Now Sarkozy’s A Pirate

While he’s pushing so hard get copyright protection laws through the French national assembly, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party may have been embarrassed to admit it used an MGMT track without permission.

The ruling UMP, which faced the threat of a lawsuit, has agreed to pay a financial compensation to the band, MGMT’s French lawyer told Reuters April 21.

“There has been an agreement of that order,” UMP spokeswoman Isabelle Wekstein reportedly replied when asked if the amount matched the euro 30,000 ($39,050) mentioned on French radio.

The Brooklyn-based psychedelic rock duo threatened to sue the UMP party after it used “Kids” at its national congress in January, during a field trip by the party leader and in online videos.

The dispute was settled two days before the French parliament was due to vote to on a government-backed bill to crack down on Internet piracy. The bill was rejected the first time around.

The UMP admitted using the MGMT track without permission, but said it wasn’t intentional.

The band is reportedly giving the fee to an artists’ rights organization.