Marjorie Taylor Greene Did Not Forget About Dre, But Did Forget About The Copyright Act
Gross misunderstanding of the law? That's nothin' but a Majorie Taylor G thang.
(Photo by Erin Scott-Pool/Getty Images)
After speed dialing Donald Trump to push Kevin McCarthy’s humiliating bid for the Speakership over the line, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-January 6) felt the need to celebrate on social media. Why she wants to position herself as some sort of key component in McCarthy’s 1-14 record is a mystery, but a win’s a win.
It turned out that her social media savvy earned her some attention… in the form of a cease and desist letter for brazen copyright infringement.
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Insurrectionism is a gateway crime.
Or at least a gateway to violations of the Copyright Act. In this case, Greene used Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.” as the musical backing for her Kevin McCarthy hype video — there’s four words you won’t see in a sentence ever again — and that’s not the sort of thing you can do without a license. It’s also a weird choice because if there’s anything about the McCarthy Speaker balloting that reminds me of Dre it’s a whole lot of beats.
Howard E. King of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano fired off a scathing diss track:
The use of “Still D.R.E.” without permission constitutes copyright infringement in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 501. One might expect that, as a member of Congress, you would have a passing familiarity with the laws of our country. It’s possible, though, that laws governing intellectual property are a little too arcane and insufficiently populist for you to really have spent much time on. We’re writing because we think an actual lawmaker should be making laws not breaking laws, especially those embodied in the constitution by the founding fathers.
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As King’s letter put it, it’s hard to believe a legislator thought she could get away with this. Did she really believe Dr. Dre was dead and locked in the basement? Because even if she did, she should know copyright protection continues for another 70 years and it’s only been 23 since the Marshall Mathers LP.
In any event, the video is already down, so the letter seems to have done the trick.
Full letter on the next page….
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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