certain Mitt Romney is not about to launch a new career venture which in any way involves him performing as a musician should nix the trademark issue. Even if the band disagrees with Mr. Romney's politics, that isn't cause for them to exclude his campaign from using what is covered by the license for which they paid.
"Seems as if the GOP is once again whimsically ignoring our great nation's laws to do whatever it wants to do, and shooting itself in the foot in the process," band representative Ken Weinstein said in a statement.
For what it's worth, this isn't the first time Romney has had to deal with this kind of thing, either. Both Al Green and K'naan have had recent scuffles over the use of their music. For you young kids out there, Al Green made the music your parents were listening to as you were being conceived. And for you older folks, K'naan, judging solely by his name, is apparently an alien from Rob Reid's Year Zero universe.
In any case, from the band's perspective, given the speciousness of their claims, they probably would have been better served simply voicing not only their disagreement with the Romney campaign's politics, but pointing out the absurdity of using a song with a title that is the very antithesis of a campaign working feverishly to demonstrate that it is in control. What they should not have done is hire an attorney who wrote their cease and desist letter, full of smug educational quips about copyright and trademark law, and that referred to such serious topics as the First Amendment and Fair Use in this manner:
"We anticipate that you, or your general counsel, may respond to this letter with a letter of your own using all those neat lawyerly words like “First Amendment,” “fair use” and “parody.” Please know that none of those buzzwords (or the law they represent) works for you here."As Public Knowledge rightly points out, these are not buzzwords. They are also not "lawyerly" words. The First Amendment is more of a Constitutionly term and Fair Use and Parody are Case-Law-ly terms. Snide degredation does not a good legal notice make.
On the other hand, perhaps the band's legal team can find respite from those snide remarks in the fact that their cease and desist letter may have been plagiarized from the attorney that wrote his letter for Joe Walsh when he was (I still can't belive this) complaining about Joe Walsh. Lest your sweet little minds think that this is too funny to be real, I give you this quote from Silversun Pickup's lawyer, Tamara Milgros-Butler:
"When I needed to write a cease and desist letter, I did what almost any contract lawyer does many times day and I looked at historic forms," she says. "I simply loved the tone of this language (in the Walsh letter). And geez, I looked back when my boss raised the issue and ran a red-line comparison. While the language isn't precisely the same, I borrowed liberally from Peter's letter."
Asked whether she regrets what she did, Milagros-Butler says "I regret not looking back or thinking more. I regret not thinking more backwards to see if it was our letter or someone else's. If I thought about it more, I would have realized that we didn't represent Joe Walsh."God bless America (please don't send a C&D letter, Irving Berlin. I totally loved White Christmas. Also, you're dead, so you probably can't hear me.).
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, fair use, free speech, license, mitt romney, performance rights, plagiarism, silversun pickups
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Damn you
Are you using Tor for proxying your connection? All four messages come with different snowflakes. Kinda cool.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn you
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Motley Mitt
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Makes me wonder.
John Fenderson, I think I need your input here to help clear my mind. You up for it? :-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
"....though one would imagine if a Democrat were insane enough to play a Ted Nugent song, we'd probably see the same thing from him...."
Lol good point :-) Though I think, in general, that some of these artists are so biased it is extremely laughable.
To everyone else:
Does anyone have more examples than what the article gives? Please don't make it political I just want to show you all outside the (US and a few inside as well) what we deal with in the middle of the political spectrum ^_^
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Makes me wonder.
New to politics are ya?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Makes me wonder.
It's a gut emotion thing, I think.
The thing is, as other commenters have said, artists have a potent weapon they can use to counterattack without resorting to specious legal actions: their art. A good, piercing, artistic attack can cause a lot more pain and strife for the target than a C&D.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Makes me wonder.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Of course, your certainty does not equate to reality, but don't let that stop the snark from flowing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
FACEPALM!!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
You took two sentences; one with a snide remark, the other with the point you're trying to make. Then you combined them to utter jibberish to make even more senseless statement than you already had before.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
At any rate, Tim's certainty regarding Mitt's career path does not, in reality, "nix the trademark issue."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/rage-against-the-machine-isnt-returning-ryans-l ove/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
"Boo The Corporate System Maaaaannnnn" "Brought to you by the fine people at Coca-Cola, and Viacom."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
'Boo The Corporate System Maaaaannnnn' 'Brought to you by the fine people at Coca-Cola, and Viacom.' "
Awww ^_^ a troll failing miserably when he has nothing intelligent to say or do ^_^
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Ryan likes the music but not the words - apparently he doesn't know what the songs are about.
Here is another write up:
Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against'
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-paul-ryan-is-the-embodiment-of-the-mach ine-our-music-rages-against-20120816
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not all Republicans listen to Conway Twitty.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The trademark claim
This is where a potential trademark claim would come from - not the potential confusion if Romney went into the music business.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Will you be hauling me to court now? This should be fun!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I can hardly wait...
Hey, it could happen... in an alternate universe where the peoples vote actually counts and the government hasn't already sold it's soul to corporate interests, that or take it to the Ninth Circuit (Circus) Court.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Buzzwords
Modern examples employed by the government include:
First Amendment
Fourth Amendment
Fifth Amendment
posse comitatus
All of the above (and more) were already buzzwords before the letter cited in the article was written.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Buzzwords
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Buzzwords
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Here is the takeaway: four words
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Here is the takeaway: four words
There, fixed it for you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Here is the takeaway: four words
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Here is the takeaway: four words
insightful funny report
Re: Here is the takeaway: four words
Anonymous Coward, Aug 17th, 2012 @ 2:32pm
"Most musicians aren't Republican".
There, fixed it for you."
"Most politicians are stupid"
There, fixed it for everyone :-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Here is the takeaway: four words
1. Freddie Mercury
2. John Lennon
3. Paul McCartney
4. Brian May
5 Roger Taylor
6. Ringo Starr
7. John Deacon
8. George Harisson
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
*But Seriously, Folks...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Go pirates go!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Go MPAA/RIAA/Patent Trolls/Copyright Lawsuit Trolls/DMCA Takedown Abusers/Corporate Shills/Ad nauseam go!
FTFY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Go pirates go!"
I'm sure you thought your comment was very clever, but it isn't wise to provoke the wrath of a whole community for two reasons.
1. They will ream you for it.
2. Makes you look really unintelligent and stupid.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
2. your opinion has as much value to me as cow shit, which is to say, NONE. See point 1. You managed to show yourself well. Grow up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Elephant dung would be more apt, imo.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Artist Chris Ofili uses elephant dung in his paintings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Ofili
And....
Elephant dung can also be made into an eco-friendly paper:
http://www.elephantdungpaper.com/fact.html
I chose this site because of its cheeky use of phonetics for the word "sheets".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]