Copyright laws ignored by people who know better

Copyright laws are universal and exist to protect the rights of the owner of a song, book, story, piece of music or any creative work.

Such works are allowed to be used for commercial or other purposes only if licensed to do so by the owner, and then usually temporarily.

That’s why you can’t use popular music behind a radio commercial unless the licence has been purchased for that express purpose. To feed that market, millions of hours of copyright-free music has been produced and that is what you hear on the radio behind the voice-over. Even that has to be paid for through such agencies as Apra which guard the rights of the writers and performers.

So when Donald Trump, or any politician, uses the work of an artist or musician as campaign material, one would expect they have bought the right to do so. Uh-uh. Not so.

The Rolling Stones have had enough, as have a long list of other writers and performers who hear their songs being played at political rallies.

When Donald Trump leaves the stage to You Can’t Always Get What You Want, he is breaking the law. He has not bought the licence to use that song. He is in breach of copyright and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have every right to sue him, which is what they have finally threatened to do.

They have had enough of his flagrant flouting of copyright law and are preparing to sue the US President if he does it again.

They have asked nicely that he stop using the music but they have been ignored.

The family of Tom Petty, owners of the copyright of the late singer / songwriter’s material, objected to the use of I Won’t Back Down at his Tulsa rally, and Brendon Urie objected to the use of one of his songs at the same rally.

You just can’t use any music for any purpose, especially a public purpose, without obtaining a licence to do so. Trump knows that: he’s been told off enough — and his lawyers should certainly know that. But it doesn’t seem to matter. For years he has been breaking copyright law with impunity, using any music he pleases to score audio points at his rallies.

Since when is the US President above the law? Thank goodness it could never happen here . . . could it?

Helmet law

A law has recently been enacted in the Cook Islands — if you ride a motorcycle (or scooter) you must wear a helmet.

Helmet laws had already been in place but a lot of people, those outside the ages of 16-25 were

The Rolling Stones have had enough, as have a long list of other writers and performers who hear their songs being played at political rallies.

exempt unless they rode more than 40km/h. Now, everyone must wear a helmet and the objections are coming thick and fast.

A glance at Cook Islands News’ letters to the editor shows the range of reasons why either no one should be forced to wear helmets, or everyone, including pedestrians and motorcar drivers should be helmeted.

The same thing happened here in New Zealand in the 1970s. Since 1955 motorcyclists have had to wear a helmet if on the open road or exceeding 30mph (50km/h), but in 1973 a law was introduced so everyone on a motorcycle, including those riding in urban areas, had to wear a helmet, no matter what speed you were doing.

Before the law came into force there was pandemonium in the opinion pages! How dare the Government tell us what to do, etc, etc, including bogus statistics suggesting helmets didn’t save lives, could cause whiplash, headaches and all sorts of convenient health complaints.

It seemed almost every motorcyclist did not want to wear a helmet, or at least did not want to be told to do so. They called it, among other things, a gross infringement of personal liberty.

Of course there were people who actually knew better — professional motorcycle racers among them — who advocated helmet use but the movement against the law was huge. To no avail, obviously, because the law came into effect on December 1, 1973, and we all complied . . . well, not all: I still remember seeing wellknown Wanganui motorcyclists flying along the open road, long hair tangling in the wind, unencumbered by the “compulsory” helmet.

So now it’s happening all over again to our Cook Islands cousins and are they kicking up merry hell, recycling the same arguments against (and for) with little regard for history and its consequences.

There is little doubt the opponents will succumb, gracelessly, and before too long everyone will take helmets for granted, as they have here and all around the world.

Britain also introduced motorcycle helmet laws in 1973, in spite of opposition from some high profile politicians, including Enoch Powell, who saw the laws as an attack on personal freedom.

Such laws come about as a consequence of studies, statistics and a general desire to keep people safe, but motorcycle helmet laws in the Cook Islands are late, 85 years after neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns pushed for helmet use after the death of Lawrence of Arabia in 1935.