David Byrne Sues Charlie Crist For Musical Crimes
It was just last year that John WALNUTS! McCain had to pay a million Ameros to Jackson Browne for illegally using that "Running On Empty" song, and the Steve Miller Band only this year had to force Florida wingnut Marco Rubio to stop his campaign's illegal use of the FM oldie "Take the Money and Run." Did Republicans learn their lesson, at all? No, because they are all criminals. And now David Byrne has sued Charlie Crist for a million bucks because Crist's campaign brazenly used the Talking Heads' song "Road To Nowhere" without permission, licensing or payment.
"I was pretty upset by that," says Byrne, who had Warner Bros. Records contact the Crist campaign, which subsequently stopped using the ad. But, Byrne contends, "in my opinion the damage had already been done by it being out there. People that I knew had seen (the ad), so it had gotten around. The suit, he adds, "is not about politics ... It's about copyright and about the fact that it does imply that I would have licensed it and endorsed him and whatever he stands for."
Byrne's lawyer is the same attorney who successfully sued the McCain campaign for its 2008 use of the Jackson Browne song. And here is a link to David Byrne's blog, because it's a very interesting Web Journal. Look at all the crazy Icelandic volcano stuff!