Sarkozy the copyright-violatin' hypocrite

Right-wing French President Nicolas Sarkozy has championed tough government crackdowns against file-sharing networks. He accuses these networks of facilitating copyright violations.

A lot of musicians might take exception to that assertion. Nowadays, the only way that most recording artists can get their music distributed is on file-sharing systems, because radio seldom plays anyone who hasn't won on 'American Idol'. I guess Sarkozy likes it when musicians go out of business.

Now Sarkozy is the target of a lawsuit for his own unauthorized use of copyrighted music.

Sarkozy and his right-wing political party, the UMP, have been using MGMT's smash hit song "Kids" ("The wa is warm...") for partisan events and videos. Now the band is suing Sarkozy for using the song without permission.

The embattled French leader has offered MGMT one euro - the equivalent of about $1.33 - to make the big, mean lawsuit go away. But the band won't accept this insulting offer.

Sounds like Sarkozy is taking cues from McCain's campaign, which was known for repeatedly using songs without permission.

What astounds me is that Nicolas Sarkozy thinks everyone else is violating copyright laws by using Soulseek or Limewire, but he doesn't even obey the copyright laws himself.

(Source: http://www.nme.com/news/mgmt/43064;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7912423.stm)