As we move further into a political season, we can expect to
hear a lot about copyright law. No, not that candidates will
campaign for copyright reform or pepper their speeches with their
positions on fair use, work for hire, or the first sale doctrine.
Rather, candidates will use copyrighted materials without
authorization, raising copyright infringement concerns and
complaints. This is nothing new — it has happened in most
political campaigns in the recent past and is already happening in
2018.
Candidates use lots of different copyrighted materials —
photos, print materials, videos, and music. Music seems to be the
most sensitive area, particularly because so many candidates seem
to pick theme songs written or performed by someone who totally
disagrees with the candidate. Ideological differences between a
candidate and a song's copyright owner are substantively
irrelevant under copyright law, but they affect the copyright
owner's likelihood of objecting to the use.
