McCain uses “My Hero” without Foo Fighters’ permission
Music is and always will be tied to politics in some way, and so not surprisingly, music has been a big part of this election. Barack Obama is straight up relishing in the overwhelming support of musicians. After all, everyone from Wilco to The Boss (aka Springsteen) has jumped on the bandwagon. John McCain on the other hand, just can’t get a break from the music scene, aside from John Rich and his daughter’s music blog. The latest to voice their opposition toward the Republican candidate?
The Foo Fighters, who weren’t to happy upon recently discovering McCain has been going all “My Hero” - from a music standpoint.
“It’s frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential,” the Foo Fighters said in a statement. “To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song — and start asking artists’ permission in general!”
Of course, this isn’t the first instance of McCain using music without permission. Jackson Browne, Boston, Eddie Van Halen, and John Mellencamp have all had similar complaints. All in all, I think it’s safe to say Obama has the hipster vote wrapped up.
McCain, I speak for many americans when I say that ur nothing but a big asshole. Sarah Palin, I want to F*@* Y*^ ** $%
FYI - without getting into all the legal mumbojumbo (though I will if this is not clear enough), McCain does not need permission from these artists to “use” the music for most purposes. Fair use entitles people who legally purchase music certain rights, so long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. There is more to fair use, but I’ll keep it simple for now.
Fair use allows us to play music for our friends and make copies, mixes, etc. Can you imagine if you had to track down the Foo Fighers to play one of their songs at a school dance? I don’t think they wrote their music with that sentiment in mind either.
Granted, politics is a touchy subject and some artists will take any available opportunity to express their opinions on hot issues. However, don’t confuse bands’ political opinions and protests with the legal issues here. The only situations in which McCain really needs to be concerned about licensing music is when it comes to advertisements and other commercial purposes.
I guarantee that you won’t see a law suit against McCain that actually makes it to court - mostly b/c his people would not misappropriate someone’s copyrighted material. In addition, any non-frivolous case against McCain would most likely be similar to Jackson Browne’s (see above), where McCain was not directly involved and the court would remove him as a party before any case makes it to trial.
I’m in NO WAY a Republican (though I mean no disrespect by making this statement), but I also wanted to point out that there are artists who strongly endorse McCain - and they’re not all of the country genre! For example, Daddy Yankee held a huge concert at the RNC and has publicly endorsed McCain. Bet you didn’t know that!