Musicians Hinder Mitt Romney's Ability to Select Campaign Music
Making public appearances, giving speeches, and interacting with voters have long been staples of political campaigns. However, in the past few years, presidential candidates have had to add one more concern to their list: the choice of music played at their campaign rallies and in their commercials. Republicans especially have struggled with this issue as many liberal musicians do not want to be associated with the party. Most recently, Twisted Sister's Dee Snider publicly objected to Mitt Romney's use of the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" to motivate his supporters.
Although musicians have sued politicians for using their songs without licenses in the past, an appellate court has yet to review such a case. The central issues of such cases include freedom of speech, whether a political performance license for political rallies received from ASCAP or BMI covers a politician's use of a song without a specific copyright license, whether use of an artist's song may violate federal trademark law by implying an endorsement, and whether a candidate improperly influenced the decision of a political action committee to use a certain song. Read more about this story here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/mitt-romney-gop-music-campaign-367985
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WPIX, Inc. v. ivi, Inc., USCA 2nd Circuit, August 27, 2012
Last month, the Second Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction enjoining defendant, ivi, Inc., from streaming television programs live over the Internet. Customers downloaded the ivi TV player onto their computers and paid a monthly fee. The defendant captured broadcast signals from stations in several major cities and retransmitted copyrighted television programming through its ivi TV player.
The Second Circuit relied on the U.S. Copyright Office's decision that Internet retransmission services do not constitute cable systems. The Court found that because ivi did not qualify as a cable system, the defendant was not entitled to a compulsory license to stream the plaintiff's copyrighted programming. To read more: Click here for a copy of the full decision or copy/paste this address into your browser: http://www.loeb.com/files/Publication/1b22a178-c7b2-41dd-9e0c-e1e69f74f149/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/a0fa3055-2b47-4530-b44e-e3b1724dc0bc/WPIX%20appeal.pdf
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Special thanks to Elina Troshina, BU law student, for her contributions to this week's post