Some things never change. So it’s logical that as Election Day 2010 nears, songwriters and politicians are again feuding over copyright infringement.
In May ex–Talking Heads leader David Byrne filed an infringement claim in federal district court in Florida against the state’s Republican governor, Charlie Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate as an independent. Byrne seeks $1 million in damages for Crist’s use of the Talking Heads’ 1985 song “Road to Nowhere” in a campaign video posted on YouTube. (As of July, Crist’s campaign had not filed an answer to Byrne’s suit.) In June, a lawyer for Canadian power trio Rush’s record label sent Rand Paul, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, a letter accusing him of violating copyright laws by using one Rush song in a fund-raising video and playing another at rallies. Those dustups follow last year’s dispute between Don Henley and would-be California Republican Senate candidate Chuck Devore over Devore’s use of a Henley song in a campaign video. (The judge in the case ruled for Henley on summary judgment.) Then there’s 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain, whose use of pop songs drew cease-and-desist letters from Heart, John Mellencamp, and the Foo Fighters, as well as a suit by Jackson Browne over a pro-McCain ad that used Browne’s “Running on Empty.” (The suit eventually settled.)
