Infringements by Political Campaigns
TMZ:
Ann and Nancy Wilson are pissed at the Republican Party and have fired off a cease and desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign.
Does anything of consequence ever happen as a result of cease and desist letters from musicians (and other IP owners) to political campaigns? (I've heard of Van Halen, Jackson Browne, and now Heart in this campaign alone.) Has any campaign ever had to pay out significant damages?
More: thanks for the email pointing out that this is typically not a trademark issue.
Also: funny the legal issues are not so simple as they may seem at first blush - from an earlier controversy (Bush v. Orleans):
Put simply, we make our living by writing, recording and performing music. In America, when any entity sees fit to use any song for any gain, the appropriate procedure - and one that has always been followed in our experience by the dozens of entities, large and small, in the 28 years since "Still The One" was first a hit - is to contact the Publisher (administrator of the Copyright) in order to obtain a License Agreement. In using a particular recording of a song - in this case the original hit version - the related procedure (which is again customary, accepted and adhered to) is to also obtain a license from the owner of that Master Recording, in this case a multinational corporation.
This is the equivalent of obtaining a building permit before beginning construction of your home. If construction begins before the issuance of a license, construction can be halted by the regulating authorities.
From here it gets a bit more complex but the following is crucial to what happened in this case. As has been pointed out in the media, the Bush Campaign did have a 'Blanket License' from BMI (Broadcast Music International), a firm that collects performance royalties when its affiliated songs are played on the radio or used in a 'bulk' manner by any Licensee - restaurants, nightclubs, etc. However, "Still The One" was chosen, and announced, as a major featured song on the Campaign trail, not as incidental background music." Repeated uses at major public gatherings covered by major media were clearly planned, and indeed last Thursday and Friday rallies using the song were broadcast by networks and cable channels here and around the world.
BMI cannot grant a License for that kind of promotional use. The Blanket License from BMI is not relevant to the issue. The featured use of our Copyright without permission of the writers and performers, and without a License, is the issue. The legal issue would have been the same, had the Kerry campaign used the song without asking.
You can, of course, obtain a license - in the same way radio stations and webcasters do - that covers the performance right, but that may not necessarily protect you.This is the equivalent of obtaining a building permit before beginning construction of your home. If construction begins before the issuance of a license, construction can be halted by the regulating authorities.
From here it gets a bit more complex but the following is crucial to what happened in this case. As has been pointed out in the media, the Bush Campaign did have a 'Blanket License' from BMI (Broadcast Music International), a firm that collects performance royalties when its affiliated songs are played on the radio or used in a 'bulk' manner by any Licensee - restaurants, nightclubs, etc. However, "Still The One" was chosen, and announced, as a major featured song on the Campaign trail, not as incidental background music." Repeated uses at major public gatherings covered by major media were clearly planned, and indeed last Thursday and Friday rallies using the song were broadcast by networks and cable channels here and around the world.
BMI cannot grant a License for that kind of promotional use. The Blanket License from BMI is not relevant to the issue. The featured use of our Copyright without permission of the writers and performers, and without a License, is the issue. The legal issue would have been the same, had the Kerry campaign used the song without asking.
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