The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Chris Cassone’s Tea Party Anthem Ripped Off by the New Yorker

Posted on | January 27, 2010 | 4 Comments

Can you say “copyright infringement,” boys and girls?

A gray-haired man in a blue velvet jacket and sneakers started inching toward the center of the room with an acoustic guitar. He had a “Reagan for President” button on his shoulder strap and a “Hoffman for Congress” sticker on his case.
[T]hey invited the guitarist to play, and before long Hank from Gravesend and Julie from Chelsea and Kellen from Morningside Heights were singing along to the chorus of a folk anthem in that great American tradition:
Take it back,
Take our country back.
Our way of life is now under attack.
Draw a line in the sand, so they all understand
And our values stay intact.
Take it back.

The editors of the New Yorker can be excused for not knowing that the “gray-haired man” is Chris Cassone, a professional singer-songwriter and recording engineer — he used to jam with Ace Frehley of Kiss back in the day — whose song “Take Our Country Back” is (a) available on CD, (b) copyrighted, and (c) soon to be featured in a book that Chris is writing about the Tea Party movement. And guess what? Chris Cassone has a blog:

The New Yorker refused to give me credit for the chorus of my song which they reproduced without a copyright notice.  And their authors rant about the big bad monolithic Republican-Wall Street cabal, yet it is THEY who are steamrolling over my rights.

The editors of the New Yorker didn’t know all that when they published Ben McGrath’s story — without any credit whatsoever to Chris Cassone — but I think they’ll recognize their error when they get a letter from Chris Cassone’s lawyers. Here’s the original video for the song:

P.S.: Chris Cassone parties with cool bloggers.

Category: Chris Cassone, Journalism, Music, Tea Party

Comments

4 Responses to “Chris Cassone’s Tea Party Anthem Ripped Off by the New Yorker”

  1. Proof
    January 27th, 2010 @ 9:04 pm

    Pretty cool video!

  2. Proof
    January 27th, 2010 @ 4:04 pm

    Pretty cool video!

  3. theCL
    January 31st, 2010 @ 7:07 pm

    I read the New Yorker piece, watched the video, visited Cassones site et. al., but for the life of me, I’m at a loss to see how the New Yorker infringed Cassones inalienable rights.

    Straight-up, I’m one of your biggest fans! If I had to pick only one of your most endearing attributes, it would have to be how you often introduce people to real economics … Mises, Hayek, the Austrian school!

    But the Austrian school has torn to shreds the fallacy of intellectual property. Maybe you disagree with them there, that’s cool. But IP isn’t free market in nature. It’s statist.

    Just something to think about, that’s all … Keep up the great work!

  4. theCL
    January 31st, 2010 @ 2:07 pm

    I read the New Yorker piece, watched the video, visited Cassones site et. al., but for the life of me, I’m at a loss to see how the New Yorker infringed Cassones inalienable rights.

    Straight-up, I’m one of your biggest fans! If I had to pick only one of your most endearing attributes, it would have to be how you often introduce people to real economics … Mises, Hayek, the Austrian school!

    But the Austrian school has torn to shreds the fallacy of intellectual property. Maybe you disagree with them there, that’s cool. But IP isn’t free market in nature. It’s statist.

    Just something to think about, that’s all … Keep up the great work!