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Monday, October 13, 2008
Are political uses of a song OK when artists object?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Washington Post opinion column by Christopher Sprigman and Siva Vaidhyanathan notes:
“After vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin finished her big speech at the Republican National Convention, the 1977 song ‘Barracuda,’ by the band Heart, blared out over the roar of the crowd. Convention organizers chose the music to highlight Palin’s high school basketball-team nickname, ‘Sarah Barracuda.’ But Heart’s songwriters, Ann and Nancy Wilson, were less than pleased.
“The sisters released a statement saying that ‘Sarah Palin’s views and values in no way represent us as American women’ and insisted that the McCain-Palin campaign not play their song. Their publisher, Universal Music Publishing, and their label, Sony BMG, sent a cease-and-desist letter to the campaign.”
Sprigman and Vaidhyanathan write that: “Artists should speak up, loudly, when they feel the use of their songs misrepresents their views, particularly if such use could create the public impression of an endorsement.”
But they argue, they should not be permitted to file a copyright lawsuit to prevent the political use of a song. Among the reasons: “There is an inherent tension between copyright law — which tells us what we cannot say, sing or perform — and the First Amendment, which protects against state censorship. In this case, the First Amendment must win. Rich and varied political speech — no matter how distasteful to recording artists or their fans — must prevail and stay free.”
Read the full column at washingtonpost.com
Are political uses of a song OK, even if used to support a candidate not in keeping with the artists’ ideology?
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