UNITED STATES:SINGER-SONGWRITER Jackson Browne is suing John McCain for using Browne's song Running on Emptyin a campaign advertisement.
The veteran rocker is also calling the candidate a pretender when it comes to standing up for constitutional rights.
Browne, one of rock music's most famous activists for liberal causes, is "incensed" that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate has been using Running on Emptyin campaign commercials, according to his lawyer.
Browne filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against McCain and the Republican National Committee on Thursday in the US District Court in Los Angeles seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of the song or any other Browne compositions, as well as damages.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers says the advert in question is not a McCain campaign advert but one put together by the Ohio Republican Party.
Browne's lawyer, Lawrence Iser, said the lawsuit "is not politically motivated. It's a copyright infringement lawsuit, pure and simple, but the fact that Senator McCain has used this song in a hit piece on Barack Obama is anathema to Jackson."
Iser claims McCain's campaign has a track record of using music without permission. "They used a John Mellencamp song until he made them stop, and he used an Abba song and a Frankie Valli song - it's ridiculous and it's setting a terrible example," he said.
In the commercial in question, Obama is mocked for suggesting that the country conserve petrol through proper tyre inflation on vehicles.
- (LA Times-Washington Post service)
