- Saturday, 11 July 2009
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US presidential candidate is a pirate
THE PRESUMED Republican US presidential candidate John McCain favours draconian copyright enforcement, except when his own election campaign uses other people's music.
McCain released his campaign platform statements recently, which support the music and film industries' desire to stamp out file-sharing by individuals. His election platform reads:
"John McCain Will Protect The Creative Industries From Piracy. The entertainment industry is both a vital sector of the domestic economy and among the largest US exporters. While the Internet has provided tremendous opportunity for the creators of copyrighted works, including music and movies, to distribute their works around the world at low cost, it has also given rise to a global epidemic of piracy. John McCain supports efforts to crack down on piracy, both on the Internet and off."
But McCain has featured copyrighted musical clips in his own televised political campaign advertisements without first obtaining the required permissions from the copyright holders.
In the past, his campaign has been caught using various entertainment content owned by ABBA, Chuck Berry, John Hall, John Mellencamp, filmmaker Mike Myers of Wayne's World and Frankie Valli without permission, and has been either shamed or threatened into discontinuing use of the offending material.
Now singer-songwriter Jackson Browne has sued John McCain and the Republican Party because the Ohio Republican Party is using Browne's song "Running on Empty" in a TV attack ad against McCain's front-running Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama. Browne, a far left-wing Democrat himself, is reportedly seeking unspecified damages and a permanent injunction barring McCain's campaign from further use of "Running on Empty."
Browne's lawyer Lawrence Iser said "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."
Lily Tomlin said, "No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up." She was right. µ
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... you struggle to be a political commentator.

Stick to what you know, and keep your Socialism over on your continent.

Oh, and if find you can't resist making comments about people plagiarizing, then be a mensch and report on the actions of BOTH candidates not just the opponent of your Messiah...
The Republican Party's motto should be " Do what I say, not what I do "
Musicians don't personally endorse every use of their song. Usually if you want to use a song, you get a license from the RIAA. Now most musicians are very very liberal in this country and don't like Republicans using their music at all. If McCain did not obtain a license from the RIAA then there is a problem. If he did, and some ninny musician is now complaining that he didn't get permission personally from him/her, that is a whole different story.

You may notice that people running as Democrat's never have this problem. Big big double standard. Heck these guys are willing to whore out their songs to anything and anyone, as long as they are not a conservative politician.
Just because his campaign people have used music without permission, how does that make John McCain a pirate? We all know that most of the time, John McCain does not call the shots for many of the campaign advertisements. If he knowingly knows that there is something wrong, then he will have it pulled immediately. The INQ is in the tank with MSNBC along with the far-left liberal media of the US for Obama ... oh wait, I am writing about the INQ ... never mind, everyone knows this to be the truth-machine of the UK ...
He'll still beat Obomba or whatever his name is.
He says he's running on empty.

We're not sure where his cosmeticians
Half a mile from Tucson 
By the mournin light threw in
A Grateful Dead refrain

But it ain't got that Schwing
If it's vain on McCain
And should be foot-stompin
Judgment with a flogging cane

Shake a fist, Jackson

"I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind"

Adios, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehn!
>pop<
The republicans have typically nominated "Daddy" candidates in an attempt to shroud themselves in the steady, authoritative mythos of the father. And just like the typical dad, it seems that John McCain is dispensing that universal pearl of daddy wisdom: "Do as I say, not as I do." And when we ask why? "Because, I'm the dad and you're not."

Did you really expect him to behave in any other way?
The song in question Was Not Used by McCain or the National Republican Party. It was used by an independent political action committee, a distinction lost on Mr. Browne as well.
If Jackson Browne is "far left" for being anti-nuclear and for peace, then I'm Mao Tse Tung.
"Just because his campaign people have used music without permission, how does that make John McCain a pirate?"

As a wannabe president of the USA, he should naturally be held to the highest possible moral standards, and as a possible future leader, and arguably most powerful-person-in-the-world, should be in full control of his own campaign. So yeah it does make him a pirate.

Having just been on holiday to Arizona for 2 weeks, I can't help but constantly lol at your "left wing bias" media. You've obviously never read balanced British broadsheets. I am not exaggerating when I say that sensationalist papers and news programs, even apparently balanced ones like CNN, make the daily mail look sedate and socialist.

"Big big double standard." Sorry, what? Do you think any media ever produced should automatically be available for anyone to use for any purpose? Regardless of the author's own personal beliefs? Because if you do, welcome to socialism! O that irony hurts doesn't it?
See 
http://copyright-litigation.blogspot.com/2008/08/chinese-hacker-claims-innocence-under.html