| Tom Petty has reasons to be pissed off: Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been using ‘American Girl’ for her campaign events, and he told her to stop, but she hasn’t so far. It’s funny because Hillary Clinton used the same song during her Democratic nomination in 2008, and Petty didn’t object to her use.
Bachmann began to play Petty’s song last Monday when she officially announced her presidential ambition, so he may take some legal action to stop her using his song, but there is a big problem regarding the legal rights of politicians to play music without the permission of the artists. According to Rolling Stone, legal experts says that, if the campaign buys a license from ASCAP, they are allowed to play any song they choose without the approval of the artist! Of course, the use of the song gives the impression that the artist endorses the politician.
I don’t understand why this legal point is so messed up as there are so many antecedents!
Bruce Springsteen complained about Ronald Reagan using ‘Born in the USA’, Reagan had, of course, understood nothing about the song.
John Mellencamp asked that the 2008 campaign for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain stop using ‘Our Country’ and ‘Pink Houses’, and McCain's campaign effectively stopped playing the songs.
Sarah Palin used Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ for her grand entrance on stage during the 2008 Republican National Convention, leading the co-writer of song saying publicly he supported Obama.
If the politicians have bought the rights, legally the musicians cannot sue, but just complain, however, ads are legally different:
Jackson Browne sued 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain over the use of the song ‘Running on Empty’ in an ad and received an apology from the party.
David Byrne sued Florida Governor Charlie Crist over the use of the Talking Heads’ ‘Road to Nowhere’ in an Internet ad for his Senate primary campaign, and also received an apology.
And there are many other examples, but don’t you see a tendency? Why are all these conservative republican guys keep using songs written by liberals, people who are at the opposite spectrum of their political ideas? Can’t they find good songs written by conservative songwriters? Aren’t Ted Nugent’s songs good enough for them? Ted Nugent, or … that’s true the choice is not great. |
