Irish Bill originally posted this on 1 December 2007. For no reason at all we thought it warranted a reprint.
Remember when the National Party threatened the Standard with copyright infringement? Nothing ever came of it of course because we had the fair defence of satire. But at the time we figured it showed the Nats were tuned it to intellectual property rights and the misuse of others people’s material. How wrong we were. According to an article in today’s Herald our litigious mates may have bitten off more than they can chew after ripping off Coldplay’s “Clocks” for their dull and expensive John Key promotional DVD. As musicologist (and Dunedin music legend) Graham Downes puts it:
If I were approached by a lawyer to furnish a report for a prosecution of copyright infringement against the music on the DVD I would happily do so. If approached by a lawyer to furnish a report in its defence, I would decline.
It’s kinda funny that the party that considers itself the party of business and claims to be “ambitious for New Zealand” would make such a basic property rights blunder and do so while trying to riff off an overseas band rather than getting some decent original Kiwi music. I’d expect National will be getting a cease and desist from EMI sometime soon. I wonder what my copy will be worth on trademe then.
David Farrar had this to say at the time:
I blogged my views about this on Saturday. It’s very messy and not a good look. I suppose the bright side is it happened this year not with say the election campaign itself, but it’s an own goal that will hurt. I think I can safely predict it won’t happen again!
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