The American band Dropkick Murphys tweeted their anger to Scott Walker after he walked onstage to their song, “I’m Shipping Up To Boston.”
Content creators, including musicians, have every right to control their creations – that’s what copyright is for. Yet conservatives continually “steal” music and other content from artists, photographers, writers, and others. NOM, for example, has been slammed by John Mellencamp and Peter, Paul, and Mary for unauthorized use of their music. Sarah Palin was threatened with a lawsuit for unauthorized use of an iconic photo on a 9/11 anniversary. And GOP probable presidential hopeful Ben Carson recently had to defend himself in a plagiarism scandal.
The latest to earn the ire of artists is Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
As he walked onstage Saturday at Rep. Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit, the song “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” by Dropkick Murphys played. The band was not happy, and later that day tweeted this:
The AV Club reports the Dropkick Murphys “are staunchly pro-workers’ rights,” adding their “beef goes all the way back to 2011, when Walker introduced a bill that was designed to straighten-out Wisconsin’s budget—and yes, it’s just as exciting as that makes it sound. In order to fix the budget, one of Walker’s ideas—among many others—was to drastically limit the collective bargaining capabilities of most public employees. Basically, he made their unions powerless. Some people were, in a word, pissed.”
Watch:
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
Hat tip: Talking Points Memo