Comments on: Don Henley battles Republicans over YouTube video

Rock singer sues to prevent U.S. Senate candidate from using his music. Candidate says he has a First Amendment right to the song. YouTube is caught in the middle.

[solitare_pax]

Either these Republicans should hire their own conservative songwriters, or they should stick to using songs by dead composers who will not complain.

Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" comes to mind right about now...

[Perry_Clease]

O Fortuna

[ralfthedog]

1. Because of his tactics, I am sending Barbra Boxer a rather large donation.

2. I am sending the DeVore campaign an email telling them that I am sending a donation and why.

3. I have never been a Don Henley fan, but I am buying a song or two from him on iTunes just to give him a bit of support.


With any luck, Henley will make a few commercials for Boxer talking about how much of a slime ball tactic this was. With any luck, DeVore's political career is over (Next up, used car sales.)

[golfsalot]

Ban Henley and the Eagles from the airwaves? Five # 1 Singles, Six #1 Albums, Six Grammy Awards, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Members.The Eagles Greates Hits 1971-1975 was the first Platinum album certified by the RIAA® And now, that album has reached over 26 million copies, becoming the best-selling album of the 20th century. I don't think any of the American Idol stars of the last few years will have a similar resume 35 or 40 years from now. As for Devore and politicians like him,I hope Mr. Henley and other musicians stop these intellectually challenged individuals from using their work. Why don't these politicians create their own material?

[TennisBill]

Riddle me this:
If Barbara Boxer used Henley's song in a political ad would Devore sue her?

I know it is hard for some but be honest.

[Perry_Clease]

Does Henley support Barbara Boxer?

[ment2b]

Republicans in general and especially the talk show host like Rush, Mark Levin and others amaze me. Everyone knows they are and always was anti rock and roll, but still they use rock as lead in's to their show to act as if they are cool and hip to attract the rockers. One thing you can say for Sean Hannity is he makes no bones about using redneck country and western. So yeah, the right wingers should back off rock music and lyrics which they have no real use for.

[Endbringer]

Your ignorance knows no bounds. Rock music is not solely in the liberal camp. What about metal bands? A LOT of them are for the troops and are against liberal policies, but that doesn't mean all metal is liberal. You are stereotyping music and a group of people. Why do you hate country and western music? Those are genuine American musical styles and you bash them. I personally do not like country, but at least I respect it.

[muzakaz]

so charge them royalties. if he doesn't want his music used, then let him pick and choose. who gives a ****.

[BouncingSouls]

I think you all need to brush up on your copyright law.

Parody has to make fun of the *original* work. The Supreme Court's most famous case on that is Campbell v. Acuff-Rose (the 2LiveCrew case) where the court said that "parody [is] a 'literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule,'... For the purposes of copyright law, the heart of any parodist's claim to quote from existing material, is the use of some elements of a prior author's composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author's works."

Here DeVore is NOT commenting on Henley's work.. He's using it to mock Boxer, not Henley. Hence, this is NOT parody, and therefore NOT fair use. (it may be "satire" but that does not fall into the fair-use category). [Furthermore, his First Amendment rights have nothing to with this whatsoever -- you can't make a First Amendment claim against a non-government actor].

What DeVore is doing is clearly demonstrating that he does not understand the law well enough to have the task of writing it.

[Endbringer]

Parodies do not have to make fun of the original work. What about Paul Shanklin? He is not making fun of the original works, but his parodies are legal. You yourself might want to brush up a little more in this regard.

[spyeye1]

Who cares? His music is boring and monotonous anyway. He should be so lucky to have anyone listen to it. Eagles suck.

[spyeye1]

Anti rock and roll? Give me a break! One of Rush's best friends is Ted Nugent!

[Jgor01]

Sorry, Charlie, but copyright infringement has a lot of precedence. Little Roger and the Goosebumps were successfully sued by Led Zeppelin for doing a great parody of Stairway To Heaven with the lyrics to Gilligan's Island. Last heard, it was rumored Robert Plant was scouring London record shops trying to find a banned copy. This story was covered by Rolling Stone, among other publications.

[Jgor01]

I see a comment about parody needing permission. I don't know all the ins and outs of entertainment and copyright law, but if you're copying a recognizable piece, you're better off getting it OK'd. Later Little Roger's band did a song called "Kennedy Girls" set to Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl." I presume they got permission, especially after the "Stairway to Gilligan's Island" debacle, because they allegedly had Neil Young's engineer and instrumental tracks for the session to match the original sound.

[rboy505]

First of all, Weird Al has to get permission to release his parodies, and sometimes he doesn't so he doesn't.

Second, DeVore's showed poor judgement on violating the US Terms Of Copyright, but mainly in letting himself be associated with Don Henley music.

[jimmyhoops]

Typical Republican, twist the law in any way possible to further your own agenda. It's funny how the Republican party is pretty much limited in their music choices since no pop or rock singer worth their salt wants to be associated with a Republican. It's time to teach the R's a lesson...that you can't steal and expect to get away with it.

This candidates legal claim to political free speech is ridiculous. We have copyright laws for a reason and this candidate has clearly violated them.

[Endbringer]

Your hatred of Americans is showing. Republican, and mostly democrat, twist the laws in ways that were not intended by the founders and lawmakers. Why do you hate republicans so much when democrats trample on our rights all the same?

As a side note, I bet you download MP3s without paying for them. Where's your sense of laws and morality about that?

[Chiatzu]

Don't forget about Heart not liking Palin playing Barracuda. I hated it, too, since it's such a kick-butt song and it taints it to have it associated with it. I think they finally reached an agreement where any money they received for its use went back into Obama's campaign fund. Don't quote me on that, though.

I don't see how they can remove copyrighted songs from some kids for-fun YouTube videos, but Devore thinks it's his American right to use a popular copyrighted song to help finance his run for U.S. Senate and land the job. I haven't seen the video in question, but why couldn't they just remove the song from the video instead of the whole video? That's SOP on YouTube. If Devore wasn't such a _rick he'd just do what Henley requested and find some other song to pirate.

[ewelch]

Republicans stole my news photographs and used them in political ads. And they didn't have to courage to even return my calls. Fascists always think they're above the law.

[Endbringer]

Nice way to say some republicans stole some photographs on a public forum without any proof. Keep up the good work!

Our current, popular democratic President and democrat-led Congress has promoted the use of fascist tactics to get their liberal policies enacted. Take the economic recovery policies recently enacted as an example. President Obama has taken de facto control of two private companies, General Motors and Chrysler. Fascism dictates that the government controls the companies without actually owning them themselves. That is exactly what Obama has done. The Democrats have also done the exact same thing with our banking system by controlling the banks and even controlling AIG, which isn't even a bank. They violated their own TARP law because AIG isn't a bank, yet they took control of it anyway, unlawfully. All of this was done and promoted by Democrats. Liberals and Democrats are far more fascist than conservatives ever will be.

[cliff5550]

I bet Ann Coulter has a field day with this one.
The rank and file Repubs just hate those nasty liberals until they need their talent or need to sign-up for one of their nasty "Socialistic" government programs.

[cliff5550]

I bet Ann Coulter has a field day with this one.
The rank and file Repubs just hate those nasty liberals until they need their talent or need to sign-up for one of their nasty "Socialistic" government programs.

[Endbringer]

Your hatred of fellow Americans is showing.

Would Henley have been as upset if a Democrat candidate has used his song? I think NOT since Henley has long been an insuferable lib!

[rapier1]

However, its up to Henley to decide if he agrees with how *his* work is being used. Not you and not DeVore. So if Henley has no problem with a democrat using his works then thats fine and not hypocritical at all. Lets say you were a musician - would you be upset if someone you disagreed with used your creative work to promote an agenda you don't subscribe to?

[codynews]

Bottom line, we can all agree on this: If it were a DEMOCRAT using the guys song, THERE WOULD BE NO LAWSUIT

Cody

[Perry_Clease]

Doesn't matter. Henley has a right to support political candidates of his choice and he has a right to defend his music from copyright violation.

[Endbringer]

@ Perry_Clease

Actually, he doesn't have a choice. If you know and willingly allow your copyright works to be infringed upon then all subsequent infringement is allowed. That is why most businesses sue for infringement all the time, even if they wanted to allow the infringement for a specific case. Henley cannot just let a liberal politician use his works and then sue a conservative. He can license the use of his works to the liberal and not to the conservative, but he cannot just let it happen.

[markdoiron]

Endbringer wrote: "... If you know and willingly allow your copyright works to be infringed upon then all subsequent infringement is allowed ..."

I think you're confusing copyright law with trademark law (which does provide for loss of the trademark, as you describe). --mark d.

[Endbringer]

"I think you're confusing copyright law with trademark law (which does provide for loss of the trademark, as you describe). --mark d."

Copyright law has the same provisions in this regard as trademark law.

[spoonie1972]

I'm surprised he didn't use "Dirty Laundry"

*rimshot*