Thursday, August 14, 2008

Jackson Browne Sues John McCain over Campaign's Illegal Use of Running on Empty

In a beautiful and hilarious twist, Jackson Browne is suing John McCain and the Republican National Committee over McCain's use of Brown's Running on Empty in a campaign ad. Apparently, the McCain campaign was stupid enough to assume that they didn't need to acquire legal rights to the copyrighted song before broadcasting it to millions of people.

Almost more interesting, however, is that they apparently also needed to get personal permission from Browne to use the song. Naturally, this has important implications for the use of music in any campaign – particularly since rock musicians predominantly support democrats.

Browne's lawyers issued the following statement:

"We are confident that Jackson Browne will prevail in this lawsuit. Not only have Senator McCain and his agents plainly infringed Mr. Browne's copyright in Running On Empty, but the Federal Courts have long held that the unauthorized use of a famous singer's voice in a commercial constitutes a false endorsement and a violation of the singer's right of publicity," Lawrence Iser of the Santa Monica, California law firm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert said. "In light of Jackson Browne's lifelong commitment to Democratic ideals and political candidates, the misappropriation of Jackson Browne's endorsement is entirely reprehensible, and I have no doubt that a jury will agree."


Awesome.

1 comment:

  1. Awesome! Add him to

    the list!


    Although Browne seems to be the first to go completely legal on his ass.

    ReplyDelete