‘Risk-free’ music bites National
The National Party had reassurances it had done things ‘‘100 per cent correctly’’ in picking music to go with its 2014 election campaign adverts, the party manager says.
The copyright holders for the hit Eminem song Lose Yourself disagreed, and the party and its manager/secretary Gregory Hamilton were sued in the High Court at Wellington.
The American rap artist Eminem, who was one of three creators of Lose Yourself, was not a party to the case, which was brought by two United States companies that have the right to enforce copyright.
Some details of the copyright ownership arrangement were confidential.
The party’s adverts used a ‘‘soundalike’’ track called Eminem Esque by US composer Michael Cohen.
The court was told that when someone in the party suggested it sounded like Lose Yourself the party sought assurances that using the music was free from risk.
Yesterday, Hamilton told Justice Helen Cull that they had professionals who did it for ‘‘bread and butter’’, and sent them away to get reassurance that it was done correctly. He received the assurance that it had been done 100 per cent correctly, and a licence to use the music was bought from the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS).
He was told there was no possibility of a copyright issue arising and the use was risk-free, so he did not consult a lawyer, he said.
But on Thursday the head of legal, corporate and policy for AMCOS, Jonathan Carter, said the production licence bought the right to use that composer’s work. It was not a guarantee against claims from third parties.
AMCOS did not give warranties about copyright on production licences, he said.
The National Party paid $4802 to use Eminem Esque.
When a complaint was received that Eminem Esque infringed the Lose Yourself copyright, the party spent more than $18,000 urgently commissioning two composers to create replacement music for the adverts.
The Eminem Esque version of the adverts played for less than two weeks in the second half of August 2014, but were broadcast more than 180 times.
Also giving evidence yesterday was film director Glenn Jameson, who said he did an early version of the advert using Lose Yourself because the beat was a good match with the visuals of rowers’ oars hitting the water.
When cross-examined, Jameson said he saw no problem with using Lose Yourself for his early version of the advert, because that was never going to be broadcast.
He asked a music specialist to find music that sounded like Lose Yourself.
Classical music was also found to try as an alternative.
The decision was made to proceed with the Eminem Esque music composed by Cohen. Based on many years of experience, Jameson said he thought it was safe to use because a licence was paid for it. It was also discernibly different from Lose Yourself.
The title of the soundalike track did not raise any flags for him. Production music with titles including ‘‘Esque’’ were common. It was in the public domain, they were paying a licence fee to use it, and it had been used commercially previously without incident.
Eminem released Lose Yourself in 2002.
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, wrote Lose Yourself with Jeff Bass and Luis Resto.
Eminem Esque composer Cohen was approached to give evidence in the court case and declined.
The hearing continues on Monday.