Frankie Valli's Label Gets McCain Video Pulled From YouTube

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http://washingtonindependent.com/view/frankie-vallis-label

Frankie Valli's Label Gets McCain Video Pulled From YouTube
By Matthew DeLong 07/28/2008 05:12PM

If there was one thing last week that succeeded in grabbing headlines for the McCain campaign, it was the "Obama Love" web video, which documented what the campaign portrayed as the media's puppy love for Sen. Barack Obama. The campaign released two versions of the video, each set to a Frankie Valli tune, and asked viewers to vote for their preferred version. There was just one problem: the McCain campaign never licensed the music from The Warner Music Group, which owns the rights to the songs, and was forced to pull the video. From Wired, via Politico's Jonathan Martin:

The Warner Music Group asserted its copyright claim against YouTube, which is the reason for the take-down. McCain's campaign has re-posted the video, sans Warner's intellectual property.

This is not the first dispute the McCain campaign has had over intellectual property. As Wired notes:

In October, Fox News went after McCain for using a clip from a debate appearance on its network in a web ad called "Tied Up."

The ad used a clip of McCain criticizing Hillary Clinton for an earmark.

Fox's lawyers argued at the time that the clip's use didn't constitute fair-use because the campaign was using it to raise money -- therefore it was a commercial use of the footage.

John Mellencamp also had to issue a "cease and desist" request earlier this year when the McCain campaign was using a couple of the rocker's tunes at rallies. Mellencamp is an outspoken Democrat who supported John Edwards during the primaries.

When the "Obama Love" video was released, I wrote a particularly self-indulgent analysis of the wisdom of choosing Frankie Valli in the first place. I guess I overlooked what is possibly the most important aspect of music selection: if the music you choose is copyrighted, you have to pay the licensing fee!