Charlie Crist, Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Charlie Crist is the Governor of Florida. He was a Republican, but now he is running for U.S. Senate as an Independent. He switched May 13. Relax. This is not a political post, even though I think there is an inherent hypocrisy in being a Republican on Thursday, but Independent on Friday in an election year. You won't see much politics here, unless I am talking about tort reform (by the way, I'm against it).
Charlie Crist is getting sued by one of my favorite recording artists, David Byrne. Apparently, Byrne is accusing Crist of using one of his songs, "Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads in a campaign ad without permission. I hate people when they're not polite. I know, that seems like a strange title to use in a campaign ad. There is delicious irony in stealing a Talking Heads song to use in politics, a field populated by talking heads. I haven't seen the ad, but my understanding of the context is that it is being used to take a shot at Crist's opponent.
Byrne is mad as all get out. He is taking the "I am an artist, I do not license my songs for ads" approach, with a little "I do not want people to think I endorse this candidate or Republicans generally" thrown in. So he has filed a million-dollar lawsuit seeking damages for the unauthorized use of the song. He is represented by the same lawyer who represented Jackson Browne in a similar lawsuit against John McCain for using the song "Running on Empty" without permission. Byrne is an intelligent guy, and he makes a very credible argument as to why what was done with his song is not a legal "fair use" of the material.
Byrne's lawyer, Lawrence Iser, has commented in the New York Times that “[a]s an attorney and the former attorney general of Florida, Gov. Crist knows better.” Come on, Mr. Iser. The guy passed the bar on his third try. He's doing the best that he can.
Ultimately, I bet this case will go away more or less quietly. It's not good publicity for a candidate to get sued for stealing intellectual property. But it has allowed me to achieve one of my goals for this blog- quoting "Psycho Killer" in the title of a blog post.
