This is Sweet

So the Conservatives got themselves into trouble by putting together an ad which used a song without first obtaining permission. The song is the same one used on the show Apprentice (or was used, in case that show is no longer airing) and the lyrics are "money, money, money". I think it was a good add, and think the message had merit. I also kind of like the idea of not having restrictions on who can use what. For instance let's say that song was written by a very left wing person, and they don't want their music used to promote a right wing party - too fucking bad. Similarly a right wing artist (maybe not an oxymoron, but pretty uncommon) shouldn't have the ability to stop a left wing party from using their music.

There are some cases where if say NAMBLA used a work, and it was closely tied with someone's identity then I think that should be addressed through defamation, at least that area of torts (maybe something new could be created).

Anyways the fun part was that the Conservative ad - which maybe was only shown to journalists and not actually aired on a tv station (although the National showed and excerpt) - involved the Industry Minister who is responsible for revisions to the copyright act. I disagree with the position of the Liberals here who called it stealing (that's a bullshit term), but just the fact that this got raised in such a prime time way - I was like a _____ person watching a movie in New York and yelling at the screen when I saw this.