A Republican House candidate from New Hampshire has used over a minute of the 80s hit "Cruel Summer" in a campaign video attacking his Democratic opponent, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter. The video from the campaign of Sean Mahoney -- which identifies itself as a "political parody" -- argues that the economic policies of Shea-Porter and the Obama Administration "have given us a cruel summer."
I have inquiries in to the Mahoney campaign as well as what I believe to be the copyright owners (Sony/ATV for the publishing and London Records for the master), to confirm what I strongly suspect: that the campaign did not get licenses for this use. (I will update this post when and if I hear back.) The self-imposed "parody" label notwithstanding, I think the copyright owners would have a very strong claim if they decided to pursue this. California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore (R) had a much more plausible claim to parody than does Mahoney -- and it was still a loser.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
1 comment:
Comments here are moderated. I appreciate substantive comments, whether or not they agree with what I've written. Stay on topic, and be civil. Comments that contain name-calling, personal attacks, or the like will be rejected. If you want to rant about how evil the RIAA and MPAA are, and how entertainment companies' employees and attorneys are bad people, there are plenty of other places for you to go.
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I strongly agree this is classic Satire not parody. The fair use case here is weak at best given the commercial nature and that the target of the advertisement is Joe Biden not the band whose work is used.
ReplyDeleteThanks for covering this.