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stories filed under: "corporate songs"
Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
copyright, corporate songs, fair use

Companies:
nixon peabody



Law Firm Freaks Out That Ridiculous Corporate Song Leaked Out To Blogs

from the enjoy-the-fame-of-the-Streisand-Effect dept

I must admit that there's something fascinating (in the "train wreck" sense) to me about corporate songs and anthems. It's amazing how many of them there are out there, and I'm disappointed that ZDNet UK gave up its old chart that supposedly tracked the popularity of those songs. While these songs are both awful and entertaining at the same time, you really wouldn't have expected there to be a copyright battle over one of them showing up on a blog... except, of course, if the song was about a law firm. Denise Howell points out that the Above the Law blog posted a horrifyingly awful song from the law firm Nixon Peabody. While you might think that any firm that would create a song that bad must have a sense of humor, it appears that Nixon Peabody not only didn't mean for the song to be funny, but they're taking the matter so seriously they're threatening Above the Law with copyright infringement. Of course, as the guy who runs the site notes, he has a pretty strong fair use defense on using the song (which the folks at Nixon Peabody apparently go to great lengths to claim is not a "theme song" since it bizarrely goes against New Jersey's rules of professional conduct for lawyers to advertise themselves with music). However, of course, as with any attempt to hide something, it seems likely this song is only going to get more attention.

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