MONTREAL - A Montreal music publishing company has sent a strong message to Newt Gingrich’s campaign.
Third Side Music has sent Gringrich a cease and desist ordering them to stop using the song “How You Like Me Now” at campaign events.
The song is by the British band The Heavy and Third Side has the rights to the song.
Jeff Waye of Third Side said he was very surprised to hear the song associated with Gingrich’s recent jump in popularity.
“Neither us, nor the band have particularly approved the usage of it,” he told Global News.
Montreal lawyer Michael Solis feels this case is pretty clear cut.
“Most copyright acts, including the Canadian copyright act reserve the right of the presentation of a work in public to the copyright owner,” adding that he was surprised that Gingrich’s campaign team didn’t know that.
This is certainly not the first time someone’s music has been co-opted by a political campaign.
Other examples include Tom Petty’s "American Girl," which Michelle Bachmann used last year, "Heart’s “Baraccuda" which was played by Sarah Palin in 2008, and of course the time when Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA" during his 1984 campaign.
Politico’s National Political Editor Charles Mahtesian notes that this is a “time honoured problem in political campaigns."
“It’s a question of politics”, he says, “the artists' community tends to lean towards the left and to be more democratic and obviously don’t like conservative politicians using their music at conservative events.”
As far as the band and their label are concerned, it’s not so much about being associated with any specific ideology, it’s more about maintaining control over their music.
Jeff Waye thinks the whole thing is kind of funny.
“I think it's hilarious in a lot of ways that I go into work every morning to do a lot of things, and most of the time, I'm not thinking I'm gonna go to war with Newt Gingrich."
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