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Arts and Culture

David Byrne Hits Charlie Crist With Suit Over Song

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Posted on May 27, 2010
David Byrne
Wikimedia Commons / livepict.com

That would be a no: David Byrne wasn’t having Gov. Crist’s unauthorized use of “Road to Nowhere.”

Let it be understood that Talking Heads’ 1985 classic tune “Road to Nowhere” was not intended for use in political campaigns. Embattled Florida Gov. Charlie Crist found this out the hard way after setting a campaign ad to the song without singer/composer David Byrne’s permission—which he clearly wouldn’t have gotten anyway—and subsequently facing a $1 million lawsuit, which led to Crist’s wise choice to pull the ad off the air. Silver fox smackdown!  —KA

Page Six in the New York Post:

The rocker wrote on his Web site: “If Crist and his campaign folks had asked to use the song, I would have said no—even if they had offered a lot of money, such as I have been offered in the past for ad use (though I’ve always turned these offers down) ... So, my lawyers and I have filed a lawsuit—and we also hope the Republicans might not engage (again) in this kind of illegal behavior in the future.”

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Samson's avatar

By Samson, May 30, 2010 at 11:42 pm Link to this comment

If a college student ‘steals’ music to listen to it, they face lawsuits and fines and jail time.

If a politician steals a song to mislead people, they get off with a slap on the wrist.

Politicians will constantly tell us that only serious jail time deters criminals.  I’d rather imagine that’s a constant theme in the campaign of a Republican governor in an insane place like Florida.

So, surely the answer to this is that this Republican governor will be spending time in an orange jump suit for this ... right?

Surely he won’t try to talk his way out of it.  After all, as a Republican governor in the heartland of the crazies, I’d imagine that he goes on at great lengths about the need for “personal responsibility”

So, Crist should take his own personal responsibility and report to the nearest Florida State Prison for the next year.  Take responsibility for your actions.

—————————————-
Of course, its in moments like this that you realize that the tough-on-crime, take-responsibility stances of politicians are all total lies. Jail is for other people.

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By jack, May 27, 2010 at 11:21 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

this isn’t about political positions - it’s simply the law - incredibly, or not so, in the
digital age, the protection of ones right to control their intellectual property (especially
artistic), is literally incomprehensible to virtually everyone - law makers and
administrators have ignored it, the military has ignored it - almost every kid with an ipod
ignores it - do a google search for digital rights management (DRM) software and you
get 10 times more hits on programs to defeat DRM encryption code - the hackers win
every time

- the absolute irony in all of this is that in this era there is no longer a need for artists,
only for celebrities - the art, per se, can be (and in many cases is) virtually
manufactured… not so easily done with celebrities, whose roles off stage are as big as on
- but alas, in the ultimate virtual reality (probably not so far off), there’ll be no need for
celebrities either - everyone can be a virtual celebrity, and it will be downloadable

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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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