Sunday, July 31, 2016
But Wait: Copyright Law Is So Screwed Up, Perhaps The Rolling Stones Are Right That Donald Trump Needed Their Permission
Techdirt: So for years and years and years, every time a musician or a group whined about politicians using their music at an event, we'd point out that they have no legal basis to complain. Assuming either the venue or the campaign (or both) had the proper blanket licenses from ASCAP/BMI/SESAC no other permission was needed. That's actually part of the point of the structure of those blanket performance licenses.
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Legal issues aside, politicians should not use a musician's work unless that artist agrees to it for artistic reasons. Music, well good music, has a message, a meaning, and by associating that artist's work with your political message you arbitrarily decide to corrupt their original intentions and maybe dissuade people from listening to their music. Now that we've discussed the issues creatively, we must look at the legal basis by which the decision is made wherein the artist has no say over whether or not their music is used.
With laws as tangled and confusing as copyright law, I believe that one should always stray on the side of caution. To use an artist's work when you haven't asked for permission and you're 'not suuuure' if you're legally allowed to is just plain disrespectful. Often people who do these kind of things will defend themselves with the legal argument at the first opportunity, revealing that they plainly know that it's wrong. The defensiveness of "also it's TECHNICALLY not illegal" is basically equal to admitting that you're being disrespectful to the artist and, if they're not as famous as the Rolling Stones, attempting to claim their art as your own. Of course, someone like Donald Trump probably doesn't care about respecting artists or being cautious about legal technicalities. But it's important that all consumers of artistic works, especially those produced by independent artists, know what is appropriate and what is not.
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