Comments on: Another Aging Rocker Tells a Republican to Stop Using Song

By: Harry Hole

Harry Hole — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:01:48 +0000

Tom Scholz has a master’s degree from MIT, has invented many thing for Polaroid, recorded most of his multi-platinum records in his basement? Grow a brain ahole.

By: William

William — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:51:04 +0000

To Warner Todd Huston,

Get a clue. You’re way off base here, both on the music end of things AND on Tom’s intelligence. You didn’t do your homework and should be banished back to freshman English. I read the use of ‘Dude’ in his remark as a way to lighten up a serious situation.

Next time you decide to make a personal attack on someone, think twice and don’t do it. Report the facts. Keep your opinions to yourself. I feel I wasted my time even reading this.

By: newpublius

newpublius — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:34:56 +0000

Hey Dude,

Tom Scholz has all the right to protest the use of his song. And I don’t blame Springsteen for getting mad at people mis-using/mis-interpreting ‘Born in the USA’. Nor Mellencamp. Nor anyone else who objects to their property being used in ways in which they don’t like.

When I hear a song at a rally, I assume it is because someone actively chose the song - it didn’t pop out of the the iPod on shuffle. And thus the theme - and auteur - of the song are inextricably linked with the message the candidate is trying to impart. The performer/politician WANTS people to associate their positive feelings of the song with them. That an artists airs his feelings about this is neither novel nor questionable.

Tom Scholz is a great guitar player who wrote some songs that are still getting extensive airplay 30 years after they were written. In 30 years no one will remember much about Mike Huckabee. They’ll remember even less about his pedestrian bass-playing abilities. Unless of course they teach him some real skills in the re-education camp that we will send him to after the election.

By: D Bullock

D Bullock — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:13:55 +0000

So what you are really saying is that if somebody writes a song, and because in your eyes the author is a has-been, they then lose the right to control the songs use. Hmm, interesting that your self serving attitude speaks with greater volume than Boston ever used in concert.

By: Brad Smith

Brad Smith — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:03:36 +0000

I found your comments unpersuasive either in your personal attack on Scholz or your attack on “has-been rockers”. Why should an author of any copyrighted work not speak out if the work is either stolen or licensed against his or her wishes? I thought Republicans were all about property rights! Sincerely, Brad Smith

By: John Madill

John Madill — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:02:02 +0000

I’m with Scholz and Mellencamp on this one. If businesses need to license songs for use in advertising campaigns, then so should politicians.

With politics, however, artists usually donate the use of their songs to the candidates they endorse. As such, it would stand to reason there would be confusion in this case.

It is my guess that your complaint has little or nothing to do with intellectual property rights, and has more to do with the fact that Mr. Scholz objects to your candidate’s message.

My complaint with your article has nothing to do with your albeit thinly veiled political agenda, and everything to do with the rights of the owner of the Intellectual Property to determine how their property can be used. The fact that you insinuate that Huckabee should be able to use the song without permission is a prime example of why we have a problem with people stealing music. People, including you, don’t respect the rights of the owner.

-jm